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Want to know how to downsize your life and save money? Keep reading to find out what downsizing your life means, along with some tips on how to get started. What’s great is that you can actually save money while doing it!

What is Downsizing Your Life?

Downsizing your life means something different to everyone. When you think of downsizing, does moving into a smaller house come to mind? That’s definitely the top idea people think of but there’s more to downsizing than just focusing on your living space. There are other acts of downsizing that encompass other aspects of your life as well.

The definition of “downsize” means to make (something) smaller. Saving money is the focus of this article so we’ll cover ways to downsize parts of your life that relate to saving you money. When you are able to save money, you can use this savings to help reduce your overall debt footprint. Without having debt holding you down, you have so much more freedom to live life the way you want to.

Why Should You Downsize Your Life?

As you’ll soon find out, downsizing parts of your life can lead to more money in your pocket. Not only does downsizing your life have other benefits like simple living and a feeling of freedom, saving money is a big perk that shouldn’t be ignored. Who doesn’t like to save money?

When we became empty-nesters, we decided that we wanted to travel which ultimately led to us downsizing our life and our belongings. These changes resulted in us living a more simple life. We chose to live and travel on our sailboat. In order to make this happen, we downsized many things in our life over a few years, saved money, and reduced our overall debt. Without having the burden of a lot of debt we were able to start living our dream.

Living more with less is a great experience and can lead to simple living. When you downsize your life, you might just find that you don’t miss the things you’re giving up in order to save money and create a new lifestyle.

How to Downsize Your Life and Save Money

By implementing some of the downsizing ideas below, you’ll be well on your way to saving some money. Let’s dive into some ways you can downsize your life today.

1. Downsize Your Home

This is what most people think about when you hear the word downsize. In some cases, this can be a big money-saving ticket item. You might still be living in a large home that you raised your children in. Now that they’ve started their own lives and moved on, do you really need all that space?

Downsizing your home can save you money by having a smaller mortgage payment. Selling your home in a good real estate market could also mean more money in your pocket toward a less expensive home and one step closer to having no mortgage payment at all. Buying and selling a home really does depend on many variables like the real estate market, interest rates, location of a home, age of a home, etc. so there is a lot to consider before taking the plunge.

The other benefits that downsizing your home could have would be cheaper utility bills due to buying a home with less square footage or maybe even a more energy-efficient home. This could also lead to moving to a location that you love which is always a plus. In addition, a home with less space to fill up with “things’ means fewer “things” to buy and more money in your pocket!

2. Downsize Your Bills

You might be asking yourself, how can I downsize my bills? Well, a couple of different ways. Above we talked about downsizing your living space which could lead to paying less for utility bills. Downsizing your house isn’t typically a quick process so some other things you could start with could include:

• Find cheaper car insurance. Often times your rates increase each year. Shop around, you might find something cheaper.

• Get rid of dish or cable. Streaming shows and movies on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon could be much cheaper if you only pick a couple than paying for lots of channels you never use anyways.

• Cancel subscriptions you don’t actually use. Now I just mentioned signing up for a subscription like Netflix but what I’m getting at here are the numerous other subscriptions that you are currently paying for that you don’t even remember you have. Look at your bank and credit card statements and see what’s being deducted from your account. Don’t forget yearly subscriptions. Those ones sneak up on you. I’m sure you’ll find a couple of things that you can cancel.

3. Downsize Your Entertainment

How much money are you spending on entertainment? During COVID-19, you might have spent less in this department but now you might actually be spending more if you felt couped up too long and you’re focused on having fun again. If the latter is the case, try and find some outings that don’t cost anything and mix them in with the ones that do. Be creative when socializing, while still making it fun. Make it about the people and the memories and add some no-cost fun to your rainy day list.

4. Downsize Your Dining Out Budget

I don’t really like to cook so I’m typically up for grabbing a bite to eat somewhere. Dining out is an area where you can really spend a lot of your hard-earned cash. Have you ever added up what you spend on food outside of your grocery bill? Since dining out is so much easier than cooking, to help reduce the urge you’ll need to plan ahead. Planning out your meals ahead of time will help you avoid that, “what’s for dinner” funk. Meal prepping can also help. This can help with all meals of the day or just the ones you struggle with most. This one is almost instant savings in your pocketbook if you follow through with it.

5. Downsize Your Vehicle

Having a brand new car with all of the bells and whistles is a nice luxury to have but the cost of some of these vehicles is outrageous. Most people don’t pay cash and have a car payment that takes years to pay off. Finding a reliable, economical vehicle (with some luxuries) and a good resale value, can really pay off. Finding a cheaper vehicle and getting rid of your high car payment will help you find that freedom and simple living you seek a lot sooner.

6. Downsize Your Belongings

You might be thinking, how does this save you money? Well, a couple of ways actually. To get rid of your belongings, you’ll most likely donate them, gift them to family, sell them or discard them in the trash. If you sell the belongings that have overrun your house, outdoor spaces and outbuildings etc., you’ll be decluttering and making money in the process. This is a win in my book! You can sell items online or by having garage sales.

I would try and sell more expensive items online. Most garage sale patrons are looking for a good deal and they are looking to haggle. Just something to keep in mind. Garage sales are a lot of work but they are useful for getting rid of a lot of little stuff. It’s amazing the things people buy that you would have just dropped off at a donation center. All those 25 and 50 cent items that you sell can really add up!

Another thing to consider are items that you don’t want to move or spend time throwing away that don’t really have any value. An ad online for free items to be picked up can work well. We had a pile of old wood and cut-up fence board that someone came and picked up quite quickly after posting an ad online for free pickup. The guy who picked it up said they were making a catwalk inside their house. I couldn’t actually picture this but he was glad to take the wood and I was more than happy to see it go!

An added benefit to downsizing your belongings is to have your living space clutter-free. When you start living with less you’ll realize you don’t need more things and that means fewer purchases and again, more money in your pocket.

7. Downsize Your Purchases

This really has a lot to do with just limiting what you spend on “stuff”. Thinking about living simply can help change your mindset that less is more. Obviously, if you downsize to a smaller living space, you’ll have less space to fill with things. If you declutter the living space you have, you’ll likely feel much better to be living in a clutter-free space. This will make you think twice before filling up your living spaces again.

When making purchases, think to yourself, “do I really need this?”, “do I have a space for this?”, “does this serve a purpose?”. The goal is to save money. Try not to get wrapped up in all the latest gadgets that you think you need (electronic gadgets are my weakness!).

Recap of How to Downsize Your Life and Save Money

Choosing all or some of these ways to downsize your life can start the momentum to enjoying life without debt holding you down. Downsizing your life can also lead to living simply, along with a feeling of freedom that can lead to a new way of life.

Here is a recap of the list of things you can downsize in your life that can you save money:

• Your home

• Bills

• Entertainment

• Dining out

• Vehicle

• Belongings

• Purchases

Are You Ready to Downsize Your Life?

After reading through the list above, I hope you found some ways to downsize your life and save money that you can implement right away. Won’t it be fun to see your bank account grow after implementing some of these tips? Downsizing your life leads to simple living and a feeling of freedom. Start living more with less today.

Let me know what tip is most interesting to you by leaving a comment below or maybe you have a great tip of your own to share.

Other Helpful Resources:

• 6 Great Benefits of Downsizing Your Home

• How to Start Living a Simple Life Today

• How Downsizing Changed My Life: Simple Living & Travel

• Downsize to a Traveling Home: Start Planning Now