I gotta tell ya, I’m getting pretty good at saving money.

It’s really a change of mindset. There have been so many times in the past few months that I would have gone off and bought something that I didn’t really need. These day, I consider the idea for a bit longer and then choose not to buy anything. Many times, I already have what I need. An example would be something that happened this morning. I was making some “moats” around some small evergreen trees when I discovered that I needed a top dressing. I thought that going down to the local nursery for some mulch was in order. As I sat there, I remember that I already had two pretty nice sized piles of compost sitting in the woods. I went ahead and topped off these moats with compost instead of mulch.

By the way, I am making moats around these little trees because they aren’t faring too well through this hot, dry Summer of ours. They are getting crispy and I figured that by making moats and really filling them up with water, some moisture will get down to the roots. Poor little trees can only last so long in dust-like soil.

Anyway, a while back, I signed up for a financial portfolio management subscription. It was a really awesome program, but it was costing me $9.95 per month. I got an idea yesterday that if I could creat an Excel spreadsheet with some nice functions, I could basically accomplish a stripped down version that what this service was offering. When I got on the computer, I did a quick Google search for the type of spreadsheet I was looking for. Wouldn’t you know it…many people have already created this type of spreadsheet and offered free downloads. I grabbed one and just completed the necessary modifications. Now, I have my portfolio, with rebalancing and all, right there in this one file. Pretty cool. I went ahead and cancelled my subscription and just saved $9.95 per month.

I also let a magazine subscription that I was receiving expire. It’s little things like this that save money. Those items, coupled with the cancelling of the cable TV and the garbage pickup service are really going to make a difference monthly. It’s almost at the level of being fun.

There is also one added benefit of cancelling a bunch of unnecessary things that cost money…it’s the feeling of not being so connected anymore. Too many connections, too many things with my name on them drive me crazy. It’s burdensome.

Anyway, I guess I am writing this just to let you know that it’s easy to get rid of stuff that you really don’t need. It can save a bit of money and offer some peace of mind.

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