Eating Out Too Much? Save More Money Weekly
Are you looking for ways to save more money? Eating out to much could be your biggest foe when trying to save for retirement or paying off bills.
A recent article noted that most households spend upwards of 30% of their food budget on eating out. Over 70% eat out more than a few times a month. This equals approximately $300 a month on restaurants, fast food, pizza, and coffee.
Here’s the rub, if you’re trying to save money you need to find easy doable ways to meet your goals. Sure you can go buy a triplex or have stocks with dividend income, but to get your house in order fast cutting certain expenses is the way to go.
I tallied up my Eating out this month, its ugly
I really like going out for breakfast we typically go every Saturday but I was off on holidays so I went a few more times. Generally, it’s just my wife and myself. Spent – $150
I hit Tim Hortons every morning, drive through on the way and twice during the day. I’m coffee-o-holic. It’s a problem. I’m secretly hoping they’ll discover that coffee is the miracle cure for cancer. Spent -$120
Restaurant to celebrate kids doing well in school Spent -$60
Pizza delivery for kids sleep over Spent -$40
I should probably include beer and liquor store trips Spent -$100
I’m usually very good at making my lunches but not so much in July, I ate at the cafeteria at work 5 times at $10 on average. Spent -$50
Grand Total Spent: $520 per month (x12 months = $6240)
Ouch as I’m typing this I want to vomit. That’s almost enough to get my family of four to a beach in the Caribbean somewhere in February. It’s a lot of money and I suspect if you’re honest with yourself you’ll see that you may be spending as much as I am.
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Solution to save more money weekly
You still need to live but certainly, you can see that a lot of money is being spent on things that can very easily be made at home.
Cut back on breakfast to twice a month – Saved – $75 this is going to be hard. If I don’t take my wife I could still go 4 times lol! I’m not sure she’ll agree.
Cut back on coffee – one coffee purchase. I’ll make one at home for the car and one at work using the Keurig – Saved – $80
Restaurant to celebrate kids doing well in school – Saved $0 I’m making the choice to not cutting this, I think as a family it’s a nice treat and once a month to go out for nachos is not asking very much. You need to be realistic and you need to live your life
Get the kids to make their own pizzas – Saved $30 (you still have to buy the stuff to make the pizza)
Beer and Liquor store trips – this will be hard especially during the summer I’ll try to cut back to $60 a month. Saved $40
Make your Lunches- Saved $50 This one I really try hard on. I normally don’t leave work at lunch by design, so making my lunch gives me no reason to leave. In general, I go through the fridge every Sunday to see what wasn’t eaten over the last week, veggies, meat etc. I try to use as much as I can in some sort of stew or casserole. Inevitably I find lots of stuff that would have otherwise been thrown out (which I also hate – don’t waste food your wasting more money)
Grand Total Saved $275 per month (x12 months = $3300) that’s a 52% reduction
Summary
Let’s be honest the secret to save more money It’s not rocket science, everyone can do this. Using my example, your situation may be very different. It just shows that with small daily changes you can save a boatload. You need to open and keep a special bank account that is difficult to access, meaning you have to physically go into the bank branch to get the money. If you do that you’ll think twice about it. You take the money you would have otherwise spent (see above) and put the difference of what you saved from the changes you make into the special account; you’ll see that you can save money without changing your current lifestyle. The money you would have spent on eating out too much is now going into savings to either pay down debt or save for retirement.
Note: $3300 Wow! I gotta get moving! Imagine how much I was spending when I wasn’t making my lunches?
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