No offense. I'm lazy too. We all are. This is the 21st century, we can't help it! Life is just too easy. And that's okay. I love microwaves, and cell phones, and indoor plumbing. There are a lot of wonderful things here in this world to make our lives easier. What a blessing it is to live in these times of physical ease!
So when is a blessing not a blessing? When you don't recognize it. When you overuse it. When you can't afford it.
If you are looking for ways to save money, ask yourself first What makes my life easy? What were people able to happily live without just ten or fifteen years ago? This is where you will likely find the lazy habits that are costing you money.
Your cooking habits can be one place where you may be wasting hundreds of dollars a month. Most of us fall into the trap of wanting food fast. Whether that means actually fast food, or just prepackaged food from the store, it's still a budget killer. If I were independently wealthy, I would either hire a personal chef or go out to eat every day. But I'm not, and you probably aren't either. So here in reality, we have to make more practical decision about what to eat.
So how might dinner happen at your house?
Not so good option:
No one feels like cooking, so you decide to take the family to Applebee's, $70
Getting warmer:
You decide to save money, and just go to McDonald's (at least the kids are getting a little exercise on that germ infested pit of a playground, right?) $30.
Good:
Buy a frozen lasagna and a bag of salad at Walmart, $12
Better:
Make spaghetti dinner using actual ingredients, $8
Best:
Pull out a homemade freezer meal made from ingredients bought months ago, in bulk, and on sale, $4.
Now when I say good, better, and best, I'm only speaking monetarily. There is no moral difference between a homemade freezer meal and a dinner at Applebee's. Unless you stole your dinner from a one-legged orphan, you can pretty much eat whatever you want and feel good about it. What we are talking about here is saving money.
If you want to save money, stop being lazy and paying other people to cook for you. Plan ahead. Buy real ingredients at good prices. Cook your own food.
Another place to save money by getting off your tush is through making little changes to your habits at home.
Do you leave lights on in your house all day long? If you got up right now and walked through your house and turned off all the lights that are on in rooms that aren't being used, how many would you find? Did you get up just now and check or are you still sitting here reading? It only takes a minute to check. Did you do it? Not yet? Still here? Burning through light bulbs and electricity, is just like burning money. You can do it if you want, but if you then you shouldn't complain when you don't have enough money left for the things you want or need.
Hang your clothes out to dry in the summer time. It only takes a few minutes, and saves a lot of money and wear and tear on your clothes too. My dryer just broke, so out of necessity I just discovered that I can hang my clothes up indoors on the shower curtain rod, and they will dry over night!
Are you paying someone to wash your car? Mow your lawn? Clean out your gutters? You can pay for these things if you want. Certainly the people you hire will appreciate it. But if you are serious about saving money, ask yourself if you are paying people to do thing for you that you could be easily doing for yourself.
People drive long distances to go to a gym that they pay big money to belong to. Could you just walk to the gym and back home everyday, and save yourself gas money and a membership fee? Maybe. Maybe not.
Not every solution works for every family. But if your wallet is feeling pinched, take a look at your habits and see where a little extra effort on your part can make a big difference to your budget.
Marcia
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