My personal motto for everything money-related, is It All Adds Up! You might have noticed it here and there in my blog because it’s something I feel rather strongly about.

While the large sums (spending or saving) make a big difference in our finances, we often overlook the small things that can add up. I’m sure you’ve heard/read people telling you to stop buying mochas or lattes and save a ton of money every year (do these people even drink coffee?).

Most people who are getting those already usually don’t have much interest in stopping even when the numbers are made clear. Everybody has stuff that they consider non-negotiable, and that’s fine—nobody should decide how you spend your money. Though sometimes, when we see those numbers and realize how it is affecting our finances it can open our minds a little.

Going with the coffee example, if we just cut-down by 1 or 2 a week, that itself could make a huge impact. Whenever I would buy coffee out, I’d always get mochas and they usually were around 4 or 5 bucks. After a while, I started wondering what kind of compromise I could make with my beloved mochas.

Finally, I was walking around Bed Bath & Beyond and saw something that tickled my fancy. It was one of those Tassimo single serving coffee machine things and they had discs that would make lattes—lattes aren’t mochas, but I got to thinking. The Tassimo machine was $119.99 and there was a $50.00 mail-in-rebate with it.

How convenient that I had one of their infamous 20% off any one item coupons in my purse. That brought the price down from $119.99 to $95.99 and after the mail-in-rebate it’d end up being $45.99. I was really excited until I saw the prices for the coffee discs, the latte ones were $9.99 and they came with 8 milky ones and 8 espresso ones. The espresso ones by themselves were $8.99 for 16, but that’s okay because I had more of those nifty 20% off coupons.

So, I got 2 packages—one of each and went home to try it out. What I ended up doing, since I’m not a fan of tiny coffee drinks was use 1 milk disc, 2 espresso discs and 2 packages of hot cocoa mix. OMG! It was amazing, I couldn’t believe how much better than Starbucks or Seattle’s Best it was.

But what about those cute cups you get when you buy coffee out? I went to a local restaurant supply store and got a bag of 100 20 oz. cups and lids for about 4 bucks. So in the end, by using their 20% off coupons each time I buy more coffee disks, it costs me $1.69 to make a super-yummy delicious mocha at home (this include the cup, lid, coffee discs and hot cocoa mix). Not too bad compared to 4 or 5 bucks each time. Of course, there are other cheaper ways to this at home, but I was more interested in quick and easy to grab on-the-go.

Additional Ways I can Reduce This:

• Using coupons to get cheap/free hot cocoa mix
• Using survey and reward points for Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards
• Cashing in my Swagbucks for Amazon e-gift cards and buy the discs there

When trying to find ways to lower our spending, it always helps to get creative—you don’t have to do the same as everybody else. Also, if you just love Starbucks, you can cash in your Swagbucks for Starbucks gift cards to fund your habit.

What are your non-negotiable things?
Ever consider compromising with them?