It has been one year since my wife and I started getting serious about our savings. We've gone from saving about $500-$600 a month of our gross income to saving approximately $3,700 a month of our gross income. Our gross income is about $6,700. Two working adults no kids, have a house, one car, one bike.
Specific actions we took in the past year:
Sept 2013: Read all of MMM and got the message. Signed up for Mint. Started looking at major discretionary expenses
Oct 2013: Eliminated 80% of our eating out. Eliminated my gadget buying (savings $250 monthly). No more protein supplements. Eat real food.
Nov 2013: Eliminated ski season (approximate savings $3k over 3 months). Paid off credit cards completely. Will never hold CC balance again.
Dec 2013: Did largely homemade gifts for Christmas (approximate savings $1k). Signed up for airlines miles with new CC.
Obtained 200k airline miles in next 6 months.
Jan 2014: Cut back on hobby expenses and impulse spending (appoximate savings $100 a month)
Feb 2014: Didn't make much progress
Mar 2014: Started reducing our grocery bill of $650 a month down to $500 a month. Currently spending $350 a month. Went from shopping at expensive Whole Foods type stores to shopping at Grocery Outlet and Costco. Wife and I take our own lunches now 100% of all days. No more special Friday lunches out.
Apr 2014: Decided to delay all non essential upgrades to the house (savings $200 a month). No new patio furniture etc.
May 2014: Setup a ghetto attic fan to reduce A/C costs (two small fans from Big lots and 2 extension cords). Cost $50. Savings $400 over the next few months. Switched to taking vegan lunches - savings $50/month. Lose pants sizes in following months.
Jun 2014: Frugal vacation. Flew to Cabo for free (airlines miles). Have existing timeshare (yes stupid us). Total cost $1200 (including timeshare maint. fee). Fixed roof leak for $25 instead of hiring it out.
July 2014: Started line drying laundry. Cut electric bill from prior year $250 to $82 for July. Switched from Mint to my own excel spreadsheet. Tracking expenses weekly down to the penny. Start picking up pennies I see on the ground everywhere. No money escapes me or my wife.
Aug 2014: Wife started carpooling. Cut monthly gasoline bill from $200 to $100 (yes she has a stupid commute that will be gone after this year). I bike to work.
Sep 2014: Started doing a full 110k maint. on our Honda. Will save about $250 on this major service doing it myself. Trading some homebrew beer to a former mechanic friend of mine who will show me the ropes.
During this time we've paid off our credit card balances of $7,500 and have saved $25,000. We've also hit our 401k match. Next goal is to start maxing our 401ks after the FU money target is hit.
6 month goals: Remove PMI, pay off remaining car loan ($4,000)
1 year goal: Have set aside $50k FU money then start making the retirement accounts cry with all the money that flies into them.
5 year goal: Work is optional.
Thank you all for the inspiration. Thank you MMM for the face punches.
