Numbers, In-laws, and Happy Hour with your Work Friends

I’m a numbers guy. I love numbers. I tend to break everything down to its most basic form. It’s a great way to get a grasp on things and to identify trends over time.

Baseball is a pure numbers game. If a guy has a career .335 batting average in the regular season, but a .175 in the post season, then it’s fair to say he can’t take the pressure of October.

If I average 23 miles per gallon in my car at $2.65 a gallon with a 14 gallon tank, but I can increase my mileage by 18% if I drive 10% slower on average while on the highway (by reducing my speed from 65 Mph to around 59Mph) then over a year’s time I can save myself $347.36 (assuming I fill up once a week). I can get 57.96 more miles out of each tank, and nearly 4.14 more miles per gallon of gas I burn.

So what does it have to do with In-laws and Happy Hour?

Well picture this. You’re at the mall, it’s December 23rd and you’re battling the crowds trying desperately to find a gift for your in laws. (Or maybe you’re cousins, or your uncle, or anyone else that just seems impossible to shop for). What are you going to buy them? Every year it’s the same old crap. Candles, knick-knacks, gourmet jellys, hot sauces, sausage and cheese logs… useless gifts that no one wants.

Well this year, instead of exchanging pathetic, crappy gifts, put that money to use. Here are some more numbers…

That 18 dollar candle you bought your Sister In-law? Here’s what you could have done with that money.

The Connecticut Food Bank is a non-profit entity that exists for the sole purpose of providing free food to Connecticut residents that can’t afford to eat. (Every state has some kind of food bank, or soup kitchen program. Google yours to find out what it is.). Essentially a family in need will put together simple lists and the food bank will help them fill their kitchen cabinets.

Because of the way the CT Food Bank has its distribution lines set up, they are able to purchase a lot of food for very little money.

For ever 5 dollars that gets donated the food bank is able to purchase enough food for 18 full meals. Think about that. 5 dollars = 18 meals.

That 18 dollar candle? At 3.6 meals per dollar you could have purchased 65 full, well balanced meals for a local family.

But lets break it down a little more.

Pretend for a second you are back at the mall and you’re starving. You hear on the TV and read on the internet that fast food is bad for you, so you opt to avoid the food court and you head right on over to the Ruby Tuesday’s for a nice sit down meal. You and a friend both order a tall, cold, refreshing, American brewed Miller Lite and you treat yourself to a nice lunch time salad. Then the waiter comes back over and asks the standard, end-of-a-meal question: “Any dessert or coffee today?” Well you’ve had a long day of battling the Christmas crowds. You think “Why not?”

You and your friend decide to each get a brownie sundae and a nice hot cup of coffee, bringing your total bill from $26 to $40 (and your total calorie intake to more than you probably want to think about). That’s 14 dollars right there.

But you’re not done yet! You leave Ruby Tuesday’s and you stop off at the gumball machine. 2 gumballs at 25 cents a piece. Sugary AND delicious!

As you’re preparing to leave you notice a sign hanging up at the Gap. “30% off your entire order when you spend $100 or more” Wow! What a deal! You think to yourself “It’s about time I bought something for myself this holiday!” and walk on in. 2 Sweaters, and a sassy silk scarf later you’re down another $70.

So you get back to your car. The spending spree has come to a end… or has it?

On the way home you stop off at a gas station to fill up. While standing in line to pay (because paying in cash is 6 cents cheaper per gallon) you pick up a National Enquirer. “No way!” you think, “Brittney Spears was caught sleeping NAKED on a beach in Belize??”

This is a must-buy piece of journalism.

5 dollars later you’re back in the car. Then you’re phone rings. It’s your friend Maggy from work. She and a few other people from the office are down the street having some happy hour drinks.

2 hours and $24.55 later you’re finally home. Full of chocolate, Miller Lite, and the satisfaction we get from a day of shopping.

The above scenario is pretty typical I would think. We go out with the intentions of buying a few gifts, and sticking to our budgets… then, before we blink we’ve spent $114.05 more than we had planned to spend.

Imagine what that $114.05 could mean to someone who can’t afford to eat. That’s more than 410 meals for a hungry family. Assuming a family of 4, that could feed them for more than 34 straight days.

I’m not asking you to make financial decisions in life based on what others don’t have. But as one last little eye-opener let’s break it down one more time.

Forget the desert and coffee, forget the Gap purchases, forget the National Enquirer, and forget the happy hour drinks. Let’s go back to the gumball.

One gumball for 25 cents. If the average American only ate one single gumball a year that’s $75 Million dollars spent a year on gumballs.

At 3.6 meals per dollar…. Well, you do the math…