Money Saving Tips: Saving Without Sacrificing Your Social Life
By David W Richards
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 don’t have to eat at a five start restaurant to suddenly find you’re out of pocket, over 100 dollars. Unfortunately, with many young people, this habit tends to happen more than once a week. It isn’t uncommon today for a young professional to spend over 1000 dollars a month on dinners out and entertainment. This can put a serious dent into ones budget and start to make life difficult in the long run. 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 isn’t compromised at all by being
At home. Chances are you will also find preparing a dinner party for friends very 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 12 dollars. Appetizers can range anywhere from 4 to 10 dollars. Generally, a good Italian dinner is accompanied by wine with charging according to wine name and quality. However for a bottle of wine, that serves between 3-4 glasses you’re looking at 15-20 dollars. Quite easily you’re spending 42 dollars on a relatively small dinner. This does not include desserts or tips.

For roughly 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 12 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 20 dollars for can be bought at most grocery stores for about 7-8. An appetizer of deep fried mushrooms, costing over 6 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 great time and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re saving a fortune.

Grasp his other tips at Health News Also check His Other websites and more.