The New Year always brings about optimism and ideas for new challenges. My husband and I set our own pretty lofty financial goals for the year, one of which is to slash our food and entertainment spending. The catch – we don’t want to have any less fun! Less money out, but no less value for our family life.
The aim: to limit eating out, entertainment and spending on kid’s activities to $250 for our family of 4 for the month. For us, we tend not to eat lavish $200 restaurant meals every week, but it’s the milkshakes and coffees, the fish and chips, the quick ice creams, that were really adding up, AND didn’t always add any value to how much we enjoyed the day.
Now I know some will read that and think ‘wow – $250 a month? That is rich!’ while others will think we must have lived like paupers! For us it would be tough. We know that for our family, one of our biggest spending leaks is eating out, take away and entertainment, AND it was school holidays!
So, the result… after a month (of school holidays) our eating out, take away and entertainment spending came to $284. So we didn’t quite make it in under the target $250. But I am 100% convinced that it was HUGELY less than it would have been had I not have been consciously thinking about and monitoring what was flowing out. It did take a little organisation and pre planning but we didn’t miss out on any activity that we really wanted to do, nor did it have any effect on how much we enjoyed the month of school holiday fun. We were out or catching up with friends almost every day.
So here are my tips from our last month’s experiment, in case you want to attempt the same!
- Mindfulness…. Actually think about what you are spending when it comes to take away and entertainment. Maybe, like us, you didn’t really have any clue how much was leaking out of your wallet on some of those sneaky expenses like coffees, milkshakes and ice creams. Trust me, they add up. When we were actually a little more mindful about where the dollars were going and what we actually were gaining value from, there was a load to be saved.
- Have a financial goal – having a greater goal and a purpose gives you a reason to care about how much you spend. For us, we have a specific savings goal for the year, with the longer term goal of paying off the remainder of our mortgage and reaching a financial position where my husband can comfortably work part time within 2 to 3 year’s time. That’s a pretty motivating goal for us. What’s yours?
- Look for alternatives. Sometimes there is a cheaper or free alternative that will bring just as much joy. Quite often children are just as happy with the free or cheaper alternative and it’s us who thinks we need to spend large amounts of money for a family outing to make it a good one. We were looking at taking the kids to a (pretty impressive) Christmas lights show which would have cost close to $100. When we looked at it we decided, actually the kids (particularly at this young age) would most likely have just as much fun walking the streets near our home and looking at some of the amazing lights displays on people’s homes. Spending more money doesn’t mean a better time or more love.
- Bulk cook some meals so you always have a back-up in the freezer for when you don’t feel like cooking. More often when we eat out or buy take away, it’s because I can’t be bothered cooking! not because I actually want the experience of a pizza or that particular restaurant.
- Pick places to meet with friends where it is perfectly acceptable to bring your own food. We have been meeting friends at a beach kiosk or a park with a café. Our friends are able to grab their coffee or breakfast if they want, whilst we enjoy some muffins I have whipped up, or some chopped up fruit.
- Bring a treat for the kids. When we have met friends at a café, we have brought a little treat for the kids like a muffin or muesli slice, whilst we have a coffee or tea. They seem to be completely happy with that, rather than wanting $5 milkshakes and $7 cakes.
- Find a great source of info for free or cheap local entertainment. In Newcastle, I can’t recommend The Mummy Project enough for kids entertainment. Reena profiles every family event imaginable and most are free or low cost. I’d love to hear about other recommendations in different cities.
- Don’t feel you have to eat when you catch up with friends. Meeting for breakfast at 9.30 for us is madness. We eat breakfast at 6.30! I’m more than happy to watch my friend eat whilst I have a cup of tea, but I no longer feel ‘compelled’ to buy a meal as well.
- Invite friends to your place. Friends will usually bring some food to share and the home cooked meals that you make to share will be cheaper and often better! The kids will have more fun and you can relax because you are not in the confines of a café or restaurant!
- A little pre planning goes a long way. Never leave the house without snacks and water – particularly if you have kids! This is a stock standard rule for me anyway – not having food when a 4 year old is hungry can ruin a day! But I’ve been extra careful this past month to think ahead. My husband has been more conscious of planning his lunches for work to avoid buying food.
Is entertainment and eating out a huge spending leak for you? Or do you get every dollar’s worth of value from those breakfasts out with friends and milkshakes with the kids? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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