Hi all,
Here is a little bit of history.
Proudly Mexican, I'm 37 Yrs. Old, and never been good with money or credit.
I've started reading Mr. Money Mustache' blog somewhere around a year ago.
After reading a lot of Blog entries I got the premise, is not being cheap is being conservative when spending and a monster saving and investing.
A few months ago (about 6 or 7) my wife and I decided to start living the mustachian way, we started small.
Our monthly expenses were: (keep in mind that all of these are in Mexican Pesos)
Our joined income was $38,000
1. Cable TV $890 (It included HDTV package, All movie channels, Telephone, 10MB Internet)
2. Gas for 2 cars $1250
3. Rent $2500 (this is great the house is from my father in law so he will never raise the rent)
4. Water $100
5. Groceries $2000
6. 2 Cellphone plan $1500 - $2000 (depending on excessive use.)
7. Dining out $2000 (depending on the venue, but mostly Junk food)
8. Credit Cards debt ($60000 Mine, about $30000 hers) the monthly payments were between $10000 to 18000 a month depending on the planned expenses.
9. Car Reparations ~$6000 (the cars spent more time in the mechanic than at home.)
10. Miscellaneous ~$3260 I have no idea where this money went for months.
Our total spending on a monthly basis was ~$36740, At the end of each month we were eating Maruchan Soups or Canned Tuna. (These two, even when they are delicious, after 2 of each on a regular basis are not that yummy.)
Once we decided to stop the excessive spending.
1. Cable TV $590 (Reduced the service to just internet and telephone)
2. Gas cars $800 (sold both old cars and bout a family car)
3. Rent $2500
4. Water $150
5. Groceries $2800 (We have a relative living temporally at home so this goes a bit up)
6. Cellphone plan $600 (We canceled one plan and reduced mine, I was a bit reluctant to the idea, now I'm convinced i need to cancel this plan too and i can in about 6 months)
7. Dining out $380 (Mostly Junk food)
8. Credit Cards debt $90000 Mine, $3000 hers (the monthly payments are $10000 a month). I am struggling with not buying stuff from Amazon. Damn you Amazon why are you so convenient!!!
9. Miscellaneous ~$2690 This are for my nasty habit of smoking and Eating out at lunch time 2 days a week, when we cannot cook lunch to bring to work.
Now the grand total is $20510
You need to take to account that my wife quit her job to pursue a new career path that did not grow as expected, we only invested in this new career path $8000.
At this point our income is about $30000 because i got a raise this year, so we have a bit more room to save about $9490 a month; however, my credit card is killing us.
Now, about 2 weeks ago we found out that we are pregnant and we are to have a baby in about 32 weeks.
In my hurry to pay all my debt before the baby is here, I took a second Credit Card with less interest rate and no annual fee that my first Credit Card. Because of some technical problems in the bank I have not been able to transfer my balance from one bank to the other.
Any advice is welcome.
The Mexican Mustachian (want to be)