Many of us love going out, and would probably love to try a new restaurant every night, ordering everything off the menu if we could. We all love trying the new bar in town and exploring the downtown dives. But, going out can get super expensive, and a lot of your money gets spent where it shouldn’t. There are a lot of factors that go into reckless spending, but luckily there are some easy ways to fix it.

  1. Don’t always take a cab. When you overdrink, sometimes that causes you to overspend your money, too. Try to plan your evening ride at night before you go out so you don’t always have to pay the high rates. Try and make plans that you can walk to or see if people want to share rides.
  2. In most of the big cities you can find specials on a weekly basis. There are plentiful numbers of bars and restaurants where you can find awesome happy hours that include food and drinks. Seek them out and you likely will be able to find a deal any night of the week and will spend much less than you would normally.
  3. Look at the Yelp single-dollar-sign section for gems that are cheap and have delicious food. You can find new unique places to check out with your friends and let’s be real everyone wants to save money and take pressure off their wallets.
  4. “Pregame” before you go out. A nice at-home cocktail hour before you go out to the bars is a great option because it will be a fraction of the costs. For the price of 2 $12 cocktails at a bar, you could have a bottle of wine, block of cheese, bunch of grapes and a box of crackers.
  5. Try hosting dinner at home. If you spend time cooking at home and trying new recipes, you can have friends over once a week rather than going out. You can learn to make the dishes from your favorite restaurants and have those at home instead of spending your money out.