Be the boss, cut the costs - 5 Steps to Frugality

1/ Food

Don't just buy food on impulse, try to plan what you will eat over the week and don't stray from the plan (unless it's free), not only will it do your bank account good but it will also do wonders for your waistline.

Making your lunch for work will be a rewarding experience, no longer will you fork out on often disappointing food, you'll be able to decide what you want and it'll work out cheaper.

I currently eat a banana for breakfast, two small sandwiches and a pot of cottage cheese at work and then have a cheap but filling main meal for dinner. Think carefully about meals that are easy to prepare, cheap and tasty - create about 10 or so meals and then make sure you buy the products when you do your "main shop"

2/ Alcohol

Alcohol is pricey, as is everything related to it - hangovers, drunken food, going out. If your a sociable person you might find it hard to get rid of but giving up is an essential key to saving money. There's plenty of things you can do in your spare time - make an effort to do the things you always wanted to do in this time. There's a good chance there's a free or very cheap option.

3/ Stop buying silly gifts

Perhaps the gifts weren't so silly but a lot of people spend money buying people things, if they are true friends, they should understand your predicament, if they don't then I guess it's only a case of cupboard love and they aren't really necessary! If it's a partner you spend money on, try to do something creative, they'll be surprised and it might just work out more impressive than opting for the easy option.

4/ Traditional entertainment

Television comes cheaply but if you opt to have a wide variety of channels available to you, you'll likely be paying for that option, see what channels you pay for and work out what you really need. Think twice about buying new books, perhaps it's time to catch up on some works by old authors, many old books are in the public domain and can therefore be read online for free, if you prefer a hard copy then print it off at work.

5/ Don't just sign anything

This might look straight forward but it's not as difficult as it seems, if you've registered web domains or pay for something over the internet, it's likely you are not aware that something renews automatically when you don't want it to. Make a paper copy of the dates of these renewals and check a month or so before the end that it doesn't renew itself. Most sites (godaddy) for instance, don't give straight-forward information on how to change the default, a quick google though should usually give you the information on how to switch it off.