FEBRUARY: saving money, winning time

The Main Challenge of February according to the Plan is to save money by not spending more than 5 euros (i.e. about 6,58 USD) a day – this means my main goal for February is them same it has been for the last weeks of January. You can follow my achievements so far here and here, and also from those posts you can find more details about how I’m living my challenge.

My Sub-Challenge from January 30 to February 12 is concerned with my overuse of the computer and the internet, whereas the challenge is that I use the computer (including the internet) every day for fun for a maximum of 1,5 h only. What does this mean?

This means that in addition to important everyday computer-use (e.g. reading e-mail, studying, reading news, blogging) I’m allowed to use the computer for fun only for a maximum of 1,5 hours a day. “For fun” equals entertaining TV-shows, computer games, YouTube and Facebook and Twitter and any other social media application. I’m also limiting my use of the Google Reader and the constant reading-scanning of other people’s blogs. I feel I need to limit my life in the virtual world and stop procrastinating on my real life outside the computer.

Have you noticed that you spend too much time scanning other people’s Facebook statuses, their newest tweets or blogposts, watching comedy shows or playing computer games while your real life is on hold, whether it’s got something to do with school, work, your family, friends or anything else that needs your real attention? Share your thoughts – what have you done about it?

THE SECOND WEEK: getting used to the challenges

The second week of my challenge – January 23 to January 29 – has been… less enthusiastic. I don’t feel like giving up, but since living with 5 euros a day is rather difficult, it is emotionally tiring at times. Still – I shall continue. Partly because I know I don’t have another option in my near future – I simply won’t have enough money to spend, my daily budget will be even smaller. So it is a good possibility to save some extra money for the difficult times, and also get a real feel of a small daily budget – this will help me make better choices in the future.

My weekly spending has been 38,64 euros, i.e. the average daily spending has been 5,52 euros. Yes – my daily and weekly budget have been exceeded. This week I had some unexpected spendings, since I had to attend a funeral of a close relative – flowers are not cheap, I tell you. Actually – most of my money has gone on flowers this week, because I also had to make my contribution to some birthday-bouquets at work.

My spending this week:
MON: € 10,83 ($ 14,25)
TUE: € 0,00 ($ 0,00)
WEN: € 0,85 ($ 1,19)
THU: € 5,12 ($ 6,74) This was all on office flowers.
FRI: € 0,84 ($ 1,11)
SAT: € 0,00 ($ 0,00)
SUN: € 21,00 ($ 27,64) This was all on funeral flowers.
TOTAL: € 38,64 ($ 50,93)
MAX:    € 35,00 ($ 46,06)

As you can see, I have spent over 26 euros on flowers this week. It is something that has been bothering me the past few days – not so much the flowers I had to get for the funeral, but the flowers I had to fund at the office. How is the flower-policy arranged at your office? Is it bothering you, too, or are you okay with it? Why?

My sub-challenge consisted some heavy studying and that, I can honestly confess, went very well. Partly because I had exams knocking at my door, I studied a lot more than just 2 hours a day, but I believe a big initiator of my studying was indeed this goal – the goal to study at least a bit every day.

Beginning from Monday, January 30, I’m back at school almost every day – this requires continuous studying every day, every week. How do you stay motivated at school? Or at work?

THE FIRST WEEK: I have succeeded

How have I done on my challenges the past 7 days?

My weekly spending has been 25,67 euros, i.e. the average daily spending has been 3,67 euros. It is difficult to actually try to spend (less than) 5 euros every day (as you can see from the table below), so I think if you set a weekly budget of 35 euros (i.e. about 45 USD) and try to take 5 euros a day as a “soft marker”, this would be more rational and also easier to do.

My spending this week:
MON: € 3,39 ($ 4,37)
TUE: € 0,00 ($ 0,00)
WEN: € 7,87 ($ 10,15)
THU: € 2,89 ($ 3,73)
FRI: € 7,37 ($ 9,51)
SAT: € 4,15 ($ 5,35)
SUN: € 0,00 ($ 0,00)
TOTAL: € 25,67 ($ 33,12)
MAX:    € 35,00 ($ 45,16)

As you can see, some days I manage not to spend money at all: this usually means I don’t even go near any store, I brown-bag my lunch to work, and eat leftovers for supper. And, although it isn’t Sunday yet, I usually don’t go shopping on Sundays anyway, so I registered it as a zero-day already in advance. If I do manage to find my way to a shop tomorrow, I still have some extra money to spend this week…

On to studying: I have also held on tight of my challenges – I have been studying over 2 hours, I’d say even at least 4 hours every day. So I think I’ve been very successful with this sub-challenge. I also have studying scheduled for tomorrow, so I think this week has been a success. But if I manage to break tomorrow and not study AT ALL, I will let you know…

How much are you spending daily? Weekly?

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JANUARY: saving and studying

The Main Challenge of January (and February) is to save money by not spending more than 5 euros (i.e. about 6,45 USD) a day. Please note that this does not count for monthly loan-repayments, communal expenses, internet or mobile bills and so on. These payments and bills are already deducted from my monthly earnings, leaving me with the rest of it, which I will try to save as much as I can.

Why do I want to save money at all and in a pretty drastic way? I’m planning a huge career change this year and I need as much extra money as I can actually save – already beginning from March 2012 I will earn a lot less than I usually do, and beginning from June 2012 I might not have a monthly income at all. So saving is something I really need (and want) to do.

You might need to save money for a totally different reason, and in a totally different way. Maybe you’re depending on credit cards too much? Maybe you’re communal bills are something that need to be reviewed? Maybe you’re making monthly payments to a sports club you haven’t even gone to the last 6 months? Maybe you’re spending too much money on clothes, or your car, or your pets? Think about that… Are you living above your actual life standard? Have you been postponing some bigger projects because you think you don’t have enough money to do it?

Reviewing your spendings, understanding where your money is (actually) going, might make things a lot clearer – you might end up with finding a way to save some money, too, and finally do what you thought you could never afford doing.

My Sub-Challenge for the last 2 weeks of January is concerned with studying. I have 3 exams in the end of January and since I’ve been postponing studying for the 2 first weeks of the month, I really need to get myself together, to be able to finish this semester with good enough grades. For this, I’ve set myself a goal to study for at least 2 hours every day.

Do you have any important deadlines in the near future? Have you been postponing something important, procrastinating on a work project or – for example – cleaning the attic. By dividing this into bite-size pieces, the chances that you will actually get this thing done and out of your way, are far more greater than if you just keep postponing it for another week or two.

Please share – what could be your main challenge and sub challenge the rest of January, and why not even “get carried away” all the way to February?