You Can Have a Night on the Town and Come Home With Money When You're Done

I have always been scared to really start working on my finances and budgeting because I have always thought that it meant sacrificing the fun things in life. Let’s face it, fun costs money. If you go out to the movies, you easily can spend $30 just to get in the door and have a little popcorn to enjoy during the film. Going out to the bars can be a bank breaker if you decide to go to a fancy area of town instead of slumming it at the sketchy bar down the street from the local pawn shop. So what is a girl to do when she just wants to have a little fun?

I have found a couple of ways to get around this problem over the last few months since graduation … and I want to share them with you in the hopes that you too can learn how to have a social life and still have money in the bank when you wake up the next morning.

Set a budget for the night (this is the method that I use most often). Setting up a budget for the night depends mainly on where you are going to go and what you are going to do. So the first step is to decide where you want to go and think about how much you think you would need to spend there in order to have a good time (because no one wants to be the Debbie downer of the group). For example, if I am in a college town I know that I can take $40 with me and have a great night. But if I wanted to go downtown, I would take at least $80 with me. Once you have an idea of how much you think you would like to spend, go to the ATM and take the money out of the bank. Put the cash in your purse/wallet and (this is the most important part of this) leave your ATM card(s) and credit card(s) at home. That way you will not be able to take out any more money once you have spent all your cash. (This system has probably saved me hundreds over the years … I am one of those people who starts drinking and then takes out more money to buy drinks for other people and then I end up spending 3 times what I wanted to.)

Open a tab with someone else. Yes, the bill might be a large one at the end of the night, but at least you won’t have to pay for it all by yourself. It also helps towards the end of the night when people start buying drinks for other people. You actually stop to think about how your “tab buddy” will react to you adding another $30 worth of drinks onto the bill.

If the drink you want is crazy expensive, drink something else. Beverages made with top shelf liquor sure do taste great, but choosing something a little less expensive taste just as good. Don’t worry that people are going to judge you based on your liquor choice. If you do get some flack, tell them that if they are so concerned about it then they can feel free to pick up the tab for you. That usually gets them to be quiet pretty fast. Besides, you should have chill friends anyway.

Those are my little bitty ways to save money when I hit the town with my girlfriends. But I am always open to ideas or criticism of my methods. What do you think? What are your ideas for saving money when you go out?