5th Step closer to $10,000

Stop eating lunch out

If a person spends $7 a day on lunch out on average that’s $35 a week, $140 a month or $1820 a year. What is stopping you from packing your lunch? Your coworkers are not going to laugh at you for packing your lunch and you get to control your diet better. Again, to go out and buy your lunch takes time away from your break when you could be reading a magazine or book.

4th step closer to $10,000

Stop your home internet access.

This is drastic. How can people possibly live without internet access? Strange we got along in this country since 1776 (we weren’t a country before that) without it and had some pretty great successes: General Motors, McDonalds, Pepsi all became international companies without the internet. I’m not talking about giving up the internet all together. The public library has free high speed internet and if you have a laptop free WiFi is available all over Panara Bread, the library and many other public places have free WiFi.
Annual savings if you cancel $30 a month internet access $360.

3rd step closer to $10,000

Quit the gym membership

You know you want to and here is an excellent excuse. Do you really use the gym? Do you use it every day or 3 times a week? Even if you do a great alternative is to look at your local park recreation center. Many have workout rooms, various workout classes, running tracks, etc. A simple phone call or a visit will answer all of your questions.
Do not forget about the social aspect of exercising at your local park rec center, your neighbors are probably there also.
Some of the local fitness centers charge $60-$70 a month not including enrollment fees or parking.
At the low end the annual savings at $60 a month is $720.

2nd step closer to $10,000

Walk more.

With gas officially at $4.00 a gallon it is no longer an ancillary expense so let’s take a real look at what a short trip costs you.
I want to go to the mall to meet friends or shop.
I really don’t, but many of my friends who are more exciting and better dressers do.
Let’s say I spend 25 minutes in my car with driving there, waiting at lights and looking for a space to park. That is about a gallon of gas or $4 or $8 if I want to get home again.
We can take that same 25 minutes and go somewhere closer. If we drive smaller trips to the grocery, library, tavern, post office, etc, those trips can quickly add up to 25-50 minutes or $4-$8 in gas.
If we add up small trips which are not related to work and walk we could have a savings of $8 a week or $32 a month.
An annual savings of $384 a year.

1st step closer to $10,000

Saving $10,000 would be easier if one were to win it in the lottery. Let’s look at that.
I can't think of anyone who doesn't know someone or know of someone who has won an amount as impressive as $10,000 in a lottery game if not more. The lottery players and those who try to emulate them also spend a large amount playing the lottery & most never win that much money if any. The games would close up if that were not the case. So it is best to resign one's self to never winning the lottery. If a person spends $1 a day on a ticket that is an expense of $30 a month or $365 a year. It is also an amount of money a person could save. What to do with that money? Buy coffee and make it at home instead of buying it out is one idea.
Value Time coffee in Columbus, OH is $5 for 34 oz can. If you go through two cans a month that's $10 to make coffee yourself.
To buy coffee out at a coffee house will cost about $1.65 a cup. Two cups a day is $3.30 multiplied by 30 is $99 a month. Add the additional $20 and you have just won $119 a month not playing the lottery. If someone promised you a lottery ticket worth $119 every month you would take it right? There it is.
An annual savings of $1,428 a year.