Would you be interested in freeing up 10% to 15% of your current 
income? Just imagine what you could do with this money. You could 
pay down your debts, increase your savings, or work toward that 
next important purchase that you have in mind. Wouldn’t it be 
exciting to actually have money left over at the end of the 
month?

I know what you are thinking: “That would be nice, but not if I 
have to budget every dollar”. What if I told you it could be done 
without budgeting? What if you could accomplish this in a week’s 
time without too much effort? Would you take a few steps in order 
to improve your finances?

If you answered “yes”, let’s go through the simple steps required 
to make this possible.

Step #1: For a total of 7 days we need to track every single 
expense. This includes credit card, check, and cash purchases. 
For this program to really work you will have to track everything 
(even pocket change). The easiest way I have found to accomplish 
this is to use a blank check register and write down every 
transaction that you make for the next 7 days. And I mean every 
expense, even if you give your child a quarter for a gumball, 
track that expense. We need to collect the date the purchase was 
made, and the item that was purchased (this part of the exercise 
is actually most of the work, and really isn’t all that time 
consuming – especially when we keep in mind the possible 
benefits).

Step #2: Once we have tracked every expense for the last 7 days, 
we then need to go through each of those expenses and evaluate 
them. What we are looking for is which expenses fall into the 
“wants” category, and which expenses fall into the “needs” 
category. As you try to identify these, let me give you some 
coaching… Is that Diet Coke habit every morning really a “need”, 
or is it actually a “want” that could be cut back in order to 
improve not only your finances, but also your health? The idea is 
not to identify how many things that you enjoy that will need to 
be sacrificed, but to identify the items that you really could do 
without – and not suffer…

Once you have identified the “wants” that you don’t really “need” 
in order to be happy, add these expenses up for the week. If you 
are the typical American you will find that these unnecessary 
“wants” will add up to approximately 10% to 15% of your take home 
income. In fact most people who do this program, are shocked to 
find that they really do waste a lot of money on things that they 
had no idea would affect their finances so dramatically.

Step #3: Commit to saving. This is probably the hardest part of 
the program, and within reason you have the freedom to choose 
your “wants” for the day or to choose your “needs”. Now I know 
that some days that “Diet Coke” (or fill in your own vice 
here____) is an absolute “need”. When you are having that kind of 
day, go ahead and reward yourself for being so good the rest of 
the week. But make sure that you keep your objectives in mind for 
the long run and commit to saving that money for the next day.

Now before you give up on putting these steps into place, lets 
realize the fact that the benefits of this program really do add 
up. In fact the average American making the average wages will 
find that they are able to free up $200 to $300 each month. You 
are probably thinking “sure, but that won’t work for me”. In all 
of our experience in teaching this program we have not yet (knock 
on wood) found anyone that was not able to identify and free-up a 
portion of their take home income.

This newfound savings can go a long way in making your financial 
picture much brighter. It can help you extinguish debt in a 
fraction of the time, put money away for a better retirement, and 
get you out of the month to month budget crunch that so many of 
us deal with all of our lives.

And remember this: If you save only $1 per day and invest it at 
10% interest – in 56 years it will grow to $1 million. Every 
dollar counts. Make sure you get the most value out of every 
dollar you earn, by focusing on your financial goals instead of 
the wasted “wants” of life that put most of us in financial 
bondage. 

© 2005 DebtGuru.com®. Michael G. Peterson is the Vice President 
of American Credit Foundation, an IRS 501 (c)(3) non-profit 
consumer credit counseling organization that has assisted 
thousands of individuals and families with their financial 
situations through seminars, education, counseling services, 
and, debt management plans. For more information, and free 
consumer resources visit:  http://www.debtguru.com