Author Topic: How much money would you save if you went full-mustachian?  (Read 14721 times)

Lil_Bit

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Re: How much money would you save if you went full-mustachian?
« Reply #50 on: October 25, 2013, 05:42:13 PM »

Thanks for the information. I always try and buy generic drugs. I also live in Australia and I'm not sure if we have access to some of the stuff you mention.

I do think you need to be very careful with doctors because expenses add up and don't necessarily help. The thing is when it is for the kids I find it harder to not spend that money.


No problem, you're welcome.  I agree, when it comes to our children we have to take care of them no matter what the costs.

DocCyane

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Re: How much money would you save if you went full-mustachian?
« Reply #51 on: October 26, 2013, 08:29:12 PM »
Interesting thread. I didn't realize how Un-Mustachian the Mustachians are.

If we optimized any further we would officially suck the joy out of life, so we are concentrating on increasing income rather than cutting costs further.

Herbert Derp

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Re: How much money would you save if you went full-mustachian?
« Reply #52 on: October 27, 2013, 03:14:28 PM »
When I went "full mustachian" I was able to start saving 90% of my take home pay rather than only 75%. I think it is working out well for me.

olivia

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Re: How much money would you save if you went full-mustachian?
« Reply #53 on: October 27, 2013, 04:23:53 PM »
A ton, I'm sure.  We're still in the beginning stages of becoming Mustachian.  We've already made a lot of big changes (selling car, paying down a lot of debt, etc.), but we could definitely do more.  I look at it as a process, though...we've stopped eating out so much, and to achieve that I set our grocery budget at a very un-Mustachian $600/month in Aug. and Sept, then $500/month for Oct., next month is $450/month, and so on.  Plus we're continuing to pay down debt, and that alone will free up close to $500/month when we're fully debt free.

Next up is renting a much cheaper place when our lease ends in May.  (And in the meantime, getting rid of a ton of stuff so we'll fit into a 1 bedroom.)  We currently rent a tiny rowhouse for $1725/month + all utilities, and we could switch to a 1 bedroom apartment for probably $1200-1300/month, or even less if we move to a less convenient part of the city.  (Not sure if I'm up for that yet, but we'll see what apartments are out there when our lease is up.)  Water and sometimes even heat are included in the rent for apartments here, so cheaper housing alone would save us $600+ a month.  That's our next big low-hanging fruit for sure, aside from becoming debt-free.

rocklebock

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Re: How much money would you save if you went full-mustachian?
« Reply #54 on: October 27, 2013, 07:22:21 PM »
Meh. I don't feel like I have much left to cut. I could save about $125 a month if I cut restaurant eating to 1x per month. And another $35 if I cut Netflix and Spotify, and moved from Ting to something like Republic Wireless. Maybe $180 a year if I cut/colored my own hair or went to a cheaper salon. $100 a year if I weren't so picky about the quality of my footwear and handbags. Stuff like that. But those things are all worth to me what I'm paying for them. I'm focusing on one more big optimization (refinancing my rental property), and increasing my income by expanding a side hustle.

Rebecca Stapler

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Re: How much money would you save if you went full-mustachian?
« Reply #55 on: October 27, 2013, 08:35:56 PM »
Interesting question ... we are highly optimized now except our transportation, heat and cooling, and our housing costs. Those are three BIG areas of non-optimization!

Transportation: Find a job that's bike-able -- save $1,176/year in public transit
Heat & Cooling: Insulate the shit outta our place -- save $1,000/year ???
Housing: Move to a smaller place so it's more affordable -- save $3,000/year ???

Those are some big guesses, but all told I think we would save $5,176/year for full-on mustacian. It would then get dumped into our fucking student loans!