Do You REALLY Need That?

Do you realize that every single dollar you spend is one step away from reaching your financial goals? That is, assuming you have financial goals.

Here are some quick ways the average family could save some extra cash in a typical month by cutting out the following:

Eating out once a week = $140 (based on $35.00 per time)
Making two casual trip through Wal-Mart and picking up unnecessary items = $100
Manicure = $40
Getting hair colored at salon instead of at home = $60
Clothing purchases = $50
Stopping at a convenience store for drinks or snacks once a week - $15.00

Those are a few things that people can absolutely do without and it totals up to $405 per month. Over a year that would equal $4860. And that’s only by cutting out 6 purchases! What do you spend money on each month that is unnecessary?

Here’s a situation that happened to me this week. It proves how my spending habits have changed:

I went to Target to get cat litter and laundry detergent. As soon as I walked in, I saw a white vest in the clothing department. Wow, I’ve been wanting a white vest forever. And this was perfect. I looked at it, tried it on, looked at it again. Then I thought, “If I buy that vest, that’s less money I can put toward the debt on my car.” I never would have felt comfortable wearing it knowing it was something I didn’t need. I put it back and walked away. I went and got the cat litter and laundry detergent and checked out. Back in the day (like 6 months ago) I would have put the vest in my cart, probably walked through the rest of the clothing department, then looked through the jewelry and picked out at least one thing, then head over the food isle to pick up a few things.

Life has changed, but life is good.