March 27, 2025 • 12 mins
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Join Amber on the Debt Free Dad Podcast as she shares five simple strategies to help you find extra cash each month with minimal effort. Learn how to save money by canceling unused subscriptions, meal planning, selling items you no longer need, negotiating your bills, and having no-spend weekends. Follow these tips to take control of your finances, reduce financial stress, and get closer to living debt-free.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Amber (00:00):
A lot of people think the only way to get ahead
financially is to make moremoney, but the truth is you
likely have money slippingthrough the cracks every single
month.
So in this episode, I'm sharingfive simple ways to find extra
cash without a whole lot ofeffort.
Hi, I'm Amber, today's host forthe Debt-Free Dad Podcast,
(00:26):
where we help normal everydaypeople like you take control of
your finances so you can live ahappier, less stressful life.
Now my husband and I, in just20 months, saved and paid off
$54,000 and have been livingdebt-free outside of our
mortgage since 2018.
After listening to this episode, if you're ready to take things
(00:49):
to the next level, ready tobreak free from living paycheck
to paycheck, reduce financialstress, build your savings and
finally pay off debt for good,but you're not sure where to
start, we've created anincredible free resource to help
you get there, and I'll shareall of the details later on in
today's episode.
So, like I said, I've got fivedifferent strategies that you
(01:11):
can use to increase your moneyor, I guess, find where it's
leaking a little bit.
Number one subscriptions.
Oh my gosh, you could saveeasily if not not more $10 to
$50 every single month.
How many subscriptions are youactually using?
(01:31):
Have you gone through your bankaccount to see if there's any
subscriptions that are sittingthere that you completely forgot
about but you're still payingfor Between Netflix, hulu,
disney+, spotify, meal kits, gymmemberships and just random app
subscriptions?
It's incredibly easy to losetrack of these things and I mean
(01:54):
I admit I'm guilty of it.
I personally had two AmazonPrime accounts.
I don't know how it happened,amazon Prime accounts, I don't
know how it happened, but I waspaying for two for a full year,
with two separate emails oneunder my business account, one
under my personal account and Idon't even know why I had two.
So it is so easy to lose trackof that and if you're not paying
(02:20):
attention to your bank accounton a regular basis, it's easy to
just go oh, I didn't evenrealize that was happening,
especially when it's $5 here, $6there, $20 here.
So pull up your bank statements, pull up your credit card
statements for the last two tothree months and identify some
subscriptions that you may haveforgotten about or you're just
(02:42):
really not using anymore youcan't justify using anymore and
cancel them or, if anything,pause them and when you pause
them, put a notification on yourphone for when they're supposed
to start up again, you willlikely see that you didn't even
miss them in the first place.
Now, if you're thinking but Ilove my streaming services right
(03:03):
, I mean, we all have some thatwe absolutely love Consider
rotating them.
If you maybe love Netflix andyou love Amazon Prime and you
love Disney, maybe just rotatethem.
You'll get a little bit of thatfor a little while and then,
when you're done with those kindof shows, switch it up right.
Pay for one at a time insteadof stacking them all up.
(03:26):
Now, the estimated savings formost people when they're cutting
subscription services is about$10 to $50.
But I would almost guess thatsome of us have much higher
subscription services than thatthat we can cut out
substantially.
Number two meal plan and skipthe takeout orders.
(03:48):
This can save you anywhere from$25 to $40 in the US and, I
would bet, a little bit more inCanada.
Our prices are a little bithigher.
Eating out is one of thebiggest budget busters.
Even one extra takeout meal perweek can cost $30 or more.
So just cutting out one cansave you so much, and I remember
(04:12):
when we first started budgeting, going through our bank
statements, creating that budget, we soon realized how much we
were eating out.
We were wasting so much moneyon eating out.
And not just that, we werebuying food for our house and
then throwing it out because wedidn't feel like cooking it, and
then it would go bad and wewere just eating out instead.
