1)Thanks so much for nitpicking my budget. Here is my reasoning for the credit card. I have been having to book 4-5 flights a year to take auditions around the US. I have been credit card churning for a couple years and have gotten at least 150,000 miles by doing this (at least $2,00). I have 4 chase credit cards now and funneled the points to my Chase Sapphire preferred in order to get the 25 percent bonus. This obviously has been a huge help to me so far.
However, you make a great point about it not being worth it now with my spending. Right now my annual fee is $90. I would need to redeem $360 of points annually to break even which means earning 36,000 points. Credit card spend $18,000 using the 2x bonus and $24,000 using the 1.5x bonus on freedom unlimited. So technically you are correct that its not worth it for me yet. When I run out of points, I guess I will downgrade the card.
2) Congrats, thats awesome. How do you achieve this? My apartment is very small, and I share my fridge with 2 other people so Costco is kind of off the table. I have been shopping at Trader Joes this last year. I would love to reduce my grocery expense and still have more variety in my diet. The local farmers market is super pricy. I have found a wholesale veggie market but it is not consistently cheaper than trader joes. I have been eating mostly vegetarian with lots of eggs, veggies, tofu, stir fry, smoothies (banana, spinach, TJ pea protein, almond butter, sometimes berries), lentils, rice, beans. I have been making Jacob's lentil http://earlyretirementextreme.com/cooking-for-6-days-in-30-minutes-for-less-than-4.html recipe from ERE about once a week.
1) Paying for a credit card with a fee is almost certainly not worth it in your shoes*.
2) What does "better food" mean? My grocery budget is about equal to yours, but I eat 200 grams of protein every day including steak every single week.
3) You can probably ignore #1 and #2 from a mental energy standpoint right now and focus on getting into the higher paying employment while not increasing #1 and #2 and other expenses.
*The instances paying a credit card fee make sense are uncommon, e.g.when you have a card that ups your travel rewards redemption (not earning) points value and you use travel points enough to make that worth it. An example of that is chase sapphire reserve, which has an <effective> $150 fee and a 1.5x points redemption multiplier, meaning you might need to redeem $225 (150 * 1.5) worth of points every year to even maybe make it "worth it" to hold that card. This is probably not you when just starting out, and there are a ton of free cards available.
On #1, you could also consider downgrading now, saving the points, then getting the 1.5x card later? Not a big deal in any case. Remember to account for point accrual in your taxes, by the way!
I based my weekly diet off of something I found online which is below, though I'm eating less right now:
2 free breakfast dishes a week at 300 calories each from work. $0.
3/4 a cup of rice, 540 calories and 9 g protein, maybe 50 cents? Probably less with 100 lb bag of rice
1 cup of beans, 670 calories and 41 g protein, maybe 50 cents? Probably less with 100 lb bag of beans
1 onion/pepper, $1?
1/4 gallon of whole milk. 600 calories, 32 g protein. 90 cents?
2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter. 190 calories, 8 g protein. 50 cents?
2 cups oatmeal. 150 calories, 5g protein. 20 cents?
7 bags of frozen mixed veggies, 200 calories and $1 each so $7 a week.
1/2 a bag of frozen fruit at $10 a bag. ~900 calories a bag. $5 a week.
10 low-carb yogurts at 40 cents each. 70 calories and 9 g protein each. $4 a week.
7 scoop of protein powder, 190 calories, 24 grams protein, $0.80 given 10 lb bag, $5.50 a week.
4 family size cottage cheese tubs at $2 per at 660 calories and 72g protein each. $8 per wk.
1 bag of frozen chicken thighs. 1300 calories, 192 g protein. $8
1 pound 85/15 ground turkey. I don't know the nutrition facts but google does :). $4.50
2 pounds pork. Don't know nutrition, $6.
1 pound steak. Don't know nutrition, $4
18 eggs. 470 calories, 36 g protein. $3?
That's in the neighborhood of 2000 calories and 190 g protein per day. Conservatively estimated at $62 a week, maybe + $3 for non-caloric incidentals (cooking spray etc) though that might be counteracted by sales. You'll note that, unsurprisingly, my protein consumption accounts for a large portion of that, so just cutting down that and maybe fruits/cheese and replacing with carbs/fat would probably cut the price drastically. If I weren't lifting I would do this and drop expenses to < $40. I buy all of this at the local store (if you have a WinCo near you it might cost half this!) and don't vary for sales since my focus is entirely on nutritionally balanced meals given my fitness goals and income.
Really though, if you're spending mental energy and effort take some time up front and regularly to consider if expending effort on cutting your current groceries 20% is worth it compared to increasing your income or, like, relaxing and enjoying the ride. For instance, I think nothing of mixing some takeout in or whatever, and any "guilt" was always on the fitness side not the FIRE side.
Good luck too! You're way ahead of the game just by being here, don't forget to smell the roses a bit.
