It’s easy to veer from the path that we’ve set. We should turn to discipline when motivation stops driving, but discipline is a dull companion. I’m being vague, I know. I’m talking about when we let the budget go, and started spending more than we should.
That’s what happened to us this past year. Aron’s job was making him miserable. It was affecting our marriage and we knew we had to make a change immediately. So, we found jobs in Portland, OR and moved our lives last June.
Our new jobs paid better, our house in Bellingham was making some income from rent, and our duplex in Alaska was bringing in a good chunk of money. We should have been investing like crazy, but the stress of new jobs and starting over was overwhelming. So, the budget went to the backburner while we figured life out again.
A year later, after life normalized, we realized we let the budget get out of hand. To be clear, we still invested our goal amounts, but we didn’t account for how much more we were making. We should have been investing almost twice as much. We didn’t. Oh, well, no use beating ourselves up about it.
So, here’s the budget buckle down breakdown… wow, that’s a mouthful…
Food Buckle Down
In a previous post, I talked about the crazy amount American’s spend on eating out. In 2017, the average family spent $3,365. I think we came pretty close to that last year, and it’s just me and Aron.
Grocery shopping was also an issue – essentially, a free for all. Whatever we wanted, we bought. Luckily, we kept the habit of cooking at home on week nights.
Buying expensive groceries is better than eating out all the time; nonetheless, we couldn’t keep spending willy-nilly.
The 13 Dollar Challenge
To get our food spending out of the stratosphere, and back to Earth, I decided to challenge us with the 13 dollar challenge (I made it up, so don’t try googling it.) The challenge is to spend only $13 every other week on groceries!
We tried it for the first time last week and it was more than a success – we spent nothing. I was able to get creative with the food we already had lying around and put together some pretty great meals.
The idea behind doing this every other week is to use what we have on hand from the previous week and buy a few, cheap things to supplement.
Next week will be our 2nd $13 dollar week. We’ve eaten through most of our stores by now, so, we’ll see how it goes this time around…
Adventure Budget Buckle Down
We’re weird. Our definition of “adventures” varies widely from going on a 7-Eleven candy run to backpacking in India. Last year we did a lot of the former and two glorious weeks of the latter. Also, many weekend hiking/camping trips.
I never feel guilty about spending money on experiences – candy? Yes, usually. But not experiences. When saving for financial freedom, gratification and discipline become part of life. But, Aron and I don’t plan on reaching financial freedom with no fond memories to look back on.
My Dad often says, “There are no promises.” Our future isn’t promised to us. Financial freedom isn’t promised to us. We do what we can for that future, but shouldn’t forget that all we have is now. Enjoying today while planning for tomorrow is a delicate balance we, hopefully, keep throughout our journey to financial freedom.
All that said, there are still ways to keep “adventures” affordable.
Travel Hacking
You may have heard of travel hacking before. It’s a “buzz word” lately but it’s nothing new. Travel hacking is using the miles and cash back rewards from credit cards to fund travelling.
Many credit cards offer pretty big bonuses just for signing up. As long as you are using the credit cards on expenses you have anyway, it can be a sweet deal.
We’re hoping to take a trip this year funded entirely on cash back, airline miles, and hotel rewards. We’ll let you know how that goes in a future post.
So far, we’ve signed up for the Chase Sapphire, Capital One Venture, and American Express Delta cards. They seemed like some of the best deals out there – also, the cards that approved us. We take what we can get.
A quick side note: we pay off our cards every month. We only use them for normal expenses and pay off the balances immediately.
Going Forward
Finding new ways to challenge ourselves with budget cuts renews my motivation. Hence, the 13 dollar challenge and travel hacking. Sometimes, life gets in the way and we let the budget go for a while. Just remember to get back on track ASAP, and try to keep things interesting.
Take a look at your own budget and see how you can challenge yourself. Or just copy us if you like. But don’t let your budget get away from you for long.
Hopefully, this post inspired you to buckle down on your budget to see how much more you can be investing.
13 Dollar Challenge Recipe: A Desperate Creation
Ingredients:
- 1 bag of frozen raspberries (from the back of the freezer)
- Sugar to taste
Granola
- ½ cup neutral oil (whatever’s on hand)
- ½ cup of (likely expired) pancake syrup
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- ½ cup steel cut oats
- ½ cup salted peanuts (from the dark corner of your pantry)
- 1 cup raisins (if you have them – I did not)
Finally
- Yogurt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 300 F and grease a rimmed baking sheet.
- Heat raspberries in a medium saucepan until thawed with sugar to taste. Allow to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, thoroughly mix all ingredients for the granola.
- Spread granola evenly onto greased baking sheet with spatula.
- Bake in oven for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through. Granola is done when golden brown. Allow to cool.
To serve, top yogurt with desired amount of sweetened raspberries and granola. Enjoy.