Freedom From $cratch

June Spending: Post-Vacation Amnesia and a Cracked Tooth

walking path in Washington Park, Portland OR

I use YNAB for budgeting and tracking my spending. I average annual expenditures monthly, so occasional bills such as car insurance have money put aside all year. Thus, in months where I have smaller income I still have enough set aside to cover my expenses.

We’ll get right to it with self-analysis to follow 🙂

Fixed expenses $1245: My electric bill has been on an averaged budget plan of $109. We’re on a several-month streak of minimal or no charges! Cell phone bill was a little higher due to using data on vacation. City utilities are average. Internet is fiberoptic.
Repayment to my Past Self $1686: I set auto payments while I was gone, so it was easy peasy to keep up and not be tempted to “borrow” the extra to spend while on vacation!
Groceries $254 EEEEEGADS! This was for only 3 weeks! I can tell I didn’t take advantage of my extra day off after vacation to meal plan! There were a few cafeteria purchases as well, as I tried to readjust to my time zone and completely forgot my lunch a couple of days.
Pets $344: Dog food, cat food, and the dog’s annual dental cleaning with antibiotics since he’s a very old guy 🙂 He kept all his remaining teeth this time, though!
Bikes $0
Auto Maintenance $234: The throttle sensor broke on our way home from vacation – just as we got back into the metro area, actually. Luckily for me, my frugal ninja college student knew that AutoZone lets you read the check engine light for free and prints out a report, and what do you know but we broke down literally right next to AutoZone! We managed to limp home at 20 mph, where my industrious kiddo then researched the part, purchased it, and installed it for me. $234 is for the part alone – I have a great shop that charges very fairly, but I’m assuming it would have been at least $500-600, more at the bigger shops around the city. The fact I already try to bicycle commute made it easy to avoid needing a rental car for the week my car was not in tip-top shape. A major win even though it was a surprise expense! And I had fun watching the install and learning how this doohickey is connected to my car’s computer.
Gasoline $28.19: One fill up, not including vacation.
My Spending $10 while on vacation
Family/Friend Funtimes $66: One ice cream shop stop (with a doggie cup of course) and a Groupon purchase for paddleboard rentals. SO MUCH FUN!
Kiddo: he’s paying his own bills now that he’s home for the summer! Yeah!
Everything Else:
- $28 for drill bits and a chuck key (I have no idea where the chuck key went! The drill bit size I needed to repair a table was broken last summer); as well as a cheap roll of Caution tape to mark off the lawn where I’ve spread new grass seed and now fertilizer.
- $33 prescription contacts through Hubble – they are a teeny bit big for my eyes but work just fine and cost close to $200 less per month than what I was prescribed!
- $522 dentist – routine cleaning, x-rays, onlay (partial crown) of a tooth that was cracked
- VACATION! $1645 for over 5000 miles, three people, one dog, 26 meals and a LOT of gasoline!! This is a HUGE decrease from my spending last year which was half the mileage, half the bodies, and straight camping.

Lessons:

I am STILL annoyed that SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS of my vacation spending was for a hotel room! But I really think it’s bugging me more because I turned down a house stay option only because I hadn’t seen that friend in a few years and didn’t want to take advantage adding an extra guest and my dog at the last minute. Of course we picked up right where I left off and I’m so bummed I didn’t take the opportunity to spend more time with her!

PLANNING is the key for me, in EVERYTHING. From lunches to a cross-country road trip – the hours I spend preparing and pre-frugalizing my decisions always save me money and also save me from decision fatigue. I spent the first 40 years of my life winging it, so I still definitely have some work to do in this area, but the last nine months or so have put me on a good path. I wouldn’t say planning out my weeks are habit yet – in fact, it still feels very novel, but it’s getting easier and a tiny bit faster to do so. The week after returning home is proof that I need to keep working at this skill – my food spending was completely mindless on some days (I even bought coffee at work!) which was a bit eye-opening since it had previously felt very easy to avoid those little expenditures.

