{"id":693,"date":"2018-01-01T00:01:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T00:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=693"},"modified":"2018-01-08T23:56:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T23:56:41","slug":"uber-frugal-month-2018-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=693","title":{"rendered":"Uber Frugal Month 2018 – Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

I missed the sign up for the uber-frugal challenge month<\/a>, but I still have the notes from when I participated a while ago… So I’d like to try it again, and this time, stop making excuses for what I already do, and look for ways to make the system better.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Establish your goals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Why are you participating in this Challenge?<\/strong> We suffered a drop in income last year, and I didn’t pay down as much on the mortgage that I would have liked.<\/li>\n
  2. What do you hope to achieve?<\/strong>\u00a0I want to better keep track of where money goes and cut down on spending days. I got lazy tracking expenses when I started using PocketBook<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. What are your long term life goals?<\/strong> Last year’s goal was “I want to be free to teach as I want to, and read as much as I want to! Basically, not need to be stressed about work, which is a big thing for me<\/em>.” 12 months on, I have finished my PhD and am doing what I love. Does that mean I have met this goal? YES!<\/li>\n
  4. Where do you want to be in 10 years?<\/strong> Last year’s goal was “We would like to be free of a mortgage with some money in\u00a0an investment property<\/em>.” Again, I’d like to be mortgage free, but I don’t really want an investment property. I have been buying some dividend shares instead.<\/li>\n
  5. What about your current lifestyle might prevent those goals from coming to fruition and what can you do about it?<\/strong>\u00a0Random spending.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Step 2: Review last month\u2019s spending.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Christmas happened…<\/p>\n

    Step 3: Categorize your expenses.<\/strong>
    \n Fixed Mandatory Expenses<\/strong><\/p>\n