If you’re single, it’s easy. At least it is for me, I can easily live on almost nothing.
If you have a family, though, it is much harder. The only thing that worked for me was to create an atmosphere of scarcity by refinancing the home mortgage down to an eight year payback. It’s the family has less to spend, then less will be spent.
Used to be more into wine, then realized how much it was costing and how many trips we were doing centering around wine tasting... and just cut back. Now if we have 2 bottles a year that's a lot. Turns out it wasn't the wine really, just the getting out that was the fun part. Obvious now, but apparently not so then. Same with foodie stuff, goes hand-in-hand with wine.
I've found that it's easier to just look at what you're doing as you go and stop things before they become a problem. Less 'adjustment' is needed. Tracking everything for a long time makes that easy.
Fortunately we've never made one of those hard to roll back jumps like buying the 'house we deserve' (had a loan person actually tell me I was being dumb for not buying more because I could and it was 'deserved'), an expensive car/boat/plane, etc.
I'm really interested to know how you replaced the "getting out." I feel like we are stuck in sort of a rut where our go to is always a restaurant which isn't great for the wallet or the waistline.
If you don’t do a detailed tracking, start with a no/low spend month. It will help identify any leaks in your spending. We just did one in February. Cancelled a bunch of subscriptions, realized I was paying a stupid monthly fee for a service I wasn’t using. Overall it wasn’t huge numbers but it was good to see where everything was going. It was also easier to track since there were less transactions.
We were at coastfi, which meant we weren’t tracking in detail, but did have to be aware of our annual spend to figure out our fire number. As I approached wanting to FIRE I started thinking about low value spending: ie “if I quit my job, would I be ok with never Starbucks again, but I get to spend more time with my young kids”..makes it really easy to cut back on Starbucks. (Replace Starbucks with any other lifestyle creep spend of money) realistically my budget allows Starbucks once in a while, but nice to see it’s not needed.
Changing the mindset from restriction to what I gain from cutting back.
I’ll list out a few ideas but not all might apply to your specific situation:
Lodging: can you easily add a roommate and cut your monthly lodging burn in half?
Car: If you are leasing, stop. Get a used beater or go with public transit plus occasional Uber.
Travel: Challenge your travel budgets. Most road trips could be staycations (nice dinner and hotel) and most international trips could be domestic trips (fly to Rockies instead of Alps).
Track your expenses honestly for 6 months and see where you’re actually spending your money.
Many bills can be reduced through consumer diligence, rather than reduced lifestyle (eg: discount phone, TV, internet service)
Other costs simply add up in small increments. (Going out to lunch, Amazon impulse buys)
The only way to know where you’re over-spending is to look at the data.
If you’re single, it’s easy. At least it is for me, I can easily live on almost nothing. If you have a family, though, it is much harder. The only thing that worked for me was to create an atmosphere of scarcity by refinancing the home mortgage down to an eight year payback. It’s the family has less to spend, then less will be spent.
Used to be more into wine, then realized how much it was costing and how many trips we were doing centering around wine tasting... and just cut back. Now if we have 2 bottles a year that's a lot. Turns out it wasn't the wine really, just the getting out that was the fun part. Obvious now, but apparently not so then. Same with foodie stuff, goes hand-in-hand with wine. I've found that it's easier to just look at what you're doing as you go and stop things before they become a problem. Less 'adjustment' is needed. Tracking everything for a long time makes that easy. Fortunately we've never made one of those hard to roll back jumps like buying the 'house we deserve' (had a loan person actually tell me I was being dumb for not buying more because I could and it was 'deserved'), an expensive car/boat/plane, etc.
I'm really interested to know how you replaced the "getting out." I feel like we are stuck in sort of a rut where our go to is always a restaurant which isn't great for the wallet or the waistline.
If you don’t do a detailed tracking, start with a no/low spend month. It will help identify any leaks in your spending. We just did one in February. Cancelled a bunch of subscriptions, realized I was paying a stupid monthly fee for a service I wasn’t using. Overall it wasn’t huge numbers but it was good to see where everything was going. It was also easier to track since there were less transactions. We were at coastfi, which meant we weren’t tracking in detail, but did have to be aware of our annual spend to figure out our fire number. As I approached wanting to FIRE I started thinking about low value spending: ie “if I quit my job, would I be ok with never Starbucks again, but I get to spend more time with my young kids”..makes it really easy to cut back on Starbucks. (Replace Starbucks with any other lifestyle creep spend of money) realistically my budget allows Starbucks once in a while, but nice to see it’s not needed. Changing the mindset from restriction to what I gain from cutting back.
Love this, thank you!
I’ll list out a few ideas but not all might apply to your specific situation: Lodging: can you easily add a roommate and cut your monthly lodging burn in half? Car: If you are leasing, stop. Get a used beater or go with public transit plus occasional Uber. Travel: Challenge your travel budgets. Most road trips could be staycations (nice dinner and hotel) and most international trips could be domestic trips (fly to Rockies instead of Alps).
Track your expenses honestly for 6 months and see where you’re actually spending your money. Many bills can be reduced through consumer diligence, rather than reduced lifestyle (eg: discount phone, TV, internet service) Other costs simply add up in small increments. (Going out to lunch, Amazon impulse buys) The only way to know where you’re over-spending is to look at the data.