YouTube is an invaluable resource. We (ok, my son) fixed a car part that I’d never heard of and he’d not yet seen on a car built after 2000 (so the computer aspect and some of the hoses were a little more complicated). In the last six months I’ve used YouTube to learn how to rewire electrical outlets, repair small appliances, and have started using guided meditation videos daily.

Saying Yes to social opportunities is still important to me – purchasing vouchers for paddleboard rentals is already turning out to be a great decision. The three of us spent a gorgeous sunny afternoon on one of our many city lakes, and I can tell I’m hooked. Now just for more days off of work that aren’t raining 🙂

I’ve continued to walk around the city lakes with a dear friend regularly – costing us nothing but delightful time.

I’ve also joined my bike shop for a couple of overnight camping trips, which are loads of fun and incredibly frugal – my only expense has been my food; the shop pays for the campsite. I have more bicycling events coming up this month, that are also essentially free.

It finally feels like summer and I can tell it’s going to be a good one! What fun frugal activities do you have planned?

Frugalizing a Cross-Country Superfun Roadtrip!

Myself and two lovely teenagers just returned from a two week trip to the other side of the U.S.

The addition of the third person in our merry band was fairly recent, and at the last minute we decided to bring the dog as well, which changed our plans a bit and in previous years could have completely derailed my budget.

The past six months of redefining my relationship with money served me very well on this trip. I managed to stay within budget in spite of making a few not-so-frugal choices that were for the benefit of our whole group. There were definitely some key elements to my success:

I planned ahead.

We’d planned this over the entire year, and I’d put money aside each month. We knew after returning from a bike tour last year that we wanted to do another family vacation. I requested my vacation time in November and specifically chose a time of year that wouldn’t affect my paycheck much or my son’s ability to get a summer job.

We knew we wanted to go to the west coast, since it had been six or seven years and we’d previously visited regularly. We knew we wanted to see friends and family but also to go on a bikey hikey adventure of our own. I started looking into possible destinations that would be within a day’s drive of visiting loved ones.

My budgeting for this trip was ruthless. I did have one month where I used a portion of my vacation savings to pay down debt- a month without as large a surplus as I’d been accruing. This worked because I’d worked out a solid debt payment plan that I’d been sticking to and knew I had a little wiggle room.

We meal planned and purchased groceries.

This saved an incredible amount of cash! We did end up eating more gas station snacks on the way home, but comparing notes I think I spent $1000 less on food than the last time just my kiddo and I traveled out west years ago! I’m proud of my co-travelers for agreeing to this idea. We did go out to eat once when visiting family/friends, and visited a coffee and ice cream shop, but continued to eat our grocery store stash otherwise even in the “urban” part of our adventure.

We camped rather than staying in hotels.

If I’m adventuring solo, I tend to camp for free – there are multiple directories online showing public lands that allowing camping. This was initially our idea, but with the addition of the (elderly and deaf) dog and another person, both of whom hadn’t done a lot of backcountry camping, I decided it would be wiser to stay in established campgrounds. I’ve had great luck staying in KOA campgrounds in the past, and especially like that they allow check-in after hours without a reservation, which we did to be able to drive longer hours. Another benefit of car/tent camping is that there are always sites open in campground that also serve RVs.

When we did stay in a hotel, we got one heckuva deal.

My one regrettable decision of the trip: we have generous friends that offered us a place to crash during our urban adventure, but I felt awkward taking them up on their offer since I hadn’t seen them in years, we had so many other people to visit, and wouldn’t have been around any one place much. Of course, after seeing them, I am kicking myself that we didn’t, because we would’ve had each night together and like all lifelong friendships we’d picked up right where we last left off.

We therefore stayed in a hotel that we price shopped, talked down to a weekly rate that was even cheaper (I’ve never done this, being an introverted weirdo, but it paid off!), and used a discount code to book. The hotel offered a full breakfast (eggs, meat, yogurt, loads of veggies/cheese/fruit, cereal, oatmeal, waffles, biscuits and gravy, almond/soy/dairy milks, and on!) and had a refrigerator and microwave in the room for our other meal purchases, so that brought the value to the equivalent of staying in campsites. It was nice having our own space to retreat to and use as a basecamp, and it probably made the daily routine much easier for our dog.

