When it comes to wondering why your budget is constantly out of control, I’d suggest that you have a good hard look at your habits. It’s the little things that we do often that we tend to overlook when it comes to counting costs. And when it comes to putting money aside, a change of habits could make all the difference in the balance of your savings account. If you’re not sure what I mean, let me give you some suggestions…

Do you buy a daily coffee from your local/favourite barista? If you do, this can really add up to a significant amount.  At $4 per day this is $20 per working week which accounts for $1,040 per year. You’ve all heard people say – “it’s just one cup of coffee a day” when they’re wanting you to spend money on something else. Imagine what you could do with that money in your savings. If you buy two coffees a day, then cut back to one and bank the leftover money.

One of the biggest expenses these days can be buying bottled water. This is ludicrous when you consider that most us have access to clean running water for free. If you pay for a bottle of water every day – that’s $4 per day which adds up to $20 per working week. You could potentially save $1,040 per year if you buy a reusable water bottle. Don’t argue – just do it!

How many services like Netflix, Stan, Apple Music or Spotify are you using? Whilst $10 per month is not a lot of money it adds up to $120 a year. Still sounds reasonable? If you have more than one service doing the same thing, you need to prioritise which is more important and just have one. Many times, it’s the little amounts that add up and blow the budget.

How often do you have breakfast in a café? If you say ‘everyday’ then I am really going to slap you. At an average cost of $10 a day to have somebody else make your toast you’re spending $50 per working week. That’s expensive cereal and toast! If you got up ten minutes earlier and had something at home, you could potentially put $2,600 per year into your savings account.

Who doesn’t love eating out at restaurants! It’s certainly lovely to have somebody else cook a meal for you. If you spend just $50 per week on this, you’ll spend $2,600 per year. Perhaps cutting back to once a fortnight will help you to put $1300 into your savings account.

Going out for drinks is another habit to look at, when you want to save some money. If you go out once or twice each week and have something to eat whilst you’re drinking you could be spending $100 per week (dinner, alcohol and more alcohol). Over a year that adds up to $5,200 per year. If you cap your drinking money to just $50 per week (and stick to that) you could be putting away around $2600 per year.

I heard somebody call the taxi that you catch home after going out for drinks the Beer-Scooter. Very funny name but not a very funny habit. At $35 per week this could cost you $1,820 per year. Perhaps you could either take turns with your drinking buddies to play taxi; catch public transport or walk.

The first step in assessing the value of these daily habits is to do a time diary for a week. Write down how you spend each hour or half hour of every day. Look at the activities and ask yourself how much you spent on each activity. The ones that appear in your time -diary every day are probably a habit.

Once you know what your habits are and how much they cost, you can then make an adjustment in your budget.

It’s one of the first steps in being able to build up your savings account.

©   Carmel McCartin – Budget Bitch

And don’t forget – (The views expressed in this blog are the personal opinions of the author. Don’t rely on them to make financial decisions; you must make up your own mind. If you don’t like the content – then either stop reading or send me an email)