Money Savvy Living Autumn 2013 | Page 15

Happy hour

It may not seem like a big deal to stop by your favorite sports pub after work and have some wings and a beer with a few co-workers to wind down after work, however, you may be spending more than you think. There are always "happy hour" specials so it seems relatively inexpensive. Of course, if you go every day, you are probably adding at least $5-10 to your daily expenses, and potentially, a whole lot more, depending on how long you stay.

Grocery Shopping Strategies

Make a list– and stick to this list. Don’t buy a bunch of items that are not on your list. You will over-spend each visit you make to the grocery store when you stray from your list. I found a great shopping list on pinterest which plans out meals for a week and the corresponding grocery list. You might want to try something similar to this to kick-start organized grocery shopping.

Look at weekly store advertisements– Some things really don’t matter when you buy them, but some grocery items, such as meat, can be very expensive if they are not an advertised special. So when steak or roast are on sale, stock up. Buy a few extra to put in the freezer so that next time you want to cook a roast, you don’t overspend because they aren’t on sale that week.

Use coupons– clip only the coupons of products that you use (sounds obvious, right? But “saving” money on an item that you don’t normally use is actually costing you money!)… and then make sure you use them. File them in a wallet size expandable file by expiration date so that it is easy to see when they need to be used by.

Plan meals for the week—after you take a look at the grocery store flyer and figure out any sales that you want to take advantage of, make sure you plan your meals for the week to go along with the items that you plan on buying. When you have a meal plan in place, you are shopping for a specific purpose, not just shopping impulsively and loading your cart up with items that you don’t need.

The best way to limit the amount that you spend each month on these "daily habits" is to budget for them. You don't have to give everything up altogether. Build a certain amount into your budget each month and then stick to it.