Have you ever noticed how easy it is to spend money? We’re sure you have; we certainly have. It is easy to spend money in general (you spend a ton of it on food, housing, and other bills and necessities in your life alone), but it is especially easy to spend it on tiny little things that hardly add enough value to your life to be considered anything more than wasteful.
Some people spend a lot on fancy coffee shop beverages, takeout food, random nick nacks, bar tabs — you name it. Choose your kryptonite. (Count the TFD team guilty on all counts here — we’ve certainly been responsible for our share of lattes and margaritas that we probably shouldn’t have been spending on.) It is understandable (and genuinely okay!) to have affordable vices. If you can afford it comfortably and your daily espresso beverage keeps you going, power to you — you don’t have to give up every little thing that gives you joy to have a well-rounded financial life. But the problem with these types of sneaky expenses is how they add up.
You’ve heard of the Latte Factor before (yawn) and you’re probably annoyed with it, because truth be told, it is annoying. It is annoying to imagine that the only thing you need to do to ~become a millionaire~ is to stop hitting up the Starbucks drive-thru before work. And luckily for us, many more people are hovering in the “the Latte Factor is some bullshit” camp these days than the camp that advocates for spending on literally nothing but necessities and living a life completely devoid of any joyful, extra spending. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t be aware of how fast your small expenses add up, and do what you can to curb them.
In the most recent video over on the TFD YouTube channel, Erin talks us through a topic we all need to figure out: how not to waste money. She gives a few tips on how to break the small spending habits that might be preventing you from saving in the big ways we know you want to. So, if you’re having a hard time breaking your habit of grabbing an $8 bottle of nail polish when you run to the store to pick up toilet paper, or ordering a burrito three times per week when you’re feeling too lazy to cook the perfectly good groceries in your fridge, or any other small spending habit that you know is adding up to a much heavier weight than you ever intended, check out Erin’s tips in this week’s installment of the 3-Minute Guide, brought to you by Skillshare.
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