How much money would you save if you went full-mustachian?

[cbgg]

I consider myself a pretty lightweight mustachian.  While I do save a high percentage of my income, Mr Money Mustache also puts me to shame with many of his money saving practice.  This got me wondering: if I lived my life in line with more of MMM's recommendations, what would be the resulting savings?

Since I track my spending, I was able to figure this out pretty precisely.  If I were to implement MMM strategies even close to fully, I'd save an additional $1100 per month!  Expressed another way, I'd decrease my monthly spending by 34%.

Holy crap.

In case you are curious, for me these changes would be things like reducing my gas bill by 50% by bike commuting, cutting out restaurants, reducing my shopping (clothes, home decor, outdoor gear) by 75%, dropping my gym membership, etc. 

Not sure if I want to go that far, but it sure is eye opening to run the numbers.  Have you run the numbers for yourself?  If you went Full Mustache how much would you save?

[NinetyFour]

Wow--I usually don't even spend $1100 per month (aside from mortgage).  I am, however, trying to cut down on groceries.  And, If I went full mustachian, I suppose I would cut down on my ice hockey expenses, but that's only $100 per month.  I already bike to work, do not pay a gym membership, do not buy clothes, do not have a TV or cable, etc.

Truth be told, you really are a lightweight MMMer.  :)

[meadow lark]

I bet my family could save $1100 a month also.  3 dogs, too much driving, restaurant meals, our crazy grocery bills.  My wife doesn't like thrift stores for clothes, occasional massages, occasional spa services.  Oh well, one step at a time.  We are making progress.

[HappierAtHome]

I could go from a 74% savings rate (current) to 88%. That would involve NO spending on discretionary/fun stuff, getting rid of my car and eating rice and beans.

This represents an extra $9814 a year towards savings.

I'm about to shift up to about 82% savings rate. Hoping that won't be too painful.

[Norrie]

I think that we could likely save an additional $600-900 a month if we went full tilt boogie. Today I made a list of 10 additional ways to lower our monthly expenses, and I think that we'll be able to knock off around $500 a month using those. I'm looking forward to testing it out in November and December.

[gooki]

Full mustachian would be $10k a year less in expense and an additional $200k invested through moving to a lower cost area.

All up that's $18,000 more we're spending that necessary as a family of four. However our savings rate would be better in our current situation due to higher salary levels.

[keith]

My estimated savings rate this year is somewhere around 60%. However its going to drop a little bit further with some recent/upcoming splurges (furniture, art, and major tattoo work). It might dip as low as 50%, yikes.

If I went full mustache, I could probably hit 75% savings rate.
If I went full ERE, I could probably hit 85-90% savings rate.

[Frankies Girl]

We're currently on a 68% savings rate... but there are many other things I could cut out and probably get that up to 75-80%.

We eat out lots, and have wiggle room in our grocery bill. I get my hair cut and colored. We have magazine and Netflix subscriptions. Could be better on energy usage, could carpool more...

Thing is, we're already saving SO MUCH MONEY, and I think we're both good with the level as it is, since right now we don't feel deprived at all.

[kt]

I already only spend around £700/month for everything (food/rent/bills/discretionary) so not much fat to trim (but just me currently).
I could move somewhere cheaper and save around £50-70/month on rent. However, I work from home and already houseshare, I don't want to give up the space I have here.
My travel expenses seem high to me (probably £10-15 per week on regular journeys and £30-40 home/friend visiting journeys 4-5x per year). Hoping to get a house with my bf in the next year which would kill the weekly trips but probably increase rent.
I could be more hardcore in keeping my food bill regularly at £15 rather than £20 but that'd get boring and probably result in me spending more elsewhere.
I guess if I went super basic I could save an extra £1,100 to £1,500 a year. But that'd be beyond mustachian to me because it would involve no luxuries or enjoyable items.

[nktokyo]

Probably $1000-1500/mo in living costs because we rent and spend a LOT on childcare - we live where we do because of proximity to my wife's business and parents and we have help with our child because it frees us up to work on our respective gigs (he's 2).

I buy properties to invest so if I stopped doing that for a couple of years and locked down a place to live in we'd save money, likewise if we stopped with the extra childcare - but the ROI on investing and my wife being able to focus on her business is probably a multiple of the cost so I'm not sure if we'd be better off really.