When we cut down on that, itwas like we gave ourselves a pay
(04:36):
raise that helps substantiallyto help us pay down our debt.
So some of the ways that you cancombat this are by meal
planning for the week.
Know what you're going to eatahead of time.
Plan for it.
Look in your freezer what doyou have?
What do you have in your pantrythat you can go with.
That you know.
Make that meal plan, go to thegrocery store, buy only what you
(04:59):
need for that meal plan.
And let me tell you if you'renot already using things like
chat, gpt, different AI options.
You can plug this in and say,listen, I have chicken ribs,
yada, yada in my freezer.
I have da da da in my pantry.
Please create a meal plan forme and a shopping list for items
(05:20):
that I do not have for the nextseven days, whatever.
Go ahead and do that.
And, oh my gosh, like you justsaved so much time just by using
it.
It's going to plug in a bunchof stuff and it's going to go
this here you go.
You could give it dietaryrestrictions.
You could say I don't eat this,I don't eat this, I don't eat
this, and it's not going to giveit to you in your meal plan.
(05:40):
And then make a fun at-homeversion of your favorite takeout
, whether it's pizza, diychipotle bowls, like whatever it
is, and then you have yourtakeout at home All right.
So you can do all kinds ofdifferent things, but try to
(06:00):
reduce that at least by one timeand look at if you're eating
out three to five times a week.
Maybe try dropping two of them.
You will save a substantialamount of money.
Another great strategy is tomake your coffee at home,
especially if you're commutingevery single day and you're
stopping to buy coffee.
That $5 to $10 per cup wow,does that ever add up each week?
(06:20):
By dropping your takeout everyweek, you're gonna save likely
anywhere from $30 to $80 a month, if not more.
And the third way to find extramoney without working extra
hours is find items in yourhouse that you're no longer
using and sell them.
You could easily make around$50 every single week by selling
(06:44):
three to five items from yourhome.
You probably have cash justsitting in your house right now
in the form of stuff that youdon't even use.
Go through your stuff, do likea declutter challenge.
Declutter the closet, declutterthe garage.
Spring is here.
Start decluttering and thenstart selling those items that
(07:08):
you're not using.
Why are you letting them takeup space when you could be
adding money into your budget,when you could be starting to
create that emergency fund withthe money that we're finding you
today?
Now places you could sell thesethings, like your clothes,
shoes, kids toys, gadgets, stufffrom your garage tools, things
(07:28):
that you're no longer using.
You could be selling thesethings on Facebook, marketplace,
poshmark or eBay, offerup orCraigslist.
There are tons of places thatyou can sell these things and,
especially now that the weatheris getting nicer, you can plan
for a rummage sale or a garagesale.
Right, you don't need to sell aton of things.
Three to five items can easilybring you $50 or more, depending
(07:53):
on the items.
Now the fourth way to find extramoney is to make one simple
phone call or two or three,depending on how ambitious you
are.
Negotiate your bills.
That can save you anywhere from$20 or more every single month.
I recently just did this.
(08:15):
Last year with our insurancepolicy, we saved $1,200 plus for
the year, and just last month Icalled our internet company and
we're saving $60 a month justby making a phone call and say
something like hey, I've been aloyal customer for a while and
(08:38):
I'm looking for a lower monthlybill.
Are there any discounts,promotions or loyalty deals?
Oftentimes they're going to sayno, there's no offers, there's
no this, there's no that.
But the longer you keep them ontheir phone, the more you may
go to like their loyaltydepartment or request that you
go to their loyalty department.
They're going to offer you adiscount.
(08:59):
You could also remove someunused services, right?
If you don't use XYZ service onyour phone plan, why are you
paying for it?
You can switch to a lower costplan.
We recently did this with ourcell phone bills.
We were paying $120 everysingle month for each of our
phone bills.
We have now dropped it to $40 amonth and we're getting better
(09:20):
service.
We're getting more data, we'regetting more services on our
phone plan just by switchingcompanies.
