|
January 2006 |
|||||||
Savings Section:A Penny Pincher's Guide to Habits Worth Breaking If one of your resolutions in 2006 is to save money, stay tuned to Debt Matters all year long. Our Savings Section comes at you each month with tips on holding on to the money you earn. This year, we attack the easiest culprits first as these are all habits that are worth breaking this year. The High Cost of Cravings: Of course, shelling out $3.75 for a Chai-tea latte every day can drive a financial planner to drink. But it's not just the coffee shop. Maybe you buy a $2 muffin in the morning and two 75-cent sodas during the day. These seemingly harmless habits add up too. In the case of the muffin and sodas, it adds up to more than $70 a month! Look for ways to avoid impulse purchases. Clean Car, Filthy Finances: The guys come to your office twice-a-month and hand-wash your car inside and out for $20. It's convenient. The car looks good. And the finish is maintained. All true, but it's also costing you as much as $480 a year. At that rate, it's cheaper to let the finish go and re-paint the car every few years. If you can find the time, do it yourself. Wash your car twice a month and wax it every couple of months. Taken to the Cleaners: Just $20 a month in dry cleaning adds up to $240 a year, plus you have to spend time and money driving to the cleaners to drop off and pick up. Unless you work in a suit-wearing office, get out of the habit of buying "dry clean only" garments. Up In Smoke: At $3 a pack, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day amounts to $1,100 a year. Then there's the likely health care and insurance cost increases. Financially speaking, smoking can be a real drag. For those wavering on quitting, perhaps the financial upside will inspire them to go smoke free. Killer Fees: We should all try to limit ATM fees to just a couple or fewer each year. Withdraw $20 from a strange ATM and you could be charged $1.50 from that bank and your bank. That's a 15% commission on your $20! Break the ATM habit by carrying more cash, keeping in mind that not every place takes credit cards and more carefully planning your outings. |
|
|
|
|
|||
