Here’s something crazy:

I went 123 days without a sip of coffee

And also…

101 days without a glass of whisky (or any alcohol for that matter)

70 days without applying ChapStick to my lips

and 43 days of not using the internet or any apps on my phone (!!!)

Challenge Mode activated, baby!! And it feels great! Also – kinda boring, lol, but super proud of myself for pulling it off so far and honestly can’t believe I even have. Who gives up all this stuff at the same time??!

But more on that in a bit…

*******

Hello!!! It’s been a while!

And it’s completely my fault.

I made it my mission this year to swap out “screen time” with more “real life” time, and I’ve gotten so good at it that I almost forgot the internet still exists, haha…

But I’ve missed you and I’m back now! And I hope your $$$ is still going strong! Anything juicy happen since I’ve been away?? Still saving and budgeting your hearts out? I just checked and it’s been exactly 6 months since my last post to y’all (!!!) which is way too long…

As for us, life continues to be good and our health and wealth are trucking along nicely. Definitely lower on the income side of things since that’s what happens when you unofficially retire, lol, but thankfully the decisions of younger J$ hooked us up to be just fine ;) Even without adding anything extra our net worth continues to grow! The power of compounding at its finest!

But while I haven’t been “working” much, I have been channeling all that time and energy into somewhere else: myself.

Last year’s “Project of Me” continues in full force, and now on top of the juicing and working out and volunteering and yoga’ing every day, I’ve added a few more life improvements to the mix. Or rather, improved *habits*. Not that any of these were all too terrible really, but it’s always good to hit “reset” every now and then to see what you truly need in life, you know?

And I decided to hit the hardest, most trickiest, habit first: COFFEE!!

Something I love and devour every single day, but something I’m sure my body doesn’t exactly appreciate. I had been slowly trimming it down over the years, going from 3-4 cups/day to 2-3 cups and then most recently just 1 cup/day, but never in my 25 years of drinking it have I dared to go cold turkey. I mean, why would you do that to yourself??!

But once the seed gets planted I can’t leave things alone until I go ALL IN, and one day I just woke up and thought, “Today is the day – no more coffee!” and that was that.

The first week was a bitch, not gonna lie (those headaches are real! Especially when your life is full of rowdy little boys!) but eventually I stopped thinking about it and learned to live my life as I had the first 20 years of it :)

I don’t know if it’s had a super big impact on me, other than chilling me out more and maybe lessening some anxiety (I feel more “even” these days, like, no more huge HIGHS or LOWS, but just kinda sorta floating in the MIDDLE, if that makes sense?) but it is amazing how fast our bodies can adapt when given the chance. Life without coffee seems just as normal now as life was with it! And in the process I learned that I really enjoy decaf teas, such as lemon-ginger which I’m currently drinking as I type this, as well as the turmeric based, “Golden Latte” – a real treat if you’ve never tried!

It’s also been a great reminder of how powerful a force *momentum* can be. The beginning stages are always the hardest, but as time goes on you get better and better with less effort until the point of not even really paying attention anymore. Not unlike saving or investing really!

Even more importantly – doing these little challenges helps prime you up for even MORE challenges in life. Momentum breeds momentum, and similar to what happened last year when I joined that soccer league, which then got me to start eating and drinking better, which then got me to start exercising more, one positive act propels you to another until you’re left with a string of better habits stacked on top of each other.

30 days into the Coffee Challenge I then took on a 31 day Meditation Challenge, which then led to a 21-day Inversion Challenge, and then a random No ChapStick Challenge (??) and then finally a No Internet on Your Phone Challenge which is my present dare I’ve taken on… A dare, of course, I dared myself with ;)

Here’s more on each for those curious:

31 Day Meditation Challenge – If you’ve always wanted to try meditation but didn’t know how, this is an easy way to get started. You just set the timer for 5 minutes and then sit there and do nothing except try and focus on your breath. Which you can never do all the way, of course, but you still try and eventually get better at it. When the 5 mins are up you’re done and hopefully feel a bit more peaceful! Then you repeat for the next 30 days

If you crave a little harder challenge, which I was, you do the same 5 mins every day BUT you add 1 more minute on top of it with each passing day. So, day 1 is 5 mins, day 2 is 6 mins, day 3 is 7 etc etc until you realize you’re at 35 mins/day and feel like a monk! It’s a fabulous challenge if you’re into such things, and of course the hope is that you continue with it until it becomes a daily habit – even if not for long. (I’ve found the sweet spot for me is 7 minutes, which I can easily slip in any time of the day!)

21 Day Inversion Challenge –This is a yoga challenge a friend of mine and I did together, but even if you’re not into yoga you could try it (just be careful!). With this challenge all you have to do is get *upside down* once a day which is supposedly really good for you (something about the blood rushing down and then back up to improve flow?). But – it’s also just plain FUN :)

You can do a hand stand up against the wall, or a head stand in the middle of the beach or even just have a friend dangle you at your ankles for a few seconds! As long as you get upside down every day you’ve accomplished the mission.

No ChapStick Challenge — This is going to sound weird, but next to coffee this was probably the hardest challenge I’ve ever taken on, haha… I’d never realized how engrained of a habit this was until learning that my brother has only used it like once or twice in his entire life??! I was shocked! I told him I probably apply it at least 5-6x day automatically without even thinking about it, and that it’s one of the three things I *always* carry in my pocket:

1. Phone
2. Money clip
3. Chapstick (or a variation of – this isn’t to shame Chapstick the brand, I don’t have anything against them, lol… unless the rumors are true that they put *addictive* substances in it which would 100% explain my obsessive behavior with it!!!)

He then told me I needed to take it on as my next challenge, and 70 days later I have still yet to apply a single swipe! :) Though I did early on have to apply some Vaseline as WOW were my lips not happy as they were adjusting!! And I couldn’t count the number of times I reached into my pockets to get the Chapstick only to remember it wasn’t there anymore, lol… So it’s kind of a minimalism and savings win too! One less thing to carry around, and one less thing to purchase too – woo!

No Internet on Your Phone Challenge — This one came about after just being tired of being on my phone one day and seeing everyone else on theirs too. Which this challenge doesn’t exactly solve (if anything it gets you to realize how MUCH everyone else is on their phone!) but it is a good start to breaking your own scrolling habits.

In a nutshell, you just stop opening up any apps outside of those made for communication (like text, calling, etc) and then see if you can survive ;)

I started it on vacation which is probably the worst time to start since you usually have so much downtime!, but it did help re-focus my attention on real life and nature and has been great for my mental health too. I have since sneaked in the maps app and allowed for the camera and one or two other more *productive* apps too, but so far it looks like I’ve broken the habit of haphazard scrolling and getting lost to time. I’d bet I use the phone at least 50% less now!

(Another trick to not picking it up as much? Wearing a watch! It can’t suck you in like when you go to your phone to check what time it is!)

******

And that’s where we are today :) Looking for the next good challenge!! lol… You have any for me?

But while it may look like I’m trying to devoid myself of all the best things in life, the point as mentioned earlier is more to break myself out of my daily habits that have essentially been on auto-pilot for years and then reinstitute better ones. Some things like the coffee and alcohol I’ve slowly introduced back in again – having my first glass of whisky last week, and my first cup of coffee the week prior (it all tastes so much better in moderation!) – while the ChapStick and phone scrolling ban still remains fully in tact.

And of course, you can do all this with your finances too! In fact, that’s where my love of pushing myself all started from – when I took on a “No Spending Challenge” back in 2008 and tried to get a handle on where all my money was going! The first week was the hardest (I kept forgetting and finding myself in stores!) but eventually the new habit kicked in long enough where I trusted myself to start spending again without overdoing it.

A few years later, I decided to up my game even further and go through *every last expense* I had and either nix them completely or lower them enough without affecting my quality of life. I dubbed this the “Challenge Everything” experiment, and at the end of 12 months I had saved $5,484.07 and forever cut out $200/mo going forward! Half of it coming from swapping cell phone carriers alone which netted me $100+/mo (I swapped Verizon for Republic Wireless which no longer exists, and eventually landed at Mint Mobile which I LOVE. Only $25/mo!*)

And then of course there’s getting into the habit of investing more and paying off debts and all other kinds of challenges you could take on to better improve your future.

Here are some of the ones we’ve featured over the years if you’re pumped and ready to take some on!

