Author Topic: First weeks of mustachianism, minor victories to report  (Read 2628 times)

DSKla

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First weeks of mustachianism, minor victories to report
« on: December 18, 2014, 12:54:24 PM »
Just found the site and decided to clean up my cc debt and spending for good. I've never been extravagant, all my debt is from bills/groceries/heavy drunking I needed to get through grad school.

I dusted off my paypal account I hadn't used in about 7 years because I was considering a useless purchase on ebay, and realized i had a $1375 balance i never knew about. Victory #1 was putting every penny on my cc debt instead of ebay.

Victory #2 was i'm realized i had rewards points i never paid attention to on my debt-ridden credit card. Cashback transer to cc balance killed another $675. That's $2050 of windfall, 100% towards debt.

Victory #3: I am charged $73/month for the great honor of parking at my work. $876/yr. i cancelled that and bought an employee bus pass, $33/quarter or $132/yr. Total savings: $744/yr. But factor in my 12 mile roundtrip commute, .50/mile x 5 days is $30/week, times 46 weeks is $1380 in savings. Total parking savings per year: $2124/yr just by switching to bus (no good bike lanes, super crazy traffic).

Victory#4: cancel $85/month cable. Save $1020/yr.

So in one week of reading this site, i have paid off over $2k debt and added $3144 to my yearly income. Since my apr is 11%, you could multiply that in too because that's where my additional savings is headed. And I have plenty other areas i can reduce. My $6k remaining debt is doomed to be destroyed in 2015.

Not bad for a week's work.

DSKla

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Re: First weeks of mustachianism, minor victories to report
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2014, 12:57:58 PM »
Just to piggyback off of myself, can anyone recommend a credit card that i could do a cheap or free balance transfer to, with much lower than 11% apr? I plan to march into the bank and threaten them with a balance transfer (politely) unless they agree to severely reduce or eliminate my apr. I'd like it if my threat were more than a bluff.

swick

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Re: First weeks of mustachianism, minor victories to report
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2014, 12:59:24 PM »
Awesome job, DSKla!

You are at the fun part of optimizing, it almost turns into a game :)

Datastache

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Re: First weeks of mustachianism, minor victories to report
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2014, 01:54:16 PM »
Great work so far! Kill that debt!

falcondisruptor

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Re: First weeks of mustachianism, minor victories to report
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2014, 02:01:51 PM »
Wow, nice work!  Such small changes have had such a big effect!

Sorry, I can't recommend a new credit card for you, I'm Canadian, so I'm not in the loop.

2ndTimer

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Re: First weeks of mustachianism, minor victories to report
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2014, 02:19:43 PM »
Congratulations.  What are you going to tackle next?

DSKla

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Re: First weeks of mustachianism, minor victories to report
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2014, 03:17:14 PM »
Congratulations.  What are you going to tackle next?

As far as expenses? Coffee at shops will be replaced with a home pourover system ($40 for pourover cup and carafe, plus gooseneck kettle). Also looking into a $75 craigslist bike for local jaunts.

If you meant after cc debt, that will be my last debt so next will be building and investing a savings.