Mustachian 2013 $500,000 dollar savings goal

[Monkey stache]

We just switched from Sprint to Ting. It cost us $0 because we were out of contract, got to use our existing phones, and there's were no activation fees. Conservatively we're going to save $100 a month so add $1200 to that stache!

[Guitarguy]

We actually did the exact same thing- Sprint to Ting. We had a monthly bill of $169 that went to $35. Total savings= $134/month or $1608 this year.

I renegotiated my car insurance for a leisure rate- $60/month to $32/month= $336 saved this year (And...we're in the process of switching to Geico to get this down even further)

Kicked my wife off my employers health insurance plan for her own personal plan from Blue CrossBlue Shield. Old price $360/month- new price $116/month = $2,928 saved this year

Oh! Forgot about Costco- Old monthly budget for food was $300, new expenditures are around $225. = $900 saved this year

Canceled gym membership (yay for biking!) - 75/month= $900/year savings.

Moved to 35 mi round trip commute to 5 mi round trip commute= $1950/year in gas savings (This doesn't even factor in the IRS 51cents/mile estimate. That would bring the savings closer to $9000/year.)


Total saved so far: $8622/year

[Daryl]

Reduced our long distance plan from $15.00 + 12% tax/month for 1500 minutes to $3.00 + 12% tax/month for 5¢/minutes.  We started using a VOIP box and place all calls out through that.  I don't plan on using the long distance plan but will keep it just in case for now.

Old Plan for year = 201.60
New Plan for year = 40.32
Savings = 161.28

[yolfer]

Another Sprint to Ting'er here! Dropped my plan from about $75/month to $20.

If anyone else wants to experience the awesomeness of Ting, here's a code for $25 off:

https://z2qhtq7rd1.ting.com/

[Soccermom2b]

Finally convinced husband to give up one of our bigger anti-mustachian habits: eating lunches out.  We sat down and looked at the math on this one - in 2012, on average, we spent more per week eating out lunches on workdays than we spent on all the other meals for the week combined.

It means I'm making both dinner and lunch (for the next day) every night, but at $80 savings/week times 45 weeks remaining = $3,600.

After going over our records, it still astounds me how much we spent eating out on lunches every day.  Got into the habit of "work is hard...I need to reward myself somehow with a daily break".  Thinking the $4000 invested wisely would have been a better reward.

---

We also just refi'd the house, saving us $3000 per year.

[innkeeper77]

Awesome thread! Here are my contributions so far (food hasn't been stable so I am leaving that out, real numbers are actually higher savings)

Helped parents adjust cell phone plan: $20 less a month, $240 less per year (Switching to a truly affordable plan next year, after contracts are up)
Helped switch from DSL and landline phones to cable and VOIP: $75 less per month, $900 less per year

That is $1140 from just basic tech switches, with zero sacrifice! More to come.

[The Bearded Bank Builder]

I forgot about this thread, I think it's time I added to it.

2013 savings:

$840=Cut $86/mo cable bill and bought Hulu Plus and Netflix for $16/month instead
$1,240=Sold my car and biking a lot more. Savings = change in gas, insurance, registration. Does not include proceeds from sale of car
$120=Switched from coin-op dryer to hang drying clothes
$168=Got our monthly internet bill lowered
$1200=Lowered our fun/entertainment budget 100/month
$600=Shopping smarter, more bulk, less prepackaged food

Total = $4,168 Sweet!

Will add more later if we can make some more money saving changes. Thanks for tracking all this!

[marty998]

I forgot about the thread too    ***embarrassed smiley***

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Am8qaK8Qf80edHpQS3gyZmRIRXFFTTdRUERidzZIb2c

feel free to update the sheet. UNfortunately I haven't been able to save anything over and above what I have been for the past few months. I've hit a bit of a plateau, which means I've pretty much found my bare minimum that I can live off.

I changed my mortgage to interest only and before any one jumps up and down and says that is going to cost me more in the long run it's not. The $$$ that would normally go to principle will be banked into an offset account which effectively reduces the balance that interest is calculated on. It's a fantastic option for organising your debt for property investment later on. I've already got a substantial amount in the offset account and now it will be turbocharged each month.

