Libertus journey to financial freedom!

Libertus

Welcome to my diary!

I am happy to tell you that in the last year, I have made great progress in almost all areas of my life (and this was really necessary, because I wasn't doing so well before that); my fitness level and health, my career, my character and also my finance. Moreover, I have learnt a lot about myself and I have gotten a grip on my life; basically, I know much more about how to take good care of myself and how I can effectively improve myself and reach my goals. That said, there is still a lot of work to do (there is always a lot of work to do ). Further improving my finances has shifted to the top of my list now. I have some debts to repay, and now that I have started a serious career, I am able to do so. However, in order to achieve it, I will need to make some changes. I either have to increase my income or decrease my expenses (or both). Increasing my income is certainly a possibility on the medium to long term, but it's not a worthwhile goal to pursue on the short term, because I am still early in my career and it's not yet time to ask for a raise or to start a side business (though I will come back to that later). If I want to save more money on the short term, this can easily be achieved if I reduce my expenses. I waste a lot of money on all sorts of things, most importantly: food and drinks. In the last months, I have already cut out some of them (smoking and alcohol), but there are still a lot of opportunities left.

Here is a list of some of my largest money wasters:
1. Coffee & snacks at coffeehouses. I estimate that I spend 100-200 euros per month on that.
2. Packaged meals at supermarkets & buying meals at restaurants. I don't cook that often (I find it difficult to motivate myself to cook for just myself). Potential savings: 50-100 euros per month.
3. Luxury foods at supermarket. If I would pay a bit more attention to price at the supermarket, and if I were to go to the regular market or a cheaper market more often, I could save another 50-100 euros per month.
4. Prepared sandwiches at lunch. I think I could save about 50-100 euros per month if I were to prepare my own lunch.
5. Monthly interest for being in the red: 15 euros. Totally unnecessary expense.
6. I keep buying new books, even though I don't read most of them (though I want to, because I find most of them interesting). I'd better start reading my books and wait (6-12 months) for buying new ones. Potential savings: 25 euros per month.
7. Phone bill: in a few months I can get a new phone bill, enabling me to save 10 euros per month.
8. Random expenses, like cables, office supplies, etc. I could save another 50 euros per month on these if I were to pay attention to the price and refrain from buying some of these.

Based on this list, I expect to be able to save 350-600 euros per month. I barely saved 600 euros in the last 3 months, but I estimate that I can save 600-1200 euros per month if I would start making these savings (and some others that I have not mentioned).

So, this is what I will do:
Mission 1: cut out the listed unnecessary expenses
I will start cutting them all out at the same time in the form of a 30-day challenge, but if I feel it's too challenging, I will make a conscious decision to let go one or a few for them (for the time being).
A second part of this challenge is not to make any big expenses this month. Last month I bought a 300 euro display, which is very useful at work, but I find myself planning to buy other things as well, and I should not do this, especially because I have a debt at the bank. If I live very cheaply, I could potentially repay that debt in a month, and certainly in two months, a goal that is really worth the effort!

I will post updates on how it is going. If I spend any money on the things I listed, I will share it. If I discover further money-wasters that did not make the list (but are also important), I will discuss them, and I may add them to my mission. I will also share it when I encounter difficulties, which will certainly happen, we all know that changing habits is not easy. So, while cutting out all of these expensive luxury products, I will look for cheaper alternatives that are just as fulfilling. For example, I can buy some good coffee beans and make my own coffee at home, instead of getting it at a coffeehouse.

After completing this mission, I will set new missions to further improve my financial situation. I expect the next mission to be tracking my income and expenses, and when that is a solid habit I may sell some items and making some further reductions to my expenses.

I am open to advice and feedback, so feel free to share it! You are also welcome to join if you like, i will support you!

Libertus

Quick update, I just wanted to share my first (minor) victory:

I was at the supermarket, and I was very consciously trying to buy just what I needed, paying attention to the price as well. I am quite content. I feel silly sharing this, it's not like this is a big deal, but I think it's useful to celebrate early victories.

Now let's try to keep doing this for a week.

purplefran

Hi and well done on your saving money start. I also get satisfaction from saving money in the supermarket etc. I think it is easy to do the big things - switch energy supplier, mobile phone contract, cancel Sky etc but it is the smaller things which take more thought and prove that we are back in control. Good luck xxx