We didn’t buy trinkets.

This may sound trivial, but I cannot tell you how much I’ve spent in the past on souvenirs or T-shirts or a new pair of shoes just because I’m on vacation (yeah that one) and of course, always books in local bookstores! Collectively the three of us spent less than $30 on items that we didn’t bring with us.

We made do with what we had.

This goes along with the last point as well as planning ahead. In the past I’ve done things like not bother to pack toiletries and just pick them up along the way. We made sure we brought everything we needed, and shared amongst ourselves for the times we were lacking (like an extra blanket, sweatshirt or dental floss) rather than purchasing new items.

We sought out free activities.

On this trip, it was easy to find free things to do, since our main goals were to bicycle and hike. Our friends also share a love of the outdoors, so even in the urban portion of our trip we went hiking on two separate days (bringing our own food). For families with younger children, many campgrounds, state parks, and city parks have free events all summer long – all the campgrounds we stayed at had activities planned each night, from bonfires and s’mores making to star gazing walks through the forest. City museums often have free family days if you have the flexibility to plan around the dates they are offered. As a kid just staying in a campground and swimming in the pool every day was a luxurious vacation!

We practiced good communication and checked in regularly with one another to ensure we were all having a good time.

This has always been important to me on trips – to make sure my son was able to do something he wanted to do, and not just being dragged around from family event to family event then whisked back home. I feel it was even more important this time, since the three of us haven’t traveled this extensively together and we all had slightly different goals. We had a rule that we’d stop off anywhere that looked interesting to any of us, which led to some great finds in places we hadn’t seen before. We also had discussions on the way home that led to skipping a day in Yellowstone, which had been on the docket “For Sure” the entire time, but all three of us felt good about the decision.

trail running on fallen redwoods: divine!

We had a fantastic adventure and bonded as a family.

I had a few hesitant moments at different times throughout the year, realizing that I was pushing my financial freedom date back by saving for this trip. But my biggest “why” for achieving that goal is to have more time with the people I love. With my son being an adult and his life taking its own shape, we both relish the adventures we are able to experience together now, and I spent too many years pushing off vacations (weekend camping trips and the like, nothing extravagant by any means) in the name of saving money. The kicker: I can’t tell you where the heck that money went, because it didn’t end up in my portfolio. It’s important to me to find a balance between my long term badassery goals and cherishing the relationships I have right now.

This trip was the right now, and it was so good to reconnect with old friends, my family, and to deepen my relationship with my son and his girlfriend. This experience only motivates me even more to buckle down now that I’m home, because it’s exactly what I want more of down the line.

Happy summer, frugal friends!

Finance Friday: a week’s recap

Last weekend I participated in an organized bicycle event where I rode a total of 150 miles by the time I was home. It was a self-supported event with no entry fee so didn’t have the costs associated with rides that offer catered stops, mechanical support, and route markers. I used printed route cue sheets to avoid purchasing a bike computer or GPS and it was great fun – and yep, I totally went off course in the wrong direction more than once, ha!

The whole experience was fantastic! Just over a year ago I couldn’t fathom riding 10 miles, so it felt pretty good to have accomplished a stretch goal. The weather was perfect, the route was beautiful, and I recovered much quicker than I expected. Over-preparedness on the hydration and food fronts definitely paid off.

I have the distance bug now. But I haven’t signed up for other rides in the season, because there are some downsides. I spent fairly minimally throughout the ride at food stops and brought a lot of my own supplies, but it still added up to more than I would spend in a routine weekend. Just the sheer amount of calories compared to a normal day added up fast. It’s also a big time commitment- at least one full day of riding, sometimes more, and I already struggle with feeling like I don’t have enough time to enjoy the summer days.

