I hate it when I see people waste food. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always been that way. Another pet peeve of mine is carelessly wasting money on things that can be easily prevented. And while I am very diligent about not wasting food, I still have a lot of work to do when it gets down to plugging all of my money leaks. With that in mind, I recently did a quick audit to see where some of my biggest leaks currently reside and then evaluated my odds of repairing them.
1. Buying lunch at work
My (lame) excuse: Hey! Every once in awhile I get hungry at work. Besides, who has time to make their own lunch?
Short term impact: A grilled cheese sandwich here, a bag of chips and a cookie there – add it all up and I’m currently averaging about $20 per week at my workplace cafeteria.
Long term impact: $1000 annually, assuming my appetite doesn’t get bigger between now and then.
The obvious solution: Pack my own lunch the night before.
Odds of this actually happening: 50/50
2. Over-paying for our satellite television service
My (lame) excuse: Although I watch the same 25 channels 99.5376% of the time, one day I may want to watch something on one of the other 1746 channels I pay for.
Short term impact: I pay about $40 per month extra for the additional satellite channels I watch 0.4624% of time.
Long term impact: $442 annually.
The obvious solution: Dump the extra channels and resign myself to the fact that I will miss a show I really really really want to watch 0.4624% of time.
Odds of this actually happening: Frankly, I have a better shot of being propositioned by Jennifer Aniston. This is yet more proof that people make irrational decisions about money all the time.
3. Paying almost all of our bills by snail mail instead of the Internet
My (lame) excuse: As the household CFO, the Honeybee pays the bills — and up until recently, she still did it the old-fashioned way because she “doesn’t trust computers.”
Short term impact: On average she wrote about 10 checks per month for bills that she could pay online or automatically.
Long term impact: About $70 annually, assuming 60 cents per bill.
The obvious solution: Thankfully, I finally convinced the Honeybee to start “trusting computers.”
Odds of this actually happening: It’s done – despite the long odds I was initially facing.
4. Paying to use the express lane when it’s not really necessary
My (lame) excuse: Even though I’m on the road by 4 a.m., it’s insurance against getting stuck in an unexpected traffic jam down the road.
Short term impact: I “chicken out” and take the express lane in the wee hours of the morning an average of twice per week.
Long term impact: $1000 annually, assuming the toll road rates don’t go up – which they will.
The obvious solution: Look fear in the eye and bypass the express lanes.
Odds of this actually happening: A near certainty. After evaluating the long-term impact, I’m already feeling braver. Wait … I changed my mind. I think.
5. My insatiable addiction to iTunes
My (lame) excuse: Why listen to the same 400 songs played on some lame radio station – half of which I don’t like – when I can listen to my own personal music library?
Short term impact: Last month I spent almost $100 – although that’s not typical.
Long term impact: I expect to spend about $250 annually, give or take $100.
The obvious solution: Limit the monthly growth of my iTunes collection by 80%.
Odds of this actually happening: One chance in three.
6. Not replacing the weather stripping
My (lame) excuse: Look, I live in Los Angeles – not Oslo. How much energy can I really be wasting?
Short term impact: I’m not sure, but the US Department of Energy says weatherstripping pays for itself within one year.
Long term impact: I’m guessing less than $40.
The obvious solution: Get off my butt and weatherstrip my external doors.
Odds of this actually happening: 99%. Isn’t it ironic that the money leak with the lowest financial impact is the one most likely to be fixed?
As you can see, if I’m successful in plugging all of these money leaks I can conceivably end up saving $2802 per year – or more! Unfortunately, the odds are I’ll remain penny foolish, allowing most of these leaks to continue draining the hard-earned money from my wallet.
Well … unless Jennifer Aniston gives me a call.
***
(This is an updated version of an article that was originally published on 17 April 2017.)
Photo Credit: jronaldlee
Perhaps you could remind the Honeybee that once she lets go of the check, most of the processing of the payment is done by the computers she doesn’t trust so it’s not as if she’s bypassing them in any meaningful way.
Just a few ideas.
1) Buy some especially cool things to pack in your lunch once and a while as incentive. (Like a special mustard if that’s your thing.)
2) Would HULU or fancast work for the oddball programs?
3) I’m with your wife on this one, but buy my stamps discounted at Henry Gitner thus saving 90% on postage.
4) No ideas. Don’t have them around here.
5) Ask for iTunes gift cards for Christmas or look for free downloads at Wisebread Deals.
6) Good for you. I’m sitting at the computer right now as the cold air puffs around my bare feet. Gotta write myself a note on that one.
