The crazy expensive housing in the Bay Area makes it feel close to impossible to becoming a home owner.

Homes that were once $400k just a few years ago are now skyrocketing to $800k+, sometimes even breaking the $1 million dollar ceiling in some of the high end areas. It is INSANE here!

I am no financial expert but that doesn’t mean I can’t make changes to educate myself as well as help others on how we can all better our finances. I am slowly making a few adjustments, one by one, to help reduce my spending and optimize my bills. I am also trying to find other ways to increase my savings so I can hopefully buy a house in the future.

How do I do this? Well, there are a few things which I am downgrading in order to upgrade for the future.

1) Cell Phone Plan Adjustments

To illustrate “downgrading to upgrade”, recently I changed phone plans to cut my cellular phone bill in half. To do this.. *gulp* ..I finally made the switch to the dark side and have left my Apple for Android :O

I am still adjusting to the change but I will get the hang of it eventually.

With my switch from AT&T to Google’s ProjectFi I am saving almost HALF of what I was paying before! It is my own fault for being a data fiend so the unlimited plan with AT&T was costing me $140 per month (this already includes my discount I get from work).

With ProjectFi, I will only be paying at most $80 per month. I say “at most” because it is $10 per 1 GB, with a $60 cap. This means anything after 6 GB is FREE! This means if I used 10GB, I only pay $60 for data. In addition to data, there is a $20 base charge for unlimited texts and calls.

If you are conservative with your data (like my boyfriend, who uses an average of 700MB, not GB, a month?!), you can save even more money! He pays only around $27 a month for his ProjectFi.

There are a bunch of other perks like no international roaming charges, family plans, keeping your old number, and more. If you’re interested in checking it out, click HERE.

For some people, switching out of a carrier they are familiar with (the perceived downgrade) may seem like a big change but for me, the amount of money I will save in the long term (the upgrade) is well worth it.

2) Switching gyms

As my boyfriend puts it: “Whether you pay $50 or $10 for a gym membership, a 45lb weight will weigh the same no matter where you go.” -__-

I have now reached the end of my Costco purchased membership to 24 Hour Fitness. It was a prepaid 2 year all-club package for $399.99. This comes out to $16.66 per month.

That’s not a bad price but I decided I am switching over to Planet Fitness which is only $10 per month.

Luckily the Planet Fitness next to my house is also open 24 hours. Not only are the hours still flexible, but this gym also fits my needs because I don’t need the heavy free weights or classes offered at my previous 24 Hour Fitness. I am content with abundant cardio machines and weighted tether machines.

Eventually when I become self motivated enough to work out on my own at home I’ll be able to save 100% and I can cut the gym membership costs entirely. But again, I’m taking baby steps for now.

These are just two small examples I’ve put to action so far, but expect future posts as I find new ways to save money. I’m hoping these tiny financial wins begin to add up and compound to bigger wins in the future.

Hey, thanks for reading! Do you have your own tricks or little ways to optimize how you save money? Comment below, I’d love to hear your ideas! 🙂