How I Limit My Recurring Work Expenses
When I do my monthly accounting at the beginning of the month, I open a spreadsheet I just call “Business Finances” and one of the tabs is a list of my recurring expenses:
I review this monthly and ask myself:
Did I use all of these in the past month?
Were the paid versions necessary for the work I did?
Are there any services I’m paying for monthly that I could switch to an annual plan for a discount?
Are there cheaper or free alternatives that still get the job done?
Here are a few examples of how I’ve saved money in the last 6 months:
Switching from Flodesk to Substack
Flodesk is an email marketing platform that charges $38/month. I never switched to annual because deep down I knew I wasn’t committed. I absolutely love the platform, but I realized over time that it was:
#1 Slowing down my ability to send out newsletters
I needed to take each blog and then format it into a newsletter to send out. It was a bottleneck in my workflow.
#2 Too complicated for my needs
I was using segmented lists and fancy email journeys, and then I realized, fuck this, I am just a one-woman show with a small, devoted audience. I don’t need any of that.
At the same time, I was feeling the pull to return to Substack. It’s free. It’s just one clear email list (no segments needed), and I can write a blog and hit send (no additional formatting). Plus, Substack has marketing opportunities that I wanted to experiment with, such as their Recommendations and Notes. I started to feel the pull to collaborate with other writers there for audience growth. I’ll write more about how that goes soon. My current plan is to publish each blog here and on Substack. And when I hit publish on Substack, it will send my work out to my email list. PS: I still find SEO to be bringing a ton of people to this site each month so publishing here still makes sense even though a lot of people say SEO is dying because of AI. I will never abandon this website. It’s like a digital home, and it’s mine!
Cancelling ChatGPT when I realized Copilot is included in Microsoft 365
I was paying $20/month for ChatGPT. I was using it daily on my phone and computer all the time to ask questions and brainstorm. At the same time, I’m also paying $99/month for Microsoft 365 for access to Word, Excel, etc. My husband told me one day that Microsoft has an AI called Copilot and it’s included in my annual membership. I tried Copilot and LOVED it, probably more than ChatGPT. I don’t know if it’s the font alone or their responses, but I am into it. I’m glad I kept ChatGPT as a monthly subscription and not annual (I always have an inkling when I won’t keep something long-term!) and was super excited to delete the $20/month expense from my spreadsheet.
Using Wave Accounting for free, even though Found Banking has an alluring paid accounting feature
I recently switched to Found for my business banking and really enjoy the look and feel of it. They also have an accounting feature baked into the software, which initially I thought was SO cool. But then I realized to categorize each expenese, I’d have to pay. And I’m already accomplishing that for free with Wave Accounting. So even though it looked cool and would all be in one place, I opted to keep accomplishing this goal for free. It was a nice to have, not a need to have. And I love staying lean.
My “why” for keeping my recurring expenses low
I like making sure I’m genuinely using what I’m paying for and finding cheaper ways to accomplish goals. Maybe that’s the midwestern part of me, but it’s just how I’m built. And honestly, I find subscription bills annoying. They just keep coming around and around and never end. I need to make sure it’s not a drain in my bank account, and instead something intentional and valuable. Also, keeping recurring expenses low (which are all just softwares mostly!) allows me to invest in bigger opportunities like courses, classes, events, and travel. I view those as bigger catapults in my life than access to Canva. Sure, Canva let’s me do part of my job efficiently, but it’s not helping me meet new people, learn anything new, etc.
Plus, I get that I can deduct my expenses from my income and use it to save on taxes. And I find ways to do that strategically. But getting too attached to software I don’t genuinely need will not be part of that strategy. I’ll buy a new laptop, or buy a course, something more fun!
What about you? Do you track your expenses and monitor them? I highly recommend it!
