Here is the list of five budget leaks, which could ruin your budget if they are not fixed correctly and at the right moment:
Food: if you spend more money on food than you planed for, it means that you dine out too often. In fact, a dinner in any restaurant is approximately five times more expensive than a dinner at home. Try to dine out less often when you are on a tight budget – like once a month.
Another reason for spending on food too much is to buy groceries in a wrong way. The better way to buy groceries is to:
- Shop with a list: remember to stick to you list and buy only important products and goods at the right period of time.
- Don’t shop hungry: it’s that simple if you are hungry you tend to buy more products, which most of the time you will not be able to consume.
- Shop alone: the more people are shopping with you the more products you tend to buy and thus try to shop alone.
Retail shopping: is another aspect of your budget, you spend more than intended too. The number one reason for overspending in retail shopping is buying too much. Therefore, buy only what you want and what you need.
Entertainment: people often spend more money on entertainment than anything else because it’s hard to plan how much money you will spend on fun this month. What you need to do is to set money aside for entertainment each month. Once entertaiment money are gone you need to wait for the next month to have some fun. By the way, there are a lot of ways to have fun for free. Check your local newspapers, magazines, portals for more details.
Kids: it’s obviously hard to live with kids on a tight budget. But what you should do is teach them financial responsibility and the right moment and age.
ATM: the best way to eliminate extra expenses is simply to leave your debit cards home as often as possible and on live cash basis.