Unfortunately it isn't going to save me any more, just a different loan structure so can't add any $$$ to this list :)

[wajlee]

I'm new here... been reading MMM for two months.  I've finally read through all the posts and am now turning to the forums!

Here are two changes my wife and I have made so far:

Prepare lunch for work (for the last month we have been making 10 salads every Sunday night).  Each salad costs about $1.20 (ingredients from Costco and includes protein) and eating out is conservatively $7/day.  Based on a 50 week work year this comes out to $2900 a year between the two of us.

Switched from $63 T-mobile plan to $30 T-mobile plan plus about $5 of VOIP calling per month.  Savings = $28/month or $336 for 2013.  My wife can't switch yet because she is on a contract.

Lots of other savings from being less stupid about buying stuff but I'm not counting that.

[maryofdoom]

I got my husband to call and surrender his terrible life insurance policy, freeing up $60/month. We're going to take the money from the policy and put it into his Roth IRA for 2013 and the monthly premium amount will go to the mortgage. Hooray!

[ace1224]

so far i've got 280 from cancelling my gym membership and 960 for drastically reducing my cable bill for a total of 1240

[Bigote]

Canceled gym membership:  108 x 10 (had paid Jan-Feb) = 1080
Switched from verizon home phone to Ooma 30x12 - 360

Total savings, 1440.

[Mrs WW]

I changed my lunch habit from $2000 (4times a week) to $500 (1 time a week) annually. So 1500 saved!

[dfields]

Moved from a one bedroom apartment by myself (a lot more space than I actually needed) into a shared apartment with 2 roommates last month. I live in the SF Bay Area, so high rent. I went from $1250/month to $800/month. With moving costs and overlapping rent total savings for 2013 = 3700.

[John74]

Shopped around for cheaper insurance: saved $410 a year (with better coverage on the renter's insurance!).
Downgraded our phone/internet/cabe TV package: saved $550 a year.
Changed my meal planning / grocery shopping routine: so far saved $100/per month on groceries since january, for a total savings of $1,200 a year.
Stopped using public transportation and decided to walk everywhere instead: saved $770 a year.

Savings grand total: $2930 /year

[marty998]

Wow there are some big numbers here.

Kudos to all of you.....

[mm31]

Let's see:

Switched to Ting: $1000 saved.

Cancelled cable: $840 saved.

Got smarter about groceries: 1200 saved.

That's $3040 saved for the year, or about $250 a month. Not too bad and I'm looking forward to save more

[Scrooge]

Moved to a shared flat (early February) with some roommates. I live in Finland, and the rents are relatively high per square meter. So, this was a welcom decrease in expenditure. Rent dropped from 517 EUR to 334 EUR, which brings monthly savings of 183 EUR (234 USD)

Yearly savings 2576 USD - until the end of 2013. And it finally brought me over the 60% savings rate.

Figures added to the DOC.

[mpbaker22]

Took on a roommate.  This saves about $320/month on rent.  Also about $40/month in utilities.
I simultaneously moved closer and started hypermiling, so my driving costs will be about $500 less for the year.
There will probably be a few one-time expenses avoided this year, but I won't include those since I don't know what else will happen.

Total is 360*12+500 = 4750

[grantmeaname]

We're just about on track to hit the target at the end of the year. How exciting!

[frugal_engineer]

Canceled TV: $973 saved for 2013
Got a roommate for April onwards: $650*9mo = $5850 for 2013

Total: $6823

[anotherAlias]

I just switched my car and renters insurance for $580/yr savings.  Add that to the $240/yr I saved earlier in the week by switching to Airvoice wireless, and I'm looking at $820 in savings.

[MMMdude]

Ditched a part of my cable package - savings of $480 per year.

Eating out less or only with a Groupon now - savings $600 per year estimated.

[JamesAt15]

Refinanced our home loan with our current bank, and got a rate a full percentage point lower (1.85%). After the change fees, we save about USD $998 this year.

We also dropped our cable TV (with internet and phone service) in favor of having fiber-optic cable installed and getting an IP-based TV tuner for the "cable" channels, and an IP-phone. We had to buy a set-top box for the TV service, though, but the service is much less expensive so we are still clearing a savings of about USD $425 this year.

