10th Step to saving $10,000 a year

Go out less or free events.

The amount of money my wife and I spend when we go out to a nice restaurant is $80.00 conservatively. If a person or couple were to skip one outing a month or enjoy free entertainment provided by museums, parks, libraries, etc, a savings of $80.00 a month is $960 annually.

9th Step to saving $10,000 a year

Get rid of premium cable packages.

The 5 movie channels at Time Warner will cost $38.95 a month. How important are they to you? Read a book, sit outside, visit friends. I was never impressed with any movie channel offerings.
According to the Time Warner web site the 5 premium channel package is $38.95 a month over 12 months it translates into $467.40.

8th Step closer to saving $10,000

Watch the car you buy.

If you need to buy a new car it’s a good idea to look at how much money you are spending.
A $20,000 financed over 5 years at 9% is $415 a month. If you buy a $25,000 car and finance it for the same 60 months at 9% the payment goes up over $100 to $518 a month. I found cars in this price range on the GM website. If you look at the big boys, Cadillacs, the savings can get very impressive.
The Cadillac STS-V is $79,000. Financed for 5 years at 9% is a $1,639.91 monthly payment. If you buy a more affordable Cadillac, a Cadillac DTS, the MSRP is $42,590 the monthly payment is $884.10 using the same terms.
This is a great web site: http://www.defenselink.mil/mapsite/carpay.html

Many savings gurus scoff and huff at the idea of buying a new car, pontificating “No no, buy a used car with only a few miles on it.” I can only reply, I’m surprised my wife stayed married to me with the thousands and thousands of dollars I invested (no, WASTED) on repairs to used cars.
Most Americans don’t ponder which Cadillac to buy so let’s use the lower end example. A savings of $103 a month is $1,236 a year.

7th Step closer to $10,000

Watch your drinking

My friend asked why I was attacking beer since she thought I liked beer. I do like beer and I’m not attacking beer I’m attacking careless and wasteful spending.
I was at the grocery store and saw 12 packs of Labatt Blue and Bud Light both going for $9.00, these are great beers at great prices. Down the isle I saw beers at a higher end of the scale for $14.00, Land Shark, for 12 and finally the craft brewed stuff at about $16.00 for 12. If I go through 12 beers a week and switch from craft brewed to Bud Light I will save about $7.00 a week, even a $5.00 savings is nothing to sneeze at. So the savings can be about $30 a month or $365 annually, but look at what happens when we go out.
A draft of Guinness is about $4.50, more depending on local sin tax or in about every other country in the world. A domestic is about $1.50 during happy hour and I can’t remember when I have ever seen anything other than domestics on special during happy hour. If I have 3 Guinness in an evening compared to 3 domestic brews I can save around $9.00 before tip. If I go out 4 times a month with friends I’ll save $36.00 a month drinking a domestic beer. Couple the $36.00 savings with the savings from my take home beer and you are looking at about a $66.00 a month savings or $792 a year

6th Step closer to $10,000.

Stop smoking

People who smoke are sick of those of us who don’t trying to tell them what to do, but how important is smoking to a smoker. It not only takes away from your bank account, but also your health. The worst part is the health issues show up later in life when a person’s income is mostly fixed. So let’s look at a pack a day. Here in Ohio a friend of mine told me a package of cigarettes cost $4.50 so at a pack a day a smoker is spending $136.87 a month or $1,642.50 a year. Double that if you and your significant other are smokers or if you smoke 2 packs a day. A cost of $3,285 out the window every year, but for this exercise let’s keep it at $1,642.50.