Bill Pay is the greatest timesaver ever. Once your wife tries it once, she will kick herself for years of licking stamps and writing checks.
I swithed to Bill Pay when I saw the t.v. commercial where the lady turns on her bath water, to get it ready for a bath, goes to her laptop, pays her bills, then goes back to the bathtub and turns off the water! Could monthly bill paying be that fast? I tried it; it was! Meanwhile, you can always buy envelopes from the $1 store – my checks are free – and she could pay double the amount, then pay every other month or so and the bills would show a credit. (Occasionally I’ll get a neighbor’s mail, so that’s another reason why I like bill pay). I’m in CA too and have never done weather stripping. I rarely need to use my heater, and living close to the ocean, don’t need a/c.
switched (I’m really a good speller!)
The TV one is the one that doesn’t make sense me…CANCEL the extra channels OR at least threaten to and see what they offer you
First off, we’re on the same page with the online bill paying. I hope you can influence things to change over there. I was hesitant to change 3 years ago, and resisted…until I was shown the light, and now I’ll write checks for occasional reasons but not for recurring or standard bills.
As far as the $10 in food – Len, that seems extremely inexpensive to me. Are you eating next to nothing? If that’s all you’re spending, which is $2 per day, you’re hardly overspending.
So go ahead and pat yourself on the back for doing great with spending so little on lunch each day! You’re lucky to have a corporate cafeteria with such inexpensive food. Why waste your own time when you can spend so little and buy it? As long it’s not more unhealthy, of course…
Oh that eating out thing for lunch is starting to get me now.
I am seeing what everyone means!!! 🙂
My only defense is a really good offense, and by offense I mean making killer lunches I cannot refuse to eat 🙂
I always pay everything online, seeing as I have no real fixed address… but I can see your points 🙂 Surprisingly, I too have run out of cheques. Darn these people who won’t take cards!
Re:
1) Will keep the mustard thing in mind.
3) OOPS I meant paying 90% on postage (thus saving 10%). We actually do direct pay for some things, but the Sweetie set those up.
I go through this exercise now and then and fall prey to the “I deserve it” syndrome. Today, I bought an overpriced cafe mocha because I had a crazy day, a crap lunch and I was tired. It was 3 bucks. I don’t do it every day. But I “justified it to myself”. I think in order to not have this guilt it’s important to take inventory of your entire financial situation – are you out of debt, saving for retirement, putting away for the kid’s college? Then buy the mocha!
These were good leaks you pointed out though; gives me a few ideas to check on.
You could try a harmonica with one of those shoulder harness things.
Hey Len,
I overcame my iTunes addiction when I joined SwapaCD.com. Just having a CD in my Wish List makes me feel like I own it for some odd reason…
Anyways, I picked up ~150 old CDs on Craigslist for pretty cheap and listed them. About 20 or 30 got requested in the first week, and then I had my choice of 20 or 30 CDs to get on the site. It ends up costing me about $1.50 per CD, nearly 90% off the iTunes price, and I can rip them in any format/quality I want.
Just a suggestion.
I get most of my music at the library for free! I also get audiobooks for my long commute. I just found your site, thanks for the good ideas!
Now THERE is the idea of the week! I’m going broke on audiobooks!
If you have a Mac get PandoraJam and then you can record songs off of your Pandora radio stations. It saves the songs to iTunes and before you know it you have built up a big library of music.
That is nice, because you get free music, but the artists don’t get anything for their hard work. It is kind of an ethical and legal gray area. On one hand, it is legal to record programs for your own personal use, but when you signed up for Pandora, you agreed not to record music through their service.
“3. RESTRICTIONS
You agree that you will not:
3.1 use the Pandora Services to reproduce copyrighted materials;”
These recordings are not of course the same quality as CD’s or the songs you can buy from iTunes for one. I still purchase work from those artists I like as well as go to their shows when they are around. As for item 3. in the EULA, that is questionable in light of Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios and RIAA v. Diamond Multimedia.
It is for me a way to try songs before I buy. I like to get whole albums when I find artists I like and doing that by recording through Pandora would be tough. By doing it this way I find I can avoid wasting money with impulse purchases and still support artists I like. If I kept going like I was with iTunes previously, the money that any artist would be able to get from me would soon dry up.
I hate dealing with CDs too, and I just store the away. The advantage is that I always have a physical backup of my music and it is full CD quality, unlike the compressed files that iTunes and Amazon sell.
