Mike: Bleeding Your Wallet: A Little Adds Up To Be A Lot

Editor's note: We challenged all of our finalists to "Write a financial related post"

‪Our generation is constantly on the move.  And this forces us to make some decisions that bleed our wallet.  Coffee in the morning, lunch during our break, going out for dinner instead of cooking at home.  All of these things add up.  Lots of money can be saved by an individual by just purchasing these items at the store.‬

For those who don’t know the term, bleeding your wallet means dwindling your finances through small purchases.  For example, many people make a daily trip to QuikTrip each morning to buy a coffee and a donut before they start their day.  This purchase is around $2.00, which isn’t going to break any ones budget.  But if you do that everyday for a whole year, $2.00 turns into $520.  Now that’s a lot of money.‬

Instead of driving to that QuikTrip each morning, save yourself sometime and eat at home.  Not only do you save yourself some time to get ready, but you save your wallet as well.  You could buy a can of coffee for $7.00 that would last probably 2 weeks and give you multiple cups of coffee.  You could buy a bag of donuts at the store for around $3.00 that would last probably around a week.  You could go from spending $20.00 every 2 weeks to $13.00.  That’s a difference of $182 yearly!‬‬

Another usual spending habit is going out for lunch during the work week.  As a server, I would say the usual lunch tab would be around $15.  Now, if one were to go out every day during the work week, that would be $75 per week or $3,900 per year.  Instead of taking the easy way out, make your lunch the night before.  Pretend it’s like your back in school.  Make a turkey sandwich, a bag of chips, and a Little Debbie.  This will dramatically cut your spending.  This doesn’t only save you money, but you can get exactly what you want and even make your lunch as healthy as you’d like it to be.‬

Everyone enjoys a good night out on the town.  But many in my generation don’t cook and prefer to go out.  Instead of going out, look up some recipes and try your hand at cooking a delicious meal.  Saving money is great for your budget but eating food that you personally cooked is very rewarding.  Plus, you and your significant other can work together to build a wonderful meal.  You’ll enjoy a great meal and have leftovers for your lunch the next day!‬‬

Sure all of these things take some extra effort from you; extra planning for the store, remembering to make your lunch, etc.  But what would you do for an extra couple hundred dollars?‬

Mike

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