Stay in more often
Entertainment is key to enjoying life, but one of the best ways to cut the cost, and free up some money for your cash reserve is to simply stay home more often. Finding ways to entertain yourself at home is not nearly as difficult as one may think, and the savings of a night in versus a night out are astronomical.
Let's look at some examples:
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If you were to stay in and find a movie on television that you want to watch, even if you were to buy it on demand, and pay $5 for it, rather than going out to the movies, you would save on average $25. This is because you are saving $10-$15 in the cost of a movie ticket. You are saving close to the same in the cost of concessions, instead you can snack on what you have at home, and you can have more people, which means you save even more.
Of course, there are advantages of going to a movie in the theater, like getting to see it sooner, with the big screen, the surround sound, etc. So, let's say that you see movies at the theater, but you choose to stay home and entertain yourself other ways.
If you were to go out with friends for the evening you might spend close to $50 for a couple. This might include dinner, and some sort of activity. Let's say instead of going out with your friends, you have them over instead. You make dinner, ask them to bring dessert. For the same $50 you could have an incredible dinner of steaks, shrimp, etc. or, since your goal is to save, have a great tasting, average cost meal. The cost of a meal for four can be really minimal. Let's say you have a pasta dish with chicken, garlic bread, and a green salad. Your cost is likely to be close to $10 total. Then you can spend the evening playing card games, board games, talking, playing video games, watching a movie, or whatever else sounds fun. This means the cost of your evening was 20% the cost of an evening out, and you still get to see your friends, visit with them, and have tons of fun.
If you were to replace two nights out a month with staying in, you could save yourself anywhere from $50 to $100, depending on what activities you replace. This goes a long way to quickly building up a cash reserve.
Most everyone has ways to entertain themselves and others at their home, and may not use them to their full advantage. Start bowling or Mario Kart tournaments on your Wii, and have them once a week. Just ask everyone that comes to bring a snack or dessert of some kind. Get into a board game like Settlers of Catan, Tickets to Ride, etc. and play biweekly, again asking others to bring snacks, etc.
The more you stay in and find ways to have fun at home, the more you will save, and the more you can put in your cash reserve.
