I have a co-worker who goes out to Starbucks to buy coffee every morning. Today he paid $3.50. x20 day a month, x11 month (maybe vaction, sick...) and the total came up to $770!

Now I understand why I can go to Europe or other interesting places, and he stays at home to relax!

It's amazing how those dollars add up! And more amazing seeing the numbers on the calculator tape.

I've had co-workers who drank two a day every work day. With the afternoon fix they got a pastry too. Try multiplying that out!

Don't forget 4 bucks a day for a pack of cigarettes, 365 days a year. Is it just 4 bucks anymore? I don't smoke so I don't really know.

For indytravrel's example:

($3.50x2)x20 days/month x 12 months =$1680/yr in latte's plus
$5x365 (assuming they smoke on days off from work) = $3500/yr for trips - if you forgo Starbucks and cigarettes. That's ONE European vacation a year.

What about?:

$750 for cable in lieu of rabbit ears?

Caller id and all those other unnecessay phone add-on fees?

Keeping a car for 5 years after it's paid for?

Anyway you make a good point: Cut a little waste and most people can afford to get away to Europe 3 or 4 times a year.

I can easily live without the coffee and cigs, but don't touch my caller ID. I've got inlaws . . .

<most people can afford to get away to Europe 3 or 4 times a year>

I could probably save up the money but no way my job would never let me have 6 to 8 weeks vacation every year unfortunately!

Saving money on little things is how we managed to buy a house in the SF Bay Area as well. It definitely adds up.

We haven't been on any overseas vacations yet, but we are going next summer. First we wanted to buy the house before we started spending too much money on trips - you know, priorities and all that. Now that we have the house, we can funnel some of our money into vacations.

Italy, here we come!

There are people at my DH's work that buy lunch every day so multiply that one out! It's so quick and easy to make a lunch. DH and I both take our lunches to work. DH prefers my lunches to eating out.

Utahtea

"And more amazing seeing the numbers on the calculator tape."

Caculator tape? I guess you also saved some cash by not replacing your adding machine!

My husband and I own one car. Sharing is hard at times... But car expenses are huge. He is able to walk to work.

I bought a house in Michigan with the money I saved from exactly the above examples.

But more than those, I think the make-up, clothes, shoes, nails, tan spa habit is worse. I am in company of women/girls who can not pay back a school loan but can get their nails done at $40 a shot every 10 days.

Oh, JJ5, I hear you! So many of my friends spend money without hesitation on things like that ($95 for a makeup brush???) and then tell me, "Gee, I wish I could afford to go to Europe."

Even if my work won't allow for a multi-week vacation in Europe, I can still have a 4 or 5 day weekend each month, or more.

It really comes down to where one's spending priorities are. With Southwest at my local airport, one month of my neighbor's cable/roadrunner bill is more than many of my round-trip flight fares plus sometimes even a night or two of lodging in addition to that.

I guess I should divulge that I moonlight at a chain hotel, so get very good rates when I travel, so really, I save twice by doing that.

Jocelyn_P, you promised not to tell! ;-)

I hear you all! I don't buy coffee, don't smoke, hardly drink, seldom eat out, basic cable only, do my nails myself, don't have a phone ID, don't need a car in San Francisco, don't own a house.

If I add all of the above - I've saved more then I've earned! SO WHY AM I STILL POOR????

TAke a look at the Prada/Kate Spade(?) handbag thread herein--it's amazing what people can find to waste their money on. I'd rather travel (e.g., to Spain, eating locally bought food on picnics and drinking the local wine) than trot around showing off a purse the price of which a select few will "appreciate".

As rb_travelerxATyahoo has said, it all comes down to what your spending priorities are.

I don't spend much money on "extra" things as others have also posted about not doing - like the rest of you, I like to save it in a travel fund.

But sylvia3, I wouldn't be so quick to criticize what others are spending their money on as "wasteful". It all comes down to personal preference and there's nothing wrong with that.

It's funny, one person's extras are another one's necessities. For example, some of my teacher friends color their own hair to save money. I tried that and was not happy w/the results so go to a professional. Sure I could walk around looking prematurely gray and save enough money over the cost of a year to buy another 2 tickets to Italy, but I would be miserable! (and I'd look hideous in my vacation photos LOL)

On the otherhand, there are other things I do to save money for trips and life in general--yes, packing lunches is one thing...basic cable...living by the never pay retail rule...and we drive cars til they practically die on their own.

I think it's a balance that each person has to figure out themselves. What I don't get is how people could run up their credit cards to go on a trip and then pay gobs of finance charges. That would take all the fun out of it for me.

Here's another perspective on economizing: I'm a renter and travel pretty cheaply. I've calculated that I could buy a small house here in the SF Bay Area by just skipping vacations for the next 250 years.

You mean, if I switched from dark microbrew and foreign beers to Pabst or Schlitz, I could manage a European vacation with my wife every year? Italian, Australian, French and California red wines to Boone's Farm, too?

Sorry, I exaggerated. I forgot to factor in the money I'd be saving by not paying rent. So it would really only take about 150 years. I'm really going to miss those vacations....