Calories Count
Quick: How many calories were in your latte and muffin this morning? What did they cost? How much do you spend on coffee and muffins in one year?
Many women can calculate the amount calories they ate faster than they can add up the cost of those calories (in financial terms – we all know what they will cost us on the treadmill). That ability, while great for our hips, is lousy for our budgets. Often, the little things we spend money on without really thinking about it really add up. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have your pleasures, it just means you should think about your money as you spend it.
For example at Starbucks an Iced Café Mocha is $3.10 and a muffin is $2.50. That’s $5.60 without tax. Let’s say you get both on a regular basis (5 days a week). You are spending $28.00 a week, $112.00 per month and $1,456.00 a year. If you were to cut back to 3 days a week, you would be spending $16.80 a week, $67.20 per month and $873.60 a year. By cutting down your habit from 5 days to 3, you could save $582.40 a year. Throw in taxes and you save even more.
What could you do with that money? Where to start? You could buy 1 pair of Manolo Blahnik’s (the ones you thought you could never afford), 2 pairs of Chanel Sunglasses, 3 pairs of $150+ designer jeans, 4 cashmere sweaters from J. Crew … you get the idea. Even better you could save that money (yes, I know what a novel idea – savings). If you saved it, you could earn interest on that money and make even bigger purchases later.
By the way the calories in the Iced Mocha is 320 (Grande, 2% milk and whipped cream) and approximately 420 in the muffin (if blueberry and depending on where you live – different Starbucks buy their pastries from different places).
Add comment October 31st, 2008