Financial Spring Cleaning

[bjl584]

I bumped my savings rate up the beginning of this year (as I always do), and for the first time I'm starting to feel it pinch into my discretionary spending. So, I figured maybe it's time for some belt tightening on th spending side of things. I've gotten a little sloppy with it.

A quick glance at my finances and I came up with the following goals to complete by the end of 2013. Some of these I can do right now, others will take some time.

Pay off my truck. I have the ability to do this today, but I've been holding onto the loan because the interest rate is low and I'm getting a better return by investing the money.

Get the remaining items out of storage. I have some furniture and other items that I had to put in storage a while back. I'm clearing everything out of there by summertime.

Cut back my data plan on my phone. I installed Wifi in the house so I hardly use any data anymore.

Cut back eating out from 2 days a week to 1. I need to get back in the habit of cooking my own food. I've gotten lazy with doing that.

So, if I just do those few things that I listed by the end of the year I will have increased my cash flow by $440 a month. Not too bad. I'm sure that I will think of more ways to save as time goes by, but that's a pretty good start. Anyone else want to play along?

[disneysteve]

I bumped my savings rate up the beginning of this year (as I always do), and for the first time I'm starting to feel it pinch into my discretionary spending. So, I figured maybe it's time for some belt tightening on th spending side of things. I've gotten a little sloppy with it.

Anyone else want to play along?

This is exactly where I am this year, hence my post about the cable modem.

Payroll tax went up 2% and our property tax increased by $1,000 so that money has to come from somewhere.

So far, I've cut back on the cable package and knocked $18/month off the bill and just yesterday I installed the cable modem I bought which will reduce the bill another $7/month (plus taxes) so that's over $300/year that I've saved from those things.

Next on my list is going to be getting new life insurance policies. I've been meaning to do this for years and just never do it. I know we're overpaying for that.