So, like I said, this can saveyou 20 plus dollars a month and
I would imagine when you startmaking these phone calls, if you
make more than one, you'regoing to save way more than $20
(09:41):
a month.
And number five my final tip tohelp you find extra money is to
have a no spend weekend.
If you normally go out and yougo and have takeout, or you go
to the movies or you go do extrathings on the weekends, that is
going to save you whatever youwould normally spend.
(10:02):
Have a no-spend weekend.
I would challenge you to dothis at least once a month.
Spend nothing on yourself, nomoney outside of the essentials
for two days.
So instead of going out fordrinks or coffee shopping for
fun, ordering takeout, trythings that are free.
(10:24):
Go do free outdoor activitieshiking, walking parks.
Use gift cards or rewards thatyou may have that you have been
holding on to game nights ormovie nights or heck.
You can have friends come overfor a potluck and each of you
bring a dish and you're having afun night in with your friends,
but you're not spending anyextra money.
(10:46):
A lot of people will saveanywhere from $30 to $50 over a
no spend weekend.
That is an incredible savings.
So let's recap you could findover $100 in your budget this
month by canceling or pausingsubscriptions, skipping takeout
(11:07):
just once a month and mealplanning, selling three to five
items from your house that youhave that you're no longer using
, negotiating a bill and doing ano-spend weekend.
Even if you only do two ofthese things, you'll be closer
(11:27):
to getting that $100 a monthextra without going and working
even more or finding a side gig.
So I challenge you pick justone of these tips and take
action today.
Let us know in the commentswhich one you tried and how it
went for you.
If you found this helpful, makesure to subscribe and leave us
(11:51):
a review and share this episodewith someone who you think could
use an extra $100 in theirbudget.
Now, if you're ready to breakfree from living paycheck to
paycheck, reduce financialstress, build savings and
finally pay off debt for good.
But you're unsure of where tostart, don't worry, we've got
(12:11):
you covered.
Simplify my Money is sent everySunday to your email.
It's a step-by-step roadmap forbetter financial control,
stress-free money decisions atwork, to gain the tools and
confidence to tackle yourfinancial goals head on.
Sign up for Simplify my Moneyby clicking on the link at the
(12:32):
top of the show notes.
A lot of people think the only way to get ahead
financially is to make moremoney, but the truth is you
likely have money slippingthrough the cracks every single
month.
So in this episode, I'm sharingfive simple ways to find extra
cash without a whole lot ofeffort.
Hi, I'm Amber, today's host forthe Debt-Free Dad Podcast,
(00:26):
where we help normal everydaypeople like you take control of
your finances so you can live ahappier, less stressful life.
Now my husband and I, in just20 months, saved and paid off
$54,000 and have been livingdebt-free outside of our
mortgage since 2018.
After listening to this episode, if you're ready to take things
(00:49):
to the next level, ready tobreak free from living paycheck
to paycheck, reduce financialstress, build your savings and
finally pay off debt for good,but you're not sure where to
start, we've created anincredible free resource to help
you get there, and I'll shareall of the details later on in
today's episode.
So, like I said, I've got fivedifferent strategies that you
(01:11):
can use to increase your moneyor, I guess, find where it's
leaking a little bit.
Number one subscriptions.
Oh my gosh, you could saveeasily if not not more $10 to
$50 every single month.
How many subscriptions are youactually using?
(01:31):
Have you gone through your bankaccount to see if there's any
subscriptions that are sittingthere that you completely forgot
about but you're still payingfor Between Netflix, hulu,
disney+, spotify, meal kits, gymmemberships and just random app
subscriptions?
It's incredibly easy to losetrack of these things and I mean
(01:54):
I admit I'm guilty of it.
I personally had two AmazonPrime accounts.
I don't know how it happened,amazon Prime accounts, I don't
know how it happened, but I waspaying for two for a full year,
with two separate emails oneunder my business account, one
under my personal account and Idon't even know why I had two.
