A Financial Challenge

[Rani]

Okay, so lately I've been coming across people who seem to be able to do much more on less money than I can. I mean people who do seriously well, and I understand that we all have a tendency to have money "leaks" where we're spending a little here and a little there without every seeing all those leaks coming together and draining your wallet. I'm told the best way to find out if you're spending more than you realize is to go on a spending challenge where you spend absolutely nothing you don't absolutely have to.

When I was unemployed I made do on so little and now I'm working again, seems like I'm still on the broke side more than I'm flush with cash. Sooooo...... I'm issuing a challenge to myself and to anyone who wants to join me in seeing if beginning tomorrow morning I can go a full six weeks without spending any money on anything unnecessary. That means gas, food, rent, utilities, period.

Anybody else up for it to see how much we can save at the end of the six weeks?

'Rani

[Cp44]

I saved a lot of money by bringing my lunch to work about every day and stop going to the hookah lounge all the time.

[Bornluckee13]

I also save quite a bit by stocking the fridge at work. Also, write down everything you spend $$ on. EVERYTHING, that will open your eyes to how much $$ your throwing away. Good luck, the wife and I Just did the Dave Ramsey debt snowball plan, I'm happy to say that the only debt I have is my house! Feels damn good and the bank account is Happy!

[vendetta_revived]

Writing does help a lot! I use the organizer in my phone to write anything I spend. It keeps a tab on my spending hand and I am wiser the next time I go on about spending my money.

[joytron]

Would video games and beer still fall under "necessities"?

[Satou]

I'd say the best way to saving money and it works for me is to limit how much you purchase and question 'do I really need this or do I just want it to have it?'. Also rationing out certain commodities like shisha - cutting back in how much you smoke.

[Rani]

All great ideas, but I'm actually not looking for ideas. I'm looking for people who would be interested in doing this as an exercise or challenge. I'm more looking at it as not just an way to save money but as an eye opening experience. I mean, what if you thought you were frugal, but discovered you had an extra couple hundred dollars at the end of the six weeks just because you follow it? It's more a discovery challenge.

I know someone who just bought a condo in Orange County, CA for cash. And real estate even in this down market in OC ain't cheap by any stretch of the imagination. And I've never known her to make more than $40k a year. It brought up a memory of a LA Times article I read a few years ago where a couple immigrated from El Salvador, got their citizenship and then lost their jobs and everything else. Despite that hardship they managed to put 3 of their 4 kids through Yale. And there were no full ride scholarships involved. So it's a "what are we doing wrong" if they can accomplish that kind of thing and we're just getting by and putting the minimum into retirement?

So I'm looking for people to maybe give the challenge a shot as an experiment and possibly be quite surprised at the end.

'Rani

[joytron]

Something that works well for me is to associate the price of the item with the number of hours I would have to work to attain it. Because in my mind money if there is a product that would cost 40 hours of work to attain it, would you be happy if you did not get a paycheck but rather the good itself.

[Travis]

I'll do it Rani.

I've recently started paying all of my grandmothers bills, so money has become extra tight. I need a way to save as much money as possible, and this could be my mental motivation to do so.

I'll report in every so often!

[Dr. B]

lol 6 weeks. try six months. six years?

Really, though, you fall out of the mindset of blowing away money when you correct your paradigm. It's like stopping drinking soda or quitting smoking - you just forget how you got away with it before,

[Rani]

[quote name='Dr. B' timestamp='1314436445' post='521571']lol 6 weeks. try six months. six years?

Really, though, you fall out of the mindset of blowing away money when you correct your paradigm. It's like stopping drinking soda or quitting smoking - you just forget how you got away with it before,[/quote]

I think this might be a way to resolve that mindset. I'm thinking such a revelation could point me and now Travisin a new direction. plus they say it take 30 days to change a habit so who knows what we might be able to realize from this experiment.

'Rani