What's that coffee costing you?

On Thursdays I like to grocery shop early in the morning before work.  The crowds are smaller and it ensures I get the items on my list. 
My Thursday route has me driving by two coffee shops to get from the grocery store to work.  I am amazed at how many people are getting coffee at coffee shops this early in the morning.  I am an addict, for those that don't know I probably consume on average 6 cups a day so I get the addiction. But when you leave your home to get coffee you are wasting money.  Plus, is it safe for a coffee junkie to leave their house and operate a car before they have a mug of java?

I make a mug at home, and one for my to go cup for my commute.  Today I saw lines to these coffee shops that went to the road.  I am speechless, and spent my drive to work thinking about how much this is costing the take out coffee drinker.

You have all heard of the latte factor, but let's just think about the regular coffee factor.  Let's assume you go two times a day for a cup of coffee at the coffee shop.  I did the math in the car on the way to work.   Each cup would be $2, so $4 a day.  Let's pretend you do this each week day for a year.  That low $4 a day is $20 a week.  Over the span of 52 weeks, that is $1040.  WOW that's a big number. But hey, you need a treat and a fix I get it.

Curiosity got to me. I am asked almost daily how we paid off our house, these little things are how.  I hopped on my Ipad to my favourite mortgage calculator website.  I typed in a $100,000 mortgage, for 25 years.  I ran a one time payment of $1040 into that mortgage and wait until you see what those two cups of coffee are costing you over the term of your mortgage... $2781!!!!!  Putting that coffee money on your mortgage is going to save you $2781.  I needed to state that again.
Hopefully reading these numbers will help you see that you can be in charge of your financial destiny.

I'm not saying don't get a coffee from time to time, I'm saying cut back. I'm even going to give you permission to buy a fancy reusable mug to encourage you to use it.
It pays to be frugal. 

What's Your Networth?

Have you ever sat down and dreamt about your future?  If not, I encourage you to do it with your partner soon. Talk about all the things you want to do in your retirement years.  My husband dreams about going to all the ball parks to watch baseball games.  I want to explore in an RV and see where we end up.  These two dreams can mesh together.
We also want to explore Europe  ( one of us wants to stay in hostels, one of us wants nice hotels) but for these dreams we need money. We will compromise and do a bit of both.
Below are 2 great calculators to help figure out if you are on the path to see your retirement dreams come true.
I change the rate of return on the Chris Hogan  RIQ I don’t get 10% on my investments, I am a moderate risk investor.
The NETWORTH calculator also puts your spending and possessions into perspective.

https://www.sunlife.ca/ca/Learn+and+Plan/Tools+and+Calculators/Net+worth+calculator?vgnLocale=en_CA

https://www.chrishogan360.com/riq-tool/#slide=0

It pays to be frugal.

Pay Down Your Mortgage

(I used to use the PC Financial mortgage calculator to help figure out the savings, since it is no longer available I am using the CIBC calculator that can be found at the bottom of this post.  All numbers are on $100,000 bi-weekly payments so you can multiply by 2 if your mortgage is $200,000 or 1.5 for $150,000 etc. )


There are lots of arguments to talk you out of putting extra money on your mortgage.  Some people told us things like "You will always have a house payment" or "My money makes more in investments" but we didn't see it like that.  Yes, your money will make more in investments most of the time, but the peace of mind to know that there aren't any more payments is priceless. 
However, we worked hard to pay ours off quickly, and it was worth every moment.

Without making any extra payments, the first five years would see $10,993 going to principal and $24,933 in interest!  GROSS more for interest in the first five years then to the principal.  You would be left owing $89,007. 

We started small, and every Friday we used to order pizza and it cost us over $20.  Instead, we bought frozen pizza or Pink Sticker deli pizzas. The deli pizzas are very yummy, but aren't always in our freezer.  They freeze and cook very well.  We  put the extra money each Friday from this one choice on our mortgage.  $20 a week x52 weeks is an additional $1040. WOW we used to eat over a grand in pizza a year! Chomp on that for a moment.
Sticking that extra $20 on as an extra payment every Friday sees $17,085 in principal, and $24,040 in interest and $82,915 owing.  Your 5200 in extra payments is saving you $892 and time off of your total months owing on your mortgage.  (Assuming you did this for the whole mortgage)This example has the house paid off in 19 years.
Your extra payments from PIZZA will have saved you $21,486 off your mortgage and 6 years off your amortization.

Once we saw the principal going down a bit each week, we got motivated.  We began to find other ways to pay it off fast.  Play around with the calculator and see what inspires you.
I also suggest making a chart to track your progress.
It Pays to be Frugal.

https://www.cibc.com/ca/mortgages/calculator/mortgage-payment.html https://www.cibc.com/ca/mortgages/calculator/mortgage-payment.html

Vacation Fund

Oh I’m a planner.  To the point those that know me well know I have vacations planned for at least two years in advance.  While many don’t want to plan this far ahead, it helps me be able to travel without debt when it is in the budget.  There are times we are spontaneous but not often!

Our trips to Disney are always planned at least two years in advance. I know that they cost roughly 5,000 so we need to save $210 a month in our trip budget. 

We also budget and plan our other vacations.  We do a google search for flights and hotels in the area and divide it by how many months until the trip. We add $100 for each day we are away for food to get a close estimate on the price. 