• The $2 Bill Challenge
• The Spavings Challenge
• The $1,000 Savings Challenge
• Gamify Your Money Goals with These 8 Fun Saving Challenges!
• 30 Mini-Challenges for September to Improve Your Life and Money!

The trick is just starting with one area and then letting the momentum (and confidence!) keep building and propelling you further into others. And remember – it gets easier the more you flex that muscle!

Anyways, that’s what I’ve been up to these past 6 months :) Hope you’ve been learning and getting into some fun stuff too! I really thought this was going to be a steady normal year over here and then BAM – the fire was lit and the sparks started flying! Haha… But I love it… You gotta be constantly changing in order to grow and I welcome every last bit of it.

See you back here again soon! Thanks for reading :)

// Top painting by my 6 year old, titled “EYE BLEEDING” lol… Pretty much exactly how I felt the first few days of these challenges!!

* Mint mobile link is an affiliate link… and also the best phone carrier around! Even Deadpool uses it!

[This post, Challenge Mode Activated ✅, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Happy Friday!

It’s been an expensive summer for me and my wife … all the vacations, celebrations, gifts, and fancy foods have given our wallets a little hammering.

I was trying to think of a no-spend challenge or something we could do for the month of September to try and save some $$… But then I thought maybe it would be more fun to try 30 x mini-challenges, instead of the same thing for 30 x days.

Also, instead of just money stuff, how about other fun little things to improve our health, happiness, and the lives of others around us? 

Soooo… here are the 30 x daily challenges I’ve come up with for September. Print ‘em out, check ‘em off, do all of them or as many as you can. Small things add up over time!!

September will be here in a flash — on Wednesday!

***Update! One of our awesome readers made a Trello board (free, public template here) so y’all can check off this list day by day as you do them! Thank you Brittany!! ***

30 Daily Challenges for September

Day #1: No spend $$ day (should be easy, it’s a Wednesday!)

Day #2: Clean out 1 messy drawer or desk at home. (Decluttering increases happiness and productivity)

Day #3: Cancel an old credit card or account you never use

Day #4: Sell something online. I use the OfferUp mobile app — easy and free!

Day #5: Call some insurance companies for competitive insurance quotes. Car or house!

Day #6: Do a $0 workout or fitness hobby. For me, that’s surfing! (Or, have any of y’all ever tried this 1000 squats in 1 hour video? Oh man, I did this once and it was awesome! Nearly died, but awesome nonetheless)

Day #7: No TV today… Read a book, do a puzzle, call an old friend instead!

Day #8: Hand-wash your car. Or clean the inside at least … Dang I’ve got a lot of Cooper hair in the back from our road trips!

Day #9: Share your fav personal finance blog or articles with your friends. Or, introduce someone new to the FIRE community!

Day #10: Get rid of 3 clothing items you never wear. Donate them!

Day #11: Clip a coupon → and actually USE it! Or download your supermarket app (I use Vons, Albertsons, Ralphs, 99c mobile apps) and see what promos they have.

Day #12: Get up at 5am and go to a nearby park to watch the sunrise! Reflect on how awesome your life is for a few hours before starting your day.

Day #13: Teach your kids how to cook dinner! (Sept. 13 is National “Kids Take Over The Kitchen” Day) Bonus points if you make them shop for ingredients.

Day #14: Walk around the neighborhood for 20 minutes — without your phone!

Day #15: Buy 1 share of a company you love. (only 1!) This will satisfy your stock picking curiosity while having a bit of fun.

Day #16: Spend $3 to brighten someone else’s day. (Make a jibjab video, buy a nice card)

Day #17: Write down 3 things you appreciate in life. Email it to me! (Seriously, I’d love to read what you’re up to and tell you mine.)

Day #18: An old J$ trick… #1) Take out a dollar bill #2) Take out a sharpie #3) Write a motivational message to yourself on the bill #4) Stick it somewhere you’ll see every morning  

Day #19: Change all your light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs! Costs ~$20, but saves the average household $8.33 per month (apparently). That’s $1,000 over 10 years.

Day #20: Unsubscribe from 2-3 junk email newsletters. Better yet, cancel a subscription if you have one that no longer serves you.

Day #21: Use that old gift card that’s been sitting there for years! Or, sell it or trade in online! (I’ve still got one for Bed Bath & Beyond from my wedding 6 years ago…) 

Day #22: Car-free day! Try walking everywhere you can today. :) Saves fuel money, and helps the environment.

Day #23: See if you have any missing money owed to you. If not, try your friend’s names! (1 in 10 people in the U.S. have missing money)

Day #24: Pick up a piece of trash from the ground. Or, a few! Research shows that cleaning your own street can raise your home value by up to $5,000!!! (I totally made this up)

Day #25: Introduce yourself or strike up a conversation with a stranger. This will increase your chances of more apples in life. :) 

Day #26: No drinking booze today. Instead, take a $5 bill and throw it into a jar on top of your fridge. Last year I did this for 18 days, and saved an extra $90. Kind of cool!

Day #27: Give someone you love a book that you love. (Or, call them up and just tell them the 3 biggest takeaways you learned from the book.)

Day #28: Say thank you to someone who has changed your life. Letter, text, or email… make it genuine.

Day #29: Log into all your investment accounts and double check a) all your dividends are being reinvested (DRIP) and b) you have no forgotten/unproductive cash positions!

Day #30: Set a meeting with your boss and ask for a raise… Then when they refuse, hand in your resignation, walk out of the office, go straight to the airport, buy a one-way ticket to Hawaii and live like a bum on the beach for the rest of your life.

Ok, that last one was a joke… But hey, if you are lucky enough to achieve FI in the month of September, maybe the “quit your job” part wouldn’t be so far off!?

So, are you up for the challenge(s)? How many of these do you reckon you can tick off in September?

Start this coming Wednesday the 1st…

Ready

Set…

GO!

Love you all, have a great weekend!

– Joel

[This post, 30 Mini-Challenges for September to Improve Your Life and Money!, was first published by 5am Joel on Elite Edge Money]

For most of my life I’ve had about 6 – 12 months of living expenses sitting in cash in my checking account. This cash is my “emergency fund”.

I’ve always felt fine about this because of these old-school popular money beliefs:

• Cash is king
• Cash solves problems quickly
• Holding cash allows me to jump on opportunities if they arise.
• Financial gurus say it’s important to have an “emergency fund”.
• Most Americans are cash poor, and since I never want to be like that, I should blindly do the opposite.
• If I ever lose my job, a cash pile lets me live for 6 to 12 months with no income.
• Cash can cover an emergency health/dental/car/pet/travel expense without touching my “other investments”.
• Bla bla bla, emergency funds are smart and anyone without one will be financially ruined.

This was my old way of thinking.

Now, my thoughts on emergency funds are changing… 

I’m starting to question conventional wisdom and am realizing that holding a 6 month cash “emergency fund” might be hurting me more than helping me. 

My money beliefs are shifting… Here are my new thoughts on cash emergency funds:

• Cash is a burden. It is counterproductive to my wealth building mission.
• Cash isn’t important — access to cash is.
• Having an emergency fund is less important than having an emergency PLAN.
• An emergency fund doesn’t prevent emergencies from happening. There’s no reason to feel “safer” with cash in a checking account.
• In reality, my entire net worth IS my “emergency fund”.
• If I lose my job, I can actually live for ~15-20 years without income if need be.
• I shouldn’t blindly follow financial gurus, they can be wrong about a lot of things.
• If I have a large unexpected health/dental/car/pet/travel expense, paying with cash is only 1 of many payment options.

Soooo… With all this being said, I’m thinking about ditching my emergency fund and dumping all my cash into the stock market.

Am I crazy? 

(don’t answer that just yet…)

Reasons to have a $0.00 emergency fund:

Don’t worry, I won’t make any drastic changes without fully researching and thinking this through.

There are a handful of FIRE bloggers (way smarter and more experienced than I) that believe in holding $0 in cash. Probably the one I’m a biggest fan of is Karsten (aka Big ERN) over at Early Retirement Now.

ERN has written multiple blogs over the past 6 years about why emergency funds are crap, and why people should consider having ALL their money invested and working for them instead. I’ve read all the related posts, and love that his research includes both technical simulations as well as psychological reasons to support his points.

