Does cutting out small unnecessary purchases really make a financial difference in the long run?

Cutting out small unnecessary purchases really make a financial difference in the long run. BTW, this hub is an answer to a request made.

What is small anyway? I would define small as any expense you don't give much thought to everyday--bottled water,snacks,fast-food ,morning coffee, impulse items at the checkout stand(newspaper, instant drinks,magazines,candies),accessories, cigarettes, soda, beer...and many more!

Thousands of dollars!

Let's say for a family of three, you go to the mall once every 3 days and purchase yourself 3 bottles of water that cost $1.00 each. In a year, you'll be spending $324, just for the bottled water.

If you go to the grocery once every week and purchase cookies, chips and dips that total $ $12.00, your yearly expenses on that alone is $648

For a family of three eating twice a week on a fast-food restaurant might spend $30 per week or $1620 per year.

The coffee may just be $1.00 per day but make that a year for you and your spouse and that comes out to roughly $600.

Impulse items might also be costing you about $20.00 per week, or $1080 per year. You find the latest magazine with cool clothes and maybe some gossip about Angeline Jolie and you buy it. You get thirsty and you grab the nearest cold drink. You thought the package of the new mint is cute, so you get that too. Your husband sees the latest issue of Maximum PC and he gets it for himself. Your daughter sees the latest issue of seventeen and she grabs it too. Your husband and daughter thinks it's way too hot and they too grab some drink. Let's approximate the expense to be $20 just because they would seldom go with you to go grocery shopping. Now, in a year, that totals $1080.

You are offered a phone plan that has lots of features: caller ID, call waiting, conference...etc, all for just $9.95 per month and you readily accept it. That's $119.40 per year.

If you have $5,000 in credit card debt that charges 21% interest on the unpaid balance,if you keep the balance this way, you are paying the bank $87.50 unnecessarily per month or $1050 in hard earned money every year. What more if you have $10,000 or $20,000 in credit card debt? You could easily be paying the bank $2,000-$4,000 per year without noticing that you are being sucked dry.

If you cut down those small unnecessary expenses, bringing cold, re-filled water from home, spending just $6.00 max on chips,cookies and dips, eating fast-food just once a week,drinking coffee made from home,NOT bringing your family with you when you shop and controlling what you buy at the checkout counter,cancelling the phone plan you don't use often or that you can live without, you'll be saving a lot of money which in turn will help you get out of debt or do better more imprtant things in your life later on.

Let me explain...

By using all the extra money you have saved from cutting all the unnecessary expenses (except those used for emergency), try to pay off the credit card with the highest amount of interest. Pay the cards $100 to $500 extra per month to get your debt paid off. The higher amount that you pay, the faster your debt will vanish.Do not follow the minimum payment. The banks want you to pay off the debt for a long time because they'd rather earn interest--huge interest from the money you've borrowed from them. Paying off the credit card is like taking one of their milking cows away.

As soon as you're done paying off that first credit card, use the money you saved in finance charges, and the other extra money you now have to pay off the card with the next highest rate, then the next one.Until all your credit card debt is paid in full.

After you paid off all your creditors, you can now save money to buy a new home, invest in stocks, get into a new business, save for your child's education OR save for your retirement etc.Of course you can't do them all at once but having lots of money saved will make doing these things a lot easier for you.

Yes, cutting out small unnecessary purchases make a financial difference.