We have a bank account to deposit our vacation funds.  Monthly we deposit all of our change, money from selling things we no longer use, Cash Back Apps Cheques, money from cashing out loyalty points,SCOP money and coupon money.   

Traveling is fun but doing it on a budget and planning also makes it stress free

It pays to be frugal. 

Coupon Terms

I made a post this week and used the Phrase "Cashed Out" and it caused a bit of confusion.  My life has been immersed in the couponing world for over 10 years and I often forget that terms are not known to everyone.
I'm going to make a list of terms and abbreviations that I use to help you out as a resource guide.  If there are others that I use that I don't include fire me off a message and I'll gladly respond.

CASH OUT-  I look at all the points that are sitting in loyalty cards as money.  While they only have a value within their loyalty card, there is a cash equivalent.  When the points are redeemed that is referred to as  CASHING OUT. For example, 20 000 PC Optimum points has a value of $20.  Upon 'cashing out' redeeming the points, I take $20 out of my budget and place it either on debt or in my vacation fund.

SCOP  (SCANNING CODE OF PRACTICE) Almost every store in Canada practices this but some need to be reminded since it is a loss to the company.  Always watch the register. If the shelf or flyer says the item is $5.99 and it rings in as $6.25 or any amount higher, you get the first one for free and all the others at the correct price.  If the item is over $10, $19.99 on the shelf and rings up as $20.50 you receive $10 off the item and should only pay $9.99 for the item.  If you end up getting the item for free it is a surprise.  Take that money from your budget and flop it on your DEBT it is FREE MONEY

PM- Price Match   No Frills, Giant Tiger and Walmart Price Match.  If you see the exact item advertised cheaper at another store show the flyer or the FLIPP app to the cashier and the first 4 items are at the competitor's price.  This will cut down on racing from store to store when shopping  No Frills no longer will PM to drug stores

BOGO- BUY ONE GET ONE FREE  Be careful with this.  There are always items that this is truly a remarkable deal, but most of the items are cheaper to buy 2 when there is a sale in the flyers.  If you are using coupons during a BOGO only one is permitted since only one item is being purchased

MIR- MAIL IN REBATE  Sometimes items have a MIR form on the back.  When the bar code and receipt are mailed with the form 4-6 weeks later the company sends you a cheque for a predetermined amount.  I then deposit this money back into my bank account since the money came from the budget originally.

NO NAME- Store brand of item vs the brand name.  Our Compliments is the No Name brand vs Lays

ONE COUPON PER TRANSACTION- Some coupons have written on the back that only one coupon can be used per order.  Not many actually say this, but if they do break your items into 2 transactions if you have more then one item with that coupon. 

ONE COUPON PER PURCHASE- Oh this one confuses people.  This means that one coupon can be used for each of the items.  For example, a coupon to save $1 off of a yogurt stating one per purchase you can use 15 coupons if you have 15 yogurts.

STACKING-  Back in the glory days of couponing, as long as each coupon had a different bar code some stores would let you use multiple coupons for one item.  This has pretty much been stopped

AM- Air Miles

GC- GIFT CARD  I try to use Gift Cards in my budget it helps me stay within the budget and it also helps earn me more points a few times a year when there are promotions with bonus points with purchase

OOP- This one stands for OUT OF POCKET  There are times when a deal is so good that only the tax is what I need to pay for, and that is referred to by couponers as Out of Pocket, the  money actually spent on the item.  For example, I had a $2 off coupon for shaving gel last year and it was on sale for $1.99  I just had to pay the taxes (taxes are ALWAYS on the item price before coupons) so OOP I paid 30 cents per can.  SCORE

CO51- Check Out 51 is a Cash Back app on your devices.  Receipts are uploaded and when $20 is hit in the account you can cash out and have a legit check mailed out to you

SDM- Shopper's Drug Mart

SS- Super Store

GT- Giant Tiger

PC PRESIDENT'S CHOICE 

It pays to be frugal.  Join Guess Who's Cheap on Facebook and my EBOOKS by Meghan Savings on Amazon

Jugs of Water

Ok, I have no idea if this idea saves you money, but it does save water.
I fill our water bottles and water jugs and keep them in the fridge.  I read online that if a fridge is full of items and water bottles and it will take less energy to power the fridge.  If nothing else, this tip helps my will.  I no longer turn the tap on and let it run until my water is cold.  Storing water bottles in the fridge at least keeps my water cold.
It pays to be frugal.

Know How Much You Use

Ok, this post and tip takes planning.  I wanted to know how much toilet paper my family uses.  I get coupons for toilet paper from time to time, and stock up.  However, there are times when I think my stock pile of toilet paper is excessive.

I wanted to know how much we use in an average year, and try to always have a year supply of it on hand.  In order to do that I needed to do some calculating and test my patience.
I filled up a section of our hall linen closet with 90 rolls of toilet paper. It took us 4 months to use it all.  Now I know that I need 270 rolls of toilet paper for the year.  As I fill up the linen closet with toilet paper, I will look to replenish the same amount when coupons are available.  No way would I pay regular price for toilet paper, sometimes its $9.99 and I get it for $2.99 with coupons.
It seems like a lot of work for me to figure this out, but it is one of the tips I do to save money.
It pays to be frugal.