Well, fast forward to the front, and I'm trying to be a responsible family man...So, I've had to adopt some decent spending habits, that, if I had known about when I was younger, I may have more to show for it...So, maybe I can help out some of our younger members...Trust me, you may think its little, but its really huge, and only takes a few minutes out of your day to do...
What you will need:
1. Zip-Lock bags
2. Paper Clips
3. One of those medium sized, clasp lid plastic containers
4. 20 minutes a month
The first thing you need to do is start keeping receipts, no matter what...If you get up and buy a pack of gum, get and keep your receipt...In this debit card age, you will be prone to swipe and go...ALWAYS get a receipt...I can't tell you how many times I've had little $2 or $3 swipes put my account into the red because I swiped my card on a Tuesday, and the bank doesn't process it until the next Monday...So, you spend money on Monday, thinking you can just put the cash in that Tuesday, you have 3 or 4 miscellaneous charges slam into your account costing $30 a piece...Not all stores run debit, some run credit, and they can take up to 7 days to go through...In short, keep a receipt...
The key to saving a few dollars here and there is to keep track of your unplanned expenditures...You may run into a convenience store once a day, grab a drink and a pack of chips, and spend a measley $1.89...In a gas station, a 20oz drink costs $1.20...In the grocery store, a 2 Liter is $1.15...An extra value meal is $5 or $6, a couple pounds of premium, ground Angus is $4....
See what I'm getting at..?
By no means is the grocery store all that cheap any more, but for some reason the stigma of spending a little money at once doesn't hold weight to going to get groceries and spending $40...Even now, since I know better, I still wince when I go grab a few things at the grocery or general store and its like $25...But the truth of the matter is fast food will kill you...
You can buy and make 6 Subway style sandwiches for what it costs to eat at subway...If you go buy 6 sub rolls, deli meat, and all the fixings, you may be out of $12...And the only thing you have to buy is rolls...Onions, mayo, tomatoes, etc, they can stay fresh and go a while...If you do that 2 day sin a row, you've already saved $6...So, to eat at Subway for a week on average would be about $40...Buy your own shit, it's $12...Trust me, it adds up...
But anyway, keep your receipts...All of them...And at the end of the month, sit down and sort them...I have my Wal-Mart stack, my Kroger stack, my gas stack, fast food stack, Dollar General stack, entertainment stack, misc. stack, and a stack for my bank transactions...
Those are all what I call unplanned expenditures...When I need more Ranch dressing and get up to go buy some, or I want to rent a DVD...The key is to not only help you see what you're buying, but to help you see if you're getting the most out of your dollars...They don't go as far as they used to, so whether you have them or not, now's the time to test that out...
Not saying don't have fun...Sure, take your girl out to dinner once in a while...But to me, I have to consider this...If I take Wifey and Ra out to dinner and a movie, I can EASILY spend $80...And I'm not talking fine restaurants here...At any rate, track your receipt spending for a month...Separate your receipts to your spending patterns and see if you can find an area you can save a few bucks in...
Put paper clips on your receipts, tuck them in a little zip-lock bag, and then store them in your plastic container...Also, I forgot to mention that this is a great habit to have if you plan to write things off in your taxes...
Cheers..!
