4 Simple Ways I Plan to Cut My Spending This Year

February 18, 2013 · Filed Under Frugal Living, Guest Post · 25 Comments

(The following is a guest article. Hi, my name is Jessica Moorhouse and I blog over at Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses, a personal finance blog for the savvy, sassy, independent lady (or lad) of today. I also happen to have a thing for puns and 90’s music from Notorious B.I.G. Feel free to follow my personal finance journey on Facebook and Twitter.)

I’ve been a frugal person all my life. I live to save a dollar or two. I’m also highly organized and have several spreadsheets to help me keep my life and finances all up to snuff. So when I looked at my T4s and my bank accounts at the beginning of 2013, I was pretty shocked to see that I had spent way (and I mean WAY) more last year than I had thought. The thing is, as shocked as I was, once I started investigating where all of my money went, it all made sense. So this year, I vow to be a better saver! How do I plan on doing this? Read on to find out.

1. Meal Plan and Cut Out the Snacks

For a while I had been so good at meal planning. But at some point in the year I had traded in my skillet for a takeout menu and spent over $4,000 on eating out! Just think of all of the things I could have done with that money! What a waste! And I’m not just talking restaurants. A lot of that was just grabbing a coffee before work or buying a muffin during my break. I sure don’t want this to happen again, so I plan on eating out no more than once a week, cutting out expensive drinks at restaurants, and making healthy meals at home instead.

2. Staycation Instead of Vacation

I went on a lot of trips this past year. I didn’t intend to, but one weekend trip quickly turned into four, and then of course there was that spur of the moment decision to visit Thailand. Hey, I had a great time on all of these trips, but I sure do wish I would have stayed in a bit more to save some mega-bucks. Since I traveled so much this year, I think I may opt to staycation instead of vacation this 2013.

3. Put a Limit on Shopping

I honestly didn’t think I went shopping that much at all this year. The reality is I did a lot of shopping online and across the border and just lost track of how much I spent. I love me a good deal, but it’s definitely not hard to go overboard when you see a bunch of discount signs everywhere. In the future I’m going to set strict limits on how much money I’m going to spend before each shopping trip to avoid “accidentally” spending a few extra hundred dollars here or there.

4. Get the Wedding Over With and Be Married Already

And lastly, one of the major expenses I had this year was my upcoming wedding. We are having more of a traditional day complete with church ceremony and reception with at least 90 of our closest friends and family and that doesn’t come cheap. We’ve still got a few things to pay for yet, but most of the big purchases and deposits were made in 2012. I can’t wait to get married and not have to worry about all of those big bills to pay for. And also because it will mean I’ll be happily married. Maybe I should have put that first.

How do you plan on cutting your spending this year?

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Comments

25 Responses to “4 Simple Ways I Plan to Cut My Spending This Year”

Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank on February 18th, 2013 4:45 am

Our wedding cost us a small fortune as we had to invite every man and his dog just to keep the mothers happy
Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted…Do You Know Your Neighbors? 10 Reasons To Meet Them

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Kyle Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
Yikes Glen..that does get expensive and then you have a bunch of strangers at your wedding…lose, lose.

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DC @ Young Adult Money on February 18th, 2013 8:41 am

There is NEVER a good time to pay for a wedding. We got married right out of school and to be honest it was a strain. There was CONSTANT cash outflows, but overall it worked out. I should say we paid for 2/3 of our wedding, with about 1/3 coming from parents funding. It was absolutely worth it and it’s nice knowing the next wedding we will have to contribute towards will be our children…of which we have none yet so at MINIMUM two decades from now : )
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…5 Things I Wish I Had More Time For

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Kyle Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 4:12 pm
That is very impressive that you paid for 2/3 of your wedding David. Not many young couples can say that, unless they get hitched at city hall.

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DC @ Young Adult Money Reply:
February 19th, 2013 at 5:17 am
At the time I had very cheap rent and low expenses. An obscene chunk of each paycheck went towards the wedding, and this went on for quite a few months…
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…How to be Indispensable…Even if you work at Jiffy Lube

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Kyle Reply:
February 19th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
Lots of pork and beans and top ramen I am guessing?
Corina Ramos on February 18th, 2013 10:39 am

Hi Jessica,

Great tips here. As soon as I was reading the first bullet that sent off the bells in my head because we do spend a lot of money eating out. Last year alone we spent about $5,000 eating out. That spreadsheet sure does tell a story doesn’t it ?

