Money seems to run out pretty quickly. By the time you get your paycheck, pay bills, save for the future, hopefully fund an emergency fund to have on hand in case of unexpected charges, not to mention have money for food and gas, there may not be much, if anything left, so spending money can be pretty limited and hopefully you can keep the credit card away. If you can avoid wasting money on expenses every month, you can free up extra money to stay out of debt or saving for your future.
Stopping for Coffee
It may not seem like a lot of money stopping for a few dollars to pick up a cup of coffee on your way to work, but let’s say you stop before work every day of the week, and depending how tired you are, maybe a mid-day break or stopping on your way home. Throw in a bagel here and there, not to mention stopping on the weekend, you could be spending over $100 a month just in coffee. You can avoid by programming your coffee to be finished brewing by the time you are ready to head out the door in the morning.
Going Out to Eat
This may be the biggest expense that you incur in a month. If you separate grocery shopping compared to going out to eat, your goal should be to avoid going out and more focus on grocery shopping and preparing meals at home. Of course, it’s nice to go out and have someone else cook and serve and clean up after us, but you can expect a large bill, especially with today’s expensive food trends. It may be hard to cut out entirely, but if you can at least go out once a week and on special occasions, you can watch the savings add up almost immediately.
Paying a Gym Membership
Right after New Year’s you get into a mode where you want to get into shape and loose a few points, and that’s when the gyms are packed with people with the same idea. Going after work may be tough to find a machine you’re looking for, but just wait a few months and you will continue to see the crowd start to thin out. After a while you start to miss a day, a week, a month, and pretty soon you’re paying your membership fees every month and you never go. A complete waste of money.
Avoiding Sales
While we may not get the sale papers on Sunday any longer to see what the big sales are for the week, due to the decline of newspaper subscriptions, that doesn’t mean you have to avoid sales altogether, you just may have to look another way. “Like”ing the social media page can be a great way to keep up, not to mention taking note when you are out shopping for when the big sales are. There really isn’t any reason to pay full price for anything, so any discounts you can take advantage are, would be a must.
