Sometimes some of the simplest ways to get our finances in order are right under our noses and we miss the boat. Here are six things to avoid or drastically reduce to keep from emptying your wallet too quickly between paychecks:
· Soda Pop (part one) - Costs continue to increase on the products that go in to the pop, thus the extra cost is passed to you and me. Several local stores now charge as much as $1.49 for a 20 oz. bottle! A quick trip with your family to the convenience store could mean $6 or more. If that trip occurs 3 times a week, now you're out nearly $20 every month!
· Soda Pop (part two), etc. - Needs and wants: the line has been blurred in our minds. Knock $0.80 off of that value meal by getting water instead. A family of five will save $4 on one trip to Mickey D's. Here's something that we found fascinating about eating out recently. Most of us will go to Las Limas with our friends & family and find it easy to drop $30 to $50 on lunch or dinner. How about bringing a ten-dollar bill? Can't happen? Just watch: we order Ellie the kids meal, which includes a free drink, then Amber and I each order the Tortilla Soup. It's loaded with chicken, tortilla strips and avacado. If that's not filling enough, we get a free basket of chips and salsa. In addition, we get water with our meal, which is obviously a healthier option anyway. Total bill? Nine bucks and change. Seriously. Did we skimp? Our bellies didn't know the difference and we could have spent way more at Burger King. Pop is an easy skip, but if you play your cards right, you can still have a dining experience without paying for the dining experience.
· Coffee - Most of us have to have that morning cup of coffee to get us going. But, a large percentage of people grab that cup from a coffee shop or quickie mart on the way to work, costing us lots of cash. Even the low-cost option of getting a small black coffee in a Styrofoam cup may cost you $1.00 adds up quickly: 20 work days a month = $20. Throw Starbucks or another premium brand in the mix and you could be spending upwards of $100 a month and not even realizing it!
· Brand Names - Americans love their food, but some can't get over themselves enough to quit being "food snobs". Yes, some generics just don't stand up to the name brand. But, most actually do. In fact, nearly all generic products are manufactured by the name brand company themselves! I'm reminded of a story a family friend told me a few years ago. While working on a construction project at a Tropicana plant in Florida, he noticed that the filled orange juice bottles without labels headed down the line and met a fork where one bottle went to the left and the next one to the right. As they passed through the labeling machine, he noticed that the finished bottles to the left were labeled "Tropicana" and those to the right were given a store brand label. Same product, different price. Why? Store brands don't require the huge outlay of advertising dollars to move; price is the motivator. However, for the Tropicana company, they may two sets of sales that still benefited them. What does buying exclusively brand name products mean? It could be a loss of $50 to $100 on every trip to the grocer. If that trip is made once a week, you've just wasted up to $400 in one month.
· Magazines - As parents, we're too smart to be caught at buying junk at the checkout, right? If you find yourself grabbing that newest issue of People or Sports Illustrated next to the conveyor belt, you've been had. Almost all retailers like Meijer and Wal-Mart are set up in such a way as to make those last few bucks on high-profit items at the register and magazines probably have the highest of these profits. Some weekly or monthly publications can cost as much as $5.99 at the "newsstand". Buying one at each of your weekly shopping excursions just lost you $24.
· Where You Shop - Subconsciously, we all want to be cool. But, what is cool? We've all told our teens that there's no reason to spend $80 on a pair of jeans at Abercrombie and Fitch, so why do we find ourselves compromising our wallets to shop at a certain store because "the [products] are better there". Really? Some of us have conned ourselves to thinking that we have to shop at Super Target because of the "fresher produce and nicer clothing". It couldn't have anything to do with the bright lights, the fancy ambience or the Starbucks located in the front corner, could it? Some of us wouldn't be caught dead in stores named ALDI or Goodwill. But, a short trip to either store will yield a huge chunk of savings that can rival anything else you could save money on. For example, my family of three has discovered that shopping at ALDI has reduced our grocery bill from over $300 to less than $150 for the same stuff we used to buy at Wal-Mart. Is Wal-Mart that cool?
The bottom line is that these six things could save you $500 or more every month! Doesn't sound like small potatoes anymore, eh? That's $6,000+ in one year! What could you do with that? A family trip? A new kitchen? Extra offerings in the tithing plate? An automobile upgrade?
Try this: take the next 30 days and save all of your receipts from your normal shopping. Then take the next 30 days and follow these six points and save your receipts again. See what happens...
- Drew Kuespert
