Stretching an Up-and-Coming Budget

Hello pirates!

Join today to Dungeon Sea Online world! with alot of pirates!

Website: http://www.dungeonsea.com

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0eKObJQl6w&feature=related

Hope to see you online. and please if you enter i reccomend you to join Black Sea! =]

Cantteats of AL 12:11PM August 09, 2009

I found that one of the best ways to limit my spending was to give myself a cash allowance, and use only that for my expenses every week. When you actually part with the money, it makes spending that much harder. Paying everything in cash, except those automatic payments for my cell phone and netflix, brought my spending in line with my goals. Any cash leftover at the end of the week went into my piggy bank for a rainy day.

Veronica of NY 6:51PM April 24, 2008

Thanks to all who are contributing to this forum. I realize my spending may seem curious, so I encourage you to visit my blog where I give further background on my spending abilities. There's a post called "Why I Won't Apologize for $10 Hangers" at www.farnoosh.tv

Farnoosh Torabi of 2:07PM April 24, 2008

I think most of my money-saving strategies are big, not little, but I'll share them anyway.

I chose an apartment near my workplace, so my daily commute is - literally - a walk in the park. This saves me not only money, but also time and stress.

I don't have a car. I considered joining a car-sharing club, but I came to the conclusion that I would never use it. Public transportation is so much cheaper and goes just about everywhere that's worth going.

Almost everything I eat I cook myself. Breakfast is oatmeal from scratch with raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar - this takes no more time to make than it would take to boil water for the instant stuff. I always bring my lunch to work, unless my employer's paying for a catered lunch or a restaurant lunch. Every Sunday I do a week's worth of cooking in advance so that I'm not tempted (at least, not very often) to resort to expensive convenience foods when I come home tired from work. I enjoy a good restaurant meal now and then, but it's a treat, not a staple.

I don't care much about keeping up with trends in clothing. I prefer the classic "preppy" type look, with corduroys and khakis and such, that I can wear from year to year. My office is casual so I can wear these things to work. Almost all of my clothes were bought at clearance sales.

I have cheap tastes in entertainment. One of my favorite things to do, especially now that the weather is nice, is go for a long walk through an interesting or beautiful neighborhood. Other fun and free things I like to do are playing my guitar (by myself or with friends), cooking, seeking out new exotic ingredients to cook with, and window shopping. When I go out for the day I always bring some water and a snack with me so that I'm not at the mercy of the vendors wherever I happen to be when I get thirsty.

Sure, some of these involve sacrifices in lifestyle. But by sacrificing the things that aren't important to me, I have plenty of money for the things that are. I buy all my vegetables from farmers markets (a little more expensive than the supermarket, but they taste so much better), I have dozens of cookbooks and thousands of MP3s, I'm mildly addicted to shopping for gourmet tea leaves online, and I've been to England five times in the last year and a half (I used to live there, and I miss it). Plus, I hope to buy a nice condo someday, and I'll be in a great position to do that just as soon as the bubble deflates.

Johanna of MD 12:49PM April 24, 2008