Andy Hough

Stuff I Don’t Spend Much Money On: Starbucks and Apple

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I have never made a purchase at Starbucks or purchased an Apple product. I’m guessing that puts me in the minority of U.S. consumers.

It isn’t difficult for me to not buy anything at Starbucks since I don’t like coffee. I used to work at a pizza shop and we would trade pizza for Starbucks. Since I don’t like coffee, I would get a smoothie. The smoothies were good, but not good enough that I would buy one with my own money.

There has been a little more temptation to buy an Apple product, but it has still been pretty easy to not buy an Apple product so far. I did get a free Shuffle as part of a promotion contest. Since I’m not that big of a music fan I didn’t use it much and ended up giving it away. The iPhone is somewhat tempting. From what I have seen it is better than my particular Android phone. Until recently though an iPhone would have cost me 4 or 5 times more than my Android phone and I don’t think the iPhone is that much better. Now that they are offering iPhones on prepaid plans I will consider getting one when I need to replace my current phone. I still won’t be willing to pay much of a premium to get an iPhone though.

Not buying Starbucks hasn’t really saved me money since I still spend plenty of money on dining out. If I had an expensive coffee habit, I think I would reduce my dining budget to offset the coffee cost. Not buying an iPhone has saved me a lot of money since my current phone plan is only $25 a month which is much cheaper than any iPhone plan available when I bought my phone.

There is nothing wrong with buying Starbucks or Apple products as long as you can afford them. You don’t need to buy them just because everybody else does though.

The Importance of Saving Small Amounts of Money – Giveaway

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I am sponsoring another giveaway with several other bloggers. This giveaway will last from October 15-26. There will be a main prize of $25 PayPal cash and 5 smaller prizes of $5.

The theme of this giveaway is the importance of saving small amounts of money. Since I don’t make much money it is easy for me to see how saving small amounts of money is to me. Even if you make more saving small amounts of money is important. If you keep a budget or track your expenses you will see how quickly small purchases add up. The latte factor illustrates how avoiding small expenses can lead to big savings. The small savings you make today can lead to big savings later.

Click on the widget below to see all the different ways you can enter the giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stuff I Don’t Spend Much Money On – Clothes

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One of the ways I manage to spend very little is by not spending much on clothes. I had to buy some undershirts for my new job this week which doubled my clothing expenditure for the year. My only previous clothing expense for the year was for underwear. I estimate that I generally spend less than $100 on clothing.

I don’t have to buy clothes very often. Between getting clothes for my birthday and Christmas, getting free t-shirts from events such as 5ks or FINCON, and occasionally receiving other people’s castoffs I have almost all the clothes I need. Since I’ve had an established wardrobe at my current size the only clothes I need in a typical year are new socks and underwear.

I’ve found that my pants and shirts take a long time to wear out. This is despite not spending much on them. My cheap clothes last a long time. I have a couple of pairs of shorts that I bought at a thrift store for $1.15 each that I’ve had for years and they get a lot of wear. I have a pair of jeans that I bought for $5 new that has also lasted for years. I don’t have a bunch of shorts and pants (due to my expanding waist line) so they get worn a lot and they still hold up. I probably have a lifetime supply of shirts. I have donated or thrown away a bunch of my old shirts to reduce my supply of shirts, but I keep getting more free shirts.

Clothes aren’t important to me so I don’t want to spend a lot of money on them. I do try to dress professionally for work. Other than that as long as I don’t look like a vagrant (or at least look like an upscale vagrant) and I’m comfortable then I’m not worried about my clothes. If I could reduce my clothing to one set of clothes for each day of the week I’d be perfectly content with that.

October 2012 Goals Update

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Last month I set a couple of goals for October and stated that I would update my progress weekly. I forgot to include my goal progress in yesterday’s post so I’m sharing my goal progress now.

My two goals for October were to lose 5 pounds and write and publish a non-fiction book. I haven’t made much progress towards either one of those goals. Starting the new job and traveling back and forth to Kansas City contributed to my lack of progress but the goals are still achievable.

On the weight loss front the news isn’t all bad. I lost 2 pounds in September without really trying. I lost half a pound the first week of October despite eating too much junk food. I’m thinking the weight loss might be because I have successfully given up soda for the past three weeks and I no longer crave it. However, I’ve replaced the soda with sweet tea. Sweet tea does seem to be gentler on my stomach and doesn’t have the additives that soda does so I think it is at least a minimal improvement.

I haven’t been tracking my food intake like I planned. If I resume tracking my food and cut back on my sweet tea and junk food intake I should get back on track to lose 5 pounds this month. Getting back on track will be my goal for this week.

I haven’t written anything for my book. I did get a cover for the book made. That was just another way to put off actually writing the book. My new plan is to start my writing as soon as I get home in the evening. If I wait until later I never feel like actually writing.

I’ll let you know Sunday how I do on my goals this week.

September Income – $738.85

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Here is a breakdown of my income for September.

Online Income

 $422.15

Interest

$0.15

Dividends

$50.69

Cash Back

$91.86

Mystery Shopping

$174

Total

$738.85

My income sharply declined in September. My online income was great in August and I expected it to go down in September but not by so much.  Online income should be better this month, but it is hard to predict. I didn’t realize I made so little in September.  Since I withdrew $400 from my forgotten savings account, took out $100 from accumulated dividends, received a $150 refund for returning my defective tablet, and started the month with a surplus in my checking from last month’s income it seemed like I had more money.

I did start a part-time job in September but the first payday isn’t until later this month.  I started a full-time job earlier this week and will receive at least one paycheck from it this month so October’s income should show significant improvement.

My other sources of passive and alternative income didn’t add up to too much. The cash back total of $91.86 wasn’t too bad though.  I got $45 from Mr. Rebates which was almost all from my referrals’ purchases. It is turning out to be a nice bit of passive income.