Save Money By Quitting These 3 Bad Habits

When planning a budget to save money, one natural starting point is to look at your regular spending and where you can save money. It’s often the case that something that doesn’t cost a lot of money in isolation can, in fact, mount up over a longer period of time.

Making small changes in this respect can deliver bigger financial rewards in the long term and free up a little more disposable income than you had before. This especially applies to treats and less healthy habits.

And while it’s quite easy to make arguments justifying your gym membership or personal trainer, when we consider the aspect of our lives that have a less positive impact, we can quickly make the case for changing our behaviours.

In this article, we will discuss changing or quitting long-standing habits to save you money and improve your health.

Alcohol

Many people love nothing more than heading out to a local pub, bar or nightclub to enjoy a few drinks with friends. But this can also be a pricy experience, especially when you factor in taxis, entry fees and the occasional less-than-healthy snack on the way home.

But with supermarkets now offering a bigger range of alcohol products than ever before, we might consider swapping a night on the tiles for something a little more low-budget. If the weather’s nice, consider suggesting a garden party instead of a night out – or a house party if it’s raining!

You could ask your guests to bring along their own drinks, although you could also consider in chipping in to make a single big order. A growing number of bars and breweries are now offering home delivery, so you don’t even have to miss out on your favourite drinks.

Of course you’ll save even more money if you cut out the alcohol completely. While this might be a big lifestyle change for some it’ll save you a lot of money and drastically improve your health.

Cigarettes

For many people, cigarette smoking is the habit of a lifetime. Many seek to quit as part of their new year’s resolution, with a desire to improve their health, while for others it’s the cost of the product that’s the biggest issue.

New products are emerging in the industry, including the hugely popular e-cigarette. Following the UK’s smoking ban, introduced in 2007, more and more Brits have turned to e-cigs or ‘vapes’.

Whilst smoking isn’t an easy habit to quit, there is help available. Here are some of the methods you can use to gain support in quitting smoking:

Make sure to get the support of your close friends and family when attempting to quit smoking. They can often be a great source of motivation and act as a distraction when you get a craving too.

Takeaways

Cigarettes and alcohol are perhaps the UK population’s two biggest guilty pleasures, although fast food many also fit into that category. And you can save money here too by recreating your favourite dishes from home.

Instead of that takeaway pizza, consider making your own at home. There are even recipes online for creating your own KFC and McDonalds meals without heading out to the drive-thru, so don’t be afraid to explore the internet for inspiration!

To help you quit your love of takeaways make sure to delete any takeaway ordering apps, unsubscribe from newsletters that encourage you to order food and treat yourself to a home cooked cheat meal on a regular basis.

To help me reduce the number of takeaways I eat I regularly treat myself to a recipe box, you can see my top pick of these below (along with the sign up offer each of them have):