We all have our vices. I love chocolate chip cookies and if I bake a batch, I can barely stand to have the darned things in the house. Good for co-workers, bad for my husband, who can say no to cookies and there never is any left when he finally wants one.

I’ve been working on the latest update of my Financial Fixups series about three families in debt and have been practically glued to my desk going over interview transcripts and poring through credit card balances.

When it gets to be too much, my mind turns to cookies. They’re soooo good. In the past week, I’ve spent $3.21 on the surprisingly tasty cafeteria version we have here at work. They come in a two-pack, so I guess I could save one for the next day, but who am I kidding?

Really, the “cookie factor” isn’t breaking my budget. But it’s not a good habit to get into. So….I toggled over to my favorite Lunch savings calculator at calculator clearinghouse dinkytown.net.

It’s not set up for cookies (the total cost of a snack from home has to be at least a dollar), so I put the weekly cookie estimate of $5.35 in the eating out lunch price and $1.00 for the bagged lunch price (the amount I figure it would cost me to bring a couple apples or granola bars from home for the week). If I switched from buying cookies to bringing a healthier snack 4 times a week, (I think I get one cookie per week), and stuck the rest in my online savings account earning 4.5 percent, I’d have $214 in a year.

Running the numbers, even small ones, using a calculator like this can show how a little bit adds up. And if you have no will power, the idea of an extra $214 to spend on a fabulous dinner or a couple pairs of new pairs shoes, or an extra night in Mexico can sometimes stop the cookie bug from biting.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.