The $7 spreadsheet trick that killed my daily coffee shop habit

I was spending $220 a month at the Starbucks on 3rd and Main, and I knew it was killing my debt snowball. So I started tracking every single coffee purchase in a simple Google Sheet with a red cell that turns green when I hit $0 spent for the day. Turns out, just seeing the number go up every morning was enough to make me brew my own Folgers at home. Has anyone else used a dumb visual trick to trick their own brain into saving money?

3 comments

3 Comments

miawalker1mo ago

Omg same @walker.andrew! I literally wrote "NO" in big red letters on my debit card lol. But what really worked was putting my actual savings goal on the spreadsheet too - like $220 a month is a vacation fund or something. Seeing that red cell turn green felt way better than any latte ever did. It's dumb but my brain totally fell for it.

abbyd3622d ago

Read that using actual cash for splurges helps too, @walker.andrew.

walker.andrew1mo ago

I can barely get my spreadsheet to add right, let alone shame me out of a latte.