When we decided to start a business the biggest obstacle was coming up with the startup money. We found a few easy ways to save the needed money without digging into our household budget. These small changes made a big financial opportunity for us and may help you with saving too.

Cellular Service

This day in age everyone seems to have a cell phone and the monthly expenses that come with the service. While we could not up and cancel our service, we did find a cheaper option. We originally had a four-person family plan through Verizon Wireless costing a staggering $218.00 a month. We were able to take our phones and transfer them to Total Wireless for $86.00 a month. Saving $132.00 a month.

Television Service

We then made the decision to cancel our Dish Network Service and use an old-style Antenna instead. Saving an additional $168.00 a month! We simply pay $4.99 a month for Hulu service.

Home Phone

This personally was a bit harder because I like having a landline, however we canceled this service too. This saved us another $64.00 a month. Wow, the savings is really started to add up. At this point, we were saving $360.00 a month!

Lunchtime savings

My husband went from purchasing lunch at work 3-5 times a week to no more than once a week. Roughly saving $100 to $150 a month, wow! He now packs his lunch with leftovers most days. Some weeks he follows this better than others.

Saving on the small stuff

We started turning off lights when we’re not in the room, running the dishwasher and laundry at night, and changing out old light bulbs for high-efficiency ones. We also unplugged any mercury lights and other power suckers. We then sold our hot tub which costed a small fortune to run plus the cost of chemicals. The monthly savings for all these items is roughly $150 a month.

The savings all added up totaled about $650 a month. With this monthly income, we began buying the supplies and equipment we needed to get the business started. We also managed to save a lot of the money back to a savings account. We did this for just under two years before we started the business. Total two-year savings? $15,600! Throughout this time, we also saved money by switching car insurance companies, internet providers, and electric suppliers. Add all those savings in and we saved well over the $15,600. How many loans did we take out on the business? NONE! Now that savings is going right back into the household since the business after one year is carrying itself.

Now that we don’t need the savings for the business? We did get our home phone back but as a business line, the rest of the changes have stayed. The extra money is now placed into savings or used to upgrade things around the farm as needed.

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