You must learn to save first and spend afterwards. – John Poole
If I am going to write down all my expenses, below are what I spend lavishly for a month. I splurge on things I do not really need. I am such a huge spender. I need to cut down these expenses and grow my bank balance again. It is probably a lot of money if I had to add it up. The main reason why I do not have any savings is because my expenses and my debts are piled up. And for the next few months, I have/need to think about my credit card and hide it deep down before I have settled all my debts.
I have been thinking about this over and over. I had to cut those extra expenses and start saving for my future. Cutting my daily expenses to a simpler life will make it possible for me to save a lot of money without finding an additional source of income. For the sake of saving, I need to make small sacrifices.
Break Off my Caffeine Fix
I love love coffee. Who doesn’t love coffee? And it is now time to say goodbye to fancy coffee at Starbucks or Coffee Project and say hello to Great Taste White Caramel. Giving up isn’t that easy especially for a coffee addict like me. But cutting back on expensive coffee will make substantial savings.
Money I Can Save – Php 150/day; Php 1,200/month
Cook/Pack my Own Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Bringing my own lunch and also dinner to work will save a couple of bucks. I don’t need to worry about health and sanitation issues anymore.
Money I Can Save – Php 120/meal; Php 240/day; Php 5,760/month
Cut down Massages/Spa
I can’t give up on this completely. For a very stressful week, pampering myself is the only thing left. There are still ways to look good, but with a smaller budget.
Money I Can Save – Php 500 – 1,000/month
Stay Home More Every Weekend
Staying at home can save up. I spend too much on things I don’t need and end up still buying when I go out. Getting together with friends and family at home can save money. Enjoy the benefits of staying at home ; staying in is more fun.
Money I Can Save – Php 1,000/weekends
Save Money on Movie Watching
My sister and I love watching movies in theaters. A movie costs us Php 200-400 each depending on the cinema/theater. That’s a lot of money.
Money I Can Save – Php 800/weekends
Sell Stuffs
I have a full of unused, unneeded, forgotten stuffs in my closet /storage. I am thinking of selling instead of keeping to make use of it.
Money I Can Earn – Php 5,000/year
Clean out my Credit
I am working on paying off our debt. Interest has already summed up a large part. Before, I disciplined myself to pay full each month. Since, we put all our expenses on it and exceeded our monthly budget, it incurred large amount of money.
Money I Can Save – Php 1,600/month
Save Automatically
A certain amount of money or percentage of my paycheck must be deposited in my savings account.
Money I Can Save – 20% of paycheck/cut-off
If you want to save even more money, sacrifice little changes. Hopefully, I can stick to this to save up money. By the end of the year, I have a huge amount of money in my savings. Just embrace the idea of budgeting and it is going to be simple.
The more I can save, the more adventures I can have the sooner.