Monday, October 1, 2012

ten days

I was reading my favorite blog this morning, Young House Love, and John posted about his annual tradition, Aquatober. As the name suggests, he takes the whole month off from other beverages except water (and sometimes milk).

In any personal finance book or article you read, one of the suggestions you'll see over and over again is to cut out the small spending because it really adds up. The other day, I found myself justifying my Wawa coffee purchase because (and this really was my internal dialogue) "it's not like I buy $3 Starbucks everyday, or even that I buy coffee everyday. It's a twice, maybe three times a week purchase, so at $1.45 per purchase, it's less than $20 a month."

But you know what? It's still $20 I don't have at the end of the month. It's still 250 calories (in the 12 ounce; 300 in the 16 ounce) and 29 grams of sugar that I don't need to be taking in.
what 29 grams of sugar looks like (photo from Sugar Stacks)
I can probably give up Wawa coffee for a month. I can probably give up my weekend Starbucks (actually, I know I can because I don't have any money left on my card). I definitely can't give up hot tea though. But, since that pretty much is flavored water, I'm going to let that slide in. I also have four cans of Diet Pepsi in the fridge. One can by the time we leave for Disney on Wednesday. This is already not going well.

Then I discovered the 10 Days program. Created by college students back in 2007, participants drink only water for one week. The money saved is used to provide 10 Rwandan communities with clean safe water.
from 10 Days
 
10 Days? I can handle 10 Days. Is anyone else up for the challenge?

2 comments:

  1. I am going to join you, to an extent! I will only drink water except for the coffee that I already have at home. This way I am not spending excess money on coffee or tea or soda at Wawa or somewhere similar. I know I will save alot with this! And feel better too :)

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  2. I pretty much already only drink water most of the time anyway! I do have a cup of black coffee on weekday mornings (but I make it at home, so I probably spend less than a quarter per cup). Other than that, the only beverage we consistently keep in the house is almond milk, and when I have that, it's usually in cereal and not as a drink. It's a big money saver, but I also feel better when I stick to water and don't drink a lot of soda or juice.

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