Author Topic: A couple badass things this week  (Read 4777 times)

Zman

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A couple badass things this week
« on: April 07, 2015, 05:55:07 PM »
In the first two days (Monday / Tuesday) of this week I have spent $0 (I spent $4.31 on Sunday if you count that). Walk to work, make my own meals, no expenses feels awesome...

This was mainly because I have been tracking my expenses for the month. I am using Pocket Expense app and am happy with it. I've embarrassingly never had a budget and decided to change that in hopes of making FIRE a reality. I am living frugal in april to know how much i need to survive at a minimum and going from there.

Oh and two more things....
1) bumped my paycheck contributions to $692 aka 18k per year!!!! 692, what an awesome number :-)
2) opened Roth IRA in Vanguard and maxed out 2014 contributions at $5500 !!!!!!!! Now to save up 2015's $

Those last two are super exciting for me and I cant really share them with anyone else  so thank you for listening!  I feel like a financial bad-ass and can only share it with you guys which makes it secretive and in turn more exciting!

StreetCat

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2015, 09:33:57 PM »
Good going Zman!!

I've been trying for 0$ days too and so far I've never had two consecutive 0$ days.  I use Hello Expense for expense tracking and it works well for me.  Probably very similar to Pocket Expense.

Irishtache

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2015, 05:08:56 AM »
Fair play to you Zman. I have some '0' days, like today and yesterday. Usually, it means that dinner/lunch is available at home and I don't buy newspapers anymore. I only use some diesel to drive to work. Sweet!

I stopped using budgets years ago. I only buy what is necessary and an occasional coffee or snack if I want it. Works out well. DW is the grocery shopper, on the other hand, and frequently bargain clothes shops, but she's not too bad really.

misschedda

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2015, 07:16:48 AM »
Woohoo zman!! Maxing out the retirement accounts feels so good!

Zman

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2015, 09:01:36 AM »
And it also sparked me to talk to my younger sister about her retirement account.Her company does a 1% match for every year she works there(up to 6%)... Being the first year she only gets 1% and was contributing 1%

WHOA... assuming $50K/year means she puts away only $500!!!!!!!!

After a bit of talking through it, I convinced her to start with $200 per paycheck and increase as she feels comfortable or gets raises. She is still young so I think thats a good place to start.

Bonus Badassary is that I wont have to help her out later when I (hopefully) FIRE and she cant even retire! PHEW!

Bob W

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2015, 01:21:00 PM »
You are rocking it!   I love the zero dollars spent for how many days thing.   I have to have car gas and heat etc.  but could still plan those purchases ahead.   I think I could go 10-14 days without breaking out the bill fold.   I'll give it a try. 

aceyou

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2015, 02:18:58 PM »
I love it.  Keep it up!

Cougar

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2015, 02:49:46 PM »
Congrats !

Those last two are super exciting for me and I cant really share them with anyone else  so thank you for listening!  I feel like a financial bad-ass and can only share it with you guys which makes it secretive and in turn more exciting!

i have that same problem, got nothing but mass consumers around; but they'll all be working when theyre 50 and i'll be seeing every nook and cranny of the lower 48.

fartface

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2015, 05:52:26 PM »
Good job.

I get equally excited by long periods of "no spend days".

It's actually most days now for me. Sorta fades into the background after awhile.  I went 20 days w/out buying gas. Filled up yesterday. That was probably the first thing I've purchased in the last three weeks.

Zman

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2015, 06:31:01 PM »
Good job.

I get equally excited by long periods of "no spend days".

It's actually most days now for me. Sorta fades into the background after awhile.  I went 20 days w/out buying gas. Filled up yesterday. That was probably the first thing I've purchased in the last three weeks.

20 days!? Awesome!

What do you do in between days? I find myself thinking I need to go buy/do something... I guess it's a hard habit to break (consumerism that is). I'm currently wrapping up day 3 of no spend. It's been kinda like a juice cleanse but with finances!

Revelry

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #10 on: April 09, 2015, 06:03:47 AM »
Good work!  If you had been putting $692 into the 401(k) since the start of the year you would max it out, but starting now will leave a little space in there.

BBub

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Re: A couple badass things this week
« Reply #11 on: April 09, 2015, 10:48:48 AM »
Yeah the "no spend days" used to be a big event in our home, but now they're more the norm than the exception.  We pretty much pack our bulk spending in at the beginning of each month and on the weekends for groceries and entertainment.  Several bills come in at various times throughout the month - all set up on autopay.  Otherwise, we spend $0 most weekdays.

FYI, a budget won't matter once you address the underlying desire to spend.  It will be more of an afterthought to look back and track where the money went, monitoring trends & such.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!