Spending money is easy. After all, there are opportunities to spend money all around us. But just as it’s easy to spend your hard-earned cash, it’s also easy to save it – on dinner, on lunches, on beauty products, on magazines. Here are five ways to save on each of those things … and it’s a lot easier than you might think.
Double Up On Dinner – Leftovers aren’t that bad and it doesn’t cost that much to double your recipes, so do exactly that and you’ll start saving lots of money. What will you do with those leftovers? That’s your decision, but most leftovers make nice lunches. Speaking of lunch…
Get Smart About Dining At Work – Dining on the job starts with lunch. As in, stop going out to lunch and start packing your lunch. Five lunches in a restaurant can cost around $50 (and that’s the low end). Five lunches packed from home and purchased at the grocery store will cost only $10 or $15. Here’s another workplace food tip: Step away from the vending machine and bring your own snacks. They’re cheaper and, in most cases, healthier.
Get Frugal With Your Beauty Routine – Beauty isn’t cheap. Face creams and other products can cost $20, $30, sometimes $40 or more. The good news is, natural options – at a fraction of the cost – are just a Google search away. If you’re still in the money-saving mood (which is all the time, right?), cut out the trip to the salon for a professional coloring and do it yourself. Read my article about how you can save on cosmetics.
Eat In, Not Out – Yes, cutting back on dining out is a great way to save money. But even delivery items like pizza can be costly. Instead or spending $20 on delivery pizza, try some deluxe frozen pizzas for half the price (or less). While you’re at it, skip the trip to the local ice cream shop – where four cones will cost you $20 – and scoop your own at home for around $5.
Skip the Newsstand – At $5 each, the cost of buying individual copies of magazines can add up – fast. Buying three magazines a month will total $180 in a year. Instead, subscribe to your favorite magazines at a rate that’s often 75 percent or more less than the newsstand price.
I especially like your comments about eating out at work and how costly it is. My husband is SO bad about wasting tons of money stopping in for a soda here, bag of chips there, at gas stations… I’m going to start ‘categorizing’ these on our bank account so I can show him at the end of the month how much he spends on snacking out! What a waste!