Can I have a little salt here and there without it affecting my program?

Yes and no, it depends on how you look at it. Some things, even in small doses have so much salt that they will cause bloat and fat retention in a single dose. Try and keep to 1500 mg a day. This is a pretty high dose of salt. If you get to 4000 mg a day you are really having way too much. This can be a shock for people when they start to realize there can be 500mg in a bag of chips.