Hi everybody, this doubles as a bit of an intro, apologies for the length!
I discovered this blog in the past two weeks and am currently traveling. After reading a TON of MMM articles, I cannot believe how much money I was flat out wasting, and I realize I was almost proud of it in some instances. In the past few years I've been fortunate to not really have to think about what I was spending, as my business was doing quite well. Eating out every meal, ordering groceries through instacart and in many instances them going to waste, uber/lyfting everywhere, not preparing adequately and buying stuff in the moment to compensate. And just a few years ago I biked through Northeast winters!! I can't believe how averse I've become to discomfort in such a short time.
A few months ago my car broke down because of a bad mechanic (only had 80k miles on it ughhh) and I haven't replaced it. I have a road bike, but I bought it for $75 bucks off of craigslist and I don't feel like I can conquer biking with it as it's pretty crappy. So I've got a list of things to buy: a mountain bike, rainproof laptop pannier, groceries pannier etc as soon as I get back.
My financial situation is pretty good all considering, so I'm not super worried about the cost. I'm almost 27, own my house and roommates cover mortgage and then some. The value has doubled since I purchased at 24 (negotiated 100k off asking and the neighborhood has become incredibly popular), and following that I managed to start a business that allows me a retired like lifestyle, while still raking in the dough doing enjoyable part time work. So if one ignores the past two or three years where I was living large instead of paying down my debts, I'm doing great. By simply eliminating the conveniences in my life that don't actually add any enjoyment, I'll save an easy grand a month, and I could have credit cards/student loans paid off within a year or two.
As I have a history of biking and loving it, I'm reasonably confident that I'll readopt my former lifestyle with gusto. But I find it funny that the first thing I'll be doing as a Mustachian is dropping probably close to $1000 on biking gear. Did anyone else find that they had to spend a substantial amount of money to start reducing? An MMM article I read advocates going ahead and buying a bike new instead of fussing around with craigslist so you get into it and hooked as soon as possible. I think I'm making the right decision with this, but I'm curious to hear about anybody else's experiences of significant purchases that helped them to save money and live better.
Thanks so much! I'm excited to embark on my new frugal life!