I think I'll put 1/4 of my unspent cash towards my emergency fund and the rest towards my debt. I don't want to have to rely on my credit cards in case of emergency so I'd rather slow down my debt payments and build up my efund for now.
I didn't spend any money Thursday. Yesterday I spend some cash on a couple veggie drinks but that's it. They're good for me and I wouldn't save very much even if I made them myself plus I hate doing it. Juicing takes a long time and the clean up sucks.
Today I have to drive 150 miles round trip. That'll cost some gas money but as of right now I'm still breaking even on my budget.
I've been doing some brain storming on ways to cut my expenses. Here are a few big ones:
1) Cell phone -$60 a month
I'm in IT and I'm on call so I'm getting a company phone and ditching my own cell phone.
2) Internet access -$35 a month
I do a lot of work remotely after hours so I asked the company if I could expense my internet connectivity. They said yes.
3) Food -$200 maybe?
I work at a startup and they bring in food, lots of it. I'm going to extend my work hours to include breakfast and dinner hours. That way they'll get more work from me and I'll get breakfast, lunch and dinner from them. A fair trade I think. ;-)
4) Car pool -$70 a month
I have to drive 25 miles each way to get to and from work. That's about $7 a day, $120 a month in gas for me. I'm going to carpool with someone else from work and split it.
These couple of things will save me $365 a month! That's $4,380 a year less I'll be spending! Dang. That'll move up my debt free day quite a bit.
I've also been working on changing my hobbies and recreational activities to things that cost less and take up less space. I've sold the 4x4. It was hard to do but if you want to save money, a 4 wheel drive is not the toy to have, trust me. Now I mostly mountain bike so I'm still getting out on the trails. ;-)
1/4 towards emergency fund, the rest towards debt.
February 9th, 2008 at 02:42 pm
February 9th, 2008 at 03:14 pm 1202570096
February 9th, 2008 at 03:26 pm 1202570810
Where will the savings go? Debt paydown? Emergency Fund? Retirement savings? Some combination of those?
February 9th, 2008 at 03:27 pm 1202570863
February 9th, 2008 at 05:39 pm 1202578782