Somethings Gotta Give

In order to meet my goal of saving $10,000 in 6 months somethings gotta give.

April is our first month of living to a budget and so far we're doing pretty good. This is our experimental month, we're seeing how much we spend and where we spend it. So far the results are good.

Our best area so far is electricity. We have a "pay as you go" electricity box. You top up your card at the post office with however much money you want, when you get home you stick the card in the box and that's it. This is very useful for budgeting purposes, as we can see how much electricity we are using and how fast the money goes.

We topped up £10 on the 29Th of March and today we have £5 left! This is great ,2 weeks of electricity for £10. At this rate our electricity costs per month should be somewhere around £20 instead of the budgeted £40! A savings of £20 a month!

The majority of thanks needs to go to my girlfriend, she does everything she can to conserve electricity, I'm sure her list of todo's will make it up here at one point or another.

More on point with today's topic is giving something up to reach your goals. In this case I am giving up driving my car to work everyday and instead riding my bike. I live 3 miles from my job, it's a disgrace to the environment and to my bank account to drive there everyday, especially now that winter is behind us. The savings to our fuel budget will be great! Currently I have £40/month allocated to fuel. To fill my tank it takes £25, usually i need to refuel twice a month. By cutting out my work commute I should be able to nix one full refuel dropping the monthly cost to £25!

The point is we need to give and give and give to later receive. Cutting out a comfort like a car won't kill me, in fact it will make me healthier. And I'll be saving money at the same time. Sounds good to me.