I’ll reference ERN’s posts within this article, but here’s a quick summary of reasons why it’s better to hold as little cash as possible:

1. Opportunity cost. For every dollar you hold in cash, that’s a dollar that’s not working for you earning better returns.

a) In most cases, it’s financially better to invest your emergency fund (and withdraw the money from your investments when you need it) vs. hold a large cash pile to use if/when you have an emergency. The math doesn’t work out all of the time, it works out most of the time (like 75%).

b) ERN goes into extreme detail in this 2018 post about investing your emergency fund in stocks, and again with new data, proving the emergency fund is still useless even after last year’s massive recession! 

c) Just FYI… The reason most people still keep emergency funds in cash — even though they might know it’s mathematically better not to — is because they sleep better at night that way. There’s nothing wrong with this! Sometimes people are more worried about the small chance of loss, vs. excited about the higher probability of gain. We are all humans and it’s cool to feel this way. But I personally am trying not to.

2. Holding cash leads to behavior biases. I have definitely fallen into these mental accounting traps that can lead to making bad decisions…

a) Having a big cash pile makes it more tempting to spend. When I wake up every morning and see $30k in my joint checking account, there’s more of a chance I’ll tell my wife we can “afford to” go on a $3k luxury vacation vs. if we held only $1k in our checking account. Making cash less accessible reduces unplanned spending.

b) Emergency funds skew our view of risk. People think their entire portfolio is divided into “buckets”, and that each bucket has a different level of risk. But really we should take into account our entire portfolio when evaluating risk. For example, I could probably invest my $30k emergency cash into stocks, then with some minor asset shuffling in my brokerage account, achieve the exact same overall risk I have now, with a higher return. (Or, achieve the same return I am getting now, but with a lower amount of risk). Make sense? Very interesting *and more advanced* post about that here.

c) The longer you hold large amounts of cash, the more emotional attachment you have to it. Remember my friend with $200k in her checking account? As each day goes on, she gets more and more scared to do something with it. Same with me and my ~$30k emergency fund. I’ve had it in my checking account for over 15 years!!! If an emergency does happen and I truly need $30k, I will probably sell some assets to cover the expense, vs. using my emergency cash. Why? Because I can’t fathom the thought of not waking up and seeing my “artificial safety net” there. This bleeds into the next point below.

3. If an emergency happens, and you use your fund, then what? Following up on what I mentioned above, let’s say I have an emergency and need to spend my $30k emergency cash. What happens next? How do I replenish my fund? Well, I’d either need to a) scramble and save money over the following months to pay back my emergency fund or b) withdraw money from my brokerage account to replenish the $30k in cash I just spent. Both of these scenarios are the same if I held $0 in cash. If an emergency happened I’d either need to a) scramble to save and pay back money to wherever I borrowed it from or b) sell assets to cover it. Same scrabble or selling whether I have cash or not.

4. 10 other debunked myths about holding emergency cash. ERN has written a 2-part post about these “emergency fund myths” and responded to countless people who disagree with his point of view. These 10 points are so interesting to read!!

a) Debunking emergency funds – part 1

b) Debunking emergency funds – part 2

Accessing money in an emergency…

OK, let’s suppose I put all my emergency cash into investments and go down to a $0.00 emergency fund… What happens if disaster strikes? What happens if my car suddenly dies and I need $15k to buy another one? What if a medical emergency rolls around and I’m stuck with a $14k out of pocket bill? What if my wife and I lose our jobs at exactly the same time?

Here are some options for us to pay for things (in no particular order):

1. Credit cards could cover most immediate expenses (my wife and I have a whopping $107,100 in available credit across 11 open cards). We would never spend that much, but it’s the quickest way to pay for emergencies with 20-50 day interest free payment terms. There are also ways to roll credit over with longer interest free periods we could take advantage of.

2. Borrow money from our Rental Property Emergency Fund. We have about 20k sitting in cash in our rental property float account. Borrowing from this doesn’t cost us anything. (I’ll delve into later why this account will remain in cash – I’ve always kept rental property accounts completely separate from personal accounts)

3. Liquidate stocks to pay for an emergency. This could be done in a lump sum to pay for a large expense (like $15k for a new car) or done slowly over time to pay living expenses in the case of job loss (eg. withdraw $5k monthly for however long we need to live off it).  Obviously this is a last resort option if we happen to experience a disaster *during* a large stock market crash.

4. Securities-based line of credit, aka “margin account”. This is like a home equity line of credit, but, instead of using a house as collateral for a loan, our brokerage firm (TD Ameritrade) will lend us money using our taxable brokerage account as collateral. The available amount we can borrow is based on our account value and the positions we hold. As of today, TD will lend us up to $123k in cash, payable by WIRE or bank transfer. The current TD interest rate is 9.5%, so we could borrow $10,000, and pay about $2.60 in interest per day for each day until we pay it off. Not ideal, but certainly not horrible in an emergency situation!

5. Cover the expense with new earned money: For a small emergency, like covering a $5k unexpected expense, there’s a chance my wife and I can cover this from our regular paychecks in the course of a month or two. We don’t have a huge savings rate right now as we are just ramping back up into work, but some months we have a larger savings rate (higher than usual income + lower than usual expenses). If a disaster comes in one of those months, we may just be able to cover it without touching investments anyway.

6. Borrow from friends/family. I sound like a jack-ass admitting this, but my wife and I are incredibly blessed with close friends and family in fairly well off positions. There’s potential that we could borrow large chunks of money from them (based on the fact they know we are “good for it”). I’ve personally lent $25,000 to a friend in the past who was in a tight cash spot, and they paid it back in 60 days. I believe some of my friends today would do the same for me, although this would be a last resort type option.

7. Combo of the above. Depending on the emergency, we could do a blend or mix of the above methods.

Downsizing my emergency fund…

So, here’s my current situation…

My wife and I have about $35k in cash. We are kind of on the Coast FI train, and our savings rate for this year will probably be like 15% or so (some months lower, some months higher due to irregular monthly income). We are still up in the air about our exact FI number, but it’s safe to say “retirement” will be 7+ years away at our current rate, maybe longer. We are not risk averse, mostly because of our age and lifestyle (no kids yet, don’t own home yet, can happily kick into frugal overdrive to cut back spending if needed, etc)

All that being said, I’m 90% convinced that we can drop our $35k emergency cash fund down to ~$10k without having any major cash flow issues. The only reason I don’t feel comfortable dropping down to a $0 cash position (yet) is because of some possible travel plans at the end of this year (planning Aus for Christmas if they open the borders) and also my wife is unpaid for the summer as a teacher.

Pending agreement from my wife and an analysis on where to invest the $25k cash, I might actually do this…

Am I crazy?

(ok, now you can answer!)

[This post, Lowering my emergency fund… to…. $0.00?, was first published by 5am Joel on Elite Edge Money]

Three years ago I stumbled across a passage from Mr. Money Mustache that completely changed how I view my expenses.

It came from an article I had read on many occasions prior – and is one of his most popular – but for whatever reason it never hit me as hard as it did then, perhaps because I wasn’t open enough to fully appreciate it at the time.

Here’s what it said, from “The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement:”

“The most important thing to note is that cutting your spending rate is much more powerful than increasing your income. The reason is that every permanent drop in your spending has a double effect: it increases the amount of money you have left over to save each month, and it permanently decreases the amount you’ll need every month for the rest of your life.”

Think about that for a moment…

Every time you cut one of your permanent/recurring expenses, it *increases* the amount of money you have let over to save each month.

But even more powerful, it then *permanently* decreases the amount you’ll need every month for the rest of your life! (Provided you don’t go back to it, of course ;))

It’s one of the most simplest concepts in the world, yet so many of us still haven’t fully understood it.

And I was one of them, up until three years ago when I stumbled across this again. And then do you know what happened??? I started the Challenge Everything mission where I went on to shave off roughly $223/mo from my recurring expenses, and banked a whopping $5,484.07 by the time the project was wrapped up 12 months later! Amazing!

And really, it’s only “wrapped up” in terms of being a blog series, as the savings are still very much hitting my account month in and month out! Further motivating me to do even more, such as finally cutting cable TV from my life, as well as hawking more stuff on Craigslist and stepping up my minimalism game.

