The Latte Factor is a concept that basically states “your many small purchases will add up to a significant purchase if you avoided your fancy latte and saved that money up over time”. While the “Latte Factor” was intended for coffee drinkers, the concept can be applied to any area of your life. I’m certainly not advocating giving up your morning cup of coffee by any means, because I have no plans of giving my cup of coffee up any time soon. What I am asking is if there are areas in your life where the “Latte Factor” can be applied and you net some bigger reward in the end? That thing could be money, a personal possession or even time.
The “Latte Factor” and Money – what areas in your life can be trimmed back without making a significant difference in your way of life? Many times we think that there are no changes that can be made if we’re in a budget crunch and money is tight. Take a look at all the add-ons for your phone, cell-phone, and cable bill and determine if some of the “bells and whistles” can be eliminated to free up some extra money. For me, it is a cup of coffee and Starbucks is one of my favorite places to go so I only go there as a treat once every couple of weeks.
The “Latte Factor” and Time – are there time wasters in your life that take you away from spending time with your family? There are so many time wasters, but the biggest ones for me are the internet, and the television. I have to practice self-discipline to make sure that I don’t let my time wasters get away from me so that I am spending time on myself, and my family.
I’ve learned how to manage my “Latte Factor” whether it be time or money and still enjoy life.
Our family does like to go to restaurants once a month. The only problem is that it costs anywhere from $40.00-$60.00 for us to do it. I don’t feel like that should stop us from eating good food or food that is out of the ordinary. Our twins are now beyond the kid menu age and that is one of the reasons we’ve had to end most of the restaurant trips. We love going to Italian restaurants and one of the dishes I like is chicken tossed in pasta with herbs and sun-dried tomatoes. I started checking into how much it would cost to do at home and realized it would be pretty cheap. I made this great meal for us under $10.00. The sun-dried tomatoes are affordable. I got the idea from a dish I order at Romano’s Macaroni Grill.
On this night, my husband was working a little late at a recording studio in town and I wanted to have something light for dinner since we would be eating so late. I used some frozen chicken breasts that I brined, some bagged baby carrots, and a package of asparagus that I got on sale at ALDI. The asparagus was cooked in the oven with olive oil and salt and pepper. The carrots were glazed with olive oil, thyme, and salt and pepper in a baking dish in the oven. This was a simple meal and there were no leftovers. Thyme is the herb of choice on root vegetables like carrots, parsnips or turnips.
For the past couple of weeks I’ve driven by fields of wild flowers on the side of the road and marveled at how beautiful they are. The one that I continued to see over and over is pictured here. It is a type of milk thistle wild flower and belongs to the Aster family.
