New Mustachian Feeling Frustrated After Seeing Recent Spending in Mint

[ondrace]

Today is a dark yet hopeful day. I've just seen that I'm actually spending more than I've been earning. How the hell did I miss this?

Fortunately, I have no debts with interest (I do have one $30K zero-interest debt), and I have my own business which does pretty well for itself. But my expenses have been a bit out of control (especially in the food/dining department).

Seeing the truth is the first step, of course. Wanted to translate this feeling of fear/frustration into a mini post here to get the feelings out.

Has anyone else had this type of moment of "oh shit" realization?

[couponvan]

I think I read that you are using Mint.  I will say Mint doesn't do a very good job at tracking certain savings unless you do some work.  For instance, when you make an extra house payment it counts it as expense, and it doesn't include savings in your 401(k) as income if you only report your net paycheck.  You might want to think about those when looking at your actual spending and "net income" in Mint.  Just my 2 cents.

[ondrace]

Thanks for your 2 cents.

I am using Mint, but at the moment only using it to get a snapshot of my expenses, not income/savings. I am tracking those elsewhere (Xero + spreadsheets I've made).

[Adram]

The first day I found MMM blog, I sat down and went through my spending over the last year, and found many thousands of dollars wasteful spending, including over 10k just on eating out, with over $500 on pizzas alone!

It's an eye opener, but should be a good face punch moment to start reducing wastefulness.

We are now at over 75% savings rate so I'm pretty happy with our work so far.

[ondrace]

Damn, that's amazing!

I feel kind of the same way. Most of it is food/drinking.

Have a lot of room for improvement, which is great!

The first day I found MMM blog, I sat down and went through my spending over the last year, and found many thousands of dollars wasteful spending, including over 10k just on eating out, with over $500 on pizzas alone!

It's an eye opener, but should be a good face punch moment to start reducing wastefulness.

We are now at over 75% savings rate so I'm pretty happy with our work so far.

[andy85]

i think we all go through sometime similar starting out. There are always holes in your budget/spending that even if you are aware of, you don't realize the scope.

I remember the first time i took pen to paper, i figured i should have $900 leftover every month. In reality i had far, far less than that. So i found the holes and plugged them. The next month, i had $901 leftover. mind was blown. Just make the necessary changes and carry on. You'll be fine.

[ondrace]

Well this is progress!

Note: Disregard Feb as I wasn't using Mint then.

Still a ways to go...

[elaine amj]

That is awesome progress!!! I only started tracking in Oct and my real spending numbers (vs what I thought) are frustrating me too. Slowly plugging the holes and revising my spend number to reflect reality.


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[ClovisKid]

Yeah, I had a similar "oh shit" moment when I started tracking my expenses.  I have had a couple more of those moments since then after I lost focus and went on a a couple of sprees.  Strangely, I don't feel any better after any of these indulgences... stuff really doesn't make you long-term happy.

Reducing spending has to become a habit, just like eating out all the time can become a habit or spending money on crap can become a habit...

Hang in there, rebound from the curve balls that life throws at you, and stay focused on your goals and avoid the innumerable distractions that you'll encounter throughout the journey!  For many, it is a journey and not an overnight change.

[Basenji]

Yes, I'm familiar with the Oh Shit moment. It's good, it means you have learned something. But there's also another moment you'll get to where you see how to plan out your life towards freedom. That's the F-yeah moment. Keep up the good work. Have you done a case study?

[2Birds1Stone]

Yowza!! Your spending in March/April was a bit higher than my entire 2015 which included an international vacation, $2000 triathlon bike, and various other small splurges. You will definitely be able to trim from here.

I would HIGHLY recommend posting a case study. I bet you will get some amazing feedback.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

I'll be impressed when that bar graph dives below Zero for the month.

:)

Keep up the good work!
-POF

[ondrace]

Is there a particular place in the forum where I should post my case study?

I had a look around but couldn't find a specific section.

Would be happy to post mine!

[woopwoop]

Yowza!! Your spending in March/April was a bit higher than my entire 2015 which included an international vacation, $2000 triathlon bike, and various other small splurges. You will definitely be able to trim from here.

Depends. Is OP counting taxes as part of spending? Because Mint automatically does that, so my March/April always end up being ridiculous $20k spending months for taxes alone.