As a sporting event on its own, it’s extremely frugal – but I think my goals are better served by sitting this season out.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful – took my lunches to work, spent a lovely day with a friend at her house, went on a group bicycle ride and afterward ordered one side of fries. I was debating during the entire ride whether I should stay for the social end. This is another area that is starting to feel less goal-servicing than it did over the winter. I tend to stay up too late and often spend too much money. The flip side is that this is a great group of people that has welcomed me very warmly and I can’t quite tell if it’s just social nerves wanting me to pull back; if so, I just need to work through those impulses. And squash the impulses to buy a beer 🙂

I was going to make dandelion jam today but looked out the window to see my neighbor had mowed my entire yard :/ So a little cleaning and cooking and an evening with a library book seems to be on the docket instead.

Have a lovely weekend, frugal friends!

April Spending: A Month of Money and Magic

As noted in my previous post, I decided partway through April to loosen my frugality in favor of social interactions. For me this journey is not just about paying off all my debt, or achieving financial independence, or retiring (a tiny bit) early, although those are things I plan on doing. It’s about creating a joyful, more simple life for myself and those I love, and having the means and security to do so. The financial aspect, then, is about continually checking in with myself to ensure that my spending is in alignment with my priorities. And last month, in spite of spending a lot more cash than I’d originally planned, my choices served my current life goals perfectly.

I Said Yes to events that pushed me outside my comfort zone, and ended the month with a wonderful group of new friends, lots of time spent with my kiddo and his friends, and a whole lot of miles on my bicycle.

Here’s the breakdown:

Fixed expenses: My electric bill has been on an averaged budget plan of $109. Turning the thermostat down (and not having a TV since it’s at college with the kiddo) has made enough of a difference that I have a large credit on my account. No bill this month! Cell phone bill was higher due to my son purchasing a new phone and therefore a new plan. City utilities have been a bit lower but will start climbing during watering-the-garden season. Internet went up $5 in March, but is still a steal for fiber optic service. In spite of my relaxed spending, I was still able to pay extra toward my debt.
Groceries $296: I was pleased this stayed under $300 since I wasn’t meal planning the last half of the month, and my son was home for two weeks total.
Pets $20: One bag of cat food.
Bikes $117: A rear rack and pannier bag for commuting – this was a purchase I’d been considering for quite some time, and I’ve ridden to work every non-call day since.
Gasoline $33!!: I only drove on call shifts – the bicycle miles paid off 🙂
My spending $107: Broke my zero streak. But I’m ok with that! I purchased a needed clothing item, had a coffee out just before a date (I took Saying Yes literally this month), and bought two records in a momentary lapse of attention. I detailed the latter in my previous post, but it turned out to be a great learning experience that I feel really good about.
Family/Friend Fun $169: One dinner out with kiddo, a donation to World Bicycle Relief for 30 Days of Biking, five appetizers and/or drinks after group bicycle rides, and splitting the cost of two of a handful of awesomely frugal dates 🙂 Considering I used to spend this much monthly on brunch and cafeteria food, this number makes me happy. Especially when considering all the wonderful company!
Everything Else $41: $13 birthday gift and $28 at Home Depot for velcro ties and trash bags.
Kiddo $475: All his groceries, spending money, and school-related/transportation expenses. This month also included his new phone purchase as well as a case and screen protector.

My gamble of letting things go for the month of April paid off in ways I never would have dreamed. I learned that I have a much healthier relationship with money than I did a year ago, and I’m in a great place emotionally to be able to recognize little missteps as just that and then move forward without hesitation. I ate terribly compared to my normal diet, I drank a lot more alcohol, my daily blood pressure monitoring surprisingly was normal, my enthusiasm for bicycles is at an all-time high, my sleep suffered and so did my health for a bit, and I’ve never felt such gratitude for being alive to experience these things.

Things I’ve Learned From Giving Myself a “Bye” Month

Just a week into April it became very clear that my social calendar was much fuller than anticipated – and much fuller than I am used to, as an introvert who’s become quite fond of staying home and not spending any money.

