A few years ago I realised I was wasting lots of money every day. It is very easy to get in a routine that costs you too much money. There are lots of things that you spend money on every day without really thinking, add all these expenses up and they make a big difference. Make a few changes and you can save a lot of money.

• Morning Coffee - Having a coffee on the way to work is very nice but at most of the coffee shop chains you will be paying £3 for a coffee. You can miss it out and have one at work instead, maybe have one occasionally as a treat!
• Water - Do you drink bottled water? If so that is probably at least another pound. You should be able to get water from a cooler at work and tap water should be fine at home.
• Lunch - The biggest expense of the day. If you buy your lunch every day you will typically spend about £5 if you take sandwiches and fruit from home it shouldn’t cost you more than 80p. It should be healthier too as you know exactly what is going in to the sandwich you make.
• Petrol - Take a look at petrolprices.com to find the cheapest petrol in your area to make an instant saving. It may only be a few pence a litre but it will add up over a year. The biggest way to save though is to drive a bit slower. I commute about 30 miles each way to work, mainly on motorways. If I set off a few minutes earlier and drive a 10mph slower I save about £2 a day. Over a year that is too big a saving to miss out on.

Some of these ideas may seem small but work it out over a year and it it really adds up. Most people work at least 230 days in a year. The above savings save me £9 a day, multiply that by 230 and it is £2070. That is too much money to miss out on it. Obviously you don’t want to cut every daily expense out as there is no point saving money if you have a lousy time every day because of it. There are a lots of things though that you do as part of your routine and are really just a waste of money. One final bonus tip - if you buy a daily paper consider viewing it online instead. Nearly all the papers have a website that has all the same stories.