I’ve dutifully tracked my spending for the past week and man alive – from day-to-day, the money that I spend doesn’t seem like a lot (unless I’m dropping $60 bucks on postage – that hurts!) but when I sat down this morning to tally up my dastardly ways … my grand total latte factor for a week was (drumroll, weakly masking the sounds of my pocketbook weeping) $690.09.
Wow. I see why financial analysts encourage people to perform this sort of exercise. It is maddening, it is humbling, it is sickening and it is what it is – an eye opener.
Here’s the breakdown by category:
Bills - $250
Retail - $89.64
Gift - $77.21
Grocery - $63.30
Wedding-related - $62.40
Eating Out - $61.65
Gas - $36
Cash - $35
Snacks - $9.39
Fees - $5.50
The good news? If you look at the numbers in terms of category, the bulk of my money went to bills this month. But yeah … if you total up my “dribble” money, that kind of eclipses the good I’ve done toward eliminating my debt. More good news – I only spent about $60 on groceries, but I also spent that much on eating out. That’s $120, half of which could have easily gone toward my credit card bills.
I wasn’t even going to tally up what my snack expenditure was if you spread it out over a year, but it’s about $10 for a week (which was odd for me, I will admit), but I had snacks three out of five days. If that was my typical consumption, that would mean I would be spending $520 over the course of a year. That’s another credit card bill.
Well, I’m going to ponder this and … not eat out for awhile.
“Latte factor” is not your totally weekly spending. The latte factor is more like one’s regular unnecessary spending that adds up to far more than you recognize without totaling it up, and which you would choose to use in other ways, especially for saving. There is the implication that it is something like daily lattes which one could give up in order to save that amount. In your case, snacks or eating out might be a latte factor.
the latte factor is huge in my experience. if you write down your expenses consistenly over time, you will find you get a much more accurate sense of the flow of money in your life and get more use out of your money in general.
Just to put food costs in perspective, over several years I have discovered it is possible to eat very well for the entire month for $140. That’s like $4.66 per day. You may not decide to go for that, but so you know that seems to be a bottom limit for food for someone who only eats food he cooks. That includes a chicken about once a month, and eggs and milk, a small amount of cheese, and the rest vegetarian. I bake my own bread and desserts/snacks too. It helps to freeze some servings of chili or whatever to bring to work on those days you haven’t been organized enough to prepare a proper lunch.
Knowing that I can fulfill all of my nutritional needs for $4.66 puts a different scale on the price of drinks and snacks at the local coffee shops. Looking at a coffee and a muffin or just a single latte that costs almost as much as I would need to feed myself for an entire day makes going to the coffee shop very unattractive to me except for a very special occasion, like if a friend is visiting or it’s a special social occasion and the occasion is more important than the expense.
It’s something to think about.
Also, try to eat those groceries before they go bad! I noticed when I ate out a lot, many of my groceries expired before their time. I try to look every few days and see which veggies, milk or other items need to be used ASAP before they become unappetizing or worse.
I still throw food out, but it has ended up being much less than before I made a conscious effort to eat the stragglers in the fridge every once in a while.
Steve – I hear you about eating the groceries before they expire! Salad is my worst culprit!
And Joan – right on … this whole thing was really eye opening to see how much I ended up spending on frivolous over the week.
Thanks for being so honest about your spending. I don’t think I have any odd day to day spending, being a stay at home mom…but I think I will keep track of ‘unneccessary’ items bought in the grocery store.
It really does add up quick…the “cash” and “eating out” really pile up a lot faster than I though. While $5.50 for subway doesn’t seem like much one day, I realize I can eat lunch all 5 days of the week for about the same amount if I prepare. And I won’t even start on how much I spend on coffee…