Last month I had made a post “Needs and Wants, getting REAL about Money” which attracted a great comment by Althea. I immediately thought that the comment itself would make a good post, so here it goes.

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“I liked your article and it’s so true. The following information was taken from the book “The Insider’s Guide To Saving Money” by Michael Ellenbogen. “Cutting back does not necessarily mean giving something up all together, but rather finding a less expensive way to do it. Let us say, for example, that each morning you stop by your favorite coffee shop and buy a cafe latté. It costs $3.00, or $15.00 per week. Another option is that you could stop by a local convenience store and buy your coffee for $1.00. You would save $10.00 per week or $520.00 per year. Not bad for a minor adjustment. If you took the $10.00 savings each week and invested it at a 5 percent return, after 20 years you would have over $17,600.00. Not bad for altering one buying habit. Most people have more than one cup of coffee a day. Just think of those savings. You could even make your own coffee at work, which would save you even more.”

This book was a real eye opener, on the amount of money I have been wasting on cigarettes and so many other things. The savings added up quickly. I will be saving over $86,000.00, over 20 years because I stopped smoking 1 ½ packs per day”.