I am hereby officially attempting to limit my food and dining spending - which includes fast food, coffee shops, restaurants, bars & alcohol and groceries - to $600 a month.
This might seem like an easy feat (and it should be), but during the first half of this year I have spent an embarrassing $893 per month on average in that category. $893 a month! On consumption. How can this be?!
My restaurant sub-category accounts for 44% the total. After estimating that half of that is really going towards alcoholic beverages and adding in the "bars and alcohol" subcategory, I calculate that exactly 40% of my food and dining spending has been on alcoholic beverages alone!
Now I don't consider myself a lush (all evidence to the contrary), but I have allowed myself to get used to much too expensive habits. A $20 bottle of wine here, an afternoon of $10 margaritas there, and suddenly I'm spending over $350 a month on alcohol!
Absurd. I'm way to cheap to accept that kind of data. So my total consumption of all food and beverages shall not cost more than $600 a month from this day forward!
Incidentally, this new consumption budget correlates nicely with my goal to lose a few pounds.
It should be relatively easy to slim down my spending and my waistline without even really changing my lifestyle. I plan to:
- Simply pass on that third $10 martini or $8 glass of wine whenever I go out. If I do that three times a week I've saved $120 and over 1200 calories with virtually no effort!
- Eat at home two extra nights per week rather than picking up a $10 salad on the way home from the gym. Yes I'm tired, but if I plan ahead I can have a dinner ready to easily prepare at home and save $12 a week or $50 a month.
- Order appetizer portions whenever I dine out. I'll save roughly 30% on calories and on the bill. Estimated savings $65 a month.
- Suggest cheaper dining options when I go out. There's no reason to have a midweek lunch at Palomino's when Cafe Express will just as easily suffice. And choosing Tex Mex over sushi once a month will save me $15 right there!
4 comments:
I understand this; on Mint whenever I see charges marked "alcohol and bars" I indignantly change it to "groceries." As if anyone is going to see it.
For us, is is the relatively-thrifty liquor store purchases of 12-packs of the un-thrifty Guinness. If we drink one per night each maximum (and I mean that, some nights we skip it and occasionally we split one), somehow it still adds up to a lot of money at $16 per 12-pack!
How are you going to plan better? You mentioned that by doing so, everything will be ready when you get home from the gym. I'm curious as to exactly how you're going to plan! Great goal though, good luck!
AussieSaver - by "plan better" I simply mean to actually have food in my fridge that I can eat at home! Typically when my groceries run out I eat out for a few days in a row before shopping again; if I can just plan my shopping trips to ensure I have healthy meals at home, I will be far liklier to eat there.
Good Luck! That has been my goal for the past year with no luck. Grocery shopping is my downfall too. Oh, and brunch.
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