$30 is NOT pocket change. $30 will buy you a nice blouse at Ann Taylor on sale. Add $20 to it, and it is a cheap scanner on amazon. There are a number of things one can buy for $30. When deciding to buy something, I found it is useful to think in terms of what else the same amount of money would buy. Really helps to put things into perspective.

OK, so they bought new shoes, attended a birthday party, spent $30 for wine and a present. Did they do it every day? A trip to Lowe? Any trip is a major expense, so you always need to know in advance how much you expect to spend, even if you don’t have a budget.

By the way, where I work there are lots of highly paid engineers and scientists. Yet, there is always a line to the microwaves. Sure, the majority buy in the cafeteria (thank god for that, I don’t want to wait longer for microwaves…), but quite a lot bring food from home. And our salaries are way above national average. Unless you are super-busy, there is absolutely no reason to buy lunch. Besides, home-made meal is usually better and healthier.

Then there’s those unplanned expenses again. I had a problem with a fog bank and a deer and now I am restarting my emergency fund because of paying to fix the damage. (I will get that article finished one of these days, J.D.) Spare time, what is that? Spare money? HA!

[...] read an article over at Get Rich Slowly that really resonated with me. Called Sweating the Small Stuff, it points out how $30 a day expenditures can easily add up to 10K over a year’s [...]

If you or your spouse lose your job, there’s typically nothing you can do to lower the car or house payment, unless you take the drastic step of selling the car or house. You can, however, cut out all of your “frivolous” spending — but only if you have frivolous spending to begin with. So, that habitual “frivolous” spending actually acts as sort of a cushion when things get bad, as long as you don’t get yourself into consumer debt (Warren is very much against consumer debt — she deprecates credit cards in favor of cash).

And that’s a point she makes in both of her books — Americans, in general, are allocating too much of their incomes to “Must-Have” expenses (Big Stuff)– typically by buying too much house for their income. Warren’s nightmare scenario is when a married couple decides to cut out all of the so-called “latte factor” purchases in order to afford a bigger house payment, and at times some financial gurus seem to advocate doing just that.

Also try varying your condiments. Instead of just mayo, mustard, ketchup, try hummus (very good with turkey), roasted eggplant spread (baba ganouj), red pepper relish (ajvar or romesco), and all sorts of chutneys and other relishes. Mix pesto or chimichurri into mayo; it goes well with turkey or roast beef.

But some dangerously interpret it as “don’t pay attention to daily life”, and end up with all sorts of problems.

[...] One of my personal finance blog favorites, Get Rich Slowly, looks at Sweating the Small Stuff [...]

it’s not the last straw that breaks the camel’s back, it is the accumulative weight of all the straw that does.

I try to track our spending but don’t keep up with it enough. I often enter receipts into Quicken 3 weeks after the purchase.

I think if your personal concept of money is right, it will apply to all your purchases, large and small.

But, I also think there is an element of “Do what works for you” involved here. Some people are penny wise and pound foolish, while others will haggle over a car only to fritter away the savings on lattes.

I don’t think we should judge either too harshly. Some people will deny themselves to save up for the big payoff (i.e. the sports car). Others don’t care about such things and are more interested in the simple daily pleasures, like a bottle of wine at a dinner party. As long as you’re not squandering your retirement on either, do what makes you happy.

I spent 5 minutes using the $5 off $20 coupon at walgreens to buy discount stamps. Then I also spent 15 mins to buy cheaper public transit tickets on Craigslist. While I saved 20% on public transit tickets for 15 minutes, it seems like the small stuff lately doesn’t amount to bigger savings.

So it’s a balance of both can make big dents in the budget and overall goals.

I don’t necessarily agree that small stuff should be dealt with in minute detail — because if a proper budget is in place (which is a ‘big stuff’ item in my book), then things like this wouldn’t happen so easily. I personally don’t track every dollar I spend, but I *do* follow my weekly budget — I can have what I want if the money is in my pocket. Period. If there are unexpected expenses that must be paid (e.g. I have some upcoming dental work that won’t be covered by insurance), then I tap my emergency fund. If I’m over-budget for more than a single week, I look at what I’ve been paying for and make adjustments, and/or I consciously plan a couple weeks where I do less, and make up the money I’ve taken from my savings account.

That said, anybody who has $10,000 unaccounted for in their spending clearly has a SEVERELY broken budgeting system. Not sweating the stuff works great for me, but is unquestionably a humongous unworkable dream for the author of the article given their horribly undisciplined spending practices.

Best Wishes,
D4L

Because I’m not interested in accumulating wealth. I’m interested in having enough.

If I pay myself first with what I need to save, then I know I have enough – and it really doesn’t matter if I go to Starbucks, if I buy a dessert to bring over to a friend’s house, if I buy a new pair of shoes. If it’s coming out of the money I don’t need, what’s the problem?

For me, THAT is the core message of All Your Worth.

Keep in mind that, if you can lose large sums of money a little bit at a time, you can also save large amounts of money a little bit at a time. Turn the thermostat down two degrees, brush your teeth in the shower, turn the lights off in an empty room. Small, painless changes like this can save big money over the course of a year.