[steveo]

I don't see how we could cut that much more. If my wife stopped spending on the kids that would help but there is a line.

Today for instance wife spend $190 on a trip to the doctor and more on medicine. I don't see what we can do to really stop those expenses. Over time I think they will slowly but surely decrease. 3 kids aged nearly 3 -12 add up.

[ender]

Be difficult to save much more, tbh. I could probably increase my net worth more if I maxed my 401k instead of saving fairly aggressively for a house though.

I could move closer to work, but it'd mean increased cost of living to go with the reduced travel costs and require starting my entire social circle from scratch.

[Rural]

We could cut out $400 per month fairly easily by eliminating eating out, a $100 storage unit (yes, I know, and it's going soon), and a little bit of miscellaneous.

 Beyond that, though, I don't think there's much we could cut without also cutting income dramatically (I could cut out my commute by quitting my job) or compromising health and safety (on the level of not fixing brakes/not eating a balanced diet, etc)

We'll likely choose to cut the storage and keep the eating out and miscellaneous, and work a little longer at jobs we love to pay for the two we keep.

Beyond that, well, I could and should cut down on our cellular bill a little bit. It runs $70 a month for the two of us, and I think I can get that down to $30-$50. We could cut out home Internet, but then I would have to go to work more frequently instead of working from home sometimes, and it would just add to the fuel costs. I think we would lose money that way.

Basically, we stripped down the bare bones in order to be able to build our house, and we've never ramped back up. I don't think we either of us see any need to do so; we're happy with things the way they are. Except for the storage unit, of course.

Edit, having looked at my expenditures: "Miscellaneous" is bigger than I thought. Make that $600. Most of the extra has to do with finishing the house/maintaining the (long, steep, unpaved) road into the house, and related new-home expenses that I think will dwindle on their own as we settle in. Though we may have to pave that damn road to pull it off, and that won't be cheap.

[weston]

I could easily make changes that would allow us to sock away an additional 35K or more each year, but I would probably lose a big chunk of that amount in the divorce that would result.

[NumberCruncher]

In everything except rent, we could save an additional $870 by slashing discretionary budgets - an annual savings of $10,440, increasing our after tax savings rate by about 6.5%...hmmmm....some of that includes a bit of an inflated budget we usually don't hit anyway - vacation budget, for example. For marital stability, one step at a time...

Talking in terms of rent, we could save probably $500/mo more by moving to a lower cost of living area. Granted, salaries are probably also lower there.

[dude]

good lord, I don't even like to think about it!  "Full Mustachian" would mean selling our high mortgage place and buying something half as expensive, closer to where I work, which would also cut on transportation costs; cutting the three gym memberships I have (regular gym, climbing gym, BJJ academy); taking fewer vacations, etc. etc.  Now, I'm not going to win any Mustachianism awards, but I have done a well above-average job in getting close to FIRE; even still, I think Full Mustachianism would result in something on the order of $3-5K in additional savings/month.  Yeah, I suck, but I'm doing okay and working incrementally toward a more Mustachian way of life.

[hybrid]

As various someones have pointed out, the savings rate is a bit of a misnomer as the amount of money people make varies wildly (as do some of their unavoidable expenses, like health conditions and children).  I think a better question is how much more money could the OP save by going down a Mustachian path.

I was like the OP when I first found this site.  I was saving nicely compared to the average consumer, but man-oh-man was there room for improvement.  We found $1000 a month that was going to various nice-to-haves.  There is probably another $300 of high-hanging-fruit I am working toward.  The savings rate as a %?  Kind of irrelevant IMO, it's the amount we are saving that's important, as that mostly determines when we can retire.

I had a similar conversation with my brother recently.  He and his wife are DINKs, he's mid-40s like me.  His income is high, he saves well, and I can see he has loads of room for improvement just as I did/do.  I'm trying to steer him toward a far more Mustachian life because I truly believe he would be far happier if he could get out of the rat race several years ahead of schedule.

To the OP, if you are saving money that does not make you Mustachian, it just makes you a saver (and good for you, nothing wrong with that, you are better off than most).  If you want to get out of the minor leagues as I did, you need to take a hard look at what you need to be happy vs. what you simply want in the here and now.     

