Trademark Your Trick

Financial guru David Bach refers to the manner in which we nickle and dime our wealth away as the "Latte Factor." He's actually trademarked the term. If at any point he starts cranking out "Latte Factor" budget guides, binders or mugs, be sure to join me in writing him some hate mail, mmkay? One of my biggest pet peeves is folks who ask you to buy useless stuff in an effort to be more frugal. Not that we all don't enjoy useless stuff, but...

Basically, Bach wants us to pay attention to where we squander small bits of cash in our daily lives. Do you buy an expensive frappuchino machiato muchacha dingaling drink everyday? How often do you hit that vending machine at work? Could you possibly put two pounds of sugar in your drink at home as a substitute for your speciality coffee excursion? Could you buy candy bars in bulk on sale and keep them in your desk drawer instead of feeding the machine a dollar a day?

I've heard a few folks whine about these types of changes, asserting that they "deserve" special treats. We all deserve good things. Is being in debt a good treat? Is neglecting to donate to your favorite charity because you can't afford it the sort of love you deserve? How much of your life are you willing to give to buying stuff that provides only a temporary sense of satisfaction? Getting our spending in line with our values isn't always the easiest task, but the harmony achieved in doing so is the greatest special treat we can give ourselves.

Financial gurus like Bach will tell you that if you invest your daily nickle and dimes, you could end up with a few hundred thousand dollars in thirty years. I've read so much conflicting advice on the validity of stock market returns (and really, more than 80 percent of stocks are held by less than 10 percent of the population, so who is really getting rich here?) that I'm not sure how accurate it is. But there's no doubt that money saved is worth far more than money squandered.

So, let's talk about my version of the "Latte Factor." I don't have a cute trademarked name. I just ask myself, "Can I do with less? Can I stretch this out?"

Stretch It Out

If you're a diva, you probably get your hair done every four weeks. Can you stretch it out to six? I realize for the fake blondes among us, this might be more difficult (oy vey, if you could only see my roots now. Ghastly!), but it can be done. I curl my hair into adorable little ringlets to hide my skanktacular rootage. It allows me to stretch the time between bleaching to eight weeks or, God help us all, even longer. A friend of mine gets a trim to clean up her look in between colorings.

You can use this principle with virtually any service. Experiment. Try asking the maid service to come every two weeks instead of weekly and feel free to send them over to my place in the interim. Out here in Southern California, people water their lawns daily, despite the fact that lawns only need one to two inches weekly. Look at any area of your busy life where you take care of something at regular intervals. Stretch it out to the point where it becomes uncomfortable. When you've reached the "oh hell no" stage, you know where your limits are. Just pull it back a bit and see how much you save.

Do With Less

Most recently, I examined my cell phone bill and realized I used half of the available minutes each month. I suspect I'm like most cell phone users. When I first started using my new fandangled gadget, I blabbed everywhere, simply because I could. In the car? Yack, yack, yack. Who needs to worry about looking at the road? In the grocery store? Blah, blah, blah. Forget those other annoyed shoppers! Look, Ma! I can talk on the phone anywhere!

Enter the $450 bill. After I called the phone company, screaming in horror, they kindly reduced my bill and put me on the more expensive plan. Ah, relief.

Then the newness wore off. The sound of the cell phone ringing started to annoy me. Just like with my home phone, I screened most calls. And whaddya know, my minutes fell drastically, but I was still paying the oh-boy-isn't-this-brand-new-thingy-fabulous?! price. Now that I've switched back to the cheaper plan, I'm saving $240 a year. Invest that in the stock market and in thirty years I'll have... more than I started with.

I applied the same logic to my Netflix subscription. Do I really need to watch three DVDs at once? Is that even physically possible? (Don't forget to check and see if you have a locally owned video rental shop nearby. Sadly, mine closed. Thank you, Netflix!) And why on God's green earth am I having coffee delivered to my door by Gevalia when I can get fair trade beans from a dozen different local sources? Oy vey.

New gadgets aren't the only area where we can cut back. Applying the "Latte Factor" logic, I started looking at all my nickle and dime adventures. How much shampoo does it realistically take to wash my hair? Is it really necessary to coat the entire length of the toothbrush with paste with a cute curl at the end like they do on commercials? Granted, some folks make their own paste from baking soda and water. That reaches my "oh hell no" level. But that's because I'm a wuss who is addicted to sweet flavors.

But, back to cutting back. Do you pay attention to how much laundry detergent you use or do you just throw a whole capful in despite the size of the load? Can you do with less sugar in that favorite recipe? On and on and on.

There are literally hundreds of ways in our daily lives to save a nickle or dime. It doesn't seem like much, but as the ol' cliche goes, "it's not what you make, it's what you spend." Saving money on the small stuff will lead to greater savings in the long run. Yes, major purchases like a car or house need careful examination, but how often do those buying frenzies actually occur? It's in our daily activities where we find the greatest opportunity to cut back and save more.