Money Saving Money: It's the little things

Happy Monday everyone!

It's been an interesting week, here, and a lot of that is directly affected by money.  This is also the first time that I've participated in The Saved Quarter Challenge for a few weeks. Let's just say that last week was rough and leave it at that?

I think I've mentioned that I have a coffee addiction? I don't know if it's an addiction, exactly, but caffeine (and only caffeine from coffee, for some reason) helps me focus (even when I'm not sleepy) so I drink a-lot of it.  Starbucks/local coffee shops used to be a line-item in my budget until I got my coffee press. Now fancy coffee is one of those things that I struggle not to buy, especially when I'm on campus and there's coffee in the kitchen (gross coffee, but beggars can't always be choosers, right?).  So, I've not been caffeinated as much as normal this week, but I have saved probably about $20 by not hitting the espresso bar every time I had a craving.

I've also struggled with not spending money on food. This. is. hard. I have food. Just not food I want to eat. I want asian food. I want Dr. Pepper. I want to make my Fiesta salad and eat it with corn chips. Those things, or the ingredients to make them aren't in my pantry, and I don't really have them in my budget either (already did grocery shopping). I've had to be really deliberate in making sure I eat all of my lentil soup, chicken parmigiana, and ham and beans that I have frozen.  I've finally whittled down the leftovers enough to justify making a taco soup, but it's still not lo-mein, or fiesta salad. In the end, though, I didn't go to the grocery store. Those little trips have probably saved me about $30.

One thing I did this week? Lowered my cable bill!  I don't watch TV much, so I figured that if I cut out my cable it wouldn't be missed. Did you know that the cable company charges MORE for internet by itself than bundled cable and internet together?  As soon as the customer service rep told me that, I asked if she could reduce my bill anyways. And so, she did. Easy-as-pie. My bill went from $68.00 to $57.00 for the same service. You can't really beat that.

What little things have you done this week?

As a side note, one of my favorite blogs has a relevent poss up this morning. Get Rich Slowly talks about How to be the CEO of your own life, and I hope you all head over there and check out the article.

Happy Monday!