So it is so easy to lose trackof that and if you're not paying
(02:20):
attention to your bank accounton a regular basis, it's easy to
just go oh, I didn't evenrealize that was happening,
especially when it's $5 here, $6there, $20 here.
So pull up your bank statements, pull up your credit card
statements for the last two tothree months and identify some
subscriptions that you may haveforgotten about or you're just
(02:42):
really not using anymore youcan't justify using anymore and
cancel them or, if anything,pause them and when you pause
them, put a notification on yourphone for when they're supposed
to start up again, you willlikely see that you didn't even
miss them in the first place.
Now, if you're thinking but Ilove my streaming services right
(03:03):
, I mean, we all have some thatwe absolutely love Consider
rotating them.
If you maybe love Netflix andyou love Amazon Prime and you
love Disney, maybe just rotatethem.
You'll get a little bit of thatfor a little while and then,
when you're done with those kindof shows, switch it up right.
Pay for one at a time insteadof stacking them all up.
(03:26):
Now, the estimated savings formost people when they're cutting
subscription services is about$10 to $50.
But I would almost guess thatsome of us have much higher
subscription services than thatthat we can cut out
substantially.
Number two meal plan and skipthe takeout orders.
(03:48):
This can save you anywhere from$25 to $40 in the US and, I
would bet, a little bit more inCanada.
Our prices are a little bithigher.
Eating out is one of thebiggest budget busters.
Even one extra takeout meal perweek can cost $30 or more.
So just cutting out one cansave you so much, and I remember
(04:12):
when we first started budgeting, going through our bank
statements, creating that budget, we soon realized how much we
were eating out.
We were wasting so much moneyon eating out.
And not just that, we werebuying food for our house and
then throwing it out because wedidn't feel like cooking it, and
then it would go bad and wewere just eating out instead.
When we cut down on that, itwas like we gave ourselves a pay
(04:36):
raise that helps substantiallyto help us pay down our debt.
So some of the ways that you cancombat this are by meal
planning for the week.
Know what you're going to eatahead of time.
Plan for it.
Look in your freezer what doyou have?
What do you have in your pantrythat you can go with.
That you know.
Make that meal plan, go to thegrocery store, buy only what you
(04:59):
need for that meal plan.
And let me tell you if you'renot already using things like
chat, gpt, different AI options.
You can plug this in and say,listen, I have chicken ribs,
yada, yada in my freezer.
I have da da da in my pantry.
Please create a meal plan forme and a shopping list for items
(05:20):
that I do not have for the nextseven days, whatever.
Go ahead and do that.
And, oh my gosh, like you justsaved so much time just by using
it.
It's going to plug in a bunchof stuff and it's going to go
this here you go.
You could give it dietaryrestrictions.
You could say I don't eat this,I don't eat this, I don't eat
this, and it's not going to giveit to you in your meal plan.
(05:40):
And then make a fun at-homeversion of your favorite takeout
, whether it's pizza, diychipotle bowls, like whatever it
is, and then you have yourtakeout at home All right.
So you can do all kinds ofdifferent things, but try to
(06:00):
reduce that at least by one timeand look at if you're eating
out three to five times a week.
Maybe try dropping two of them.
You will save a substantialamount of money.
Another great strategy is tomake your coffee at home,
especially if you're commutingevery single day and you're
stopping to buy coffee.
That $5 to $10 per cup wow,does that ever add up each week?
(06:20):
By dropping your takeout everyweek, you're gonna save likely
anywhere from $30 to $80 a month, if not more.
And the third way to find extramoney without working extra
hours is find items in yourhouse that you're no longer
using and sell them.
You could easily make around$50 every single week by selling
(06:44):
three to five items from yourhome.
You probably have cash justsitting in your house right now
in the form of stuff that youdon't even use.
Go through your stuff, do likea declutter challenge.
Declutter the closet, declutterthe garage.
Spring is here.
Start decluttering and thenstart selling those items that
(07:08):
you're not using.