I have one of those 400 CD changer/players that I use to store my CDs. You’re right, the CDs do provide nice back-ups of my music. Unfortunately, some of my CDs are so old, the music files won’t copy over to my computer. 🙁
1) Why pack a lunch if you mostly eat snacks at work (even when you’re hitting the cafeteria)? Why not just keep a stash of your favorite snacks? Chips are a lot cheaper at the grocery store than the cafeteria. I keep a stash of peanut butter, crackers, roasted almonds, carrot sticks, yogurt, and everything I need to make hot tea at work and just bring in more when I run low.
2) Calling the cable company and asking them to match whatever deal their competitors advertise might be worth your time, even if you have no intent of switching. They don’t always match the deal, but I’ve had my rates dropped several times over the years.
3) $5 a month is way less than the cost of a single late payment fee. Just get the best deals you can on envelopes and checks.
4) don’t have these anywhere near here
5) Have you tried pandora?
6) For some reason I always forget this when I winterize
I don’t have any of these money leaks except possibly #6. I bought a brand new townhouse 2 years ago and was extremely dismayed to find out that the windows are drafty. I never expected that in a brand new home! I even got the window company to come over while the windows were still under warranty, but when winter came along I discovered they were still drafty. I gave in and bought some weatherstripping this year, but I have only applied it on two windows. I hope I get around to finishing so maybe my heating bills will be lower this year.
As for yours, my suggestion for #1 (buying lunch at work) is to keep easy-to-pack food around the house so that if you forget the night before or just don’t feel like putting in a lot of effort, you have something you can throw in your lunch box in a hurry. Mine is peanut butter and jelly. I actually just put a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, and two slices of bread in my lunch box and assemble the sandwich at lunch time so it doesn’t get soggy. Another idea, if you have access to a microwave at work, is to make extra dinner the night before so you can bring leftovers.
For #2 (satellite TV), I suggest you try a trial unsubscription. Promise yourself that you will unsubscribe from the extra channels for, say, 3 months, and if you really miss them, you can resubscribe and not feel guilty about it. Chances are, at the end of the 3 months, you’ll realize how little you actually want to watch those channels.
For #3 (snail mail bills), why don’t YOU offer to show your wife how to pay the bills online? A lot of them are one-shot deals where you can just set up the accounts to be paid automatically.
“3. Paying almost all of our bills by snail …”
I found a way to cut the cost by 66% –
For example, lets say u have a monthly bill for $50 –
January – get bill for $ 50, don’t pay
February – get bill for $100, MAIL $150 payment
March – get bill for $0
April – get bill for $ 50, don’t pay
May – get bill for $100, MAIL $150 payment
June – get bill for $0
etc.
Basically, you pay 1 out of 3 bills you get, but send in 3 times the payment. This is offset by not paying the bill 2 months in a row.
Clever! You just need to make sure you don’t delay paying bills that accrue interest or other finance charges for late payments, like credit cards and other loans. The late payments for those bills will also negatively affect your credit score.
Hey if you can actually get away with only spending ten dollars for food while working per week, I definitely would not even consider packing a lunch. (Lunch packing is a pain!)
I have a friend who is just like your wife. However, she is a step further and will drive to the store to pay her bill when it is getting a little too close to the due date. With gas over 3 bucks a gallon now, that is a huge waste of time and money. However, I know she will not change, so I have given up trying.
Money is made to be enjoyed as long as you are being responsible, so I am glad you are not giving up all that you like to save a few bucks!
pardon the add on, but true story……
My friend and ex tenant suffered from an anxiety disorder. He would receive a bill and then immediately get in his truck/car and drive 50 miles (each way) to the bank to pay whatever bill he was worried about. I finally got him to stop this during Covid when he was no longer even allowed into the bank to pay any bill, whatsoever. I then introduced him to snail mail bill paying (we use a computer at our house) and he could not believe such a thing was even possible. That lasted about 3 months and then he started to drive to town again for bill payments. I finally had to get a POA and took over all his banking and bill paying for him. It was just too much change for him to handle, this snail mail thing. Last week he celebrated one year residency in a long term care facility and I still take care of his business and pay any outstanding bills including fighting with his VISA provider every month like clockwork. I refused to pay a bogus charge a while ago and every month he has a $.06 interest penalty tacked on. This is on a canceled card, for God’s sake!
Actually, I know several rural folks around here who drive to town to pay their bills in person. One has a bloody biology degree so it isn’t about education levels. Of course she also drives her jeep around to pick cans up out of the ditch along the highway. At $2.05 per litre for regular she goes can hunting. Go figure.
