Ways To Save Money

I’ve recently been spending extremely carelessly; I’m not out of control or anything, but I’ve been consciously aware of my expenditures. If my mind is telling me that I’m spending a bit too much this month, it’s usually because I am. I’m not a complete scrooge so I don’t mind parting with money, but some times I need to stop to ask myself whether I really need to be spending this much.

In an attempt to be a bit more careful over the following months, I’m going to take action and see how much I can save by cutting down on those careless and unnecessary expenditures. My list isn’t going to consist of life-changing habits, they’re going to be small changes that will hopefully result in a big change. Everyone should be able to make these small changes…

Here’s a list of how I’ve I personally think I’ve been carelessly spending, and how I plan to resolve the issue:

Food
A big burden in my life is my love for food. I have a huge appetite that needs to be satisfied. But the problem is that I’m also very lazy when it comes to preparing food. Consequently, on average I eat out 3 times a week at various restaurants, which sets me back about £15 per night. At work, I spend on average, £5-£7 on lunch and snacks per day. That means I spend approximately £70 per week on lunch and catered services. I could do 2 weeks worth of grocery shopping at Tescos for that much. That’s definitely way too much for my likings. I’m going to try and cut back on going out for so many meals per week, and also try and prepare my lunches from home. I’ll aim to reduce £70 to £40 per week.

Petrol
I don’t even want to try and calculate how much I spend on petrol on a yearly basis because I’ll probably try and kill myself after looking at the final figure. All I know is that I spend about £50 on a weekly basis, which is quite a lot since I work semi-locally and socialise semi-locally. I’m going to try something completely crazy like “walk” to destinations where realistically possible.

Moreover, I make a lot of unnecessary journeys. For example, I’ll go to work in the morning knowing I’m going out after work. In that situation, I’ll go all the way home and get changed and then drive all the way to the other side of town, which would have been quicker to get to from work. Ideally, I’d have just taken a change of clothes to work, and gone straight from work. I’ll try and plan my journeys better and equip myself appropriately.

Mobile phone
For some reason I’ve been using my phone a lot more than in previous months. I never usually exceed my allowance, but I have been recently. I’m not entirely sure why; I haven’t made any new friends recently and I certainly haven’t met a psycho girl that requires me to clock in every 5mins.

My monthly tariff costs me £30, which gives me 500 free minutes “anytime, any network”, and 100 texts. Last month my bill came to just under £100. Crazy, aye? I can’t believe I spent more than 500 minutes on the phone (I don’t send many texts). Fortunately, my contract with my service provider was coming to an end, which gave me the opportunity to haggle for a better deal.
After talking on the phone for an hour with a salesperson from my serviceprovider, trying to negotiate a better tariff, as I wasn’t happy, I finally got a deal I could get on board with. I managed to upgrade my handset for free (to a Nokia e65) and get a new tariff that gave me 750 minutes, “anytime, any network”, and 150 texts per month- all for £20 per month. Not bad, aye? I’ve reduced my monthly tariff rate and increased my allowance.

Seriously, it’s always worth a haggle. Just to be safe, I’m also going to be a bit more conscious about the amount of time I spend on the phone.

Social Life
I firmly believe in the importance of having a balanced lifestyle, and I personally believe that in order to have a balanced lifestyle you need to make room for a social life. I can’t relate to those people that don’t make time to play. I definitely make time to have my fun and games. However, some times I think I make too much time. I usually go out 2 times during the weekends (bars and clubs) and 3 to 4 times during the week, which may include the outings to restaurants I previously mentioned. I can’t quite calculate how much I spend on socialising, but it’s pretty excessive. I’m going to cut back, perhaps limit my weekday activity, and keep my weekend trends as is (need to keep it realistic).

While I’m cutting back on my weekday boozing sessions, I could utilise my skills and do some freelance web-development work. I’ve been getting a lot of freelance offers lately, but due to time limitations I’ve been refusing them. I think I’m going to start taking on some of those freelance projects, which will force me to give up some playtime. Time is money!!

Other notes

• A lot of people construct productive targets; real passionate and inspiring goals. However, a lot of those targets collapse quickly and abruptly because they’re too unrealistic. In a lot of cases, in order to reach your targets you need to compromise with your habits. Habits can’t just be switched on and off like a light bulb; if they could, they wouldn’t be habits. I’m going to try and walk towards my goals, not run…
• Personally, I would find it hard to eradicate one big habit e.g eating out at restaurants. I know I’d save a big chunk of change if I completely stopped eating at restaurants so often, but I don’t think I’d be able to completely stop. Plus, I wouldn’t want to deprive myself from such pleasures. As a solution I’m going to save small amounts of money in several areas by merely “cutting-back” in those areas.

Have you changed any of your habits to save money? Maybe you’ve got some tips for me; I’d really like to hear your thoughts…

Attention! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed so you're notified of all new blog entries.

What To Do Next?

Leave A Comment On This Article Send Article To Friend Email Me (the admin)

Printable Version Suscribe To My RSS Feed Digg it