Frugal February Day 1
Some friends and I have kicked off a "Frugal February" 30 day challenge.
We asked the personal finance subreddit for suggestions on things we should try and consolidated it into a list.
#1: Track expenses per day... I've decided to split purchases we both benefit (or suffer) from, so the day got off to a rocky start when DBF thought we might "economize" on scuba/fishing trips by buying a "like $50 parking pass" instead of paying $15/day fees. I was a little dubious since we had made a whopping 1 visit to a state park parking lot the previous year. It turned out it was "like $190" which I jokingly tried to rationalize as "not so bad... we only have to go to a state park once a month... on top of the once a month we need to go to a Federal park to break even on our our other parking pass!" He was not amused.
Also spent $52.70 on groceries and a quick internet search seems to indicate Trader Joe's runs about 30% less expensive than the Whole Foods we usually go to (and drove by on the way). Saving the receipt got us half way to item #14 compare prices at 2 or more grocery stores.
Also spent $12 on shipping and packing for a box full o'books I won't have much use for as reference materials. I guess you have to spend money to make money? I was pretty surprised that my Lord of the Rings collectors edition commands a triple digit price these days. This sparked a lot of deliberation about whether I wanted to post it or hold it until some future date. But it fit so neatly into the box, I let that settle it.
#20 Audit your cell phone contract... discovered I could unlock my iPhone and that Cricket wireless charges about $35 for a more liberal plan than I'm currently paying AT&T $65 for and uses the same network. This may take a couple days to fully sort out.
#29 Identify ways to save $100 of common expenses/month... Jump started by the potential $28 savings at Cricket findings, and an estimated $33 savings in reversing our blend from 75% whole foods, 25% trader joe's, I spent several hours futilely researching alternate ISP's, but alas, only crappy TWC will serve our address. Can't wait for Google Fiber. Also looked into the fraught Starbucks addiction. Downsizing my standard order from a grande to a tall would net $11/week. Throttling from about 2.5 bux runs a week to 1.5 would save another $14. I have often vowed to quit Starbucks cold turkey, but that never seems to last. Our team also has a habit of late afternoon walks to the cafeteria for "Froyo" which in my case is usually a $2.50 cheese and meat cup. If I just do the walk for the social benefits and raid a snack drawer in my cube, that might add up to about $20/month, even though a lot of my cafeteria snacking is underwritten by carpooling with DBF. I also wondered what would happen if I switched my Kindle ebook addiction into more of a podcast fetish. This would leave my hands free for walking and increasing the fitbit step counts that fund my healthcare savings account while also saving me about $20/month in impulse purchases. So yeah, about $126 in estimated savings; maybe I should reward myself with an extra Starbucks run.
#67 Setup autosavings on your checking account; #64 invest in 401K, Vanguard, etc.... So I guess I could make the argument that I'm already doing this as I thought it would be a fun adventure to set my 401K max contribution auto-deduct as high as was allowed and live mostly off my savings until I was contribution capped or boiling shoe leather for sustenance. Also discovered that Vanguard will let you schedule recurring purchases and that this might be a handy way to keep my savings from languishing under the inflationary forces outside of my savings account. So yeah, set that up and we'll see how it goes.
#65 Calculate your networth... I will spare you the gorey details on this one. Calculations get a lot simpler when debts are paid off. Also had some challenges making sense of how to value non-liquid assets, like the house. Is it worth what we paid for it? What Zillow says it is worth now? Do I split that 50:50 with DBF? What about the truck? How about depreciation? What about that austerity 401K? Is it really liquid if it is locked up until I am of retirement age? Hmm. I'm not sure how instructive this exercise was.
We asked the personal finance subreddit for suggestions on things we should try and consolidated it into a list.
#1: Track expenses per day... I've decided to split purchases we both benefit (or suffer) from, so the day got off to a rocky start when DBF thought we might "economize" on scuba/fishing trips by buying a "like $50 parking pass" instead of paying $15/day fees. I was a little dubious since we had made a whopping 1 visit to a state park parking lot the previous year. It turned out it was "like $190" which I jokingly tried to rationalize as "not so bad... we only have to go to a state park once a month... on top of the once a month we need to go to a Federal park to break even on our our other parking pass!" He was not amused.
Also spent $52.70 on groceries and a quick internet search seems to indicate Trader Joe's runs about 30% less expensive than the Whole Foods we usually go to (and drove by on the way). Saving the receipt got us half way to item #14 compare prices at 2 or more grocery stores.
Also spent $12 on shipping and packing for a box full o'books I won't have much use for as reference materials. I guess you have to spend money to make money? I was pretty surprised that my Lord of the Rings collectors edition commands a triple digit price these days. This sparked a lot of deliberation about whether I wanted to post it or hold it until some future date. But it fit so neatly into the box, I let that settle it.
#20 Audit your cell phone contract... discovered I could unlock my iPhone and that Cricket wireless charges about $35 for a more liberal plan than I'm currently paying AT&T $65 for and uses the same network. This may take a couple days to fully sort out.
#29 Identify ways to save $100 of common expenses/month... Jump started by the potential $28 savings at Cricket findings, and an estimated $33 savings in reversing our blend from 75% whole foods, 25% trader joe's, I spent several hours futilely researching alternate ISP's, but alas, only crappy TWC will serve our address. Can't wait for Google Fiber. Also looked into the fraught Starbucks addiction. Downsizing my standard order from a grande to a tall would net $11/week. Throttling from about 2.5 bux runs a week to 1.5 would save another $14. I have often vowed to quit Starbucks cold turkey, but that never seems to last. Our team also has a habit of late afternoon walks to the cafeteria for "Froyo" which in my case is usually a $2.50 cheese and meat cup. If I just do the walk for the social benefits and raid a snack drawer in my cube, that might add up to about $20/month, even though a lot of my cafeteria snacking is underwritten by carpooling with DBF. I also wondered what would happen if I switched my Kindle ebook addiction into more of a podcast fetish. This would leave my hands free for walking and increasing the fitbit step counts that fund my healthcare savings account while also saving me about $20/month in impulse purchases. So yeah, about $126 in estimated savings; maybe I should reward myself with an extra Starbucks run.
#67 Setup autosavings on your checking account; #64 invest in 401K, Vanguard, etc.... So I guess I could make the argument that I'm already doing this as I thought it would be a fun adventure to set my 401K max contribution auto-deduct as high as was allowed and live mostly off my savings until I was contribution capped or boiling shoe leather for sustenance. Also discovered that Vanguard will let you schedule recurring purchases and that this might be a handy way to keep my savings from languishing under the inflationary forces outside of my savings account. So yeah, set that up and we'll see how it goes.
#65 Calculate your networth... I will spare you the gorey details on this one. Calculations get a lot simpler when debts are paid off. Also had some challenges making sense of how to value non-liquid assets, like the house. Is it worth what we paid for it? What Zillow says it is worth now? Do I split that 50:50 with DBF? What about the truck? How about depreciation? What about that austerity 401K? Is it really liquid if it is locked up until I am of retirement age? Hmm. I'm not sure how instructive this exercise was.
posted by Bellepic at
5:33 PM
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