We all have them, habits, and they can be good or bad. In this case one of the habits I developed over the years wasn’t good for my finances! Believe it or not, there was a time when I wasn’t tracking the detail of my finances. At the time it seemed ok because I was able to cover all of my expenses and would have “some” money left over. But after a while I started wondering why I was still in the same place financially at the end of each year, after all I was working and would get the typical annual raises.

After enough was enough, I decided to start tracking every dollar that went out. To my surprise I was spending at least $200 a week eating out! That may have been somewhat ok if I didn’t have groceries at home, but I did. Every work day I would get breakfast, lunch and the afternoon pick me up snack— totaling at least $25. (Sometimes more depending on the restaurant choice) To put the amount I was spending in perspective (even though the time frame was different), in 2015 the average American spent about $181 per month on restaurant meals. (According to Statisticbrain.com)

In a recent article, another study revealed that men on average spend about $22 for a lunch meal and women on average spend about $14 for a lunch meal.  Now the $25 a day above for me only represented eating out for breakfast and lunch during the week, it didn’t include the occasional weeknight meal out or the typical weekend family eating excursion.  Those meals added about another $75-$100 per week. Seeing it in black and white was eye opening. Instead of growing my savings account, I was wasting money. At that moment I decided a change was definitely in order and I needed to reallocate those dollars.  After all, it’s all about being financially responsible, right?

Here is what I did to start adding $125 a week to my savings:

• Created a budget
• Planned my meals for the week
• Reduced the number of times I ate out

How much do you spend eating out per week? Do you know? Leave your reply in the comment section below.