This task of reducing debt sure is overwhelming! There is so much wonderful information out there, but at times it can be hard to sort through what will work for me and what won’t. I think that the first step I have to take is to “trim the fat” so to speak. This means really taking a look at my monthly expenses and then finding ways to reduce how much money I spend. Sounds simple right? It’s not. It’s a long, painful process, that makes me realize that I am spending more money than I am bringing in to my household.
The one way I know that I can reduce spending is by packing my lunch, as well as lunch for our children who are in school. This will easily save me $25-$30 per month for the kids alone. For myself, well that number is probably closer to what I spend per week, so a total of about $100 per month. That should be a good incentive! I could save up to $150 per month, just by packing lunch!
I could also save money by cutting out or at least reducing other consumable expenses, beer and cigarettes. Yikes, it hurts me to admit to throwing my money away at such things, not only are they expensive, but they are bad for my health. Yuck. Let’s figure out how much money I could save by at least reducing these expenses. If I buy a case of beer once per week, that would be $22.50 I could potentially save. I usually buy an average of 2-3 packs of cigarettes per week, equaling $15 dollars per week. That brings me to a grand total of $37.50 per week! Ouch, guilty pleasures suck. In one month I spend over $150 on such horrible for my health expenses. Oh this is going to suck, but it’ll be worth it in the end right?
If I cut these three things out of my weekly spending habits, I could save up to $300 per month, for a whopping grand total of…$3600 per year! Holy shit. I guess I never realized how much money goes to consumable expenses.
Hopefully writing all this down will motivate me to stay focused, pack my lunch, reduce/eliminate my bad habits, improve my health, and most of all, be able to pay down my debt significantly!
4 Comments
June 8, 2008 at 10:17 am
Here’s a little more motivation for you. Invest $300 a month at 7% and that could turn into $360,000 after 30 years.
August 1, 2008 at 9:04 am
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