50 Cents

50 cents doesn't sound like much does it and it really isn't. Odds are you could come up with 50 cents in just a matter of seconds. No problem, piece of cake, right? So what if we came up with 50 cents per day what would that get you? Let's say you work 5 days a week and save 50 cents per day for those five days. On Friday you'll have $2.50 set aside. Let's assume each month has 4 weeks. At the end of the month you'll have $10.00 saved. Do that for 12 months and at the end of the year you'll have $120 saved. Now let's assume you're really committed and save 50 cents per day even on the days when you're not working. At the end of each week you'll have $3.50. Each month you'll save $14 and each year you'll save $168. I know $120 - $168 per year really isn't anything to get terribly excited about is it. For Donna and me those amounts would cover a good portion of our cell phone bill but still it honestly doesn't excite me too much.

I do get excited when I think about what that measly 50 cents per day can do for me as far as getting out of debt. Because Donna and I are so focused on getting rid of our debt right now we are looking for any and everything we can do to get our income up so that we'll have more money to pay on bills. Let's bring our friend Jack back for a moment. As a quick recap Jack is a fictional character with 3 outstanding debts: Lowe's credit card with $550 balance, $15 per month minimum payment, 18% interest, Student Loan of $6800, $100 minimum payment, 6.8% interest and Visa card with $2200 balance, $50.00 per month minimum payment, 12% interest. Using Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball method Jack will be out of debt in April 2018 after paying $2685 in interest. Now let's take that $10.00 Jack saved each day at work and see what adding $10 towards his bills each month gets him. Jack will be out of debt in Oct 2017 after paying $2374.68 in interest. He'll save $399 interest payments and will be out of debt 1 year, 5 months sooner. Finally let's see what $14.00 per month extra does for Jack. Jack will be out of debt in Aug 2017 after paying $2281.32 in interest payments. He'll save $492 in interest payments and will be out of debt 1 year 7 months sooner.

So how can you manage to save 50 cents per day when it seems like every dollar you have is already spoken for? Here's a few ideas for you:

• Suppose you buy lunch 5 days a week. Bring your lunch one or two days per week. Assuming lunch costs $7.00 you've just saved two weeks worth.
• Buy a soda from the machine each day? Bring one instead. Our vending machines offer bottles for $1.25 and cans for 75 cents. Let's assume a 12-pack of soda cost $4.00. That works out to about 34 cents per soda. By not buying from the vending machine you'll save between 41 to 91 cents each time you skip the vending machine
• Skip the goodies in the other vending machine. Some example prices for items in our vending machine. Crunch and Munch Popcorn - 55 cents, Pork Skins (my favorite) - 65 cents, Checxmix - 85 cents, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - $1.00. I'm not about to say you can't indulge in these things I'm just recommend you don't indulge in them as much as you normally would.
• Check the console/change holder in your car. I just checked mine and came up with $1.68
• Check your junk drawer in your desk. Just scored an additional $1.85 from mine
• Would you like to supersize that? Nope. Save that cost which I'm sure is more than 50 cents
• Coupons. Combine a couple and you'll have your 50 cents daily savings

50 cents per day isn't much but as you can see it can make a big difference. Good luck discovering ways to come up with your 50 cents each day. If you have a good idea please share it!