[MsSindy]

Yeah!! I finally get to add to the fun here!  I dropped comp/collision on my 2001 Ford Focus and raised the deductable on my hubby's truck - saved $287 / year.  Why didn't I do this before, it took a couple clicks on the Geico site and I was done!

[takara159]

Refinanced the Mortgage : $4716 savings

Cancelled Cell Phone plan (using work phone with google voice) : $ 1048 savings

[kiwichick]

Refinanced the mortgage back in January = $2558.31 for 2013

Also just changed internet plans, saving a whopping $40 a year each and increased data :-)

Total = $2598.31

Edit: Oops, that's in NZ dollars. US$2184.14

[Fletch]

Changed Internet plan in February, saved $10 month for then remaining 10 months of the year.

$100

[fat bruce lee]

1.  Moved in with the lady and her sis.  Saved me $600/mo.  Won't last all year so I'll say its gonna save me at least $4,800.
2.  Said Peace Out to the iPhone and got the republic wireless plan.  Saving me $60/mo or $420 for the remainder of the year.
3.  Updated car insurance, saving $17/mo or $153 for the remainder of the year.
4.  Been bringing my own coffee, breakfast and lunch almost every day which has to save me at least $10 a day for a rounded off $2,200.

About $7,553 projected.

Doesn't include the upcoming car downgrade and the subsequent insurance savings.

[Alex in Virginia]

Okay, here's a bunch of savings I just recently set in motion for 2013.

- bought a cable modem, which lowered my cable bill by $7/mo (x 9 mo = $63 for 2013)
- downgraded my internet service from 12 to 6mbps, saving $15/mo (x 8 mo = $120 for 2013)
- cancelled an unneeded life ins. policy, saving $30/mo (x 9 mo = $270 for 2013)
- cancelled my cable tv svc, saving $30/mo (x 11 mo = $330 for 2013)
- obtained a discount on my Geico auto insurance, saving $2/mo (x 10 mo = $20 for 2013)
- switched to a free credit monitoring svc, saving $13/mo (x 9 mo = $117 for 2013)
- switched my brokerage acct to a no-commission broker, saving $80/mo (x 8 mo = $640 for 2013)
- cancelled my power co's silly outage notificaton fee, saving $3/mo (x 11  mo = $33 for 2013)

I've also recently done a whole electric usage revamp in my house.  I'll report the estimated savings once I get my next electric bill.

Let's keep it going!

Alex in Virginia

[EveningNewbs]

Finally convinced husband to give up one of our bigger anti-mustachian habits: eating lunches out.  We sat down and looked at the math on this one - in 2012, on average, we spent more per week eating out lunches on workdays than we spent on all the other meals for the week combined.

It means I'm making both dinner and lunch (for the next day) every night, but at $80 savings/week times 45 weeks remaining = $3,600.

After going over our records, it still astounds me how much we spent eating out on lunches every day.  Got into the habit of "work is hard...I need to reward myself somehow with a daily break".  Thinking the $4000 invested wisely would have been a better reward.

---

We also just refi'd the house, saving us $3000 per year.

Great job! I really like this one because it shows why most people will never be financially independent: they never bother to do the math that says eating lunch out saves more money than refinancing your mortgage. If only thinking and math weren't so hard...

I'll add mine, too: I saved $828 on my car insurance this year.

[Rural]

Called my new Internet provider (aka phone company) to complain about a service change fee on my very first bill and found out that, contrary to what I'd been told, I wasn't getting the lowest price on the only Internet we can get. Dropped to the lower cost-same service plan and saved $15 a month or $180 a year.

[innkeeper77]

I called the local utility company and had the free AC-cycling switch activated- $40 off per year (In credit- $10 per month for the 4 summer months) plus reduced electricity usage- estimated $10 for the summer.

Total: at least $50 USD

I split rent and utilities 4 ways, so I only saved myself $12.50 - does it count if I save my roomates money as well?

Totals: $12.50 for myself OR $50 for 4 people.

[LDoon]

I cancelled my bug spray service, saving $336 for remainder of 2013.  I also cancelled a whole life policy (term policy thru work is sufficient), saving $1068 for the remainder of 2013.   Total savings of $1404 for my calls today.

