Where is Your Money Going?

As perhaps one of the most frustrating things about living, money problems just never seem to go away for most people. Most people, that is, that don’t pay attention to where they spend their money.

Here is a simple way to not only determine where your money is going, but what would happen if you made one small change.

Typically, our cash is spent on 2 things… 1) things that are necessary, 2) things that are unnecessary.

We know that those necessary things are going to be coming out of our check each week or month, but what is up with those unnecessary things?

First of all, it isn’t necessarily wrong to spend money on things that aren’t necessities to us. Some things we spend money on bring us small pleasures that help us get through the unyielding struggles of life. But if we want to get ahead, we need to determine which things we purchase that are not only unnecessary, but also unwise.

Perhaps you have a daily list that’s somewhat like this…

  • morning coffee and donut
  • morning paper
  • fast food for lunch

If you quickly add up these costs, you roughly spend $8 per week-day on things that are unnecessary.

For example, you can eat breakfast at home before you leave for work and save $2.50. You can read the news free on the Internet instead of grabbing the paper and save yourself $.50. You can take your lunch to work and save $5.

What kind of impact would a small change like this make in your monthly budget? Well, let’s multiply that daily savings of $8 by the 20 work days in a month, and you will find an extra $160 showing up in your bank account in no time! Amazing, isn’t it?

As an experiment I began taking bread, lunch meat and condiments to work to eat in the break room. Over the last couple months, I have saved well over $200 on lunch alone.

So, what do you spend your money on? Try replacing those videos, gas-station sodas, and lunch-time McMoneywasters with sensible alternatives and see quickly how your bottom line is improved.

Author: Jay Jones

Jay is an author, veteran church planter, speaker, and the pastor of the Pentecostals of Kentwood. He's a passionate worshipper of Jesus Christ, a husband, daddy, pastor, and a ‘pretty good guy’. Jay is also an ordained minister of the United Pentecostal Church, where he currently serves as a Presbyter in West Michigan.

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