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"Confession: I don&amp;#039;t save a cent of my paycheck. Literally, not one cent. Much to my husband&amp;#039;s chagrin, I just can&amp;#039;t get myself to put money away. &amp;quot;We live in New York City,&amp;quot; I say to him, &amp;quot;We have childcare costs,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Groceries are a fortune,&amp;quot;\u2014I know every excuse in the book. Embarrassingly, I even edit WD&amp;#039;s money column, and chat with Mary Hunt, our money columnist, about six times a week. If she ever knew I didn&amp;#039;t save, she&amp;#039;d probably fall over. (Hello, Mary? Can I get you a glass of water as I pick you up off the floor?) Here&amp;#039;s the thing: Mary&amp;#039;s column in our May issue (available on newsstands April 14) addresses how to make a spending plan (yes, it&amp;#039;s a nice way for saying budget!) and what finally hit me as I edited it was this: I&amp;#039;m afraid. A budget is scary and what runs through my mind is, I don&amp;#039;t want to feel trapped..If I keep running, I won&amp;#039;t realize how far behind we really are..Life is hard and I deserve some reward.   So, given that the economy is falling down Alice&amp;#039;s rabbit hole and my excuses are getting boring, I&amp;#039;ve decided to pose a challenge to myself: Save $5,000 this year. Really. When you break it down that&amp;#039;s $100 a week (sounds daunting) or $13.70 a day (now that doesn&amp;#039;t sound so bad). I take total comfort in the fact that saving is chic (just ask the New York Times). and I know once I&amp;#039;m on the road to saving I&amp;#039;m going to feel great.  For now I&amp;#039;ve got to build momentum and see a little cash pile up. I&amp;#039;ve started making tea at work, which is free, instead of buying it at the deli. That&amp;#039;s one dollar I save a day and put in a special envelope. Small and obvious, yes, but for me something being obvious and actually acting on it are two very different things. I&amp;#039;ve also taken to experimenting with breakfast. I like to eat cereal at work. A half pint container of milk costs me 50 cents and lasts two days. A single serving 1.8 oz cup of cereal costs $1.50 at the deli. So I&amp;#039;m spending $1.25 per day, and not being very kind to the environment since the cereal cup is plastic and I use one every day and toss it. Today I bought a quart of milk for $1.19 at the grocery and a 12.25 oz box of cereal for $5.29. These should last me about 8 days (probably more, we&amp;#039;ll see!) for a cost of cost 81 cents a day. I&amp;#039;ll now be saving $2.20 a week on breakfast. Small, but painless, and every little bit helps!  Next up, I&amp;#039;m focusing on lunch, dinner and putting an end to buying stupid stuff.  Ellen Breslau, Executive Editor "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a41027/budgets-breakfast-learning-to-save-5122/>