But if you take a look at what you're spending on you'll probably be surprised about how much you could save just by making some slight changes...
Cancel your gym membership
When was the last time you went to the gym? It could easily be costing you £50 a month - possibly more - which is £600 a year. For regular gym-goers this could be money well spent but if you rarely use the facilities what's the point? Instead you could take the dog for an extra walk, jog around the park or maybe ask for a Wii Fit for your birthday and exercise in your own living room.
Saving: £600 a year.
Take a packed lunch each day
If you buy lunch when you're at work you could easily be spending £20 a week which, allowing for holidays, would cost you around £920 a year. But you could slash this to about £5 a week if you took in a sandwich or salad you made at home.
Saving: £690 a year.
Forego the morning cappuccino
With coffee shops everywhere you look buying a cappuccino on the way to the office is an easy habit to slip into. But at around £2.50 a time it can add up to an expensive habit. So before you call into Starbucks or Café Nero tomorrow think about how much you could save by having your caffeine hit before you leave home in the morning.
Saving: £575 a year.
Stop buying a daily paper
For many people a weekend paper is an institution but what about your weekday read? Depending which paper you buy, you could be spending up to £1 a day - £260 a year. Rather than spend this money, why not read the news online - it's free, you can read the same articles that appear in your favourite daily paper as well as being able to read about events as they unfold during the day.
Saving: £260 a year.
Cancel a magazine subscription
Ask yourself if you really read the magazine that gets delivered every month. If you only flick through it every now and then, cancel that subscription and only buy the magazine the few times a year when you're going to read it. A 12-month subscription to Empire magazine would cost £39 a year through the magazine's website but individual copies only costs £3.90 each time. So buying just four editions a year would save you £23.40 annually.
Cycle to work...
Rather than paying to get to work by public transport, cycle instead. A one-month travel card for zones one and two in London costs £99.10 - £1,189.20 a year, but if you've got a bike you can get there and back for nothing. What's more if your employer is registered for the Government's Cycle to Work scheme you won't even have to pay for your bike.
Saving: £1,189 a year.
... Or car share
You may live too far from work for cycling to be an option. If this is the case see if a colleague lives near you so you can car share instead. This will immediately halve your petrol costs and may also cut your motor insurance premiums too as you'll be driving fewer miles each year. Research from the Family Spending Survey found that the average weekly fuel bill was £17.20 a week - £894.40 a year.
Saving: £447 a year.
Adjust your driving style
According to the Environmental Transport Association, it can cost up to 25% more fuel to drive at 70mph than 50mph and harsh acceleration can use 30% more fuel. So someone spending £30 a week on fuel, could save around £9 - £468 a year - just by cutting their speed and adjusting their driving style. Keep an eye on your tyre pressure - every 6psi the tyre is under-inflated will increase fuel consumption by 1%.
Saving: £468 a year.
Disclaimer: Please note that any rates or deals mentioned in this article were available at the time of writing.
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