That’s crazy!
Wait, you have to pay extra to use the express lane? I’m confused?
Not laughing AT your wife but it is funny lol! I pay all my bills online, and have chosen paperless for all of my statements as well. Saving money and the environment at the same time! I just never have “time” to go to the post office to do it the old fashion way. I am, however, a slave to the Fresh & Easy and other eating options walking distance from the office. I could pack a lunch, but I like variety. A money sink, I know for sure.
I used to spend 2 hours paying my 7 bills every month and ALWAYS kept putting it off until most of the bills would arrive late by snail mail anyway. SO many people told me it was ridiculous to do that and I should TRY doing it online just once. I do it on my bank’s website so I am not at the mercy of every company’s website AND don’t have to create user names and passwords for all 7 websites. I cant believe how long it took me to gwet on board with online bill paying. It now takes me 3 minutes b/c I pay the bills as they come in and can decide what day I want it to be sent according to my checking acct. It posts the date that I choose. I think this is the biggest convenience of a bank.
I think its okay to have a few money leaks. So what if you spend a little here and there on things you enjoy or ways to make your life easier. It is wise to evalate these leaks however to see whether they are worth the money you are spending. Sometimes we spend money mindlessly that can be cut once you really think about its value. For instance, I dropped cable a few months back and missed a few shows that I used to watch, but I’ve replaced those with new ones (over the airwaves) so it was only a temporary loss.
We spend $120 a month on high speed internet, 200 cable channels of which we watch about 10, DVR (which we adore), and HD service (which we also love). I could probably call and get a $20 discount a month, so I’m wasting $240 a year by being lazy right there…
What does “paying to use the express lane” mean? That sounds awesome!
Len, if you’re only paying $10 a week for lunches you are in great shape! Back when I worked in the city, I would have a very hard time getting by with $10 a DAY for lunch…..of course i eating out and and probably consume more than most.
So I say eat up!
In regards to #5, why not grab a jug and washboard, or maybe even a kazoo, and make your own music for free?
Although, who am I to judge…. to me my XM radio is worth every penny!
I think that if you make all of these changes right now, and give yourself a month to miss them, you may not want to go back. It doesn’t sound like you’re going to have a lot of success with Honeybee, but maybe she can give online billpay a go for a month or two and give the computers a chance to gain her trust.
Really cool sharing this Len. I work from coffee shops a lot as I get claustrophobic at home and that is a big money leak.
Good Morning!
1. Tell Honeybee – I am also afraid of the internet, but when my check go “lost in the mail” someone stole my name, account number for where the check as going (let’s say cable), then has my checking account number and routing number and paid for things online and it took a month before I saw it all on the bank statement! Believe it or not, it is SAFER to use the internet and to not be afraid. I use to work for Fraud for a bank and know what people are capable of when they get their hand on “real” checks. (This doesn’t even take into the fact of automatic bill pay so she doesn’t have to worry about certain bills which go to one credit card to earn “points” and that’s the one she pays also online, one time once a month so it’s one bill she pays) – or let her have her one vice of sending out 1 check a month via snail mail! : )
2. You should be able to get those old CD’s regardless of age on the computer – that has me puzzled. Unless you mean to get it on itunes – but even there all the old CD’s can be matched and found to show their original titles and song tracks. – Or is it the device you are trying to move them to?
2. Anything you have not used or worn in 1 year – make it two for Honeybee – goes on Ebay even if you sell something for $25 and it costs $10 to ground ship (obviously it can be too heavy to cost $10) after fees (and you can set up UPS so they come right to your house so not extra gas charge) that is FOUND money which goes right into savings – or credit card debt – not for spending.
3. I need to get return a cable box that has been used 4 times in 5 years – that’s $8.00 a month! What was I thinking????
Last but not least, how do I keep finding you to see more suggestions from you and other viewers???
My mom says the same thing about BillPay! She’s had her identity stolen at least twice and swears entering any account information on the computer is just begging for someone to hack into her account and not only mess up her credit and steal her identity, but leave her completely destitute. I swear by BillPay, especially automatic payments I set up where I designate what amount to pay per bill and for how long, such as $50 each Friday to my car insurance company and once it’s paid off, the money no longer comes out of my account. It’s great! I highly recommend using it! Since my mom uses the old fashioned snail mail way, she has repeatedly had checks take weeks to clear or had to call her bill companies to ask them IF they received her payment, why it hasn’t been received yet, to cancel the check which then also meant she had to contact the bank (resulting obviously in spending more money to cancel the check). It’s just a pain in the butt and takes way too much time when it’s so simple to use the BillPay.
