Section 4: How to Decrease Expenses 💸

<aside> 🗒️ In this section: You'll learn how to build a game-plan to decrease your expenses which is the most effective way to budget and save money.

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Are expenses always a bad thing? 🙄

No! Everyone needs to spend money to eat, have a place to live, buy clothes, and get things that make life more comfortable. The trick is to have expenses you can afford. If you do, you will have left-over money to save, invest and start growing wealth. If you don't, you let money control you and could fall into debt 😢. Let's get started!

Step 1: Analyze your expenses 🔍

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/0ee11405-472a-427d-a666-f167a9e6a75d/Favicon-simplify.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/0ee11405-472a-427d-a666-f167a9e6a75d/Favicon-simplify.png" width="40px" /> Use FREE apps such as Mint or Wally that will sync with your bank account / credit cards and analyze your spending habits for you!

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Step 2: Identify where you can spend less 👉

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/f46220cf-3396-4a73-b1a1-c590a8873895/Favicon-simplify.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/f46220cf-3396-4a73-b1a1-c590a8873895/Favicon-simplify.png" width="40px" /> We recommend first starting small, then going big.

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Start Small

Based on the analysis you've done, find smaller expenses for you/your family to eliminate:

Ordering lots of food from restaurants? Try to go the grocery store and dine-in more.
Buying a lot of stuff online on Amazon? Set a limit on how many times you can buy per month.
Have a lot of subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, magazines, gym, etc)? Pick your 1-2 favorite and cancel the rest. For example, a $10 subscription sounds cheap, but adds up to $120 dollars per year!

Go Big

While starting small is easier, you often have to "go big" to make a large dent in your expenses:

Have credit card debt or student loans that require monthly payments? Figure out how to pay those off ASAP (good news: we show you how in Section 8)
Renting an expensive apartment? Consider living somewhere cheaper or find a roommate.
Have a car where you're spending a ton on loans/maintenance/etc? Consider public transportation or Uber/Lyft-ing .

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/f46220cf-3396-4a73-b1a1-c590a8873895/Favicon-simplify.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/f46220cf-3396-4a73-b1a1-c590a8873895/Favicon-simplify.png" width="40px" /> Going big will take time (potentially up to several months), so be patient.. 🤐

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