Here’s a breakdown of the savings after the first full year in effect:

(Similar to our current Spavings Challenge, I threw all extra money I came across into the Challenge Everything fund as well for extra motivation)

But here’s the even crazier thing – it didn’t affect my lifestyle a single bit! In fact, it actually improved it. Not only did cutting stuff out help me appreciate all that I had more, but it also gave me a better sense of pride and confidence, knowing that I was (finally) optimizing my expenses once and for all as a 30-something adult. (And as a financial blogger, at that!).

If you think about the last time you switched phone carriers or called to lower your cable/insurance bills, you might be surprised how much you’re leaving on the table as well. Especially those you’ve just got into the habit of paying every month without even giving them a second thought.

For me, one of the biggest shocks was how much we were paying for our two iPhones year in and year out… We were hovering between $150-$180/mo, and because there was no way I could “live without my iPhone” (words many of us have spoken!), I never even considered cutting it from my life. It was just “one of those things” I paid for and couldn’t do anything about!

And then after reading that same passage from Mr. Money Mustache, I thought to myself, “Is there another way? Is there a different phone/carrier that does the exact same stuff so I don’t hate my life, only costs me gobs less?? ‘Cuz that would be awesome!” And sure enough, there was. Republic Wireless. And these days there’s even MORE options out there for people as the competition – and “wireless over wifi” technology – has only exploded in recent years.

But the point is – what we think we can’t live without is seldom not true, and even when it is there are usually alternatives that can do the same thing, but for much less.

It’s not always the easiest or most fun making it happen (switching phone carriers is a bitch no matter where you transfer to!), but if you’re committed enough it’s well worth sucking it up for a hot minute.

That initial $223/mo of savings three years ago have now blossomed to a total of $8,028.00 (more than enough to max out an entire Roth IRA, and halfway towards a second!), and doesn’t even factor in all the other benefits the shavings have had on my financial and mental life.

And the best part? Most of these savings were from ONE-TIME actions! Just like with investing, only for your expenses! Put in the money (time), and then watch the dividends (savings) roll in!

It’s a beautiful thing :) And I owe MMM approximately 13 six packs now for finally beating it into my head. (Thank you, sir!)

I was reminded of this recently when someone told me she couldn’t believe how obvious it was and that it’s taken her so long to realize it, and so I share it all with you guys again today in hopes it gets YOU closer to that epiphany as well.

Cutting out expenses from your life goes on to do TWO very powerful things:

1. Frees up more money for savings every month forward!
2. Allows you to *need less* to survive every month forward.

Those who live off $2,000/mo can retire a lot earlier than those who need $10,000/mo to survive. We’re all in different phases with this stuff, but let today be the time you kick it into overdrive if you know you can be doing better.

And then make sure to email me with how much you’re saving, so I can be the first to congratulate you :) I’ve gotten a lot of emails over the years from people challenging their expenses, and I have yet to hear anyone now say they hate their lives because of it! Ain’t no one enjoys wasting away their money!

*******

Full article again from MMM can be found here – highly recommend it: The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement

And then here’s the recap of our 12 month challenge experiment as well, if you weren’t around back then and want more of the backstory behind it (or to see some of the notes people have written in after trying it themselves – some people absolutely killed it!): The Challenge Everything Mission

[This post, PS: The less you spend, the less you need to earn!, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

You know when you’ve paid a bill for so long that it just becomes habit and you don’t even pay attention to it anymore? Because at one point in your life it made sense, but now who knows? (Because of the whole not paying attention part?)

I call that being in a “bill coma,” and it was exactly my life 3 years ago despite being a personal finance blogger and knowing better (!!). Then one day I saw something from Mr Money Mustache and BAM – woke right up from my coma and started challenging every expense around me!

Here’s the clip that snapped me out of it:

“The most important thing to note is that cutting your spending rate is much more powerful than increasing your income. The reason is that every permanent drop in your spending has a double effect: it increases the amount of money you have left over to save each month, and it permanently decreases the amount you’ll need every month for the rest of your life.”

Permanently decreases the amount you’ll need every month for the rest of your life. OMG!!! YES!! The less you need to live off, the less you need to earn – d’uh!! Why do I keep paying all these bills without even thinking about it?? And why am I not going over them one-by-one to see what I can hack?

And thus, the Challenge Everything mission was born. Which lasted a solid year and a half, ultimately saving me over $7,500 before I eventually stopped tracking it all. And the best part? My lifestyle wasn’t affected in the least! In fact, it got better because it forced me to be more aware of *other* parts of my life as well, like my accumulation of “stuff” and even my TV habits (i.e. WHY AM I PAYING SO MUCH FOR IT WHEN I RARELY WATCH??)

So the first point of today’s post is to *shake yourself awake* from your own comas you may currently be in, and then spend a few minutes going down each of your recurring bills and seeing if there’s anything that can be done about them.

Because remember – unlike one-off expenses, every dollar you can cut off with monthly expenses means another dollar saved every month *in the future* too! And that $hit builds up!

I started with the following three bills and then went from there:

• My car insurance bill
• My cable/tv/internet bill
• And then the second point of today’s post – my cell phone bill! Always the most annoying switch, but the one that typically yields the most savings.

Every FIRE blogger at the time was talking about a hot new cell phone company called “Republic Wireless“, and after reading post and post about it, and seeing friend after friend moving over to them (even Mr Money Mustache himself!), I finally decided to join the crowd and go all in myself.

And boy has it paid off :) The amount of savings I now get month after month?

$100! BOOM! Which now means I’ve saved over $3,600 over the past three years for practically the same quality phone and service as I had before my awakening.

Can you imagine being handed $100 every time your phone bill arrives? And if you take it a step further as I did and divert it all into a separate savings account, your motivation levels just skyrocket.

Which brings us to some fun news for anyone who’s ever been wanting to try them out :)

All new customers who bring their own Android phone over get 6 months of FREE service this week! $180 instant savings!

(They hook you up with their $30/mo plan)

More info on this promotion can be found here, but the important part is to a) check first to make sure your phone is compatible, and then b) start the process sooner than later as you only have a handful of days to take them up on the offer (and less if they run out of free SIM cards…).

Oh, and probably good if you knew what types of plans they offer, eh? :)

Some other things to note:

• Their service rides on wifi, which is how they’re able to offer such low rates (so if you have no/crappy wifi at your house, they’re not for you)
• The calling sounds pretty much the same as any other type of calling
• When you’re on wifi, talk/texts/data/etc is unlimited. When you’re off wifi, it switches over to cell towers which is where the data limits come in (but talking is still unlimited)
• There are no contracts whatsoever – you can come and go as you please!
• You have to have an Android phone to use RW – no iPhones (womp womp)

As I mentioned, I’ve been with them now for about 3 years and I still very much recommend them to anyone willing to hear out my opinion :) Like other carriers they’re not perfect, but nothing’s been a deal breaker so far and I continue on my merry way. Just good ol’ reliable service without a crap ton of fees attached.

Here are links if you’re interested in learning more:

• Website: RepublicWireless.com
• Promotion: https://pwk.republicwireless.com/get-6-months-free/
• Coverage check: https://republicwireless.com/coverage/ (important if you live far out in the woods or mountain or away from tons of civilization :))

And lastly, if you don’t have a compatible phone and/or just really want to test them out once and for all, shoot over to Rockstar Finance after 6 am today and you can enter our giveaway for a free Moto G Plus phone!! Which also comes with 6 months of free service! :)

Whether you’re in the market for a new carrier or not though, DO make sure you’re not fast asleep in any comas like I was… Spending money for stuff you love and find worth it = good. Spending too much money on stuff you don’t even know why you still have = bad.

Re-check all those priorities and see if they still match up! Current you is not the same as old you! :)

******
FYI: I write this post as an ambassador to Republic Wireless which means I get compensated to share my thoughts on them. Which I gladly do as I wholeheartedly agree with their mission, and even more so with all the dollars they’ve saved me over the past three years :) Thanks, guys!

[This post, That Time I Woke Up From a “Bill Coma” and Started Saving My $$$!, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

We did it!! 12 straight months of challenging our bills and stuff, and here we are now with a nice pile of change :) And $5,484.07 at that! Only $15.93 short of maxing out our Roth IRA – woo!

Here’s one last shot of our USAA account for proof:

What a ride it’s been too… From battling with cable companies, prying ourselves from our (once) beloved iPhones, hawking stuff on Craigslist every week, scooping up free change thrown on the ground by dummies, stashing away birthday money, slashing insurance rates and more.

