Saving money can be difficult for some people. They feel like there just isn’t enough to spare at the end of the month to put into a savings account. But by making small changes to your spending habits, you’ll see that saving money isn’t really that difficult.
For instance, how often to you buy lunch instead of making your own? Once a week? Every day? If we add up those daily purchases, you may be surprised at the cost per year.
Cost to buy your lunch every day
There are about 250 work days per year.
A lunch at a café or restaurant runs about $6 to $15.00.
If you eat lunch out every day, you’re spending between $1,500 to $3,750 per year.
Now, let's figure out how much it costs to make your own lunch.
Cost to brown-bag your lunch.
If you buy lunch meat, bread, and a bag of chips, it will cost you about $10 and last you the whole week.
$10 ÷ 5 working days = $2 per lunch
$2 x 250 working days = $500 per year
If you packed your lunch every day, you’d save between $1,000 to $3,250 every year!
Now, let’s say you put the money didn't spend into a savings account every month.
$4 to $13 (money saved each day) x 20 working days = $80 to $260 per month.
If you put those dollars into an account that earns even 1% interest, compounded monthly, you’d have $1,046 to $3,399 saved in 12 months!
You can play around with the numbers on CalculateStuff.com to see what your actual savings would be.
See? That isn’t so difficult, is it?
Copyright 2018 Credit Union National Association Inc. Information subject to change without notice. For use with members of a single credit union. All other rights reserved.
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