[NeverWasACornflakeGirl]

I'm very mustachian in my mind... does that count???  In all actuality I deserve all kinds of face punches.  We only save about 30% of our income after taxes.  Our biggest expense is our daughter's private school.  We tried the local public school for kindergarten and first grade and it was just awful.  Our terrible public schools keep our property values low, so we live in a middle-class borough with nice houses where everyone sends their kids to private school.  This year we also put a new roof on our house, a new fence around our back yard, and my spouse insisted on a beach vacation.  We finally got a new couch to replace our 13-year-old one, and a new dining room table, which was older than the couch and too big for our dining room.  To be fair, though, all of those purchases came out of our savings.  Our huge Achilles heel though, is eating out.  We just hate cooking.  I know I need to suck it up and get over myself and get on with it!  We could be FI in 5 - 6 years if we just lit a fire under our butts!  I think we're just too content with our current jobs, and we already have FU money, so we're lacking urgency.  We need to remember that our circumstances could change at any time.

[hybrid]

I'm very mustachian in my mind... does that count???  In all actuality I deserve all kinds of face punches.  We only save about 30% of our income after taxes.  Our biggest expense is our daughter's private school.  We tried the local public school for kindergarten and first grade and it was just awful.  Our terrible public schools keep our property values low, so we live in a middle-class borough with nice houses where everyone sends their kids to private school.  This year we also put a new roof on our house, a new fence around our back yard, and my spouse insisted on a beach vacation.  We finally got a new couch to replace our 13-year-old one, and a new dining room table, which was older than the couch and too big for our dining room.  To be fair, though, all of those purchases came out of our savings.  Our huge Achilles heel though, is eating out.  We just hate cooking.  I know I need to suck it up and get over myself and get on with it!  We could be FI in 5 - 6 years if we just lit a fire under our butts!  I think we're just too content with our current jobs, and we already have FU money, so we're lacking urgency.  We need to remember that our circumstances could change at any time.

No, it does not count, sorry.  You simply make very good money and don't go into debt to support your luxurious lifestyle (been there, done that).  So points for saving, but all kinds of points subtracted for the hundred dollar bill you set fire to every single day.

You are in an envious position.  Some folks are Mustachian but lack the income to save big time.  You are in the opposite position.  You already make good coin and are saving a portion of it.  If you want to take the next step much of the obvious luxury needs to be redirected into investments. 

[Gray Matter]

We're not even remotely Mustachian yet--are just beginning this journey.  I bet we could cut $2500 per month in spending if we got rid of the housecleaner, the lawnmower (person, not machine), eating out, misc. overspending, and if we were willing to let our 6th grader watch the 2nd and 4th grader after school.  If we moved closer to work, downsized, didn't take international vacations, sold a car, etc., we could probably cut another 2000 off our spending. 

So much, much, much room for improvement.  I tell people my life's purpose is to make other people look good, and my overspending would be yet another example of that! 

Once my husband is back from being out of the country (on a project in Australia for 9 months), and I am no longer on intermittent FMLA (mother fighting cancer), then I will focus on cutting the first 2500K.  Right now, I am paying to get the help and convenience I need to maintain my sanity during a very difficult period.

[DoubleDown]

"Never go full Mustachian"

- Kirk Lazarus

[NeverWasACornflakeGirl]

No, it does not count, sorry.  You simply make very good money and don't go into debt to support your luxurious lifestyle (been there, done that).  So points for saving, but all kinds of points subtracted for the hundred dollar bill you set fire to every single day.

You are in an envious position.  Some folks are Mustachian but lack the income to save big time.  You are in the opposite position.  You already make good coin and are saving a portion of it.  If you want to take the next step much of the obvious luxury needs to be redirected into investments.

You are 100% correct.  Thanks for the kick in the pants!

[jrhampt]

Hmm, well, I would probably get rid of one vehicle, which would save us...not that much actually, about $500/yr.  I could ditch the gym membership (use for access to swimming pool), which would save me about $360/yr.  I could cut some international vacations, which would save about $2k, depending on the year (I have family in Asia).  I could also stop spending so damn much on clothes, which would save about $2k/year.  Our eating out budget has been creeping up again over the summer (we go into social hibernation in the winter), so we could probably cut out another $1-2k a year on that.  I'm sure my husband could cut back on lunches at work, but that's probably his most egregious violation on par with my clothes habit.  So we could pare down another $7-8k per year total (we cut out about $11k unnecessary spending per year early on in our optimization process and are at around a 65% savings rate at this point, I think, if you count the doubled mortgage payments).  Out of everything, having a no-clothing purchases year would be what I would probably target personally. 

