Use the “Expenses Grinder” to Trim Costs
"It's time for the Expenses Grinder"
It's a rainy Saturday in San Francisco so it's time to write about my Expenses Grinder.
During tax season, I go over my expenses to see what is deductible.
But even better than deducting an expense is to remove it… to grind it up.
I was shocked to see that a couple vendors had unexpectedly raised prices.
I have also been underwhelmed by a few dominant vendors and have been testing replacement vendors.
I'm happy to report that I've shaved $80 per month off of my expenses.
It's a small win but it's nice to have a win. Am I right?
The Details:
After 6 years of being a Zoom subscriber, I turned it off. I now use Google Meet which is included in my Google Workspace plan. (I also sold my Zoom stock that sadly after 4 years is back where it started). The Zoom folks are seriously off track. Saved $17/month.
After 4 years of subscribing to Calendly and then SavvyCal for self-service appointment making, I switched to Google Appointments (included in my Google Workspace plan). Saved $12/month.
I exported my newsletter recipients from Drip and moved them to Squarespace (where I host my website) which has a decent newsletter system. Saved $29/month.
I found out that Rebrandly had unilaterally raised their monthly price from $4 to $39. After trying to get them to refund me unsuccessfully, I executed a series of chargebacks against them. I pointed my short url domain (pdg.info) to Squarespace and run my short link redirects from there. Saved $39/month.
Add back the $12/month I pay for Google Workspace and the $5/month for the Squarespace newsletter feature and you get the $80/month savings.
In all the cases above, I ran both the new and the old system in parallel and judged performance to be largely equal if not better.
See my entire Consultant Technology Stack.
Inspiration
The inspiration for the “Expenses Grinder” is our yearly Sausage Making Party that we throw.
Jim coaches Product Management organizations in startups, growth stage companies and Fortune 100s.
He's a Silicon Valley founder with over two decades of experience including an IPO ($450 million) and a buyout ($168 million). These days, he coaches Product leaders and teams to find product-market fit and accelerate growth across a variety of industries and business models.
Jim graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Computer Science and currently lectures at University of California, Berkeley in Product Management.
