I had a budget. But I didn’t know I was losing $2,400

I was already investing $400 a month and it wasn’t enough. But I wanted to do more. The problem was I couldn’t find where the extra money would come from.

I had a budget and I was following it. I still couldn’t figure out where the money was going. I sat with my bank statements on Sunday looking for large transactions until I saw a $47.25 phone bill. I always assumed it was $30. I thought that was a mistake, so I double-checked the plan summary and it was indeed $47.25.

I went through other categories with a piece of paper and a calculator. My rent was already quite low at $1,050 total with bills and I didn’t consider moving as it would require time investment I didn’t have. Groceries were fine, rice, chicken, basics. Nothing to cut there. Takeout was usually where the money went – mine was already zero. The gas spending was also low because I didn’t need to commute all the time to work. I was working remotely half the time. Online courses were around $40 a month – I kept those, I needed them. Clothing, haircuts, household items – nothing I could reduce.

I kept moving and I found a $27 Apple Store subscription I didn’t use. I thought I had canceled last year. I assumed once I canceled a subscription I didn’t need to double-check it was still active. I didn’t know I needed to check for a final confirmation.

I was spending on average $250 a month on small tech from Amazon. This came as a big surprise – it always felt like I was buying a small thing at a time. An adapter for my laptop made sense – my old one wasn’t enough. The LED lights made the workspace feel cozier. The work setup made sense because I worked from home, though I kept changing the setup anyway. They were small in isolation, but I never summed them up. $47.25 phone bill, $27 subscription, $250 a month on Amazon. I hadn’t noticed any of them.

I started with the easiest one and canceled the $27 Apple Store subscription. That was an instant saving. I transferred my phone number to another provider. It took me some time – I didn’t want to deal with a new number, transferring every contact, and updating every account I had. That would be a nightmare. Instead, I looked for a provider that would transfer my existing number to their network. I found one at $25 a month. That easily saved me $22.25 a month. 

The Amazon cuts were more complicated. I still needed it for household items. So, instead of spending $250 a month, I set a hard limit – no more than $100. I also bundled my orders so I didn’t have to pay for delivery.

But setting a hard limit wasn’t enough, some things were too tempting to pass up. Instead, I came up with two simple questions I asked myself before spending money on anything non-essential. Can I survive without it? Will it make me better, healthier, or make more money? In most cases, going through these questions would filter out impulse purchases. That alone cut $150 a month on average, just by asking two questions before pressing the buy button. I also applied the same rule outside of Amazon purchases, mostly to home improvement purchases, which didn’t make much sense while I was renting.

In total, after spending a couple of hours, I managed to save $2,391 annually. I didn’t sell anything, I didn’t invest anything, I didn’t do any stock research, I didn’t apply for a new job, I didn’t start a business. I only tracked my spending and trimmed unnecessary categories.

If you want to run the same check on your own statement, here’s the tool I wish I had.