For music I really like PANDORA. $30.00 a YEAR to tap into a huge library of music I really like and some music I didn’t know I would like. I use my IPod when I have to, but it bores me now that I have Pandora and it supply of fresh music.
I believe in keeping the postal service going. I support your honey’s way of paying bills. Please read or watch the movie “The Postman”
I’ll pass that along to her, maggie! 🙂
I take my lunch to work on corelle…usually something I can nuke, but it has eye appeal and tastes good. I prefer not to eat sandwiches or anything on a paper plate. Yes, I gotta take it back home, but rinsing it saves serious scrubbing later. I don’t count the $$ saved by not using disposableware – I wouldn’t use it anyway. Carried to/from work in a reused plastic shopping bag that gets recycled after no longer usable. Just on food alone this saves me a good $15-25/wk…
No express/HO
I think you make a good point about the eye appeal, Mike. And $15-$25 per week really adds up fast. Thanks for sharing that with us!
Our money leaks are varied from month to month. We ate out a ton a few months ago, so that cost us way more than normal, but then the last month we’ve eaten out once or twice. So it is tough to pin down our actual leaks. We did cut out cable over the last year and added streaming on netflix and catch up on plenty of shows we normally wouldn’t have watched. But it is still cheaper than cable. We have to mail a few bills out because they won’t accept payment other than from a check, all the rest is online bill pay.
I suppose the biggest money leak is me driving home for lunch everyday instead of bringing my lunch to work. But I’d much rather see my wife and daughter everyday to help break up the work day instead of sitting here indefinitely.
#1 – You DO realize, don’t you, that while you may be setting yourself back $500 a year on lunches at work, taking your own lunch is not going to save you that exact same amount. You still have to pay for the food that you pack and bring.
Of course. The fact remains, the cost of food from home doesn’t come close to the cost of buying it at my workplace cafeteria.
A peanut butter sandwich costs about 44 cents based on my latest sandwich survey:
http://lenpenzo.com/blog/id4220-my-3rd-annual-brown-bag-survey-the-10-most-economical-sandwiches.html
Assuming I’d eat two sandwiches from home per week to cancel out my irregular trips to the cafeteria, that’s only $44 bucks annually. (Assuming I take two weeks of vacation.)
Is it just food or the comradeship of having lunch in the caff or restaurant for most folks? I wouldn’t know as I never bought a work lunch out in my life. Coffee sometimes, but my budget was fixed and that is one reason why I could retire in my fifties. Regardless, our home made food is just better than restaurant food as both my wife and I love to cook. And lunch at work is just fueling up the tank. I always had my own coffee maker at work with good coffee and buds would stop by for a BS. The cups were gross, though. You just took the cleanest/driest one and wiped the rim off.
Paul, it was for nourishment. I almost always would take my lunch back to my desk and eat it while I was working.
As for making lunches, if you feel ever so inspired, you can watch the Food Network once in awhile or check out their website for some tasty, fast, and easy lunches to make (I made an awesome Spinach & Salmon sandwich with a lemon & dill mayo I created – delicious). I like the idea though of purchasing something like a different mustard or jam (instead of always buying Grape, try a different flavor and get Blueberry or Apricot preserves). Or some weekend, make a huge batch of a homemade soup, separate it in containers, stow it in the freezer and take it out as you want, thaw it in the fridge the night before and by the time it’s lunch time, it should be all thawed and you have a great lunch! And if you like to garden, you can even grow your own food (thereby being extremely green and helping the environment) and use those ingredients (even if it’s different herbs like thyme or basil) to make your lunch. It’s something you can look forward to and enjoy that you worked hard for.
Netflix could be cheaper than satellite or cable, but the only downfall is that they have raised their prices and their selection for television shows is usually a season behind. Then again, I like the idea of the library. You can get anything there – movies, tv shows, music, books. Of course I want to go over and look at my local library’s selection, I just haven’t bothered.
Now you have me thinking about the express lane thing. Our household has an express lane pass, but I’ve never actually looked into how much it costs annually. The account is linked to a credit card, so I suppose that in effect more is being spent for that $1.25 toll (just because I want to get through highway traffic faster) with having to pay interest to the credit card company to pay that $1.25 toll and also for the privilege of using the express lane.
