Paper Cuts

“If you keep your options open, there are places you will go.

They will treat you like the kings & queens your parents thought you’d be when you were born.

You’d see it all–with your head up, standing tall,

and you’d look back and think it’s funny how you spent your time and money.”

“In a Perfect World” – The Sam Chase

 

It pays to be frugal (literally). For many first-time off-campus students like myself, rent and groceries mark the first time when income gets funneled directly into bills. In the past–and aside from the frustratingly necessary gas for my hand-me-down car–all the money I made at my job(s) could more or less be used in whatever way I saw fit. But now, my checks have to be at least equal to my rent and grocery totals in order for me to get by. I’m on my own, so every penny counts.

With that in mind, I found it necessary to look into the few recurring, automatically-withdrawn expenses that I’d accumulated. One of them was Spotify, which, at the student rate, was $4.99 per month, and the other was 200 GB of Apple iCloud storage at $3.99 per month, since I needed to back up my phone in case of an emergency. (I also occasionally donated to Bernie Sanders’ campaign, but that was far more autonomous.)

I knew I had to make some changes, and since I’m a visual learner, it helped to picture what exactly saving this money would mean. For me, this meant directly translating the $5 and $4 monthly payments into different uses, so that I could see what I could afford if I eliminated these charges. I came up with something like this:

 

SPOTIFY

$5/month = 2 boxes of cereal

OR

$60/year = 1 month of groceries

 

iCLOUD STORAGE

$4/month = a weekly slice of Antonio’s late-night pizza

OR

$48/year = 1 concert ticket

OR

$48/year = 1 car inspection + 1 tank of gas

 

These side-by-side comparisons were really helpful in persuading me to cancel the payments, and once I did a little research I realized that I was only using a fraction of my iCloud storage anyway. Plus, Spotify has plenty of appeal as a free system. I’m not planning to DJ anytime soon, so why should I be so picky?

If you’re still not buying it, I think this song by The Sam Chase helps communicate the ultimate payout of changing your ways, specifically by saving money. You never know what you might need–or simply want–to pay for in the future, an item or opportunity that you would never have been able to consider otherwise. And, personally, ad-less music isn’t worth missing out on something worth $60 in the future. Happy saving!