The following is a guest post by Raine Parker. Please see her author bio at the end of the article.
One of the toughest things about saving money can be knowing where to start. Sure, making a budget sounds like a good idea, but what gets cut first? How can you be sure you’re making real changes in your spending habits and not just minor, cosmetic ones that won’t really matter? With that in mind, here are five things you might be spending money on regularly but that can easily be cut.
The coffee shop: How many times do you swing through your local Starbucks or donut shop to grab a cup of coffee before work, or as a midday pick-me-up? It’s an easy purchase to overlook because it doesn’t feel like you’re spending a lot of money, but look at the math: A $3 cup of coffee every day adds up to $15 a week, which is $60 a month, which is $720 a year! Three-quarters of the way to a thousand dollars, and just for a tall coffee in the morning. It’s not worth it.
Breakfast on the go: This is another morning addiction for many workers, especially those with lengthy commutes. Instead of having a quick and more affordable breakfast at home, they cave in and drive through someplace less healthy and far more costly. Even if you don’t get it every day, you’ll still wind up paying hundreds of dollars throughout the year that you could apply to more helpful areas like paying down debt or saving for the future.
Lunch with the team: When you’re at the office, it can be easy to tag along with your coworkers to grab lunch, whether it’s fast food or something better. But eating out daily can be the biggest drain on your pocketbook. Let’s say you eat cheaply, averaging $10 for lunch (we’ll leave out nice restaurants and tips for now). That’s $200 a month, or $2,400 a year, just on lunches. That’s a bad problem that’s easy to fix if you take a few minutes in the morning to fix a lunch to take. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy; leftovers or a sandwich in a brown bag will do. But the cost of preparing a sensible meal ahead of time is far less than what it will run you to buy a lunch every day. You won’t even notice how much you’ve given up until you see how much cash you’ve still got in the bank.
One more drink: Socializing with friends is a great way to unwind after a long day or week, but if you’re not careful, happy hour can turn into an out-of-control expense. Set a limit on how much you’ll let yourself spend when you’re out on the town, and don’t go over it. Cut back as much as possible – even if it means staying in sometimes – and stick to your plan. You don’t really need that extra drink, anyway.
Entertainment: There’s a wealth of new movies, music, and books being released every week, and it can be easy to fall prey to the allure of owning every new release. But it’s financial quicksand. Ponying up $20 for a CD (or $12 for its digital equivalent) or $25 for a DVD is a needless expense that can easily be given up. Check out Netflix, which starts at $9 a month, or movie rental kiosks like Redbox that are only $1 a night. Head to your local library to borrow all the free books, CDs, and movies you want. You won’t have to give up any real entertainment, but you can make some drastic cuts in your spending, and that’s too good to pass up.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what you can do without and what you will start giving up in order to live more frugally and wisely. But these five items are a good place to start.
By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Raine Parker, who writes on the topics of accounting degree . She welcomes your comments at her email Id: raine.parker6@gmail.com .
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think allot of us can cut down in 2 areas of our budget at least ie: the food and phone expenses.
I’ve decided to go without a landline and to cut out meat when preparing some suppers.
I’ve decided to cancel my telephone landline and to change from cell phone contract to a prepaid cellphone package.
I’ve now bought a prepaid straight talk package from Walmart for $45 per month for unlimited calls and unlimited text, which compared to my contract saves me $1200 over a period of two years. It even paid me to pay the cancellation fee of my contract.
There is also the $30 per month prepaid straight talk contract for 1000 anytime / anywhere minutes and 1000 text messages from Walmart. So you can make big cuts on your budget.
Regarding foodstuffs – Instead of eating meat every night why not use beans which are full of protein and vitamins and minerals and make a bean casserole or bean fritters, or a vegetarian chickpea dish?
Why not buy a cookbook which specializes in ‘economical recipes’.
Just because your ingredients would be cheaper doesn’t mean the dishes are any less tasty than more expensive ingredients.
This is a good ‘starting 5′ when it comes to cutting expenses. Right now we’re looking at cutting out Blockbuster because we never use it and still pay a momthly fee.
The tips are so on point. In our office we realized that it didn’t make sense to buy coffee when we could invest in a coffee pot and have enough coffee for everyone cheaper. Too, instead of purchasing breakfast, I now make my oatmeal or other hot cereal in the office as well. We only splurge on eating out when we have the coupons to buy one and get one free deals. Fortunately, I don’t drink and in most cases, I’m too busy to watch a movie and will settle for a book from the library or some material that I can download. I am so proud of myself. I am getting there.
Man,
This post should be titled 500 things you can do without. Or 5000. What I found when I started my journey out of financial hell is that eliminating unnecessary spending played the biggest factor in me getting out of debt faster.
You need to set your priorities–do you want to stress out about bills and money, etc., for the rest of your life? Or, do you want to give up trips to the conveninece store for cups of coffee and lottery tickets? For me, it was an easy choice.
Forget about establishing a budget and all that other stuff. Take a good hard look at what you spend your money on and you’d probably be shocked at what you can eliminate.
I enjoyed reading your tips. My husband and I have cut down on our weekend dates. Between the babysitter, entertainment and food it was just too much. We’ve found watching movies off the internet and also from the library can be just as fun.
Everyone needs a car and it has to run well, hopefully cheaply, without costly repairs. IT took me a long time to decide to be a bit ahead of the game as far as unexpected costs go. Now I cover my car repair expenses, easily. We all need to keep our cars going as long as possible, in this economy. Check out-
http://www.MyFreeAutoRepair.com