Snack, Lunch or Coffee…Neither!

Hungry and desperately searching for quarters in my drawer and wallet, I was relieved when I scrambled enough money for a snack. For some odd reason right after lunch every day at work my stomach gives me hint hint growling signals that it is ready for a sweet treat. I give in and make my way to the snack machine. Hit with tough choices I stand for 5 minutes trying to decide if I want a Snickers bar or Twix. Finally voluntarily my fingers dial D4 and my favorite snack is in front of me in no time. Trying to avoid facing nutrition facts, I quickly rip off the package and take a first bite of fat laden amazingly tasting extra large cinnamon roll. My stomach gives me thumbs up as I make my way back to my desk. In 10 minutes I start to contemplate if my $0.85 cent snack was good for my body and my wallet.

I knew that my body was receiving only temporarily satisfaction consuming 1000 calories in one setting, while my arteries were probably screaming for help. My wallet most likely cringes every time I search for change to use on snacks. While trying to debate if I want to give in to my snack temptation this week, I realized that I am not following my tightwad nature. Simply said, I am throwing money away, every time I select D4 on the snack machine. By doing simple calculations this is what I came up with. If I buy two snacks a week that comes to $1.70 dollars, which doesn’t seem like a lot of money at first. But if I look in terms of a year, that comes out to $90.10! Now that’s a lot of money!!!

I want to take our calculations a step further. Occasionally I go out to eat with my co-workers and spend about $6 on my lunch. Now, if I was to go out to eat once a week and spend on average $5 dollars on my meal that would add up to $265 dollars a year. Oh yeah, and what if we did coffee spending calculations. Thankfully I do not like coffee, but let’s hypothetically say that on my way to work I stop and buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks for $3 dollars twice a week. My coffee addiction would cost me $318 dollars a year. CRAZY! Now lets add up all the spending that we calculated thus far… snacks $90.10 dollars plus lunches $265 dollars plus coffee $318 dollars. Drum roll please….that comes out to $673.10 dollars a year!!! Hmmm…what can I do with $673 dollars….quite a lot and you?!?!