Thousand Dollar Month Update

My thousand dollar month is going o.k., if only because I’ve been able to eat my way through my kitchen. If I hadn’t had the stock of foods, this whole thing might be going differently. I’ve eaten my way through the can of sauerkraut that’s been on my shelf since February and made bread for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the two packets of yeast that were hiding on the baking shelf. I made some peanut sauce with the long forgotten curry paste from the fridge, which goes nicely with some frozen mixed veg and rice noodles from who knows where. I ran out of milk a week ago and eggs a few days ago, but have still managed to not go to the grocery store. This is obviously not a sustainable solution. There will be some grocery shopping things weekend, as soon as I run out of bread.

While the food situation has definitely helped keep my spending down, I have managed some other areas pretty well. I haven’t been sending packages every few days and haven’t needed a tank of gas in more than a month. This weekend involved going to the (cheap) county fair one night and hiking the next day. I’m not really feeling deprived at all, even though my expenditures for the weekend were less than $20.

I could probably maintain a budget lower than $1000 most months if I continued to live in my small town, never traveled, and lived a quiet life. On the other hand, I’m only going to be young and single for so long. Am I wasting it?

An August Challenge

Recently I came to the realization that although I'm doing a good job budgeting and saving, none of it has really been a sacrifice. I still eat out with friends, I still travel and I still send lots of mail. As a result, I've decided to actually stretch my self-restraint for August and set a budget goal I haven't met in my five months of tracking: a $1000 month. Even if I only get close, I'll still be doing great.

With that in mind, my $1000 August budget:

Category	Budget
food	$200.00
housing	$450.00
entertainment	$150.00
transport	$100.00
clothing	$15.00
travel	$0.00
health	$20.00
beauty	$0.00
education	$0.00
misc	$65.00
total	$1,000.00

I predict more frugal eating and very little travel. Should be interesting.

The Side Effects of Being Frugal

I’m trying to live a mostly frugal life, when travel isn’t distracting me. So far I’m three months in to having a budget and tracking every penny I spend. I get a little thrill at the end of the day when I enter my expenses and see my organized life laid out in a spreadsheet, but over the past few months I’ve noticed certain things that I would call side effects to my recent frugality.

1. I get more physical activity. I’ve already bought the gym membership (for a whopping $6/month), so now I feel the need to use it daily. I try to walk more places to save gas, but in the process get more activity.

2. I drive more evenly. In town I try to drive slowly and coast when possible. I’m certain I’m annoying all the other people trying to get to work on time, but stop and go driving can really take a toll on my gas mileage. If I’m making a longer trip, I try to use cruise control and I certainly don’t speed a lot, because the last thing I need is a budget-breaking ticket.

3. I plan better. If I’m actually going to use my car to run errands, I plan out several errands to be in one trip. I plan my meals, only buy what I need, and eat all of what I buy.

4. I generally eat healthier. I would not consider most junk food to be meal-worthy, so any junk food I buy is in addition to the more meal-like groceries. It’s obviously an extra expense and something that can be cut. It turns out that healthy meals like lentils and rice and very budget efficient.

I’m sure there are other unintentional benefits, but these are the ones I can think of off-hand. In addition to more money in my saving account, that is.

Being frugal is kinda fun.