How many times a week do you purchase those get-my-day-started, caffeine-laden drinks? Three times a week? Five? At an average cost of $2.95, you are spending about $450 per year. Think about what you could do with $450 if you didn’t spend it on your daily jumpstart.

$450 could be a plane ticket for a vacation, a new smartphone, an annual subscription to the symphony, or any number of other opportunities that you may have wanted to fit into your budget but weren’t surehow.

Casual spending is one of the most difficult habits to change. I know from experience. When I had cash in my pocket, it seemed to disappear. At the end of the week, I had a difficult time remembering where that $20 bill went. I decided to change my casual spending habit and created aneasy 1-2-3 tracking method that I want to share with you:

• 1.    Recognize my casual spending and set a limit perpay period.
• 2.    Withdraw the casual spending amount once at thebeginning of the pay period. When it is gone, it is gone until the next payperiod.
• 3.    Keep all receipts and review them at the end ofthe week as a reminder of where I spent the money.

By using this easy method of tracking my cash, I have becomemore mindful of my casual spending. After using this method for a year, I developed a better understanding of where my casual dollars go. This has worked well for me and now I usually have money left at the end of the week that I canput into my investment account. As a result of my new habit I have been able to increase my personal wealth. That’s what I call win-win.

Anne Lee
Director of Operations