And to think it all came out of one simple line of text from Mr. Money Mustache:

“Every permanent drop in your spending has a double effect: it increases the amount of money you have left over to save each month, and it permanently decreases the amount you’ll need every month for the rest of your life.”

I had been on the Earn-Earn-EARN! train for so long that I stopped paying attention to my monthly expenses and needed a kick to get back on track again. Thus, Challenge Everything was born and I started going over all major bills we had on rotation to try and get them lower, while still maintaining our same quality of life. And for three of them we won!

(Unfortunately I kinda stopped there as I got caught up with selling everything in our house and finding other ways to stash away money, but still – we got the main areas out side of healthcare done! (And don’t even ask about healthcare, ugh…)

Total banked by paying attention to just these 3 bills brought in $2,503.73 in 12 months. And two of them just required a single phone call to slash! (Verizon – when we moved our phones over to Republic Wireless saving $100+/mo, and USAA car insurance when we cut back on stuff we didn’t use. In fact, that call literally took us less than 15 minutes!)

But of course we didn’t stop there :) Once I got into the habit of re-thinking how we spend money, I started challenging all our “stuff” in the house too. Half of which just took up space and I didn’t care for, but another half I normally would have kept because I *do* actually like, but came to realize I much prefer the cash instead (and space freed up by de-cluttering too).

So every week I did my best to list one item for sale on Craigslist and other places around town, which brought home another $1,027.67 on top. Then I started coming across other random money that would hit us throughout the months (found change, birthday money, refunds, etc) which brought us another $1,952.67 in realized savings. All totaling a whopping $5,484.07!

And since I separated out all this money into its own private account, I knew exactly what I was coming into each month which only motivated me to continue going further. I honestly can’t say enough about how instrumental that was. When you have an account that ONLY GOES UP every month because you’re only adding to it and NOT touching it, it because one of your favorite things to look at :) The only other thing I can compare it to is your 401(k) or IRA account that keeps building up over time since you’d never pull from it or you get penalized up the ass (built-in motivation right there! Haha…).

That’s really all I did! It was all rather simple:

1. Cut bills, funnel the difference over
2. Sell stuff online, funnel the profit over
3. Don’t spend any “extra” money you come into, funnel it all over!

Here’s how it all broke down – for you visual nerds ;)

You’ll see my special column there for all the coins I found on the ground, haha… AND $20.00 bill last month too – that was quite the surprise!

In fact, look at that column for “Random money” – almost $2,000 that went through our hands totally unexpected. That was one of the biggest surprises of the whole challenge. I knew we got extra money here and there, but $2 G’s? Imagine where it would have gone had we not been dutifully setting it aside? Makes you wonder about your own $$ too, right? :)

Lots of interesting tidbits learned actually, but before we get to that, here’s the final breakdown of our last month worth of challenging stuff – August:

Of note are the 5 things sold online which felt great (I was in a drought earlier in the Summer), and two of which came from that OfferUp app. In fact, one of the items actually BROKE in my pocket as I was carrying it over to meet w/ the buyer – hah! I was so embarrassed and apologized profusely, and the guy actually STILL offered to pay me full price for it! I was like – “Noooo way man, I screwed this one up – why don’t you just take it for free?” But he wouldn’t have that either, saying he could glue parts of it back together (!!) so we settled on $10 instead of $15 and both came away happy. Though I was still pretty embarrassed and shocked at the same time :)

The other biggie ($180) came from Ebates with my wife apparently shopping through there more and probably recruiting some of her friends too, haha… or maybe from me linking it here too? (They pay $10/referral I believe) In either case, it was unexpected $$ and thus banked into the ol’ pot here. My wife, and others around town, do swear by them though – check it out ;)

Other interesting nuggets from the year:

• Our savings account accrued a whopping $1.73 all year
• I forget what it’s like to own an iPhone!
• Our cable bill went from $170.77 to $131.45 then to $91.02 , $122.63 and eventually back up to $145.97! (Most recent bill we just got hit with)
• SO WE CUT CABLE ONCE AND FOR ALL!!! (More here for those who missed it)
• We won two lottery tickets (gifts) in the process worth $4.00
• We randomly received a Toyota lawsuit check of $29.23 (hah)
• And a total of $530 worth of gift money (birthdays, Christmas, other)
• As well as $725.95 in refunds/re-imbursements
• $237.23 in credit card rewards (we put everything we can on them, and then pay bills off in full)
• The most I made selling something was $225 (for guitar + amp + accessories)
• The least I made selling something was $5.00 (used dart board I had picked up at a yard sale)
• The average I made per item was $33.15
• The total # of items I ended up selling was 31
• Which meant I was only successful 60% of the weeks I listed something (31 weeks out of 52)
• The only month I didn’t sell anything was April
• 3 of the things I sold were weapons: sword, knife, darts!
• There’s only one thing I miss (but wouldn’t undo): my wooden dragon
• And the only months I didn’t find any change on the ground were November, December, and January

And boy did I learn a lot in the process too.

Outside of the shock of how much *extra* money we come across in our lives, as well as how instrumental setting up that separate savings account was, I also learned the following:

I realized just how EASY it is to cut back when you stop and pay attention! And also that most of us still have plenty of fat we could cut from our spending if we really wanted to.

I also learned that I adapt pretty easily to changes as much as I’m sometimes afraid of doing so (like dropping our iPhone for $100+ savings every month, or cutting back cable which I still don’t miss yet after now being 2+ weeks without!). Or for that matter, no longer owning any of those 31 items above. As well as the boxes I’ve since donated and got a tax refund on too (ooooh I should have added that rough # to the savings! oh well…)

It’s also opened up my eyes on how much MORE I still have to go in cutting back and spending less too. While I did do good on those 3 major bills up there, I kinda slacked off from there and didn’t touch other bills I knew would be harder to deal with and more annoying. I also still have a house FULL of stuff I can most likely do without, and I haven’t even touched some boxes in the basement that would have been prime for the picking off/selling on CL!

I also came to the conclusion that some stuff just takes way longer to earn income from than others. For example, anything less than $10-$15 worth on Craigslist probably isn’t worth the time, whereas cutting back just 1 bill 1 time pays dividends every month going forward. Which means I should have paid much more attention to my bills than all that selling I got obsessed with! :)

This $5,484.07 also feels like FREE money!! I had to work for it of course and offload some stuff, but really if everything was status quo the entire year I would have had $5,500 less in my accounts and not even really known. Even if we ended up only at $1,000 by the end it would have been worth the effort!

And lastly, I learned I need to make it “a thing” in order to hold myself accountable :) Without blogging about it to y’all and telling my friends, there would have been an easier chance for me to give up and fade it into the background. Similar to the other habits and experiments I’ve worked on (and succeeded with) over the years. We suck at staying motivated sometimes when we don’t tell people! And y’all just kept egging me on over the months which helped even more – so thank you :)

What does the future hold?

Well, I’m not sure I’ll be tracking and blogging about it so diligently every month, but you can bet your sweet cakes the challenge will most def. push on! How could I pass up so much extra money flying around like that? I’ve only gotten started! :)

And while it may look like I spent a lot of time accumulating this $5,500, I honestly didn’t notice it much outside of dealing with the dreaded cable company on and off… In fact, it probably took me more time to type out all 12 of these recaps than it did to earn the money! Hah!

So a mission well worth the effort indeed… And now I get the pleasure of dumping out all that cash sitting there and starting over – woo! If I hadn’t already maxed out my Roth IRA in anticipation of this beautiful day I’d be headed over to Vanguard, but filling back up my Emergency Fund will feel just as good too I’m sure…

I hope you’ll continue slashing and saving along with me! Do let me know how it’s going for those of you following along as well. Some of the emails you’ve sent over were downright inspiring, and I want others to be able to see how easy (and fun!) this stuff can be!

Let’s celebrate together!

*****
PS: You can find all the recaps and more on Challenge Everything here.
PPS: As well as the list of everything I sold throughout the year on Craigslist here.

Thanks for following the series!!

[Photo creds: Jeffrey Rowland, @Saigon]

[This post, Challenge Everything Complete! $5,484.07 Banked!, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

I swear we’ve just did one of these like last month? And the month before that, and before that, that, that, that, that ,that ,that , and that?

Damn time flies.

