Comments on: Our secret to success: Part One: Spending less than we earn

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:41:40 +0000

Hey, way to go on the progress!!

By: so

so — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:10:31 +0000

You remind me of my husband. When we were married, he had about 25,000 in debt. (credit card mostly and student loan). It was tough since Im more frugal and I like to prevent for the future. We were about to break up too because an impulsive purchase (an i pod in 2004). But we are ok now!. It was hard though

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:03:11 +0000

A budget for planned expenditures will be very useful in terms of supporting us in cash crunch situation. Budgeting help us to find out unnecessary expenses and help us to minimize it!

By: Clever Dude

Clever Dude — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:43:47 +0000

@Kristy, you have a point about side income. In fact, I don’t count the income from my websites in our budget as a line-item, but I do add it into the running total so I know how much extra I have for debt paydown. It’s like a surprise each month!

By: Alan @ Saving For Serenity

Alan @ Saving For Serenity — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:02:23 +0000

It’s always cool to hear actual stories from people’s lives. It’s one thing to talk about spending more than you make in a theoretical fashion, its another to actually live it.

It’s encouraging to hear that you were able to pay off $55k of your debt “out of the starting gate”. I am in a similar position, but I am at the beginning of my journey. Thanks for the motivation to keep on keeping on!

By: moneymonk

moneymonk — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:58:49 +0000

Nice

By: Kristy @ Master Your Card

Kristy @ Master Your Card — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:50:47 +0000

I struggled with this concept for many years as well. Off the cuff, you think this is easy. But living it is a whole other ballgame. What I discovered of myself and had to change was slightly different though.

For a period of time, I was working a full-time job and had two or three small side gigs, all of which was bringing in quite a bit of income. I was living within my means, but I’d expanded my budget a little to take in account the income I was bringing in, which I believe to be a mistake. First of all, the side gigs were freelance writing – which comes and goes and is never really guaranteed. Secondly, I was running myself ragged. So, my expenses were now more because I’d allowed myself to go beyond the full-time job income, but there was the potential to also lose that side income (either from the client’s end or my own). So, I had to re-evaluate my spending patterns and get back to the level I was with just the full-time job. The extra income is nice and it can fund my emergency fund and travel fund, but I don’t think it’s always a good idea to expand your budget on side jobs. Some may disagree, but that was just my take on it.