So how do you get the little bit extra?

So after the last post you may be saying; How do I get the little bit extra? Well, we are glad you asked! It is really pretty easy to get some extras when you know what you are spending your money on.

The first thing to do is anytime you spend any amount of money at all, get a receipt! It doesn't matter if you spent $1.12 on a cola at the gas station, get a receipt for it. At the end of the day, put the receipts in a large envelope. You then can periodically (ie, weekly) go through the receipts and try to categorize your spending. Categorize by food, gas, housing, etc. You will then see where your money goes.

Another important thing that you will see from this is where your money is wasted. You could discover that you are sending $35 a week on lunch when you are at work. You can then add that up to a yearly cost. For example, $35 per week, 50 work weeks per year (35x50) equals $1750. That is almost $2000 per year spending on just lunch.

Here is your chance to make a big change. We like to call these lifestyle changes. You can take your lunch to work and put that $1750 in your savings account or even the kid's college fund. (After all, if you are like us, we will need to save to send six kids to college.) That is just one example. You may have three or four spending items that you can cut out and save with. You can quickly build up a savings by reviewing your lifestyle choices and weigh them to what is more important.


It will take discipline to make that lifestyle change, but it will add up quickly and be worth it.