And don’t worry, if these are getting played out there’s only one month left in the mission ;) But if you’re new here, THERE’S ONLY ONE MONTH LEFT IN THE MISSION – OMG!! Hurry up and get on it and start banking that $$$ like you were a part of the Wu! (Cash Rules Everything Around Me – C.R.E.A.M.! – get the money, dolla dolla bill, y’all)

Here’s our total savings so far:

That’s 11 months in a row of cutting expenses, selling stuff on Craigslist, and banking any *extra* money we get throughout the year (gifts, refunds, pennies found on the ground, etc).

It’s all a part of our Challenge Everything Mission, and needless to say it’s working :) Even when you have crappier months than normal like we did for July (we only banked $250 compared to the $500+ levels we were at earlier in the year. Though free money is all free money!)

Still, as you can see it all comes down to harnessing the magic that is *time*. You set up the system once (hopefully) and then let the savings/investments grow and compound on top of each other. Which is much easier to see when you specifically throw it all into one – new – account and watch it all happen. (Like I did w/ USAA)

If you’re having trouble saving with your current way, I highly suggest trying it out.

Here’s how July played out:

Cell Phones (+$112.58) — Nothing new going on here. $100+ savings from making the 1 switch from AT&T last year to Republic Wireless. The best move I’ve made in this challenge! And I hardly remember what it was like to own an iPhone anymore…

BTW, the winner of our Republic prize package last week was Hannah Roehrick! Congrats!

Cable/Internet/Phone (+$48.14) — For the first time all year our bill went back UP, ughh… We’re still saving $50 from where it used to be, but still – it never ends w/ these guys. I’m forcing myself to make an executive decision over the weekend whether we need/want cable once and for all. I think the Mrs. will be on board for a test, but we’ll see… I’ll be calling around competitors in the meantime as well – I’m done w/ this nonsense. (And being lazy too! I should have taken care of this last month!)

Car Insurance (+$30.59) — Been saving $30 every month after a 15 min call to USAA!

Found doodled bills in my safe! ($51.00) — When taking on the “one drawer” challenge last month (though I swapped it for the “one safe” challenge) I found some old dollar (and $10, $20) bills I had kept that were either doodled on or autographed by some celebs. Like Ben stiller, Jay & Silent Bob, and even the PF bad ass Ramit Sethi (from IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com). I kept a couple of them, and cashed in the rest – figuring if I didn’t even remember I had them, I probably wouldn’t miss ’em much. And plus they’d do me a lot better good in the stock market than collecting dust!

Found a ton of coins! (+$0.21) — We found 6 pennies, 1 nickel, and 1 dime this month. I swear I’m up like $100 since taking so many walks this Summer, haha… People are cray.

SOLD: Digital frame (+$10.00) — Digital frames are one of those things that sound great in theory, but for some reason never work as nice in reality. So after trying to download some pics onto this Xmas gift from last year – and utterly failing – I just decided to sell it on CL instead. I started at $30, then dropped it to $20, and then – six weeks later – got an offer for $10 – hah. Good on ’em.

You can find everything I’ve sold so far (and for how much) here: Craigslist Tracker

And that was it for July! I know it’s already almost the end of August here and I’m late, but hopefully this helps inspire some of y’all to look for other ways to cut back / earn more too. I thought I had no room to save when starting this challenge – just ‘cuz I was so used to so many of my bills! – but surprise surprise, I could have done better! For YEARS too. It’s actually pretty sickening when you think about that, so just try not to and focus on the future ;)

Two other sexy things before I leave you here:

#1. The podcast is back on track!

After 6 months of thinking and learning and just delaying like a mother, my secret co-host and I decided to just hop on the mic and start recording…. We got so overwhelmed with the strategy of it all and trying to do everything the “right” way that we just had to say “F it” and do the best we can. And now we’ve got our first two episodes on lock – woo!

(The lesson here, of course, is that NO ONE is immune to overanalyzing and getting stuck. And sometimes it’s better to not know anything and jump right in before your head gets filled with too much advice! It’s how this blog got started here those 7+ years ago, and also why it kinda sucked back then too, haha… But you know what? You have to suck before you can get better :))

We’ll see how good or not they turn out, but we poured our hearts into it and had fun while doing so. I think that’s the best you can ask from newbies – especially those who don’t even listen to podcasts! (And we actually got in a heated debate on the 2nd one too – it should make for an interesting show)

I’ll let y’all know the second it’s live… Gonna be about money, entrepreneurship, and just striving towards a better life. Drop me a note if you want me to email you once it’s up too.

#2. The financial blogger awards are back!

If you love this blog, or my other project – Rockstar Finance – will you take a second to vote for me? As well as your other favorite bloggers too? There’s a bunch of categories for them, and I know they’d appreciate just being nominated because it takes a lot more work to run these blogs than it seems :) The winners get cool looking trophies at our conference every year too helping solidify our nerdness even more. You can vote here.

Thanks guys, happy weekend!

And remember: Cash Rules Everything Around (You) – C.R.E.A.Y! – Get the money, dolla dolla bill y’all.

*******
PS: What the hell happened to the stock market this week? I hope you were scooping up those deals when they were on sale!! That’s as close to a “secret trick” as you’ll find for growing your wealth, whew.

[This post, Challenge Savings (& Podcast) Update: $4,990.84, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Month #10 locked and loaded! Just two more months to go and our 12 month mission of savings will be complete :) Going by pretty fast too, eh? Gotta put those plans into effect TODAY if you want to see big results later! It all adds up over time!

Here’s where our savings account is now after 10 months:

Pretty wild… Almost $5,000 banked from tiny changes here and there, which would have totally slipped through the cracks if I didn’t go out of my way to track and separate it out. I know I sound like a broken record over all these months, but creating that new savings account and watching it build like this is just so damn motivational! There’s no way I would have appreciated the gains we’ve been making if I hadn’t done that, and now we almost have enough to max out a Roth IRA! It’s incredible. And was incredibly *easy* too…

Though not all is bliss in Challenge Paradise however… I had the following calendar item pop up and smart me decided to completely ignore it.

You’ll notice the date there – June 2nd – and that I even set aside an hour to knock it out. But who likes to argue with their cable company with their precious time? Every year we have to do it and this time I kept pushing and pushing it off until the new bill hit me and BAM! A 30% increase from $90 something to $120 something. Ugh…

You won’t see it in this month’s #’s cuz I’m a few weeks late posting them up (sorry), but needless to say I need to get on the phone with them again and get it all worked out. I already tried calling them once last week, but 40 mins later I wanted to punch myself in the face as I had what seemed to be the worst customer service rep ever. All I wanted to know at the end was what it would cost to keep *internet only*, and the convo went eerily similar to Tonya’s over at TimeCast Cable:

(You HAVE to watch this before moving along… Seriously, it’s hilarious. And very accurate.)

Anyways, I couldn’t even get that info out of them (why do the systems always “go down” when you’re trying to pay less for something?) so I had to get off the phone before I threw it against the wall. It was hell. And I’ll need to do it all over again sometime this week. Pray for me!

Anyways, here’s how June’s savings broke down:

Cell Phones (+$112.58) — Still reaping the benefit of kicking AT&T to the curb and moving to Republic Wireless. It’s never fun switching phones and carriers, but the Benjamin it’s since saved every month since more than makes up for it :) We’ve banked over $1,000 now from that one single change.

Cable/Internet/Phone (+$79.72) — We used to be at $170, then got it down to $90 by canceling some stuff and asking for discounts, and now we’re right back to playing the “I don’t want to cancel you, but I will” game. I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t enjoy watching TV, cuz I do, but if we can’t square this away I’m willing to give it a shot and just be done with it. Whether my wife agrees with me or not is another story ;) (She loves her reality TV)

Car Insurance (+$30.59) — This was the fastest cutting of them all. Literally a 15 min call to USAA and now we’re banking $30/mo since. Verizon needs to take notes…

Winning Lottery Ticket (+$2.00) — This is going to sound funny, but we had an Easter egg hunt last month because we weren’t able to get around to it on actual Easter day back in April :) My mother has put one on every year since we were born, and now that we all have kids it just keeps continuing on. Anyways, I found a golden egg and inside was a winning scratcher – woo!

SOLD: Art Supplies (+$10.00) — My wife asked me to “do something” with this pile of art supplies we had (we have like 10 piles of them for the kids) and so I just put them on Craigslist and a week later they were gone. She asked me what I did with them soon after and I told her, and she wasn’t impressed. She meant for me to just move them somewhere – oops.

