1. Never Paying Off Your Credit Card
If you are only paying the minimum on your credit card, you are primarily paying the interest, and you will likely continue to pay on the card for years instead of months. One great way to find out how much this habit is costing you is to look at your bill. Each monthly statement has a box that tells you how much you paid in interest this month, how long it will take you to pay off the card by paying the minimum and the amount that you need to pay to pay it off in three years. The interest payments can be huge, and if you are only paying the minimum amount you will not make any real progress on your debt.
2. Eating Out
When you are single, it may not seem like that big of deal to eat out a couple of nights a week. Without the extra cost of children, it may be nearly as inexpensive as cooking at home. Of course this depends on where you eat out and what you cook at home. If you are eating out at five star restaurants, you can definitely cook for less.
But eating out becomes a habit that can be harder to break once you are married and have kids. If you estimate that average family of four would spend about $25.00 eating out at a fast food restaurant, and that you can make a similar meal for a bit under $10.00 at home, you can see a savings of $15.00 a meal. If you cut out the eating out twice a week, you can save $1560 a year. The savings can be even more if you are eating at more expensive restaurants. Menu planning and make ahead meals can help you if you feel the time crunch around dinnertime. 3. Smoking
Smoking can be expensive in a lot of different ways. First there is the cost of the cigarettes. The average cost is around $5.00 a pack. If you smoke one pack every two days, you will spend about $912.50 a year. If you smoke a pack a day, you will spend $1825.00 a year. However, the added costs may come later in life as you deal with serious health issues from the side effects of smoking. The pack a day habit will cost you $150.00 a month, which you could spend on other things.
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