I decided the first weekend, after the 30 Days of Biking Kickoff Ride, that I was still fully committed to Saying Yes to opportunities for connecting with people. This would mean allowing spending for things like a pizza meal out with my kiddo, one of his favorite visiting-home traditions, as well as giving myself some flexibility in food and drink spending during social outings.

I also picked up a lot of extra call shifts during April, including two full weekends, and although we take off-premise call and don’t always work overnight or during the weekends, there often is disruption to my normal evening routine and sleep schedule when I have a string of call days. This is precisely what happened, and I found myself catching the respiratory bug that’s been prevalent in this area (when I haven’t been ill in several years). On top of fighting illness, I ended up working a difficult overnight case the third week that threw my entire routine out the window for several days until I caught up on sleep.

A year ago, these variables would certainly have led to a month of abandoned financial goals and cash flying out of my pockets willy-nilly, beers flowing and pizzas consumed at a remarkable rate, take-out to make up for not sleeping and being ill, “treating” myself (which is never a treat!) here and there throughout the month to make up for the lack of preparedness.

In terms of my overall routines, it’s quite clear that I didn’t make time for writing here, which correlates to less “making time” for other previously-established habits such as tracking spending, prepping all my meals for the week, and rising early to savor a cup of coffee.

So how far off the rails did my finance train end up?

With one exception, I stayed within the amounts I’d loosely budgeted for the month, and these amounts were still lower than I was spending a year ago. I am no longer surprised how fast a $10 tab here and there throughout the week add up – and boy do they add up fast! – and I was able to keep track of the running total, instead of giving up and ignoring the numbers for a few weeks like I’ve done in the past.

My glaring incident of mindless spending occurred on Record Store Day. My son, his girlfriend and I joined our bike shop for a bicycle tour of different record stores around the cities. They all had events such as food trucks or live music, and for most of the day we spent nothing, having brought our own snacks and drinks. One record store, however, was my old stomping grounds and where I used to spend a very large chunk of monthly disposable funds. Without even thinking about it, I purchased two records! I had a vague sense of, “This event is so great for promoting small businesses,” and -poof- there went $40!

The big takeaway for me, however, isn’t that I spent a large amount (considering my previous six months) on something absolutely not needed, but that I was able to acknowledge that it happened and move right on. I didn’t experience the shock-and-guilt feelings that I would have a year ago, and experienced often for a few years before that.

I’m also very pleased that I’ve seemed to kick the “treat” mentality completely out of my life — there were almost NO emotions attached to my spending for the month! Reviewing my calendar and matching up the outflow is very interesting from a habit and data collection standpoint, but that’s it. I cannot remember a single time in my adult life where I’ve been able to look at spending without judging myself in some tiny way. This is huge!

Overall, the lessons I learned from a month of spending with abandonment are worth more to me and my understanding of my own journey than the dollar amount I could have saved. I feel I’m in a much healthier space because of it. I’m actually in a better position to move forward financially, because of the insights I discovered, but also socially and emotionally – I gained friendships and have made a couple of special connections with people that I would have avoided in the name of “Sticking to the Plan” prior to April. Taking chances is sometimes worth far more than the risk 🙂

And it’s finally Spring! I’m looking forward to fresh salads and a lot more time in the sunshine riding my bike and playing with my pup 🙂

Finance Friday: a week’s recap

A little smattering of spending-related choices, listed briefly, to keep my mind on the right path.

Saturday April 8 🙂

Bicycle ride along the river in spring sunshine. Meal planning in my head during the ride.

Sunday April 9 🙂

Meal prep for the week! Free museum entry; bicycle riding. Yep, there’s definitely a theme to the free entertainment and exercise this month! After all that boss frugality, split a $ pizza with a friend. Ha.

Monday April 10 🙂

Bicycle commute to and from work; packed my meals.

Tuesday April 11 :]

Bicycle ride and bike rack purchase – have sat on this spend for months, as it’s absolutely NOT necessary. It is already making a tremendous difference in the ability to pack all my supplies for the day, which will lead to more bicycle commuting and less driving.

