Can Fiscal Motivation Cure My Diet Coke Addiction?

18 March, 2008 (07:59) | Personal Challenge | By: User ImageDusty

We are a one income family! I work long hours, at a job making money for someone else, so that my wife can stay home and raise our baby boy. As one income must support us, we are always looking for ways to save money… cut an expense here…lower an expense there…etc.

While writing 25 Ways I Save Money, I realized I spend entirely too much money on diet cokes. During any given week, I purchase AND drink at least five 12-packs. In case you have not been soda shopping lately, Diet Cokes run about $4.99 per 12-pack.

Doing the math, I figured that my weekly soda cost is approximately $25. So I began to think, “How much money could I have if I invested that money instead of wasting it”? I went over to BankRate and ran the numbers. What I found out almost floored me! If I were to take that $25 a week, and invest it in a Roth IRA (since I already paid taxes on it) that gave me a 10% return for the next 30 years, I would have an additional $226,000 to spend in retirement. As a result, I have decided that I would challenge myself to see how much money I can actually make by NOT drinking sodas.

Here are the rules.

  1. Every week I will start off with a $25 balance.
  2. For every 12-pack I buy, I subtract $5 from my balance.
  3. At the end of the week, if there is any money left, I will write a check to my retirement account.
  4. That money will sit in there until I it reaches $500, at which time I will put the money into a Domestic Index Fund of my choosing.
  5. If at the end of the week, I have not purchased any sodas, I will add a $5 bonus to the amount deposited.
  6. If during any one week I purchase MORE than five 12-packs, that amount will be borrowed from the next week’s balance.

I will post the results of this fiscal motivation challenge in a tab at the top labeled “My Diet Coke Challenge!”

I would love to hear your comments and/or suggestions on how to make this personal challenge better. Anyone who wants to join this challenge, please let me know!

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Comments

Comment from Mike
Time: March 19, 2008, 9:44 am

Just one comment… Look for sales. For instance, Walgreens this week has 5 12 packs for $11. I dunno about you, but that’s almost a week and a half of feed for my diet coke addiction… Then that would be $14 to your fund, and you’ll still get your full dosage of phenylalanine, no withdrawels ;)

Oh, and some generics are pretty indistinguishable from the real thing, might want to try those… they’re generally $2.20/12pk too.

Hi, my name’s Mike, and I’m a dietcokaholic.

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Comment from Dusty
Time: March 19, 2008, 11:31 pm

That is a great idea and I do sometimes buy my sodas on sale. The problem is, I truly hate Diet Pepsi. I wish I could like it, but unfortunately, it is Diet Coke or nothing. As a result, if my local Publix only has Pepsi products on sale, I end up paying $4.99 for the Coke product.

Maybe I should I add something to my Coke Fund when I buy things on sale. Great suggestion. I will ponder that and make some modifications to the rules.

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