January, 2009. So this will be the year of living frugally. I've been working at the firm for two and a half years now and have only $10k to show for it, especially now that that bottom is dropping out of the real estate market and the apt isn't holding its value.
I've pretty much failed every time I have tried to save money, but hopefully I will be more successful this year. Last year the goal was not to be a bitch to people I didn't know (or to generally be more open to new people) and I think I am actually a more open person now (whether or not that's a good thing is another question). So maybe themes work better than goals. So the year of living frugally.
Ian says to set concrete goals and as much as I hate it when people give me advice, he is probably right. Concrete goals, manageable goals. Maybe I can actually stick to this one.
First, every time I take out $200 from the ATM, I am going to save $100. This is only save about $400 a month, but its better than spending that. Goal number two is to save $1,000 from the second paycheck of the month. The goal depends on keeping the credit card bill down. Its now at $5,000-ish. If we get our raise, I should be able to save $1,500 a month.
As of today, I have put half of the first ATM pull into savings. Woo hoo.
Of course, this also means that I can't shop for clothes like I have done in the past. Le sigh. That will probably be the hardest part - keeping my expenditures down when I have that extra cash lying around. So another goal should be to keep the money out of my bofa checking and savings account where I can get to it quickly.
