Debt Free

In a move that makes prioritizing your spending a little bit more important, Latte Leviathan, Starbucks indicated earlier this morning they'll be soaking you for an additional nickel every time you grab one of their beverages. The move is necessary, according to company officials, in order to offset rising transportation and energy costs (isn't fuel dropping now?). Starbucks, with profits of $145 million in the third-quarter, regularly moves to protect its profit, and this move is just another in a series of increases, otherwise we'd still be paying $2.00 for a grande Latte.

So, do you really need that Latte every morning? Some would argue that the gain in productivity provided by the concoction more than offsets the cost. Maybe so, but it brings up a good point. How vital is each item in your budget? Do you need to be spending your hard earned cash on that particular product or service? It points to the need for prioritization in your budget. Some budget items are truly necessary for modern life, such as rent / mortgage, electricity, water and garbage service. After that, you can begin to assign a number to each item, from one to ten, based upon it's importance in your daily life.

When assigning said number, give it some though and be prepared to make a few difficult decisions. It will make your final budget more livable. Sometimes it's the little things that make life bearable, however, in aggregate they also blow up your budget. You can use the priority number to weight each budget item when determining what stays and what simply must go. You'll probably find that somethings you though you simply couldn't live without are really pretty easy to forget once you've stopped using them. With the budget, it comes down to lifestyle. Once you've eliminated certain things from your lifestyle, you'll never look back. Budget prioritization numbers make the task of deciding what to ditch a little bit easier.