Even thought my sweetie and I have been together for 21 years we still haven’t gotten married so your last bullet scared me so I think a civil union is not so bad, LOL…

Thanks for sharing these tips. Have a great week!
Corina Ramos recently posted…Earn Money As A Product Demonstrator

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Kyle Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 4:14 pm
5k eating out? Yeah that is pretty high. The way I eat I would weigh 350 lbs by now if I did that. ;-0

Wow I do love to eat out though…
Kyle recently posted…4 Simple Ways I Plan to Cut My Spending This Year

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Shannon @ The Heavy Purse on February 18th, 2013 12:09 pm

Isn’t amazing how we spend more than we think we do – even when we’re not creating debt. Sometimes looking at the big number $4000 for eating out is what cause us to change our habits. Because on a weekly basis – it probably didn’t seem like you were outputting too much money on eating it. A great exercise for all us. There are always areas we can trim back without it feeling like a sacrifice. And congratulations on your pending wedding.
Shannon @ The Heavy Purse recently posted…Children and Money: Don’t Turn It into a Taboo Topic

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Kyle Reply:
February 18th, 2013 at 4:15 pm
Great point Shannon. SO important to add up the numbers to see where your hard earned money is going.

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Kim@Eyesonthedollar on February 18th, 2013 9:03 pm

We use to spend way too much on eating out and groceries in general. I love to eat out but when it becomes a matter of convenience instead of a treat, you lost some of the fun. Now we go out maybe once or twice a month unless we are on vacation. It saves tons of money and we enjoy it more when we do go out. Congrats on the wedding. That is very exciting.
Kim@Eyesonthedollar recently posted…Does Being Rude Get You Further in Life?

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Kyle Reply:
February 19th, 2013 at 9:31 am
Great point Kim. When you do something all the time it definitely starts to lose it luster.

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Denny on February 19th, 2013 3:57 am

I totally agree that on our wedding we invite guests and most of them are those to whom we meet first time. What a joke. Second we spend a lot on dine out if we add this expenditure its results will be enough to surprise us.

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The Happy Homeowner on February 19th, 2013 3:10 pm

The cost of dining out is a super budget killer…I’m also working to cut back in that department as well.
The Happy Homeowner recently posted…Are You a Slave to Money?

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Justin@TheFrugalPath on February 19th, 2013 4:57 pm

I let my wife plan the wedding so I suppose I can’t complain about the costs. However, she said that if she could do it over she would have saved a lot of money on the small things.
Since my wife’s family are part of a close-knit ethnic community we felt compelled to invite a lot of people, which also added up.
Justin@TheFrugalPath recently posted…In Debt and Out of Ideas? Draw Your Purchases.

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Raye W on February 27th, 2013 2:12 am

Using a meal plan and cutting out snacks has saved me more than all the others put together.

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laurie damrose on February 27th, 2013 4:09 am

I like all the suggestion.We get the specials on snacks where ever we shop and stop up

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Maddie Klingaman on February 27th, 2013 10:38 am

We got married in October and because I had a renaissanced themed wedding I did the bulk and I do mean bulk of the work (www.photomuse.com/weddings/MaddieTodd. I did all of our wedding, the rings,the venue, food, part of the honeymoon, all the gifts,flowers, payments and more for about $12K. If you know NJ at all an average cost for a wedding is around $15K and that’s just for the reception and stuff, not even the honeymoon. We were fortunate in that we had a friend who gifted us his DJ service and the food was gifted to us as well because my father in law worked for the place that catered it. Still, it was a year of money flying out of my hands. I did pretty good though. Even our photographer was a blessing. She’s a very expensive photographer and has won gobs of awards and she photographed our entire wedding for $500. Bless her!

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Sherry J on February 27th, 2013 3:36 pm

Thanks for the post,nice ideas.

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soha molina on February 27th, 2013 7:26 pm

Putying a Limit on Shopping woks for me the best.

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Alaya on February 28th, 2013 3:30 am

Yes very true I always decide to cut down the expenses on dining out but I can not resist myself without eating out when I saw my favorite restaurant. But as two months have been passed of 2013 my new year resolution is to make a budget every month and review it at the end of the month just to see what were the extra expenses. It makes me to control my expenses.

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Nicole Becker on February 28th, 2013 2:29 pm

I have a really hard time with putting a limit on shopping!! All of the rest I dont have a problem with at all. Thanks for the info though!!

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Lorna England on March 4th, 2013 8:20 am

Good job figuring out where you can cut! Altho it’s really hard to avoid getting gouged for gasoline! Bring back the horse and buggy!

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Michelle S on March 13th, 2013 11:57 am

It’s sounds like you did some careful analysis on your expenses. My credit union now has a tool that will track my expenses with my checking account.

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Susan Broughton on March 18th, 2013 9:02 am

I like your ideas. I guess you never notice all the little things that add up to one big money pit

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