SOLD: Old Paper Shredder (+$7.00) — This was a great sale because while this thing normally costs $40+ in stores, it’s blades were all mangled in one area and thus semi-broken. It still worked like a charm, but people tend to not buy up such things unless they’re a good deal. Which at $5.00 it was. Only when I went to make the trade, the buyer didn’t have $5.00 and only had a $10.00 bill, so I ended up with $7.00 since I couldn’t make enough change for her. This is like the 4th time people didn’t bring the correct amount (which is weird, cuz they all know it ahead of time?) but I’ll take that free money all day long… $2.00 is still $2.00!

Here’s what the blades looked like btw:

SOLD: Vintage Lantern (+$10.00) — Oddly enough this was another item I was trying to offload that was broken! It took me 8 months to do so, but lo and behold someone finally wanted it and didn’t mind the crack in one of the panels (which honestly you couldn’t even see anyways). I wanted at least $20 for it, but I grew tired of it taking up space in my basement…

Found Change (+$0.84) — From all my walks over the month… $0.76 worth within 1 block/walk!

And just like that our Challenge Savings account gets $252.73 plumper.

You can see all the items I’ve hawked over the year here – Craigslist Tracker – as well as all the recaps of our monthly savings here on our main Challenge Everything page.

Hope this inspires you to start selling/finding/cutting down monthly expenses too! As MMM once said (which inspired this whole challenge),

“Every permanent drop in your spending has a double effect: it increases the amount of money you have left over to save each month, and it permanently decreases the amount you’ll need every month for the rest of your life.

That’s some powerful $hit right there… And proves watching your expenses is just as – if not more – important than growing your income. And true hustlers do both :)

—–
[Killer David Bowie bill by Zawezome]

[This post, Challenge Savings Update: $4,738.13, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

What up, y’all! The Challenge Everything Mission continues! Banking $387.83 more to the pile this month and making our total balance now $4,485.22 after just 9 months…

A few months more and we’ll reach our goal of hitting the amount needed to max out an IRA – woo! For barely that much effort too… And another side effect? Less STUFF in our house, and our mind, as well.

Over the month I also created a page to track all the items we’ve sold since starting this mission, and it’s really helped me step up my game on Craigslist again just so I can keep adding to it :) You can find it here, as well as in the nav bar now: Craigslist $$$ Tracker

And here are some fun facts so far over the 9 months:

• Total items sold: 22
• Lowest item sold: $5.00
• Highest item sold: $225.00
• Avg sale item: $40.41
• Amount of extra money received because buyer’s didn’t bring exact amounts: $12.00
• Amount of time it takes to find/take pics/list/offload each item from start to finish: 1 hour
• Longest time it took to sell an item: 6 months
• Quickest time it took to sell an item: 6 hours :)
• Total money made so far: $889.00 

Oh, and last month I also had my first scare off CL too. I was texting back and forth with a chick for an item, but when I got to the meeting place (because I never meet at my own house – specifically for reasons like this!) some large ass tattooed guy rolled up, jumped out of the car and within seconds was in my face asking about my items for sale. I was so caught off guard I just stood there for what seemed like hours, imagining all the ways I’m about to die from a $10 item, haha…

Eventually I came to my senses and all was fine, though it was the first meetup where a deal actually fell through. The whole situation was just real creepy and weird and overall confusing. But it did get me to be more careful of my surroundings and to pay attention to my instincts more. After a two week hiatus I was back to selling again and figured I was overreacting as the odds someone would hurt/rob me off a $10 item was pretty low :) Hopefully that proves true!

Anyways, a great month of selling stuff with $110 racked up, and we’re back to our weekly listing again! I’ve included another line of questioning in my “what to sell next?” decision making process too, which has resulted in box fulls of more stuff to offload.

The new question I ask myself now is,

Would you take this with you if you’re moving in two weeks?

It’s amazing how effective this is at giving you an answer once and for all :) Just the *idea* of packing stuff up you’re on the fence about makes you want to shiver, haha… And it’s a great last line of defense if the first two questions don’t work too:

#1) Would you rather have this or cash?

#2) Would you go out and buy this again?

Between the 3 I’d say it helps nix a good 90% of the stuff I’d normally keep around that I just really like. That’s the hardest part to get past, really, once you’ve gotten rid of the stuff you could care less about. You have to then start questioning the stuff you love but rarely use anymore! Which logically tells you it’s time to let them go, but emotionally it’s a whole different story… Though it does get easier as you keep going.

Another interesting thing with all this selling is that I treat that $$$ so much differently than other income streams I get. I think because so much thought and time goes into selling each of the items that I don’t want the $$ received to go to waste. Thus, pouring it all into its own separate savings account so I can watch all the effort and money build up! Which becomes a fun motivational game as well – especially now that we have the Craigslist Tracker going.

Anyways, that’s life in Craigslist land :)

Here’s how the whole mission went down in May:

Cell Phones ($112.58) — Still just soaking up the $$$ after switching to Republic Wireless last year! $100+ bones every month without lifting a finger!

Cable/Internet/Phone ($79.72) — Same with this guy here too – a few changes made and we start saving money each month going forward… Though I did just get a calendar item pop up telling me it’s time already to call up and make sure I lock in future discounts so they don’t reset! Which the industry is known to do every few months it seems! Ugh…

Car Insurance ($30.59) — Nothing new in this category either – just banking the $30 each month until it’s time to switch/drop cars off the docket… FrankenCaddy still continues to ride smooth though!

Found Change This Month ($0.59) — We have a new record of found change this month with a whopping 4 pennies, 1 nickel and 2 whole quarters – woo! Most of which found on the same walk and within blocks of each other! People just throwing money out left and right, those dummies…. :)

Ebates “Big Fat” Check ($50.35) — This is the same check I mentioned in our weekly recap the other week where my wife keeps getting back cash back rewards from shopping through Ebates. It takes a while to get a nice chunk like that (usually months), but when it comes it brightens our day :) You mash that up with our Paribus app and you’re on your way to maximized savings yo!

Found $$$ in My Shorts Pocket ($4.00) — I pulled out some shorts from last year, and was greeted with four crisp dollar bills in my pockets :) How I could leave my poor babies behind like that is beyond me, but rest assured they’re now sleeping peacefully with their brothers and sisters in the bank.

Sold Jordans ($50.00) — I finally sold these after 6 months of trying! I guess people didn’t think they were as cool as I did when I first picked them up last year :) As much as I loved the way they looked though (and having my first ever pair of Jordans! Something I wasn’t allowed to have growing up because they cost so much money and my mom was trying to retire early ;)), they just felt uncomfortable as $hit. And I’m not one to rock something if it pains me with every step… So off they go to their new owner who’s promptly going to re-sell them to his own list of clients who collect such things – hah. Maybe he’ll be able to squeeze more money out of them than I did.

Sold My Redskins Jersey ($15.00) — Gasp! This was another item I was holding onto just because I loved it so much but it had literally been 5 years since I last put it on. So as much as I felt like a disgrace selling it as I’m a HUGE ‘Skins fan, I had to let it go to a new home… And what a new home it went to! The guy who picked it up said he’s framing it along next to his other 50+ jerseys where he has a massive NFL shrine going on in his house, haha… along with hundreds of other dolls and collectibles apparently. You meet all types of people on CL!

Sold Speaker Stands ($20.00) — These were my favorites to sell this month because not only where they pretty bulky compared to modern day stands, but I actually got $5.00 more than I was supposed to for them because the buyer didn’t bring the exact amount owed! Which marks the 3rd time this has happened so far and just blows my mind. It’s not like you don’t know what something costs ahead of time! I should stop bringing cash to all the meetups to take advantage of this even more, haha… Two other times they “only had a $20” but fortunately for them I had change. Doofuses…

Sold Old Grill and Accessories ($25.00) — We’ve had this sitting at our house here in VA untouched for two years, and then prior in MD for an additional three years (I’m a disgrace to the male race with grilling). So without even knowing if it worked anymore, I launched it out on CL for $50 to see what would happen. And, well, nothing happened haha… So I continued to drop it until we started getting some nibbles and eventually got it out the door at $25.00. Which was probably a helluva steal (provided that it worked), but BOY what a nice big thing to get rid of! The “would you keep this if you’re moving” trick helped out immensely here, I’ll tell you what. One less thing taking up space!