Wednesday April 12 🙂

Packed my work meals.

Thursday April 13 🙂

Weekly group bicycle ride. Ate a packed meal beforehand. Spent $6 on a beverage. Passed on the free beer. My wallet and my body were happy.

Friday April 14 🙂

Worked late but still managed to eat packed food!

Lots of wins – I’m getting better at maintaining meal prep even during busy social weeks; I spent only the cash I’d allotted for my weekly Thursday outing; and I kept a stash of snacks at work for late nights to prevent vending machine temptation. The pizza was DIVINE.

Kiddo will be in town for a week, which is typically where my food spending goes sideways.

Finance Friday: a week’s recap

A little smattering of spending-related choices, listed briefly, to keep my mind on the right path.

Oh my! April is 30 Days of Biking and the unusual-for-me busyness has eclipsed other aspects of life. The month is flying by!

sunset view on one of my daily bicycle rides

Saturday April 1 🙂

Kickoff ride for 30 Days of Biking. Great fun!! Two free beers at the end of the ride, and I’d eaten a lot beforehand, so it worked out great for my wallet. Ended up spending most of the day with new friends from the monthly rides, and ended up eating on the way home – spent $7 not in the plan, but wow was that food excellent. I need to start strategizing ways to minimize spending but be flexible in social outings.

Sunday April 2 🙂

Bike ride with the kids to a coffee shop. We’d pre-planned for this and my son offered to pay, but I kept it to my Family Fun rule. Total for all three of us was $12 so not bad at all compared to our usual dinner-when-kiddo-comes-home nights.

Monday April 3 🙂

Somehow amidst all the festivities I managed to make my lunches! Big win.

Tuesday April 4 🙂

I slept a good portion of this day. It felt amazing. And it was free!

Wednesday April 5 🙂

Workday with lunch packed.

Thursday April 6 🙂

Biked to work and packed breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bicycle ride afterward with one free beer. I think next week I’ll bring tea – my body isn’t too happy with this frequent beer consumption.

Friday April 7 🙂

Workday and (free) plans afterward. Breakfast, lunch and dinner in the bike bag again.

Another strong week – with all the social events coming up this month, however, I’ll need to make some decisions about where to spend my “building relationships” cash lest I slip back into $5 here and there every day. My meal routine has saved me so much stress and money, but I anticipate some hiccups this month without the full weekends of solitude I’ve become used to.

Finance Friday: a week’s recap

A little smattering of spending-related choices, listed briefly, to keep my mind on the right path.

Sunday 🙂

Bicycle ride with new bicycle friends. One beer and one plate of french fries plus tip. Money well spent, given the exercise, the camaraderie, the beer giving me the ability to talk to strangers, and the amazing seasoning salt on the fries! This is currently a monthly delight but will be weekly in April and I’m looking forward to every week!

Monday 🙂

I knew I was going to be working late, so packed extra food. Hurrah!

Tuesday :/

The potholder only works on the hand that’s wearing it! This is day 3 and I can finally move my thumb, whoohoo!

Kiddo’s birthday, on which I slept in, reflected on being a mama, texted the birthchild off and on, lazed about reading books, wrote notes, and managed to give myself a second-degree burn across a large portion of my hand in the process of starting dinner. Oops.

The fact my dog cannot drive to the drugstore definitely saved me some unnecessary spending.

Wednesday :[

Very little sleep overnight and not finishing dinner preparations resulted in buying food in the cafeteria. I’ll be a little bummed to have to record that in my monthly spending, but I was hungry and not able to use my hand. SO WORTH IT.

Seriously. Try eating a banana with just one hand. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Ok with teeth it’s not too bad. Now try putting on socks. Now tying work-only shoes that are required. I cheated and wore my coworker’s Crocs when I got to that point!

Thursday 🙂

Stopped at the grocery on the way home to replace ruined Tuesday-night food. Didn’t buy a single splurge item even though the bandage on Lefty was trying to convince me ice cream and chips are integral to the healing process.