[Eric]

I could cut $200/mo on alcohol.  But my wife really likes her wine and I really like my craft beer, so for now it's staying.  Other than that, I feel pretty lean.

[Lil_Bit]

Today for instance wife spend $190 on a trip to the doctor and more on medicine. I don't see what we can do to really stop those expenses. Over time I think they will slowly but surely decrease. 3 kids aged nearly 3 -12 add up.
[/quote]


This may or may not help your situation now, but there are $4 prescription drug programs that could help reduce the cost of your medicine (specifically generic drugs).  As a single parent trying to find ways to save on prescription medicine for my son was often difficult as I was uninsured at the time.  This program is available to anyone regardless if you have insurance or not.  HTH.

Just a side note - you must ask for the $4 prescriptions as they won't initially offer that information.  There may be other retailers that offer these as well, these happen to be the ones in my area.

http://www.walmart.com/cp/PI-4-Prescriptions/1078664

http://www.target.com/pharmacy/generics

http://www.kroger.com/pharmacy/generics/Pages/default.aspx

This may also be helpful, a prescription drug card (also available to anyone).
http://familywize.org/about-the-card/get-your-free-card

[wing117]

I actually keep an two tabs in my expense tracking - Current and Ultimate. :)

The difference today is $1,320:

Pay off both cars ($558/mo)
Reduce insurance(est. $100/mo savings between us)
Buy a place outright ($650/mo)
Reduce electrical bill even more (currently at 71/mo working to drop to 50/mo).

By April 2014, 3 of those bullet points will be complete, buying a place outright will take some time. Our other monthly expenses are sitting pretty lean at 600/mo for food/gas/entertainment/shopping/etc...

Everything else is pretty damn optimized. This will take me from 54% to 82.4% savings rate. The only thing left is tax optimizations, imo.

We're looking at ~17-18k in total yearly expenses for both of us in 2014.

[avonlea]

We don't like material possessions very much, so that allows us to have a savings rate of 50% without feeling a pinch, but lifestyle inflation has definitely occurred since the newlywed phase and we could be saving more. Probably an additional $500-$600 a month if we cut the following:

$150 on eating out. This is our big bad splurge.  I don't think we'd ever cut this altogether unless we were in a hair-on-fire situation, but dropping $50 and spending $100 would be good.
 
$150-$200 on groceries if I bought only the basics. We normally get about 10-20% organic, some of the ethnic items we buy are pricey, and we could pocket several bucks if we ate more legumes and less fish/meat.

$150 for kids' away-from-home classes & activities. 

$50 on electronics.

[MsSindy]

I feel compelled to post, just because it feels good to admit that I SUCK in certain areas.  We're doing a lot of things right: low food costs/cook at home, watch energy usage, older cars, all projects are DIY, no consumer spending, etc.  But about 11 years ago we had this vision of building our dream house and so we commenced on clearing the land (by hand!).  Anyway, fast forward until now and we are still not finished building it.  So, we have a fairly large mortgage, high property taxes, and a 5.75% interest rate that we can't refinance 'cuz the house isn't finished, plus it's a ginormous house for 2 people and so it costs a lot to run.  If we could just get it finished and sell it, we could easily increase our savings by about $5k per month!!  Yes, you read that right.  I'm trying to convince my hubby to quit work next summer to finish the house so that we can sell it (or at least refinance the damn thing!).  There's a lot of emotional equity in it, so it will take a lot of convincing....although he did ask me last night where I would want to move to IF we were to sell it...... there's hope!

The thing is, if we just changed our housing situation, we could retire in about a year or so (or work  part-time or from home)....this conversation has been going on for the past 2 years...but I think I'm making progress.  DH is definitely a "rule follower" in a lot of ways!

Now, if I went full-tilt Mustachian and ditched the cars and stuff.....oh, I don't even want to think...

[totoro]

Can I say I don't want to save more money based on our current budget? 

