I Have decided that I need to cut my costs to save for my trip to Paris this summer. With the Euro reaching new highs against the Dollar every week I will need more Dollars to buy fewer Euros.
I would say on the whole I keep my monthly costs very low. My apartment is reasonable, the car is paid off, I often buy the generic brand of food at the grocery store, and don’t break the bank shopping at the high end clothing stores every weekend.
The place where I spend (waste) the most money is eating and drinking out. This is what a typical weekend might look like for me.
Dinner out Friday night: $40
Drinks after dinner: $30
Carry out Saturday night: $12
Bar Tab: $30
Cab Home: $20
Sunday Skyline $15
Total $152
This does not even factor in grocery shopping, or running errands, or the new electronic toy that I felt that I needed. Often on Monday when I checked my bank account (I used my debit card and never my credit card) I would almost choke realizing the extent of the damage. So I have withdrawn $40 from the ATM for this weekend and will try to spend only that.
As a result I am going to “live” on $40 a weekend. I feel like that is more then enough for me to have fun out with my friends and be able to participate in events. What I am hopping happens is that I eat at home both nights and go out for drinks one night. Hopefully the second night I am able to get people to stay in and watch a movie, play a board or video game, or just hang out. Doing all of this while drinking beers that cost fifty cents from Kroger rather then $4 from the bartender.
Hopefully I can stick to this and potentially save (152-40) x 4 = $448 a month.
While I appreciate your attempt to save money, I will say that this post sounded an awful lot like dad wrote it…..50cent beers from Kroger?? Board games??
And will definitely be interested to hear the result of the great $40 experiment…let us know if you make it through the weekend.
Can’t wait to read the next installment to see how it goes!