The idea of downsizing is primarily based around the idea of your home. It’s something that parents do when their kids have flown the nest, leaving them with more rooms and space than they require. It’s a good idea – as will be discussed – but this isn’t the only kind of downsizing that you can do to reduce your outgoings.

In a world where we are all looking for ways to save some cash here and there, no one is unfamiliar with the idea of cutting back our expenditure. Many a money-saving guide will focus on the things you can strip from your budget. To an extent, this is a good way of ensuring you’re not overspending – but it’s also surprisingly restrictive. You know that the measures you take, the entertainment that you cancel, will result in a better bank balance – but life is for living, isn’t it? If you cut back on everything that true money savants and super savers would have you cutting, then there would be relatively little fun to be had.

The idea of downsizing takes the same principle of cutting your expenditure, but doesn’t seek to completely eliminate it from your life. Instead, financial downsizing is about maintaining as good a life as possible… but just spending less to do it. We all know we could save money if we never go out, cancel our cable packages, and live off cheap soup – but it’s only natural to question just how good a quality of life that would provide. Saving money is good, but finding enjoyment in living is important too.

So, enter the world of downsizing. It’s not about stripping the amount you spend every month back to nothing, but about making the most of a reduction. How do you do it? Well, lucky for you, here are some ideas to kick you off…

Downsize… Your Home

Right, let’s get the basics out of the way first: downsizing your home. You don’t have to wait for the onset of ‘empty nest syndrome’ to consider doing this. If you have rooms that are surplus to requirements, then it might be worth considering changing where you live.

If you hate the idea of losing space, think about why you would do it. Unless the house you’re living in right now is your fabled ‘forever home’, then it might be worth making the sacrifice of a move to a smaller space. Children can share bedrooms or you can do away with that home office you never use. In exchange, you’ll lessen your expenditure, all of which can be saved towards the ‘forever home’ house purchase that we all dream of.

If you’re not sure of the potential savings, then it’s worth spending some time running the numbers. Get the figure of the amount of equity you currently have in your home, then run your future budget through a house loan calculator to see what you can afford with a reduced monthly mortgage payment too.

Bear in mind that downsizing your home is going to inevitably mean that you lower your expenditure in other ways, too. For one thing, your utility bills are going to go down, especially in winter. The less house you have to heat, the lower your fuel bills are going to be. Then there’s just the basics to consider, such as how it will be cheaper for you to clean your home. It’s worth considering if you can bear the lesser space for a few years, as you could realistically pocket hundreds of dollars per month that you otherwise would have spent just on basic living costs.

Downsize… Your Makeup

From the big to the small changes now: makeup is an expensive pastime for many women (and some men too!). Take a look at your current makeup collection. How many of those items have you used in the last six months? And how many of them are effectively duplicates of one another? For example, how many items do you have that could fit into the bracket of “black mascara”? They might have touted different benefits – lifting, extending, extra fibers and what have you – but they still fall under the same basic premise.

It therefore makes sense to try and downsize your makeup collection into these brackets. Of course, you don’t have to go throwing any duplicates out – you just don’t replace them when they run out or expire! By trimming down to a smaller size of collection, you can save a fortune, but you don’t have to worry about having to go barefaced in public either!

Downsize… Your TV Expenses

You’d have thought that with the acceptance of streaming services into popular culture, watching TV would be more affordable than ever before. However, if you want to watch the range of “must see” TV shows nowadays, you can end up with a lot of streaming subscriptions. That’s expensive, and it’s just set to get more and more expensive as time goes by.