Friday 🙂

Didn’t stop to buy wine on the way home, even though Lefty again was insistent, and the grey skies were also pinging the wine-and-a-book center of my brain.

A pretty good week all around, considering a year ago my injury would’ve given me all sorts of excuses and rationalization for spending. My frugal-fu is getting stronger 🙂

Why I’m Not Drinking This St. Patrick’s Day

Don’t get me wrong; I drink alcohol. My body and my taste buds really, really enjoy whiskey and even better a bit of scotch. But in my quest to pay off all my non-mortgage debt then save like a frugal fiend, I’ve discovered spending habits that weren’t so obvious at first.

Holidays used to be a great excuse to get a foofoo latte, or eat out with friends, or generally just let mindfulness go out the window when it came to spending (or eating!).

This year I realized that with my kiddo away for school (so past the green eggs and pancakes stage), and with me being not one whiff of Irish, there is no real reason for me to celebrate a holiday that for me has mostly been an excuse to eat, drink booze and laugh with friends.

I know if I go out tonight I’ll end up drinking a beverage that I don’t really need, eating an appetizer that won’t taste as great as I remember from a couple years ago, and staying up later than my body likes. But more importantly, I’ll be spending money that does nothing to serve my goal of financial independence, and in light of the blatant booziness of this holiday in my city, does nothing to further my goal of Saying Yes to deepening my relationships.

My overall goal for winning at my finances is really to simplify my life – it’s simple to stay home and avoid the manic city crowds. It’s simple to acknowledge that my body has aged enough to appreciate good sleep. It’s simple to be cheered by social media photos of friends out for the night while I’m curled up with the dog and a good book.

I do secretly wish I hadn’t decided to not restock my whiskey collection, but the subtle longing and subsequent denial will be good for me 🙂

How to Slash a Budget That’s Already a Skeleton

Over the years I’ve read various accounts of people who have made remarkable progress, either in savings goals or debt payment, by tracking spending and cutting hundreds (or thousands) of dollars from the monthly budget.

What if your spending is lean already? Either by choice, or by circumstance, some of us don’t have $150 cable and phone bills, or biweekly dinners out, or a clothes shopping habit– all line items that are often the first to go. In my case it’s been a little of both. I haven’t necessarily felt desire for a new-off-the-lot car or cable tv or purses; those things just aren’t part of my lifestyle. My income vs. expenses, however, has also ensured there’s not a big discretionary spending number to tempt me.

So how in the world do I go about trimming where there is no fat? And how do I decide how far I can go? If it were only up to me and the goal is to save as much as possible, I’d be selling everything including my house and car and moving into a small apartment blocks away from my workplace. I’ve thought about that last bit a LOT over the past year, especially since our current housing market made my neighborhood very profitable for sellers.

I’m not the only person who calls this place home, though, and I’ve gone without a car before and found it miserable and defeating rather than liberating. My body does not appreciate wind chill! Those two things are currently not part of the plan.

For me the answer has been to regularly reevaluate my spending categories in relationship to my values.

How often do you review your finances? If you don’t, start! Start by tracking every single penny you spend – most of us are pretty darn surprised by the amount we don’t notice sneaking out of our bank accounts.

If you normally review your finances biweekly when you get paid, for example, schedule time to really sit down and look at your spending. Two years ago my only debt was student loans and a mortgage, and I thought I was doing pretty good in the budgeting department. At that time Netflix wasn’t needed in the summer when I wanted to play outside so I’d suspend my account, but heck yes it was “necessary in the winter” when hot chocolate and blankets were calling my name. Our phones were prepaid and had been about $35 each per month for a few years. This seemed like a great deal compared to my iPhone using coworkers and friends. I bought food at the farmer’s market and co-ops, and it was budgeted so I didn’t pay much attention to the overall number. We ate simply at home, and went out to eat 4-5 times a year, so it didn’t occur to me I could make an impactful change to that budget line.