On the plus side, we don't waste a lot or buy a lot.  We think about our purchases and mostly buy used ex. old car paid for in cash, rental revenue off-setting housing costs entirely, almost no junk food, limited eating out, limited new clothing and an aversion to shopping in general.

We do spend more than necessary on:  alcohol, vacations, flowers/décor, landscaping, food, renos, lessons for the kids and our phone plans.  Landscaping and renos are a wash as they increase value - the rest are worth the effort it cost to earn the money to pay for them even accounting for ER so I'm willing to work a little longer for the present increase in quality of life.

[chicagomeg]

Our projected breakdown for 2014 is currently about 20% taxes, 38% savings, 12% on husband's grad program (spending but investing hopefully?), and 30% spending, on an income of around $130k. That actually sounds ok to me, but we could do a lot better. By my rough estimates, we probably spend between $500-$600/month in non-MMM approved spending, mainly eating out and shopping. We also could save a lot by not having a car in Chicago, if not for my husband's grad school program, which is probably about $200/month from our savings that will eventually go towards a new car, $60/month in insurance, and a couple hundred in maintenance/registration annually.

However, we're young (24 & 25) and on track to retire at 40 at our current level of spending, which I think is perfectly respectable. I am certainly aware that we could pull that number in to closer to 30 or 35 by saving more, but for us I think we have a good balance.

[avonlea]

We do spend more than necessary on:  alcohol, vacations, flowers/décor, landscaping, food, renos, lessons for the kids and our phone plans.  Landscaping and renos are a wash as they increase value - the rest are worth the effort it cost to earn the money to pay for them.

Yes, I think most of us are happier when going a little beyond the basics.  We adore food and we like for the kids to have good experiences.  The only thing I would consider cutting at present would be $50 for eating out less, but the mere mention of it has already been met with resistance, so I think the original budgeted amount is staying. ;)

[Michread]

Once my husband is back from being out of the country (on a project in Australia for 9 months), and I am no longer on intermittent FMLA (mother fighting cancer), then I will focus on cutting the first 2500K.  Right now, I am paying to get the help and convenience I need to maintain my sanity during a very difficult period.

I'm sorry about your mother.  Yes, maintaining your sanity is VERY important when caring for ill family.

[dragoncar]

"Never go full Mustachian"

- Kirk Lazarus

Check it out.    Trent Hamm.   The simple dollar.  Look mustachian, act mustachian, not mustachian.  Get zero percent on your car loan.  Consumerist, sure.  Not mustachian.

You know JD Roth.  Get rich slowly.  Frugal yes, mustachian maybe.  Had a budget.  But he advocates spending 30% on wants and a full 50% on needs, leaving a paltry 20% savings rate.  Sold his website for a million dollars.  That ain't mustachian.  You went full mustachian, man.  Never go full mustachian.

[DoubleDown]

"Never go full Mustachian"

- Kirk Lazarus

Check it out.    Trent Hamm.   The simple dollar.  Look mustachian, act mustachian, not mustachian.  Get zero percent on your car loan.  Consumerist, sure.  Not mustachian.

You know JD Roth.  Get rich slowly.  Frugal yes, mustachian maybe.  Had a budget.  But he advocates spending 30% on wants and a full 50% on needs, leaving a paltry 20% savings rate.  Sold his website for a million dollars.  That ain't mustachian.  You went full mustachian, man.  Never go full mustachian.

Lol! Well played.

[hybrid]

The thing is, if we just changed our housing situation, we could retire in about a year or so (or work  part-time or from home)....this conversation has been going on for the past 2 years...but I think I'm making progress.  DH is definitely a "rule follower" in a lot of ways!

Sounds like there is some light at the end of that tunnel - or money pit - if you can just get to the end (bottom ) of it.  Good luck!

But you never did say, where would you move?

[xenon5]

At the moment, there's only a small amount of optimization I could possibly do.  My savings rate for now is in the 90-95% range, because I'm not paying for my housing or utilities.  Sometimes I don't pack my lunch so I'll buy a super cheap lunch outside, like an egg, cheese and veggie sandwich for $2.  I have no recurring expenses other than food and public transportation, and student loan payments if that counts.  The first $500 of public transportation is compensated for by work, which is about 4 months worth.

