Saving Without Sacrificing Your Social Life
Saving Without Sacrificing Your Social Life today, we all want to have an active social life. Meeting up with friends for dinner and drinks can be one of life’s greatest pleasures. The downside is the costs involved. Dinners out and drinks at local bars can quickly mount up to serious cash.
You do not have to eat at a five-star restaurant to suddenly find you are out of pocket, over one hundred dollars. Unfortunately, with many young people, this habit tends to happen more than once a week. It is not uncommon today for a young professional to spend over one thousand dollars a month on dinners out and entertainment. This can put a serious dent into one’s budget and start to make life difficult eventually. In this article, we will look at some practical ways for you to cut costs while still maintaining and active social life.
Young professionals today dine out on average 2-3 times per week. The amounts to lots of money wasted on restaurant food and bar refreshments. You may want to try having your friends over for dinner and drinks rather than going out.
Suggest your friends come over to your place for dinner and drinks and offer to cook. You will be amazed how many will take you up on the offer and, how the social atmosphere is not compromised at all by being at home. Chances are you will also find preparing a dinner party for friends extremely rewarding and fulfilling.
One thing you will also find a shock is the money you will save. When you compare the cost of eating out with that of eating at home the savings is exponential. Take for example a small dinner in an Italian restaurant. The average price for a main dish is about twelve dollars.
Appetizers can range anywhere from 4 to 10 dollars. A good Italian dinner is accompanied by wine with Restaurants charging according to wine name and quality. However, for a bottle of wine, which serves between 3-4 glasses you are looking at 15-20 dollars. Quite easily you are spending forty-two dollars on a small dinner. This does not include desserts or tips.
For half of this amount, you could prepare a nice Italian meal for 4-6 people. When shopping for what you need be sure to compare prices. Look up high and down low on the supermarket shelves for the cheaper items. For the same twelve dollars you spent on one serving of Italian food, you could easily purchase enough ingredients to feed your friends with leftovers.
The same bottle of wine that the restaurant charged you twenty dollars for can be bought at most grocery stores for about 7-8. An appetizer of deep-fried mushrooms, costing over six dollars in a restaurant, can be prepared for less than half that amount and feed 4-6 people.
Next time your friends suggest a night out, suggest meeting at your place. They will be amazed at your generosity and cooking skills. Everyone will have a wonderful time and you will have the satisfaction of knowing you are saving a fortune.
Best Wishes, Coyalita
See Tomorrow: “Money Saving Tips: Getting Through the Day”
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