TFV Blog Money Management Feeding the Vending Machines
Feeding the Vending Machines
Do you have any idea how much money you feed into a vending machine during the week?
It is easy to lose track on money when it is a dollar or two at a time. Oh sure, it doesn’t seem like much but it adds up. Let’s say you pay a soda pop once a day from the machine. The soda costs $1,25. You work five days a week. That is $6.25 a week or $25 a month.
Doesn’t sound too bad right? But what about the chips and candy bar you buy as well. If chips are $.75 each and a candy bar is $.85 again once each day of your work week. That is another $8.00 a week that you fed into the machine.
So between soda, chips and a candy bar that is $57 each month that you are losing one dollar at a time. Think about this, over the course of the year you have spend $684 just on vending machines. For many people that would pay of a small balance credit card.
Sounds ridicules? Well, it’s not, this is a real life situation that I ran into while coaching a client.
What are you spending in the vending machine each week? Take a good look as this may be part of the reason your budget isn't balancing.
So what do you do while at work and you want a soda or some chips? You plan this out while you are doing your grocery shopping. It is much cheaper in the long run to buy soda at the grocery store and little snack size chip bags and bring them to work with you instead of feeding the vending machine.
So what would the difference be? An eight pack of soda is $2.50, that is just $.31 cents a can (as opposed to $1.25) weekly savings on just soda alone is $3.75 or $15 a month, just with this small change you saved $180 for the year.
Imagine if you did the same with the chips and candy bar...actually you may find you pick healthier snacks when they are planned for the week and purchase at the grocery store.
Are you going to keep feeding a vending machine or start feeding yourself those dollars?