However, that's not to say there's no cost.  My door to door commute is about an hour one way, mostly by bus.  I live in a suburban area that isn't very cyclist or pedestrian friendly, and it's also a very boring place for a young single person to be.  So basically, I'm spending more time and energy on an inefficient bus system than I'd like to and my social life is very poor right now.  Thanks to the generosity of my parents allowing me to stay with them, I can chuck oodles of cash at my SL and be done with it in a year and a half, so it's not all bad.

So my challenge over the next 2 years is not figuring out how to downsize, but figuring out how to upsize as little as possible.  I'm really not enjoying living at home, but it's accelerating my loan payoff goal tremendously.  I'd like to live on my own in about 8 months, but moving out means my payoff date will be pushed back, though I don't know exactly how far.  I worry that there'll be a lot more expenses than I anticipate when I live on my own that will eat at my payoff/savings, but at the same time I'm thinking the freedom will be worth it.

[Albert]

Another thousand a month perhaps, but I'm not interested.

[Mazzinator]

I could easily make changes that would allow us to sock away an additional 35K or more each year, but I would probably lose a big chunk of that amount in the divorce that would result.

Same here!

[Melody]

Some things MMM does I wouldn't be able to do (yet) - like get married! Living with your partner has the potential to save a lot of money!

But aside from that, by cutting international travel, and making a few other tweaks (such as an extra roommate), less visits to the pub, less pay per class hobby - I reckon I also could cut out about $1k month. I'd like to meet somewhere in the middle. My 50% savings rate is ok, but could do better and I know it!

Thanks for starting this thread... lots ot think aabout I will go off and run the numbers fully at some point!

[chasesfish]

It's large

The big items are cable tv, non-efficient cars, and living 9 miles from the office.

Cell phones and biking to work can't work for me, I'm in outbound sales and wear a suit.  Phone is subsidized

[Zikoris]

I imagine MMM would have something to say about our $7000 annual travel budget that we generally exceed. I could save an additional $300/month on that I suppose, but I already save a pile, so not a huge issue.

[cbgg]

Thing is, we're already saving SO MUCH MONEY, and I think we're both good with the level as it is, since right now we don't feel deprived at all.

That's how I feel too.  We already save about 75% of our take-home income, so I'm not sure if I'd like to choose to spend less.  The options aren't bad, they'd just be really inconvenient.  Given my savings rate I think it's ok to choose a little convenience...but I think I'll make a few changes.

[MsSindy]

The thing is, if we just changed our housing situation, we could retire in about a year or so (or work  part-time or from home)....this conversation has been going on for the past 2 years...but I think I'm making progress.  DH is definitely a "rule follower" in a lot of ways!

Sounds like there is some light at the end of that tunnel - or money pit - if you can just get to the end (bottom ) of it.  Good luck!

But you never did say, where would you move?

Yeah, I just keep chuggin' along...fighting the good fight.

The great thing about selling the house is that we wouldn't need to hold down our current jobs and that literally opens up the entire US (and Canada) to us!  We could store our stuff and travel around checking out different states/areas before settling anywhere (no kids to worry about).  Okay, now hubby's head is starting to spin, breathing is getting more shallow.... stop...stop.... and then I say, or we could just move to the next county over in a small energy-efficient house with lower taxes..... he exhales.....wheeeew.

[momo]

Would easily save close to $2,000 if we went full-Mustachian. 

Some things MMM does I wouldn't be able to do (yet) - like get married! Living with your partner has the potential to save a lot of money!

Thanks for starting this thread... lots ot think aabout I will go off and run the numbers fully at some point!

Definitely concur with your idea to live with your partner prior to getting married.  The costs involved with engagement, weddings etc tend to add up especially if only one person shoulders the costs.

I'd easily save well over $2,000 per month for just myself.  I'd like to add that to my current 30% savings rate.  If my partner was on-board with just going partial Mustachian she'd save at least $2,500-$3,000+ if not more.  I actual devote the majority of my expenses to food (eating out w/her - sinful I know). 

I will be the first to admit our lifestyle choices currently are highly dubious and counterproductive if we want to secure our financial future sooner than later.  Next comes transportation costs involving bus/train plus gas/car maintenance expenses.  Unfortunately living in the surburbs means everything and I mean everything is inefficiently spread out thus resulting in countless wasted time driving, wear and tear on our bodies and the car itself.  If we moved to a better location with a more centralized, efficient design that would be prudent and the tremendous time savings would be worth it.  Lastly comes entertainment and with the holidays this will be one area that hurts.  Is anyone else considering going with a no gift giving practice?