And that’s May’s money!

I hope you all are finding ways to earn more and cut back too :) It’s kinda annoying at times, but once you get going and watch the money pile up it’s a totally different game. I knew *in theory* that if I started banking all this extra $$ it would go into the thousands later, but SEEING IT in your bank account is a whole other story! With a happy ending too!

So I highly advise separating out this extra money you earn as well so you can watch it grow over time. If you never touch it, it can only go up!

——
PS: You can find all our monthly updates here: Challenge Everything Mission

[Photo credit: www.gotcredit.com]

[This post, Challenge Savings Month #9: $4,485.22, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

If you can believe it, we’re now into month #8 of our 12 month experiment already! And so far we’ve saved a sexy $3,843.70 pretty much out of thin air. Here’s a snapshot of my account:

Some of it took more work (hustling on Craigslist) while others didn’t at all (making a few phone calls), but the moral of the story is quite clear by now: making some minor tweaks  to your lifestyle can do some good damage!

This $4k came from doing the following:

1. Shaving recurring bills and banking the difference
2. Selling all my crap on Craigslist
3. Banking any *extra* money that comes my way (which turns out is a lot! You don’t notice it until you actually start tracking it…)
4. And, most importantly, putting all this $$ into ONE separate savings account. So you can see *exactly* how your efforts – quite literally – pay off, while staying heavily motivated in the process.

And let me point something out real quick: none of this has negatively affected our lifestyle. If anything, it’s improved! I have less stuff in my house taking on dust, I’ve unshackled myself to the iPhone which I was sure would accompany me to the grave, and I now look around my life challenging all sorts of things in general.

I’ve come to the epiphany that I don’t really *need* much to live a nice and satisfying life. I still *want* a lot of stuff, of course – even just dreaming of so – but my mindset has completely transformed and I’m on a mission to challenge “the norm.” Even money guys can be better with their money/lives!

The only thing that’s really been missing these past 7 months is what to do with all this banked up money.  I have a tendency to prolong this thinking process because it’s just SO DAMN FUN to think about (who doesn’t like dreaming up all the ways to use their money??), but now that the newness has worn off I’ve decided to give this “free” money a purpose. And while it’s probably not that glamorous to those non-money people out there, I’m pretty sure you fine folks reading this here will more than appreciate it :)

The place where all this $$$ is going? A maxed out Roth IRA!

Hubba hubba! Haha… As I mentioned last week, I was having trouble deciding on whether or not to even DO this in general as our cash supplies have taken a beating over the past two years, but I was quickly given the kick in the ass by a few of you which got me to actually pull the trigger on this. Sure it may not be the most conservative choice at this given moment of time (less income + wallet munching kids + wife not working yet), but how can I get let my 5+ Maxing Out streak end? I can’t give up now! That’s phony bologna! (I jest a little, but I did actually give this a ton of thought ;))

We now have $3,800 in cash just sitting there, and if I forecast this out over the remaining 5 months it looks like we’ll fall somewhere in the $6,600 with our $550 average going on.

Here’s how much we’ve banked these first 7 months:

• Month #1: $203.96
• Month #2 : $202.62
• Month #3: $802.49
• Month #4: $820.53
• Month #5: $924.15
• Month #6: $488.03
• Month #7: $401.08 (breakdown below)

$6,600 gives us 1 Maxed out Roth @ $5,500 + $1,100 towards the next one! Woo! And since of course I don’t want to break the streak for the 2014 tax year, I’ll be actually pulling my $$ from our other cash reserves and then replenish it with this $$ here once our experiment is over (unless life really gets tricky). This way I’ll still be able to watch this # grow and motivate me while we’re investing in the markets simultaneously. Win-Win all around.

And then of course worst-case I can cash out all my Digit savings if need be also. Or even apply it towards our next IRA maxing out too? I have yet to give that $$ a goal as well… We’ll have to see whether I renew this challenge or not next year, but the cool part is that even if I never sell another thing on Craigslist or bank any extra cash that comes my way, our $200/mo savings just from shaving those 3 initial bills last year will still produce over $2,000 for years to come. No denying that love!

Here’s where we’re at with my Digit savings btw after 3 months:

Anyways, it never sucks trying to figure out what to do with saved up cash, that’s for sure :) Hopefully all of you who are doing this challenge and/or using Digit along with me are having fun thinking about your goals too! I hope you share them with us if you’ve already locked them in!

Speaking of which, I’ve been helping Digit showcase some of their active members on their site (if you recall, I’m now an “advisor” to them), so if you want to get a glimpse into their goals for the money or see how much they’ve saved up too, you can check ’em out here on their blog: blog.digit.co. So far the record is $1,500 and the best profile pic includes a dolphin, haha… This is the stuff I do when I’m not blogging here ;)

Here’s how March’s Challenge Savings broke down:

CELL PHONES: The switch to Republic Wireless continues to save us over $100 every month! The one tweak that started it all!

CABLE/INTERNET/PHONE: Downgrading some stations and cleaning up our account here also pays dividends to the tune of $80’ish every month. At one point we had considered cutting out the whole thing, but it turns out we actually enjoy watching TV (*gasp*) and keeping internet only would still cost us about $70 or so anyways. We’re okay not taking frugality to the extreme :)

CAR INSURANCE: A solid $30/mo in savings just from a single phone call in the fall of last year! Even if you don’t think you can save any more, it’s always worth 15 minutes to double check – especially if it’s been a while since you last did so.

Here’s what a fellow reader shared with me recently:

“Just got off the phone with my insurance agent and knocked $30 a month off my rate thanks to this article. I had all of your notes there in front of me and we were able to cut the mileage driven, raise the deductible, and reduce the medical coverage to save some cash! Getting ready to cut the cable cord this week as well” – Barry

CHANGE FINDINGS! I know this is going to sound silly, but it totally made my day to find FIVE pennies all in one walk! It usually takes me a month to find that many in the Summer, haha… And then to come across a dime a few days later – which is like a gold mine in comparison! – made my week even sweeter. I swear it really is the little things in life :)

SOLD VINTAGE RAZORS: This was the only thing we sold last month :( But it’s totally my fault – I’ve gotten lazy searching for better stuff to hawk. I keep trying to get rid of stuff that should probably be donated or trashed just because they’re in eye sight, haha… My mission for April is to start going through more of my closets and basement containers looking for more valuable/cool stuff to get rid of. Kinda like my killer dragon from last month!

Anyways, here’s a pic of the old school razors I sold… I picked them up a few years ago for around $1 a piece I wanna say, with the intention of selling them individually on eBay, but unfortunately I never got around to it. And considering the slew of offers I got from all around the country when I listed these bad boys up, I definitely priced them too low! (I also learned that people not only collect these, but they USE them to shave with still! Apparently they give you a much smoother cut and are incredibly cheaper than using today’s gadgets)

TAX REFUND: This was the closest to breaking even I’ve ever come before. Usually I owe thousands of dollars or *I’m* owed thousands of dollars, but it’s amazing how much better you get when you keep your accountant informed of these things ;) Surprises are hardly any fun, and especially when it involves taxes. But this $150 I’ll gladly accept any day – woot woot.

All this to say little action items add up over time. I’d literally have $3,800 less right now if I kept things status quo and didn’t get off my a$$! So I (again) strongly urge you to pay attention to everything around you and see if your money’s truly going towards what’s important in your life too. And even if it is, there’s no harm in seeing if there’s an alternative that gives you the same quality of life but saves you $$ in the process.

I’ll leave you new readers out there another message from a fellow Challenger:

“Just wanted to let you know I made $1800 this year on a snow day (I’m a teacher) by making 4 phone calls.  Cut $220 a year off my car insurance, $55/month off my cell phone bill, and $49 off my cable/internet per month.  I also “found” $320 in cash rewards by calling my credit card company and asking them to mail me the rewards check. Thanks for your motivating posts/emails-  I’m tackling clutter and Craigslist, next.”  – Nicole

You can follow along with this experiment here: Challenge Everything Series, as well as read about other rocks stars sharing their experiences too. Remember – the lower you get your expenses, the less you need to work later on! Hustle hustle, baby!

——-
PS: This Roth money, just like all other investment $$, will be going straight into my VTSAX index fund w/ Vanguard as well. Keeping things nice and simple!

[Googly money by katerha]

[This post, What I’m Doing With All My “Challenge” Savings, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]