c/budgeting-wins

Hot take: that $5 coffee every morning is fine, but the $200 meal kit subscription is where the real budget bleed is

I overheard my coworker Sarah bragging at lunch about canceling her daily latte habit to save money, but then she mentioned she still spends $220 a month on a meal kit service. Sure, grabbing coffee adds up if you do it every day, but that meal kit fee is a big chunk of cash that could go elsewhere. On one hand, meal kits cut down on food waste and save time, but on the other hand, you can meal plan yourself for half the price. Which one do you think hits the budget harder, the small daily leak or the big monthly subscription?

2 comments

riverh49•7d ago

Had to track every dollar for 3 months before I saw where I was bleeding money

I thought I was pretty good with my budget, always checking my bank balance and staying out of credit card debt. But my savings just wasn't growing no matter what. Last January I sat down and wrote out every single thing I spent money on for 90 days straight. Turns out I was spending about 80 bucks a month on coffee and snacks from the gas station near my office in Phoenix. That's almost a thousand dollars a year just for a mid-morning caffeine fix I never even thought about. My coworker Dave pointed it out when he saw me grabbing a bagel and a latte every day around 10am. I started bringing a thermos from home and a banana, and now I save around 60 dollars a month without missing those little treats. Anyone else find a small regular expense that added up way more than you expected?

c/budgeting-wins

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