Just wanted to share that I have been living the way of the mustachian for a couple of months now. In his recent post (Getting Rich: from Zero to Hero in One Blog Post), MMM said:
Here’s how to cut your life costs in half. Start by getting rid of your Debt Emergency if you have one. Live close to work. Move to another city if you enjoy adventure. Don’t borrow money for cars, and don’t buy stupid ones. Ride a bike wherever you can. Cancel your TV service. Stop wasting money on groceries. Give your kids the opportunity to achieve greatness without being pampered. Lose the overpriced cell phones. Learn to appreciate the life-boosting joy of using your own body to get things done. Learn to mock convenience. Practice optimism.
Well, this has been working out quite well for me. My variable expenses (excluding my extra debt payments) have dropped dramatically from what I was spending last year. Here is what they look like:
Mostly I have stopped wasting my money on eating out for lunch three or four times a week and have been spending much less at the bars. But other things like cutting transportation costs and being smarter about grocery shopping have really had an impact as well. As you can see I have been able to cut my variable expenses by more than half!
Thanks to this smarter spending I have paid off an extra $8k in student loan debt since the beginning of the year. My new spending habits have allowed me to take bigger chunks out of my debt. Here is how that is changing compared to last year:
So if anyone says it can't be done, just send them over to this post.