New Year's Resolutions & Save $$$$

New Year's Resolution's

I have never been good at keeping any of my resolutions. Maybe it's because I make ones that are impossible to achieve or maybe I am just too lazy (probably a bit of both). But you don't have to be like me, you can succeed and you can also save $$$ while your doing it.

I recently told you how I save on my Utility/Monthly Bills, well now I am gonna tell you how to save by getting rid of some bad habits or guilty pleasures you may not need all that much.

It seems like yesterday that I was standing on my balcony in the FREEZING temps puffing away on my cigarette. Yes, I was a smoker and so was Hubby. We are both 10 months SMOKE FREE. Woohoo. It wasn't a New Year's Resolution for us, but it was way more important than that. We quit smoking for our daughter's (as well as ours and our son's) health. My daughter has Asthma. Unfortunately it did take a few times in the hospital for us to finally put down the cigarettes and quit. Hubby did it cold turkey. He is so strong. I used the patch for a day, and the rest was cold turkey. It wasn't as hard as I thought...but I will say you HAVE to be in the right mind set, or it won't happen. So how does this come to saving money?? Easy....

In Massachusetts a pack of cigarettes cost $8.50-$9.00. Can you believe that?

I was a pack a day smoker = $8.50/day

Hubby was a pack every other day = $4.25/day

Lets do the math:

$12.75/day x 365 days a year = $4653.75/yr for cigarettes

NOT SMOKING = Savings of  $4653.75/yr

Guess what my reward was for quitting (other than seeing my daugther's Asthma get under control and our health getting better)!! I got to purchase a new (new to us) vehicle. I got a Toyota Rav 4. Seeing that we no longer were buying cigarettes each month, I took that money and now we pay a monthly car payment and we are STILL saving money each month.

Hee hee...this is my GUILTY PLEASURE. It seemed like I always had one of these in my hands, no matter where I was. It was like an attachment. After realizing how much I was able to save by not smoking, I tried to figure out how much I could save by not buying Iced Coffee. I didn't stop drinking coffee...that would be NUTS. I just started to make it at home myself. Iced or Hot depending on my mood. I was up to about 3 of these a day somedays. So I had to stop buying them. It was like handing Dunkin's my Hubby's paycheck LOL.

1 Medium Iced Coffee = $2.48

$2.48 x 2/day = $4.96

$4.96 x 365 days = $1810.40/yr

Homemade Coffee = Savings of $1810.40/yr

**I do occasionally get my guilty pleasure**

Plus I do have to purchase the coffee, filters, cream and Sweetner (but thats what my coupons are for hee hee)

So here's the deal. Not only is making a New Year's Resolution a great way to get healthy, lose weight, cut back on your guilty pleasures, but its a new beginning and a new way to save and then in turn possibly put that money towards something better.

I was able to save

$6464.15

a Year by quitting smoking and making my own coffee.