How to cut your expenses? (Part 1)

This is the question you usually start asking After you've started to feel insecure about your current financial situation. That's never a smart thing to do in the sense that you should Always start thinking about such things Before you have run out of money. But we all know that this seldom happens. That's often just a part of our nature. They say that we live and we learn. Well, we do live, but the learning bit, that always takes quite a lot of time.

Anyway, what are the small things you *could* (I'll get to the point if you actually *should* later) do to cut down on your expenses?

1. Coffee
Depending on your habits, you might be spending quite a lot of money for coffee. I for one like to start a morning by going to a cafeteria, order a coffee and sometimes a pie. I like to do that every morning before I start working. I could drink coffee at home as well, but...this doesn't sound good enough. I have a home office and I just feel I need to go out every once in a while. Sometimes I repeat that *task* later on in a day. I usually spend anywhere between €1.20 - €2.50 every morning, including weekends. Of course, during weekends my need for a morning coffee might be a results of a great hangover and take place not at 8am, but 1pm. But that's just unnecessary details.

One way or another, 1 or 2 euros at a time doesn't sound much, but if you start calculating, the total that I spend on coffee in the mornings is anywhere between €36 - €75 a month. This equals €432 - €900 a year. And that doesn't sound like that small number, does it?

Quit drinking coffee and win ... let's say €500 a year.

2. Petrol
Fortunately, I don't own a car. Well, not sure if that's really fortunate or just the result of my financial situation, but this means that I don't spend anything on petrol. I live in a good spot, close to everything I need, and don't even need to use a bus. However, I have couple of friends, who, even though they could walk to work and back, 20 minutes at a time, they use their cars instead. Petrol price is about €1.40, fuel consumption in town about 10l/100k. Driving to work and back, and probably also to lunch every once in a while probably takes about 1 liter which equals €1.40. Which again is €28/month (assuming 20 working days a month) or €336 a year.

Start walking more and win €336 a year.

3. Drinking
Now that's difficult. We all need to take the time off every once in a while and some alcohol is always good for that. I prefer to drink outside, in bars and pubs. And I like to do that often. I might not drink very much, but it's never a problem to go out 4 times a week if I have the resources available. I have rather cheap beer available here, something like €2 per pint. Let's say I drink 20 pints a week. That's €40 euros. If I didn't drink anything, I could save about €160 a month or €2240 a year.

Stop drinking and save €1440 a year.

Article Continued in Part II or How to cut your expenses.