[MBo]

We switched from the $45 to the $35 per month cell phone plan in January.  Decided we didn't need the larger talk minutes budget.  Savings $120.

[Reepekg]

Brought my cable/internet from $154/mo to $39/mo. 2013 savings: $1035
Switched renters/jewelry insurance. 2013 savings: $97

Total saved: $1132

[FlorenceMcGillicutty]

I love this post! As a new mustchian, I just cut back on a few things. I'll have more in the future, but for now, here's my tally, prorated from May:

Cut back cable: $40/mo, $280 for the year
Cut back netflix: $15/mo, $105 for the year
Cancelled hulu: $8/mo, $56 for the year
Refinancing in process, will be done in June: $278/mo, $1668 for the year
Taking subway every day as opposed to cabs: $100/mo, $700 for the year

My grand total so far is: $2809

:)

[kkbmustang]

Cut land line, alarm monitoring and cancelled DirecTV. $120/mo.
Cut credit monitoring service. $18/mo.

$1656 per year.

[NICE!]

I changed my cell plan from Sprint to Ting. I went from $79 to $29/month. That's $600 in savings/year, but I just did this in late April, so we can only claim May-Dec. That means you can add $400 to the total savings for the year.

[oldtoyota]

This sounds fun! I cancelled my land line and paper newspaper and have decided to eat no more lunches out.

Land line savings: $584
Newspaper savings: $221
No Lunch Out: $315
No Mother's Day Gifts/Cards: $50
No Dumb vending machine visits: $256
Netflix cancellation: $96
Lynda.com cancellation: $450
TOTAL: $1972.33

I plan to buy no clothing until after Dec 31. Could I add in an average for that? Also, we decided to stop eating out in restaurants. Would that figure count too? If so, I could take an average and multiple it times 8 for the 8 remaining months.

[gdborton]

Just threw in some of my numbers, I've cut in more areas but they get harder to separate out.

[grantmeaname]

Lynda.com cancellation: $450

You should see if your library has a subscription for this.

[matchewed]

Just tossed in my savings for adding a roommate the remainder of the year.

[marty998]

Ok so I've gone in and added about 20 posts that were missing from the excel sheet. We are now up to $219,000!

Doing our bit to destroy the global economy :)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Am8qaK8Qf80edHpQS3gyZmRIRXFFTTdRUERidzZIb2c

[oldtoyota]

Lynda.com cancellation: $450

You should see if your library has a subscription for this.

Great idea. Thanks!

[FrugalAussie]

Total saved so far: $8622/year

WOW! That's an amazing result with most of these savings making no noticable difference to your lifestyle just your bank balance, except perhaps you'll be healthier and less stressed.

[oldtoyota]

I have more!

Education: $2462.50
Tuition reduction for paying early: $200
Vacation: $1080
Printing: $1160.74
Book project: $500
TOTAL: $5403.24 (completely new items so this can be added to your spreadsheet)


MASTER TOTAL $7375.57
(includes what I put in here before so this should not be added to your spreadsheet)

[ScubaAZ]

I just cancelled our cable:

$24.95 x7 months= $174.65

And snagged a 20% discount for a year on the internet:

$12.80 x 7 months (2013)= $89.60

And lowered our data plan on our cell phones:

$10 x 7 months =  $70

Total:  $334.25 for the remainder of 2013.

Also got rid of the $6.99 modem fee that the cable company was charging erroneously (backdated to its return several months ago).  I need to read my bills closer, I guess.  I don't know that this really counts in the total, but glad we caught the error.   Bill dropped from $89.88 to $43.19.

I'll update this when we figure out the pool situation, I emailed the guy today to get quotes for reducing the service (potentially $595 in savings for 2013) and we still need to talk to our car/homeowners insurance agents too.

Today's lesson:  don't pay full price for internet and such.  There is always a promotional rate to keep you if they think you will cancel it.  At least here, where there is a little bit of competition.

This is fun!

[marty998]

old toyota... please add it yourself....it is "ours" not "mine"  :)

[oldtoyota]

old toyota... please add it yourself....it is "ours" not "mine"  :)

Oh. This thread is so long now. Did I miss a link to a spreadsheet?