In the process of simplifying my life and clearing the clutter, I’ve realised there are some things that no longer add value to have or to own. Clearing these out or finding alternatives have really helped me keep my discretionary spending low. Here’s some of the money drainers I have tried to limit or eliminate:

Physical Books

After moving into a smaller apartment with limited storage space, I just don’t feel the value of keeping physical books. On top of taking up precious real estate on shelves, they are more expensive than virtual versions to purchase. With easy access to ebooks and reading apps, it’s much more economical (and better for the environment!) to read online. Plus I can store and access as many books as I want in, essentially, the palm of my hand.

Only exception to this would be books for my baby, as the physicality of a book helps with sensory learning at that young age. Baby is always an exception!

Subscriptions

I’ve never been a big fan of subscriptions. I feel like once they’ve hooked you in, they rely on you eventually forgetting to use them, all the while draining your finances into perpetuity. That being said, I do have a select subscriptions that I review periodically to ensure they’re worth keeping.

Netflix – This is our only streaming subscription. While we did opt for the Premium level in order to share with family, we also got shared into Disney+ in return, so it’s like a two-for-one.

Youtube Music – In my opinion, the available music and recommendations are far better suited to my tastes than Spotify. Not only do we use it to blast music for every car ride and roadtrip, we currently keep it on soft piano music during the day in the nursery. I love that I can select one song and just let the algorithm do the rest.

Cloud Storage – With the arrival of our little one, photo-taking has exploded. With the daily demands of family on photo and video updates, it’s much easier to opt for cloud storage and be able to easily access our media whenever we need it. With the new changes and restrictions on Google accounts being pushed through this year, we’ll also need to switch/upgrade existing plans. Unfortunately, this will mean necessary, but additional subscriptions to come.

Home Decor

As I mentioned before, our current unit is quite small, and I’ve never felt the need to ‘decorate’ with additional clutter. Therefore, I’ve been culling items such as photos, ornaments, or flowers, as they just seem unnecessary.

Photo print-outs become out-dated or fade with time. In the age of technology, I’m happy to view and share my photos via virtual means. With cloud storage, I can access all of my photos at anytime.

For ornaments, as pretty as they are at the start, they’ll eventually start accumulating dust and becomes an extra obstacle to cleaning. I’ve managed to pare down most of my ornaments. There’s just a few that I’ve been more reluctant to let go as I still love and enjoy them so much.

Ahh, and flowers…so beautiful, but so sad to see them wilting. Then there was that unfortunate experience where a bouquet harboured a bunch of creepy crawlies. For days afterwards, we would find caterpillars and other bugs dropping out of the blooms and turning up randomly around the house. I’ve tried to also restrain myself from dried or fake flowers. While they’re less maintenance, it’s still extra ‘clutter’ around the house.

Planners

I love the idea of bullet journals and a beautifully arranged planner. However, the reality is I just won’t have time to write everything down and plan the layout.

When I’m on the go, I would want to carry as little as possible – phone, wallet, keys as a minimum – so it works best for me to have a virtual planner on my phone. Google Calendar is more than sufficient for my events and reminders, particularly the ability to add extra notes or attachments. I also love that I can access it across multiple devices, and it syncs almost instantly across phone and desktop.

Since I always have my phone one me, as soon as I get an event or need a reminder, I’ll quickly pop it in my Google Calendar before I forget.

Hope you found my little list helpful!
Is there anything else you’ve identified and eliminated to cut costs in your life?