I’ve seen people estimate how much they would or do save by cutting out the Starbucks coffee.  But how about those who won’t do it?

We offer a punch card that allows customers to purchase 9 brewed coffees (not espresso based or other specialty drinks) and get the 10th brewed coffee free.  I’ve had regulars refuse the card despite the savings.  Just as an example, we sell a 16 0z brewed coffee for about $2, including tax.  Now, without the card, you’d pay $20 for 10 cups of coffee, but you’d save 10% ($2) by using the card.  Taking this out to the full academic year (3 quarters with 10 weeks of class and a week of exams, 33 weeks [32 for calculations]), and assuming 5 cups/week, that’s 160 cups, 16 of which can be free, a savings of $32, next years note taking supplies (during back-to-school sales).

The moral: If you go someplace, and there’s a chance of going back, take any punch cards they offer.

On a side note, unless you plan to buy more than $250 worth of books, DON’T get Barnes and Noble’s membership card ($25 membership fee, 10% savings on the “cheap” books [soft cover, older books, etc.]), go with Border’s Rewards (free, e-mail every week or two with upwards of 20% off [sometimes 50%], and offers printed at checkout).  Of course, your best bet is your local library, returning/renewing on-time (our libraries are tax [in my particular town, part of school taxes/budget] & fine funded).

I’ve had a wonderful idea… For a small fee (to be negotiated), I will take donation buttons for legitimate charities.

Ok, I know that I’m not the best person when it comes to money, but in my job, I see people who might be even worse than me…Let me start with what I do…I am a cashier at a dining location on a college campus.Here’s the 3 biggest things I see on a daily basis:

1. Some people who pay cash, can’t seem to figure out that if they have $5, then they can’t afford $5 worth of food before TAX.  Our tax rate is 8% in food prepared for immediate consumption, candy, drinks with less than 70% juice, sodas and non-food items.
2. This college, like many others, has accounts linked to ID cards (3 for students, 1 for staff).  Students have a meal account (Meal), a monetized meal account (Debit) and flexible spending account (Flex).  Staff have a different flexible spending account (FSFlex, usable only at dining services locations). The Meal and Debit accounts are tax FREE (except candy and non-food items) and FSFlex has a 10% discount attached to it, yet some students insist on using their Flex accounts and some community members insist on using Cash or, GAWD, Credit Cards (third item deals with this).
3. Thankfully, most of the Credit Cards I see are Check Cards, but two things get to me about this.  FIRST, despite VISA’s commercials (I could write a good rant on this), credit cards ARE SLOW, another good reason for these people to use the college provided accounts.  SECOND (and last), RECEIPTS, about 5% of all customer copies don’t make it away from the register, and probably another 10-15% end up in the trash on the way out the door, without these, HOW CAN YOU RECONCILE YOUR ACCOUNT!!!!

So, now that I’ve got that out of my system, here’re my tips…

1. Figure out how much you can afford (How much do you have (A)?  What’s the tax rate (B)?  How much you can afford is A divided by the sum of 1 and B).
2. If you have access to an account where you can save money, and your only cost to have it is how much you put on at any one time, USE it, it’ll add up.
3. Save your receipts, especially receipts from the use of plastic, one you’ve reconciled them with the associated account, then you can get rid of them (unless they can be used for tax purposes).