Is dining out a basic? It can be a big relief, and entertaining; it can also be very costly, if you so choose – especially if you treat yourself to bar drinks along with. Or treat yourself to them at home as a constant. Any extra drink tends to be quite expensive in relation to what you'd pay for it at home... so how about drinking water with your meal and chucking the extra 2 bucks per person into your savings account?

Or do you pay regularly outrageous amounts for fancy coffees? – wow, there’s an expensive habit!; but lots of latte imbibers think of it has a normal, needed expense. (Maybe you’ll still choose to treat yourself to it, but it’s unproductive to lie to yourself about the nature of your rituals!) Treats are treats (food or drink – or whatever you don’t really need). If you’re a big self- (or other-) treater, you might be able to recoup a lot by cutting back on them… if you want to.

Speaking of drinks, are you a soda-holic? (That's a good way to waste money and become overweight and under-nutrified.) Why not compute how much you could save by having a jug of water nearby instead?

And speaking of water, have you bought into the idea that you need to buy pure bottled water to avoid carcinogens? Well, the truth that the water industry has been hiding is that "bottled" doesn't equate with "healthier"... Look on the labels:  most of it is from municipal tap water - ! (And the plastic bottles leach toxins into the water, and the bottles clog the landfills.) A cheap pitcher or faucet filter - and you fill up your own thermos or safe bottle/s - can save you hundreds of dollars a year (and probably be better for your health anyway).

When you shop, do you go for the premium-label stuff, or the (usually absolutely, or very nearly, the same) store brands? - which are probably 20-30% lower in cost. Do you shop in a fancy higher-priced supermarket or deli because of one or two specialty items you could really do without? Have you actually priced a list of food items between stores (factoring in the cost of gas to each one) - including a grocery outlet-type store, perhaps? Just wondering... because you might be able to save a healthy pot of money over the course of a year by changing a few buying habits.

Nutritional supplements are great; I put them in the list because they can be a rather major expense. I know that some wonderful supplements, expensive or not, are a godsend. And it can be difficult to separate out the truly good from the not-so-good versions… but internet research can usually bring to light information about good quality but less expensive options for almost anything you might be taking. It might be worth your while to investigate.