Going Mustachian is never "easy" but to me the benefits greatly outweigh the risk.  I am working to encourage my gf to see the wonders of going Mustachian and just maybe, someday going full-Mustachian.

How many people here have actually gone full-M?  Could that be added to thread?  Just curious.  Thanks.

[Melody]

Just remember getting married only costs $60 (or whatever it is your local govt charges) - all the rest is fluff. If you keep that in mind as you plan the wedding you won't overspend too badly.
We're not living together yet, as it's semi long distance (3 hr drive), we would need to be very sure we are serious before he moves to the city.
He's so much more frugal than me, if we lived together I think we'd be way ahead, and we'd be able to sell one of the cars which would be a huge saving. Right now Long Distance means we both have to own reliable vehicles.

[rachael talcott]

I think the only non-mustachian part of my spending is that I don't have a bike.  I drive an old but reliable Toyota.  Gas and maintenance (oil changes, tires, etc) together average about $70 a month.  I started talking about getting a bike and people started asking me to put them in my will -- not a bike friendly town. 

Most months I come pretty close to living off my rental income and saving all my salary. 

[Mississippi Mudstache]

I have a wife and two kids, and we spend less than Mr. & Mrs. MM, even paying on a $950/month mortgage. The only thing I can think of to reduce expenses by a significant amount would be not visiting our families any more (who live 500-800 miles away) or to eliminate charitable donations from our budget. Neither of those are particularly mustachian options.

[Dulcimina]

Good topic! I'm pretty optimized at the moment.  I spend $1200 on housing/utilities and $800 on everything else. 

It's helpful to me to treat the two categories separately.  I work in an expensive area. The $1200 let's me live close to work.  It makes sense to stay here for my working years, then reduce costs once I'm FI either by moving to a cheaper area of the country, or by not having a mortgage.  I'm guessing I could cut housing costs by $600/month. 

The other thing I plan for is how much of an emergency fund I need to stay put if I lost my job. I would chop all non-essential spending in that $800 category: vacation savings, entertainment, clothes,charity, and gifts, and reduce groceries.  That would let me chop about $300/month off the $800. 

I don't actually keep a budget, though.  I set a percentage to "pay myself first" by maxing out retirement accounts, and also save some in taxable.  With whatever is left, I pay my fixed bills, and give myself permission to spend the rest freely. That gives me a sense of abundance, and I usually end up not even spending as much I could.  For example, I "budget" $100 per month on vacations.  But I've only spent $600 so far this year with no more travel planned, and that included airfare, 1 week car rental and food (my travel buds paid for the hotel). But if I only budgeted $50 for travel, I'd start feeling deprived.

[Petari]

The one thing that's not that optimized in my life is my living situation: I live alone in a one-bedroom apartment that costs me $800/month.

For reasons I do not understand it is possible to find reasonable two-bedroom apartments in my city for the same price, so if I took on a roommate or lived with a partner I could cut my rent to $400/month. Which...would cut my mandatory full-time working career from about 10 years to 5 years (!).

Wow, I did not realise living alone was so financially inefficient.

[steveo]

This may or may not help your situation now, but there are $4 prescription drug programs that could help reduce the cost of your medicine (specifically generic drugs).  As a single parent trying to find ways to save on prescription medicine for my son was often difficult as I was uninsured at the time.  This program is available to anyone regardless if you have insurance or not.  HTH.

Just a side note - you must ask for the $4 prescriptions as they won't initially offer that information.  There may be other retailers that offer these as well, these happen to be the ones in my area.

http://www.walmart.com/cp/PI-4-Prescriptions/1078664

http://www.target.com/pharmacy/generics

http://www.kroger.com/pharmacy/generics/Pages/default.aspx

This may also be helpful, a prescription drug card (also available to anyone).
http://familywize.org/about-the-card/get-your-free-card

Thanks for the information. I always try and buy generic drugs. I also live in Australia and I'm not sure if we have access to some of the stuff you mention.

I do think you need to be very careful with doctors because expenses add up and don't necessarily help. The thing is when it is for the kids I find it harder to not spend that money.