Having trouble making ends meet? You’re not alone. According to Forbes, nearly half of Americans expect to live paycheck to paycheck this year – and the pandemic is not helping many families with stretching their buck farther. If you’re strapped for cash, it might be time to look at your budget and cut certain frivolous spending. Why? Well, it’s never too late to scale back and cut one – or more – of these 5 expenses. Check out our suggestions below!
Cable
You can save between 70 to 250 dollars a month by ditching cable for alternatives like Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, and Sling TV. Even with a couple of these subscriptions, you will save a hefty chunk of change on what you spend monthly on home entertainment. Just think about it this way – most of the time you most likely complain about nothing good being on, anyway, or you just leave HGTV or ESPN on in the background. Do you really want to hand over an exponential amount of money for a service like that?
Eating Out
Can we be honest here? Eating out is a guilty pleasure of many, but it certainly tends to add up over time. Instead of spending 20 to 40 dollars here and there, consider meal prepping instead. Sure, it might drive up your grocery bill slightly each week; however, you’ll be saving more cash in the long-run. If you love getting takeout to get a break from cooking, you don’t have to totally cut out restaurants completely. Instead, you can just scale it back to once a week and still support your favorite local spots.
Hair and Nail Care
Getting your nails and hair done can add up quickly, too. A pedicure once or twice a month at 30 to 50 bucks per visit isn’t any expense to mess around with! The good news is that you can do your nails at home the majority of the time – unless you have special issues. Better yet, there are plenty of great nail polishes and acrylic nail sets available for at-home manicures and pedicures now. Getting your hair done can rack up costs, as well. You can dye your hair at home and/or go longer in between cuts if you want to save hard-earned cash.
To-Go Coffee
There’s no need to spend four to seven bucks multiple times a week on coffee. It may seem like a small vice, but like all of these expenses, it adds up over the 52 weeks in a year. You can still make great-tasting coffee from home. Try using flavored coffee from the grocery store, or cinnamon on top of your coffee. You can also add whipped cream on top of your brew, or even buy a high-end coffee maker, which is an investment that could save you hundreds – dare we say, thousands? – of dollars over a period of years.
The team at The Westport Apartments in Norfolk, Virginia finds it important that our residents lead healthy, well-informed lives. By presenting new ideas in our resident blog, we make it easy to stay up-to-date with the latest information on health, wellness, finances, and more.