Why are you letting them takeup space when you could be
adding money into your budget,when you could be starting to
create that emergency fund withthe money that we're finding you
today?
Now places you could sell thesethings, like your clothes,
shoes, kids toys, gadgets, stufffrom your garage tools, things
(07:28):
that you're no longer using.
You could be selling thesethings on Facebook, marketplace,
poshmark or eBay, offerup orCraigslist.
There are tons of places thatyou can sell these things and,
especially now that the weatheris getting nicer, you can plan
for a rummage sale or a garagesale.
Right, you don't need to sell aton of things.
Three to five items can easilybring you $50 or more, depending
(07:53):
on the items.
Now the fourth way to find extramoney is to make one simple
phone call or two or three,depending on how ambitious you
are.
Negotiate your bills.
That can save you anywhere from$20 or more every single month.
I recently just did this.
(08:15):
Last year with our insurancepolicy, we saved $1,200 plus for
the year, and just last month Icalled our internet company and
we're saving $60 a month justby making a phone call and say
something like hey, I've been aloyal customer for a while and
(08:38):
I'm looking for a lower monthlybill.
Are there any discounts,promotions or loyalty deals?
Oftentimes they're going to sayno, there's no offers, there's
no this, there's no that.
But the longer you keep them ontheir phone, the more you may
go to like their loyaltydepartment or request that you
go to their loyalty department.
They're going to offer you adiscount.
(08:59):
You could also remove someunused services, right?
If you don't use XYZ service onyour phone plan, why are you
paying for it?
You can switch to a lower costplan.
We recently did this with ourcell phone bills.
We were paying $120 everysingle month for each of our
phone bills.
We have now dropped it to $40 amonth and we're getting better
(09:20):
service.
We're getting more data, we'regetting more services on our
phone plan just by switchingcompanies.
So, like I said, this can saveyou 20 plus dollars a month and
I would imagine when you startmaking these phone calls, if you
make more than one, you'regoing to save way more than $20
(09:41):
a month.
And number five my final tip tohelp you find extra money is to
have a no spend weekend.
If you normally go out and yougo and have takeout, or you go
to the movies or you go do extrathings on the weekends, that is
going to save you whatever youwould normally spend.
(10:02):
Have a no-spend weekend.
I would challenge you to dothis at least once a month.
Spend nothing on yourself, nomoney outside of the essentials
for two days.
So instead of going out fordrinks or coffee shopping for
fun, ordering takeout, trythings that are free.
(10:24):
Go do free outdoor activitieshiking, walking parks.
Use gift cards or rewards thatyou may have that you have been
holding on to game nights ormovie nights or heck.
You can have friends come overfor a potluck and each of you
bring a dish and you're having afun night in with your friends,
but you're not spending anyextra money.
(10:46):
A lot of people will saveanywhere from $30 to $50 over a
no spend weekend.
That is an incredible savings.
So let's recap you could findover $100 in your budget this
month by canceling or pausingsubscriptions, skipping takeout
(11:07):
just once a month and mealplanning, selling three to five
items from your house that youhave that you're no longer using
, negotiating a bill and doing ano-spend weekend.
Even if you only do two ofthese things, you'll be closer
(11:27):
to getting that $100 a monthextra without going and working
even more or finding a side gig.
So I challenge you pick justone of these tips and take
action today.
Let us know in the commentswhich one you tried and how it
went for you.
If you found this helpful, makesure to subscribe and leave us
(11:51):
a review and share this episodewith someone who you think could
use an extra $100 in theirbudget.
Now, if you're ready to breakfree from living paycheck to
paycheck, reduce financialstress, build savings and
finally pay off debt for good.
But you're unsure of where tostart, don't worry, we've got
(12:11):
you covered.
Simplify my Money is sent everySunday to your email.
It's a step-by-step roadmap forbetter financial control,
stress-free money decisions atwork, to gain the tools and
confidence to tackle yourfinancial goals head on.
Sign up for Simplify my Moneyby clicking on the link at the
(12:32):
top of the show notes.
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