Why I Even Bothered Looking Into This
Alright look, I was drowning. Seriously. Felt like every single day was just a giant pile of emails, social media stuff, meetings about meetings, and trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. My brain felt fried constantly. Bills were stacking up ’cause honestly, who has time to chase the best deals or even notice they’re paying for subscriptions they forgot about? Total mess. Saw this whole “saunt benefits” buzz popping up everywhere – honestly sounded kinda vague at first, like another internet fad. But desperation? Yeah, that’s a powerful motivator. I figured, what’s the worst that could happen? Maybe save me 5 minutes? Worth a shot.
My Messy First Steps (Seriously, No Idea What I Was Doing)
Okay, Day One. Decided to just dive headfirst. No fancy plan. First thing? Tackled the biggest time-suck: grocery shopping and planning. Opened up my phone notes – felt like the most basic tool I already had.
- Food Chaos Central: Started scribbling down literally EVERYTHING my family eats regularly in the notes app. Like, everything. Snacks, staples, weird cravings. Just dumped it all outta my head.
- Price Patrol: Next grocery trip, became that person holding up the line, tapping my phone. For every item on my giant list, I noted down the price at my regular store. Felt tedious as heck.
- Discount Detective: Started actually opening those promo emails from other stores nearby I usually ignored. Scrolled through their apps. Took screenshots of deals for stuff on my list. Noticed something immediately – yogurts were way cheaper at Store A, chicken at Store B was a steal this week.
- Staring at Screens: Then spent waaaay too long one evening just comparing my screenshots and notes. Saw the patterns forming – which store consistently had better prices on what we actually bought. Mind kinda blown by how much I was just blindly overspending.
This felt super rough, super manual. But already, just doing THIS much, I saved like 20 minutes next shopping trip ’cause I knew exactly where to go for what. And saved about $8? Not huge, but proof.
The “Sorta” System Emerges (Way Less Effort Than Before)
After that mini-win, I figured, why stop? Applied the same messy method to other stuff bogging me down:
- Bill Blitz: Took one deep breath and logged into every single bill account I could think of – utilities, phone, insurance, random subscriptions. List everything out in a new note: what it is, when it’s due, how much. Found two forgotten subscriptions I hadn’t used in months. Cancelled them instantly. Ka-ching.
- Time Tracker (Lazy Version): Didn’t download any fancy app. Just used my phone’s timer super roughly for a week. Set it going whenever I started a “task” – emails, socials, work stuff, even doomscrolling. Not super precise, but enough to see giant black holes. Saw 1.5 hours daily disappearing into random internet rabbit holes and email ping-pong. Ouch.
- “Do Not Disturb” Became My Hero: Based on the rough timing, implemented crazy strict “Focus Blocks” using the Do Not Disturb mode I already had. 90 minutes twice a day, nothing but the actual work task. Phone silenced, notifications hidden. Felt weirdly liberating and, surprisingly, people survived without me for 90 mins.
Focusing on just these few areas, using tools I already owned (notes app, timer, DND mode), started freeing up actual brain space. Less scrambling, less forgetting stuff.
Right Now – Is It Perfect? Hell No. But the Benefit?
Look, I don’t have a beautiful dashboard or an app that does it all magically. It’s still kinda clunky. But here’s the real “saunt benefit” for me right now:
- Time Saved: Regained like 5-6 hours every week easily. Between smarter shopping (one focused trip instead of three scattered ones), killed distractions, and cancelled crap. That’s a whole half-day!
- Money Saved: Found over $50/month just by stopping dumb payments and smarter shopping. Doesn’t sound like millions, but that’s $600 a year I wasn’t seeing before. Pays for a small trip.
- Effort Saved (The Best Bit): Brain feels less like scrambled eggs. Knowing where stuff is written down, having tiny routines (like checking deals ONLY on Tuesday nights), knowing bills are all listed somewhere… The constant low-level stress about forgetting something or overspending? Way down. Not gone, but way quieter. Feels like I stopped paddling upstream constantly.
Seriously, if I can sorta do this using basically just the junk already on my phone, imagine actually trying a bit harder? The “saunt” part is just the realization: saving time, saving money, saving sanity isn’t about giant overhauls. It’s about taking control of the little daily drains, one ugly list at a time. Start small, start messy. You’ll feel the benefit stupidly fast. Go clear one tiny thing off your plate right now.