The saving idea called, “challenge everything” by J. Money. It is his new mentality of challenging the “norm” and getting his expenses as low as possible without sacrificing his quality of life. For example, every month he would focus on a new bill or expense that has been status quo for years – which helped to determine what’s truly important now in his life. Things like cable, cell phones, cars, insurance, etc.
He got his idea from this clip from a friend’s blog post:
“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.”
That last line stopped him in his tracks: “it permanently decreases the amount you’ll need every month for the rest of your life.” This hit him hard for personal reasoning so he was inspired to save more and as fast as he could.
His Total [Monthly] Savings since Starting This Challenge:
· Cell Phones: $112.58
· Cable/Internet/Phone: $80.00’ish
· Car Insurance: $30.59
· TOTAL: $223.17
He opened up a new separate savings account that allowed him to track it all over the next 12 months, along with other “extra” money I find/earn over time.
Here were his monthly balances:
· Month #1 balance: $203.96
· Month #2 balance: $406.60
· Month #3 balance: $1,209.16
· Month #4 balance: $2,029.81
· Month #5 balance: $2,954.14
· Month #6 balance: $3,442.39
· Month #7 balance: $3,843.70
· Month #8 balance: $4,097.22
· Month #9 balance: $4,485.22
· Month #10 balance: $4,738.13
· Month #11 balance: $4,990.84
· Month #12 balance: $5,484.07
UPDATE: MISSION COMPLETE!!!
He ended up saving over $5,000 saved in one year. Here is a diagram of the saving experience:
Critique
Personally, I feel like this is a good idea for saving money quick and conveniently. I believe this because, it feels like this guy earned a lot of his money by doing almost nothing but ridding himself of finances that he didn’t need. It also seems like it wouldn’t be that hard to cut back on things if I just slowed down and payed more attention to what I spend my money on. Finally, I feel as though it would be a lot easier than I may think because there are probably a lot of expenses I could cut back on easily without losing anything valuable. Like cutting the data from my phone bill. I rarely need it as I have school and home Wi-Fi. Come to think of it, it is essentially pointless for me to have it. In conclusion, I feel this saving idea is a smart, adaptable and convenient way that I, personally, could use.http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/challenge-everything/
