Surprisingly, there was one benefit to this H-E-double hockey stick-ISH humidity heat wave that hit Toronto this past week. Being a winter person, I only ventured outside to get to work and to get home. No need for morning coffee, too scared to go outside and buy lunch, no evening adventures either. Evenings were instead spent praying to my little apartment air conditioner to stay strong during that trying time.
A happy by-product of this time of trial was the extra cash still sitting in my wallet. I was far too hot to grab a coffee on the way in. Or pick up a frozen meal for lunch. Brown bagging lunch and only drinking half frozen bottled water for an entire week kept the wallet in the pocket. Simple, seemingly harmless spending habits can easily add up. Sometimes a pastry will accompany that large double-double, which runs you at least $2. Multiply that by 5, and you’ve spent $10/week . That frozen meal isn’t cheap either. Generally they are around $5. Times that by 5 and you’ve spent $25/week for a grand total of $35/week on a combination of sugary baked goods and processed food. That right there is a movie night in an air conditioned theatre (with ultra small popcorn and two thimbles of pop).
Now $35 a week doesn’t result in a dream vacation home in Hawaii, but it can be enough to give you that little bit of room at the end of month when the bills come in. If anything at all, it is something to think about. Take a look at what you passed by when exiting one air conditioned building to enter another. Did you have a little cash in your wallet this Friday? Did time stop because you skipped that coffee and muffin?
Take an inventory of what wasn’t purchased this week. Maybe use it as an excuse to break that habit. If there is extra money in that wallet, let that be the incentive.
{ 1 comment }
Yes this heat is a killer for some of us, funny how in the throws of a heatwave or a snowstorm we tend to gravitate to the simple things like sitting back and relaxing at home and saving a ton of cash in the meantime. Who knew a heatwave could be a forced savings plan!
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