In the past year, however, I’ve come to detest every penny of debt I owe and am committed to paying it off as soon as possible, then keep right on socking that money away for financial independence and retirement. The first couple of times I looked at my spending, I couldn’t see a single thing to cut.

I spent a lot of my dog-walking time last fall thinking about what my ideal life looks like, and how my ideal spending would match those values. If you had unlimited financial resources right now, what would your day to day life look like? If you can’t envision a life different from now (I’ve been there!), take a look at the Frugalwoods’ Uber Frugal Month Challenge – stripping your finances to only the bare essentials will reveal your true needs versus wants.

The next time I sat down to study my spending through the eyes of my Future Self, there suddenly were line items that positively jumped out at me.

Changes I made that weekend in October, that seemed impossible in September:

I cancelled Netflix – I realized that mindlessly watching videos is not part of my ideal day, and any rare insomnia-induced tv watching could easily be filled by free streaming services. $10.77/month * 12 months = $129.24 annual savings
I reduced my kiddo’s phone plan since he now had consistent wifi access – my plan was previously changed, bringing our total to under $40/month for two smartphones. 2015 phone plan $74/month – new phone plan $35/month average = $39 savings/month * 12 months = $468 annual savings
I switched auto insurance and paid six months in full for $349 – my previous monthly charge was $132, so 20 minutes of internet research netted me a 56% price reduction! $132/month – $58/month = $74 savings/month * 12 months = $888 annual savings
I started shopping at Aldi as my “first” stop, then supplemented at the co-op. By the end of the month, Aldi was first, followed by a local grocery store. I was never a good price-watcher, so it has taken the last five months to have a good understanding of where my dollars are best spent (and it’s still a work in progress). Average spent Oct-Nov 2016 $480 – average spent Oct-Nov $320 = $160 savings * 12 months = $1920 annual savings (and this was before I became a strict meal planner and Uber-Frugaled my grocery bill!).
I decided I was no longer going to eat out just to eat away from home. Social gatherings are ok, but luckily for my budget these are maybe once a month and tend to be coffee or happy hour. Figure 5 * $40 tab = $200 estimated annual savings.
I decided I was no longer going to purchase coffee for consumption outside my home. Assume 3 coffees/month ranging from $2-$6 = $150 estimated annual savings.

Just these quick, done-in-a-day changes will add up to $3755.24 of savings this year alone!

I save money by insourcing shower cleaning to this guy

Four months later and I don’t miss Netflix (my coworkers and I have easily found other things to talk about!), I can’t believe I didn’t check car insurance rates at least every six months, and the last time I went to the co-op I was shocked at the price of tea. It doesn’t even cross my mind to go to the cafeteria at work because I’ve already prepared my meals for the week. Coffee was the hardest habit to break emotionally, but being prepared and bringing a thermos has prevented backsliding. My new normal is already normal.

The key to ongoing savings is to evaluate categories regularly.

A few years ago I had a back injury (muscle). I wasn’t allowed to do any weightlifting that put compressive force on my spine – which for me meant the only heavy lift I was doing was bench press. It took about a year for me to cancel my gym membership. If I was in the practice of sitting down with myself and my Future Self, looking at what we valued at that moment and in the future, I would have easily seen that powerlifting was not part of my life at the moment and could have cut that expense much earlier.

At the time I cut the gym membership primarily because I wasn’t using the gym as often, but I also was conscious of saving that money. I’d been vaguely kicking around the idea of socking away loads of money into savings. But instead, I took that “savings” and transferred that spending to another category: I started going to the salon more frequently, and had a stylist who loved to play with color and short cuts, necessitating even more frequent salon visits. Again, if I routinely examined my budget categories I would have realized that my “money saving” gym membership cancellation inadvertently led to even more spending!

Moving forward I think I’m in a really good place to be able to assess my finances against my true values. The last few years were all about deciding what those values are – I’m glad I took the time to experiment with being a girly salon girl but looking back the upkeep was a drag, and I wear a hat for work anyway. Win for my low-maintenance tomboy self, win for my wallet! Now….what else can I cut starting in April….