a way I may or may not have come up with to save money
As many of you know, I am somewhat poor for a person of my vast intellectual capacity. I know a lot of that has to do with the fact that I buy untold amounts of footwear and soccer apparel, but I prefer to look at those as essential needs. I have curbed those purchases lately, though.
We don’t go out to eat very often, but when we do I will most likely order a beer or a tea. Beverages are one of those items that I usually don’t pay attention what the price is, even though I’ll likely pass on an entree if it costs $11 for one that costs $8. Anyhoo, I scanned a couple of receipts from the past two times we’ve gone out to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack and Red Lobster, and I was aghast that the price of tea at these two establishments was $2.19. $2.19! Can you believe that shit?!?!
(MOM AND POP-related aside: I don’t prefer the chain restaurant over most of what Austin has to offer, but my parents were kind enough to give us gift cards for these places, so we decided to use ‘em)
The point is, I refuse to pay that kind of money for beverages anymore. But here’s the savvy personal-finance twist: every time I go out to eat, I’m going to order water and then when I get home, I’ll transfer $2 into my savings account. So it’s like I paid for the drink, but I’m really paying myself for not foolishly buying a tea. Pretty smart, huh? That’s why I make the big bucks.*
I’ll try to keep up with how much I actually save - I’m trying to figure out how user-friendly that memo field is in the Bank of America online banking portal. I bet I can mark each transfer as “beverage fund” or something clever like that and then by the end of the year, I’m sure I’ll have saved upwards of $9,000 or so. We’ll see.
*I don’t make anywhere near big bucks