Now you reminded me I have to put weatherstrips around the windows of the house. I keep intending to, but somehow it slips my mind! Don’t forget to also insulate the pipes and the walls to keep the heat and cool air in the house.
You’re giving me some good ideas about how to cut some costs I hadn’t even thought of! Keep up the great ideas!
I do not have cable or even a TV. It’s been insurance for our budget and if I want to see something I just watch it online. It leads to more deliberate viewing which is good for me.
I really have been trying to cut out my spending got my cable bill down to basic only channels 2-21 and internet runs me $50/month go my cell down as low as it can get at a whooping $78/month I already cut my netflix and use redbox if I want to rent a movie… Next is my Sirius radio at $15/month but I don’t really want to give it up. I have between $200-$400 of loans and ccs other that the house and car I really want to cut that out I shouldn’t spend what I dont have….told myself I could use the credit card to track my gas expenses but I have never used it for gas….at least I’m old enough now to realize the benefit of paying everything ontime, whew!
Paying for traditional cable or sat TV service is a tremendous waste. Put up a roof-top antenna, subscribe to a streaming service when necessary, and borrow DVDs from the library. Your tax dollars pay for that service. iTunes music purchases are even more ridiculous: record streaming audio on a computer for free. This is legal (just like recording from FM radio) and offers a huge plethora of sources. Making your lunch is a great idea too, but tough for some to justify.
The Obvious answer to #3 is to start paying the bills yourself!
1) Don’t pack a lunch every day. Pack five lunches on Monday and bring them to work. I bring five cans of soup (stock up on Campbell’s Chunky or Progresso when it goes on sale), five apples, and five granola bars on Monday morning and put them in a cupboard. It’s one less thing to remember on the way out the door.
2) Drop your TV subscription and just get addicted to Facebook like the rest of us. Better yet, fall in love with your library card all over again.
3) Facepalm. No ideas.
4) My equivalent here is driving even though I have an employer-sponsored transit pass. My only suggestion is the 21-days-to-a-habit approach, even though that hasn’t worked for me either. Good luck to both of us.
5) Again with the library card. Or, take your debit card out of your iTunes account and buy yourself an iTunes gift card in the amount of your budget instead, so you won’t go over budget without thinking about it.
6) No help here. I’m a renter.
I feel you …
Especially the lunches, social lunch with colleague cost me $20 !!
BURN my pocket.
Never use Itunes, try Spotify
Great blog!!! great job!!
I’m so glad I found it
$2/day for lunch, surely that’s a typo??
No, that’s not a typo — but I can see how you came to that assumption. The $10/week I noted in the article that I was spending at the cafeteria was the cost for just one or two trips per week. I didn’t eat lunch there every day; I probably should have made that more clear.
So I have my wife and 4 friends all go in on the Apple Music family plan. $15/month for a family plan to have unlimited music. Divide that by 6 people and it comes to $30/year per person. Now as the (adult) of the group, you have to have your card on file to pay the monthly fee.
I have everyone at the beginning of the year send me $30 up front. Works perfectly.
Pro tip. You can find $100 itunes gift cards for $85 at grocery stores and places like Costco. By two of those and load them onto your itunes account and every month when the $15 payment comes around, it’ll pull from gift card balance. Boom, you just got free music for a year by saving the $30 in gift cards.
Now I get you want the music on your player. You can “download” the music onto your phone so that you dont need to use data. Easy
Saves ALOT of money.
Clothing for my daughter. And toys. And travels. These are currently my biggest money leaks. I really can’t say no to a nice pair of pants or a t-shirt. Fortunately I’m into into those designer clothes, so at least the stuff is reasonably priced 😀
Holy schnitzel!
Only $10 a week is actually saving money, over here a typical lunch costs about $12. Per meal!
Some companies agree to pay for employee meals (they get a small tax deduction for it), but I was never that lucky, so I either had to pay for lunch from my pocket or bring my own. Roughly, I think I only paid for lunch 2-3 times last year.
Yeah, but I only buy lunch once a week, on average — maybe twice on rare occasions — so $10 per week ain’t so cheap!
The last two weeks have been columns from the past. I am wondering if Len had to drive to Lynchburg Tennessee to buy enough cases of Jack Daniels to calm down his wife. I don’t know what he did to make her that mad but men do it every so often. 😉
Yep, Bill … been tied up with other tasks – fruitcake shopping. So I’ve had to dig into the vaults! 😉
This is what I’m talking about when you want to budget your money but you can’t focus on the goal because there are things you still spend into with or without knowing it is not that important