What are your goals for 2019? If saving money is one of them, then it’s time to get realistic about your spending. How much of it could you cut back on to save more money each month? You’ll be surprised at the savings you could make.

Get your New Year off to a better start with these tips on cutting back on common expenses.

Food

If you were to go through your statements and see how much you spend on food each month, you might be in for a bit of a shock.

Between your weekly shop, top-up shopping and eating out, you could be spending much more than you need to. Some basic tips for saving money on your food spend include:

• Set a budget for your grocery shop and stick to it. Meal planning and writing lists helps, while online shopping can make it easier for you to stick to your budget.
• Take your own food into work - it costs much less to batch-make lunches than it does to go and buy sandwiches every day.
• Buy frozen fruit and vegetables to help save waste and to get more from your food spend.
• Use your slow cooker to cook meals in larger quantities and freeze portions to help you out when there’s ‘no food in the fridge’.

Your phone bill

Saving money on your mobile phone each month could help you to save money over the course of the year. You could:

• Switch to a cheaper tariff
• Get a refurbished phone instead of buying a new one - see the benefits on this site. Then you could switch to a sim-only contract and enjoy further savings.
• If you find that you go over your monthly allowances, consider an add-on that will save you money in the long run.
• Do a comparison search on phone insurance to help see if you could be saving money on a cheaper plan.

Your utilities

We tend to accept our utility bills as standard, but there are ways you can make some savings. Talk to your supplier about getting a reduction in your costs, or carry out a comparison to see if you could get cheaper rates elsewhere.

Haggle with service providers to help you get the best deal and enjoy watching the savings add up over the course of the year.

Going out

Cutting back on your social life is one of the hardest parts of saving money. However, if you want to get serious about saving, some things have to be sacrificed.

You can save money on going out by taking advantage of restaurant and night out deals, going sober on some nights and of course, staying in instead. You might have a bit of fear of missing out at the beginning, but that will soon pass.

To stop you running out of money, making cuts to your spending is essential - but it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. Scaling back on common expenses makes it easier to save, without really affecting your lifestyle.

Change your habits and focus on your money goals to help you become a savvy saver in 2019.