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Today is Friday and it means that the weekend is approaching. For almost all of us, this is the happiest day of the work week. It gets even better when lunch starts because after we come back, we start thinking about how we will enjoy our time for the next two days.

Sometimes we get so excited though that we over commit ourselves. I remember one time when I played golf, then went to lunch with a group of friends, have tea with my co-workers, enjoyed dinner with someone else and still went for a drink after dinner. I remember that it was very tiring, not to mention that it was extremely expensive to do all those activities.

There is really no need to go to so many places and do so much in such a short period of time. We go out to have fun, and going out requires us to spend money. Therefore, we should think about how to maximum the value of each dollar we spend and not waste it. If we can do half of the activities and still have as much fun, we should reduce our activities. In my example, I could have moved the tea and drink gatherings to another weekend and still have just as much fun. This way, I’m spacing out my energy and the money that I’m spending on these activities.

I would feel just as happy, and my wallet will thank me tremendously.

For an introduction, read about the Chick-Fil-A free sandwich offer and my first free sandwich.

It’s funny because my colleague laughed at me when I was enthusiastically talking about my free sandwich every Thursday. She said that with the money we make, we can afford a sandwich.

Interestingly, she also buys a cup of Starbucks every morning and a bottle of diet coke every afternoon. The other interesting fact is that she semi-retired after years of earning very good salaries/commissions. I bet that if she didn’t buy coffee and sodas diligently everyday for years, she could’ve fully retired (she admitted that the reason why she didn’t retire was because she didn’t have enough money to do so).

The moral of the story is that being frugal has nothing to do with how much we make. Our assets are accumulated with how much we can add to our net worth and not how much our income is! The more ways we can find to save money, the better chances we give ourselves to retire rich. Everything starts small and today is the day to start!

For those that are wondering about the math, I bought the cow for $4.99 and I just got my second free sandwich this Thursday. With each sandwich being $2.55, I have turned a profit (I got a ride there both times so no transportation cost!). With a free sandwich every single week, my cow is giving the Nintendo Wii a run for the best investment of the year!