The new year is here. Hello 2017! Gosh did 2016 really just go by that fast? It feels like a flash and sometimes an eternity both at the same time. You probably ended the year with a lot of spending. Gifts, eating out, trips, relatives, they all add up. Let’s try and get things going right for 2017 with the top 3 ways to save money this year.
1- Eat out less often
This isn’t a very popular thing to do if you’re used to going out to eat 3 or 4 times a week, but it’s something you should consider doing. Every time you go out to eat you’re paying a premium for that food to be prepared for you. I can usually get almost a week’s worth of food from the grocery store for the same price as eating out a comparable meal. The mark up on food can range from anywhere between 3-10 times as expensive as buying it from the grocery store.
If you think you can’t go cold turkey and eat out less then what you can try to do is promise to only eat the main dish when you’re out. No more drinks or appetizers. Just water and the main dish. That alone will save you tons of money.
Better yet, if you just hate preparing your meal you should check the grocery store for easy to make meals. I like those whole foods meals that you buy and get a free salad with it. I like the meat loaf. It’s a $20 meal and it will feed 4 people. It’s not as cheap as buying the food yourself and making it, but it’s less expensive than going out to eat.
2- Make a budget and stick to it
Try planning out your year on paper with all your expected expenses for the year. This way you have money set aside for rent and bills as well as fun things like entertainment and travel. If you get into the habit of tracking your expenses you can start to look for ways to keep money from leaving you. The more money you can keep means the more money you can save.
You might not even realize that you’re spending way too much on eating out until you actually look at the numbers. Section it out so that you can see what groceries are costing you and what eating out is costing you. Seeing exactly where your money is going out will help you readjust and fix your spending habits. This will in turn help you save more money.
3- Only buy things on sale
Stick to this rule and you’ll do great. Never pay full price for anything. And I mean anything. There’s really no reason why you shouldn’t wait for a sale. They have sales on everything these days. It’s expected for almost everything. Whatever you’re going to buy you need to make sure it’s on sale before you buy it.
This is especially true for the bigger purchase items. New and expensive electronics will always eventually go on sale. You just need to figure out when. One of the best ways to find what something sells for is to just google it. You quickly get a list of places and prices for whatever you’re looking for.
I also like to put price alerts on a site that watches prices at Amazon. Amazon doesn’t always have the best prices on things, but they will have good prices a lot of the time. The key is catching the deal at the right time. Amazon will raise and lower prices on the same product many times over the year. You can use a site like camelcamelcamel.com to have alerts sent to you when something your’e looking for goes on sale.