Small Leaks

I spent a month tracking my purchases and bills to see if there are any places I could fix. I noticed that I did have one small leak. Well, maybe two. It is at least two, if I am going to be honest here. The first is that on most mornings when I work, I would stop by a local convenience store to buy a soda, maybe two, in the morning for my work day. Was I drinking any water at work? No, I was not. I have the ability to get water to drink but I am so addicted to the soda, I just cannot seem to stop. I like to say I have slowed down in the years but as far as stopping, it has not stopped at all. So, the soda purchase was a slow leak. Once I truly looked at how often I was stopping and making a few dollar purchase at the local convenience store, it started to add up. So, this past week I bought a 12-pack of canned soda to bring to work. The price of the 12-pack was about the same price for at least 2 or 3 sodas a week but I got 12 cans to drink. I mainly brought them to work. Another thing that I was trying to do at work is to drink tea. I like Bigelow's Green Tea and found them at Harris Teeter. I will try to drink one a day so I drink something other than soda. I have also made myself drink the tea with no kind of sweetner added to it. I am not drinking green tea because it is popular but has a nice flavor and I am now able to drink it without sugar/honey/any other sweetner added to it.

The other slow leak was lunch. I get a good amount of time for lunch during work. One hour. I try to stay close by my job so I do not have to worry about shoving the food down my throat just to make it back in time to work. Even if I tried to make budget friendly choices, it was still money slowly leaking out of the bank. So, I have put money back on my McDonald's gift card and if I am going to eat out, I go to McDonald's and use the gift card. I have to remember to eat budget wise as this is the only amount I am putting on there each pay period. If I have money left over for next pay period, great! It stays on there and I keep using the card. McDonald's can get a bit much every day for lunch, five days a week. I will change it up and maybe go somewhere else or make some rice and veggies for lunch.

These are two areas I am trying to get under control right now. Once I can get these two a little better, I will definitely start finding other areas to start working on in my budget. Small leaks eat money slowly. I did not realize how much either. Luckly, I still have time to turn it around and to fix it!! It is getting better and I have got to keep working hard on my budget.

Jennifer