5 Things I Can Do Without

We have all got things in our lives that we are paying good money for, but we don’t need. Things that we used at one time, but no longer get any real benefit from. These things have a way of taking over our lives, draining our bank accounts and creating stress.

So here is my list of 5 things that I can do without this year (or at least will try to do without):

1. Gym Membership: My wife and I have belonged to a lifetime fitness for some time. The club is beautiful, state of the art, and a huge drain on our finances. While we do enjoy being able to go there and use their pool in the summer or all of the equipment in the winter, it just isn’t an expense that we need to have. We have a nice home gym with weights and a treadmill, and that is really all we need. So we’re cancelling all gym memberships.
2. Expensive Gadgets: I am a self-confessed technophile - I love gadgets. It doesn’t matter if its the latest MP3 player, or a hot new DSLR Camera. I love ALL the new gadgets, and I want them all. Of course buying all the new gadgets can be a strain on the old budget. So this year, I’m going to be limiting my budget for new electronic gadgets - as painful as that may be. No new HDTVs or MP3 Players this year!
3. Video Games (and accessories): Last year I bought my first new game system in 6 years - an Xbox 360. While I bought the system with money I got from selling other gadgets that I owned, (an old Sega Dreamcast gaming system and a DVD Recorder), I didn’t realize how expensive a video game habit could be! Not only do you need to buy the system, but then you need to buy games, controllers, memory cards, batteries, battery chargers, more games, headsets and more games! Did I mention games? Not only is the video gaming habit expensive, but it can be a drain on your personal life as well when you get sucked into that video game for 6 hours straight. So I am going to try and limit my video gaming time this year, as well as only buying one or two of the new games that I want.
4. Fast Food: My wife and I are both afraid of a kitchen - or so it might seem to an outsider. We eat out probably 5-10 times a week, and those charges add up. It doesn’t seem like much - but 5 dollars for lunch here and $25 for dinner there adds up to hundreds/thousands of dollars over the year. This year I am going to be trying to bring my lunch to work more often, and learning to cook (shudder).
5. DVDs: My wife and I love watching movies. One of our favorite things to do is to go and get a couple of movies and have movie night. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, except that we also tend to buy a lot of movies that we enjoy. We have probably over 200 movies stacked up next to our entertainment center, and I’ll bet we’ve only watched about 1/2 of them. So why do we buy them? I’m not sure. I think renting the DVDs is a much better use of our money. Not only is it cheaper, but since we discovered renting from the Redbox at Mcdonald’s - its free! Check out my post on the subject. Maybe we’ll take some of these DVDs we have laying around and get one of those free ipods!

So those are some of the things that I’ll be doing without this year. Its not an exhaustive list, but its a start. If we can do without those things I know we’ll save hundreds if not thousands of dollars this year.

So what are your five things that you can do without? Post below in the comments or leave a link to your own post!

Tagged as: Commentary, frugal