Let’s Get the Bread
Let me start by saying: I subscribe to the school of thought that claims avoiding avocado toast and lattes WON’T make you rich. Skipping the toast won’t get you the bread. There’s absolutely no way to five dolla holla your way to true financial security. However, I also believe the old Ben Franklin saying, “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.”
I’ve been watching to pennies and the dollars for years. As a result, I have a pretty good handle on my savings and investments. But I’m competitive by nature. Savings challenges are amusing, and beneficial, so when I find a new one sometimes I like to set a goal and see it through.
Recently I found a brown bag calculator at calculator.me that gave me the idea for a little money growing experiment. The challenge I established was to go one month without buying lunch on workdays, bringing from home instead. How much money would I really save? Even better, what could I reward myself with if I saved a nice amount?
To use the calculator, I needed a few estimates or educated guesses. First, what would a lunch from home cost? What did my usual lunch order cost? How many days of the week would I bring lunch from home? Once I worked out all the details, plugged them in and ran the calculator, I discovered I would save approximately 150.00 over the next month. A bonus feature of this calculator is that it factors in interest earned on the saved amount over time. Noice!!
More, More, More
In for a penny in for a pound, I next used the same calculator but adjusted the amounts to determine how much I could save with coffee made at work vs. coffee purchased at the shop next door to work. Once those numbers were plugged in, I heard a little cash register cha-ching in my head. Making coffee at home would net me another 90.00 over the next 30 days. Sa-weeet!!
One factor that the calculator doesn’t take into account is the drive to pick up lunch. So there’s even more saved! I don’t know how to calculate that, so I’m not going to try to pinpoint that amount. I suppose I could calculate the trip distance, multiplied by days, to calculate total miles driven. Then figure out gas cost….but I’m ok not knowing that exact number.
Spa Time
Now, maybe 140.00+ saved in a month (lunch, coffee, and gas) doesn’t sound like much, but I happen to know it will pay for a trip to the spa for a facial. One solid hour of “free” bliss. Well worth the challenge!
Would I do this every month? Probably not. I’m not going to deny the Chick-fil-A cravings when they show up, or that afternoon caffeine hit when needed. But is this a small measure of motivation for setting a small goal and meeting it? Absolutely!
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