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| Not everyone orders 60 shots, but 30 doubles per month isn't unreasonable. |
I've been trying to keep it on the cheap, but this lifestyle has its challenges. I'll say the first and foremost is probably being a little too loud on other peoples' spending. I've got to keep it to advocating the lifestyle and trying not to be too judgmental. A few of the people around me work 2 jobs, some even make double what I do, and others live with either roommates or parents. Despite the larger cashflow, I know they live paycheck to paycheck, driving everywhere, paying for coffee, rarely cooking at home, and wearing the big name brands. I
should just say "Must be nice," and carry on investing $200-400 per month.
But boy is it hard to bite my tongue knowing that the first hour of their shift is what pays for those two Starbucks drinks that start and end their days. However, just because I don't spend recklessly doesn't mean I don't get suckered every once in a while.
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| Don't pretend you didn't know this picture was coming... |
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Goodwill had a 1/2 price green tag sale, so this
bad boy was $3.50! |
Let me start by saying I moved to a new apartment! My income flies so close to the federal poverty level that I'm able to get my rent subsidized so that it equates only 50% of my salary.
I tapped my network of friends to get the whole apartment furnished for about $150. $100 of that went to a really nice old leather couch, and the rest went to filling the gas tank of a friend who picked up a table, armchair, bookshelf, dresser and tv stand from an estate giveaway.
Then, after work, I walked a mile to the local thrift store, which made utensils and appliances fairly painless to acquire.
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| Yikes. This is what you get when you don't go with the major competitors. |
I ran into my first frugal trap with internet hardware at the thrift store. At $6 each, I cycled through 3 routers and 2 cable modems before saying 'Screw it," and buying new. This sucks because I lost my receipt for 2 of those, losing $14 in the process. Turns out, a new modem and router were $60, which is a necessary sacrifice for the faster speed of the latest peripherals. The biggest waste I had was two internet providers for the first month living here.
I thought I'd fight the power by choosing the "local" internet provider called Frontier, who recently became independent from Verizon. They offered a $35 per month service, which proved to be slow as molasses diarrhea on a snowy hillock. It tested at 1.5Mbps, which meant laggy games and even Youtube and Amazon Prime Video were choppy. The very next morning, I cached in my moral chips and signed up for the Comcast Xfinity, the devil in the suit. Very unfrugally I had two internet connections for a month, and wasted the $35, PLUS the setup fees.
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| Ahh, much better. I wish there were another way... |
I'm also learning the value of measure twice, order once. My bike was in need of a new rear wheel and brake set. The process has been frustrating. I'll get a new part, start working on the bike, only to learn that I need to order a new part. Amazon has been great in minimizing my wait, but
the project that should have been an afternoon has been stretched out because I've had to return a few things because I didn't measure before ordering. For returns, I usually at least lose the cost of shipping, and my friends didn't have a few of the tools I needed, which lead to an unplanned $30 that won't make it into investments this month.
I leave you all with a picture of my fabulous living room!
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| Left to Right: dope couch - $100, heavy coffee table w/ drawer, mangy red armchair, glass-shelf tv stand - ALL FREE. |
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