’ve had a few people ask for more budgeting tips since I published this post last week. I’m a self confessed tight ass and a huge saver which is always fascinating to spenders (listen to last week’s Straight and Curly where we discuss the difference!) so I thought I’d put together a list of smaller, digestible ways to save money.
Young woman drinking coffee in a paper cup
These are things you can do every day so they’re not super daunting or life changing. Even if you cut down your daily spending by $5 per day that’s $1825 over the course of a year. Here are a few things you can do to save money this week…
1. Skip takeaways
Occasional takeaways are totally fine but if you find yourself having them several times a week, it’s really going to start adding up. It’s easy to slip into bad habits of grabbing pad thai on the way home from work but just for this week, make it a rule to not buy takeaway food and eat at home for every meal.
2. Refrain from buying snacks and drinks on the go
This one is a killer. By the time you’ve bought a coffee and a muffin for morning tea, a fancy snack bar and a juice for afternoon tea and a protein drink/bar at the gym you’ve probably set yourself back about $20. That’s a huge amount of money for snacks. Be prepared and pack what food you need for the day. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you won’t need a snack – everyone needs snacks. Snacks rule so make sure you have some cost effective ones on hand to stop yourself from buying a $4 bag of nuts from the vending machine every afternoon.
3. Market shop
Do a trip once a week to your local markets and stock up on meat, fruit and veggies. It’s so much cheaper than supermarkets. Every single time I market shop, I’m shocked at how cheap it is. I’ll buy $10 worth of veggies to roast and it makes about eight serves of roast veg that Mr Smaggle and I heat up for our lunches. It’s the best.
4. Meal plan
Lack of planning is one of the biggest causes of money wastage. It’s those nights when you can’t be bothered thinking of what to cook that you drop $50 on takeaway tacos at the fancy Mexican joint near your work. This is where meal planning can help you. It doesn’t have to take long – just jot down a few ideas at the beginning of the week and try to stick to it. I have a running list of favourite healthy meals stuck to our fridge for inspiration. It’s great for when you’re having a giant brain fart and can’t remember how dinner happens.
5. Make ahead your meals
I usually make a big meal on the weekends like roast veggies with brown rice or vegetable mince with quinoa and pack it into the containers for the week. Mr Smaggle and I each get a few lunches or dinners out of it and it takes the pressure of for a few meals. That’s the mistake a lot of people make with meal planning is that they think they have to make every meal ahead – not true my friends! Just do what you can. It all makes a difference.
This week on Straight and Curly, Kelly and I are answering reader questions about budgeting. We have the most awesome Facebook group in the world (we have over 400 members now which is just insane!) and we discuss our life hacks every week. You have to join it’s beyond awesome.
Here’s this week’s episode – you know how to listen to it!
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Tell me… what little things do you do to save money each week? What do you scrimp on?
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7 Comments
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Guilty of all of the above bad habits. I am really shit at meal prepping enough food for the whole week. Usually I can get through a few days and then it all goes downhill from there because I run out of meals to take to work by Wednesday. But as I write this it’s 10pm and I am cooking work lunches for the next few days. Would love to get through a whole week without take away of any sort. Although I am letting myself have a take away coffee one day of the week as a treat so that I don’t go all Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
Would you be able to do a blog post with some of your latest work lunch recipes? I am keen to hear more about that vegetable mince…
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Oh that’s a great idea – I haven’t done food in a while. Might do some meal prep stuff!
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I am a frugal, budgeting ninja! Because I’m a SAHM I really love not being wasteful with our money, I feel like it’s the one way I can contribute financially without actually having a paid job.
The biggest change I made this year was to stop buying books willy-nilly & go back to loving the library or buying second hand. Books, especially cookbooks, are my one indulgence but I really only ever read them once so why did I need shelves & shelves of read books? My library is awesome so every week or two I check out piles of books & I feel super happy that I have heaps of good stuff to read but my bank balance is still happy too.-
Oh books are so hard to resist! Ive bought about 20 crochet books in the past year. Must stop doing that! 🙂
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I think the market shopping and meal plan really have to go hand in hand, because market vegies are actually fresh, not held in cold storage like the supermarket so they go bad much quicker. Which is a good thing because that’s what vegies are supposed to do 🙂 When I had a fixed address and was much more organised, I’d often market shop then never pack anything away in the fridge without prepping it first. Cutting vegies up into stir fry size takes minutes then you can chuck them in meal sized bags in the freezer.
My latest money saver, don’t judge me, is buying the $1 takeaway coffees from 7-11. It’s not the greatest coffee in the world but I’ve paid a lot more for worse.
Another thing, that I’ve just discovered, if you go out for brunch, check the display cases at the cafe. Often they have smaller foods that are not on the menu. One cafe I go to has these small corn fritter burgers, around $5 which beats the heck out of getting a $15-20 breakfast when you aren’t really that hungry.
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Oh yes I love that! I’m a real order off the kids menu kind of person. I dream of having an amazing big kitchen and fridge where I can actually prep a lot of stuff. My current kitchen is a hallway! For real.
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Would love to hear more about your food prep and recipes Carly!
