[Bookie]

One of the things that made the no-spend Challenge profitable for me was that I focused on my cash in hand. I saved what I didn't spend, and at the close of the Challenge, I banked a hundred dollars. Aside from food and gas, all the savings were from the little odds and ends I would normally buy in the course of a week or two. Nothing extravagant or even self-indulgent, but not especially needed or rewarding either.

Somebody coined the expressions "latte factor" to describe the money that dribbles through our fingers in the course of the week in the form of habitual spending. Meaningless in the moment, it adds up over time. Nothing wrong with designer coffee, but do I really want that $4 java jolt on the way to work when the alternative is $900 more in savings annually? My choice, but to make it I have to be conscious of my spending.

Little things do add up. My morning paper at fifty cents a copy ($2 Sunday) is a $260 hit at the end of the year. Worth it? Judgment call, but worth thinking about. The point is that we nickle and dime our budgets to death and then wonder why we can't or don't save.