Recently I (Litsa) read this statistic in my spring issue of Real Simple*, “$1,109 the amount that the average American worker spends on coffee in a year!” At first, I thought staggering….wow….but then I thought through the figure….five bucks, ten bucks, fifteen, twenty….yes the $5 lattes at Starbucks and other coffeehouses add up quickly! The American worker—-that was me prior to motherhood…
This American worker didn’t even think about it. Starbucks drive thru in the morning if I wasn’t late for work—-and maybe during planning time if my load was light—-and oh! the drive home latte!?! Yes! That worked out to about $15 a day on some days. I didn’t think about it. I just spent my money on lattes. A little to late……..
Not really.
It is never too late to rethink how we spend our money. When we set a budget, we can reward ourselves with lattes and we can determine how much we want to spend on them in advance so that the alarming figure at the end of the year was set by us—not the figure that we will see adding up that could have paid off one more bill in FULL.
Spring blooms and the sun shining makes us want to leisurely leave the house and explore. However, if we manage the household bills, we must leave with a plan in mind.
Make notations of where you’ll spend your money on that outing (lunch, gas, lattes, gifts, window-shopping or buying!?!). All of our purchases are important if we’re busy paying off medical debt and/or school loans……or mortgages.
Is a latte your weakness or burgers at the local burger joint!?!
Key in to where your dollars add up and take control of your money matters.
Photo Credit Starbucks
2013 Accounting Principals survey of 1,020 employed Americans (Real Simple May 2014)*
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