Quit Smoking (1 week results)

Ok, as some of you know I started studying my home finances and one of the big bottlenecks I found was smoking.  I quit the next day.

What you may not know is that I started smoking at 11. By the time I was 14 I was at a pack a day.  I am currently 38. I truly do not remember what it is like not to have ever smoked.

It has been 7 days since I quit smoking!! I did it cold turkey and just dealt with it!! Over 38 hours up straight and 2 days worked before I could go to sleep the first time.

Folks, you can do this if you need to. You just have to make it threw the first few days and deal with the anxiety. You also have to get your mind set that this is what you are going to do. No questions asked.

I am pleased to announce that I have already noticed an increase in my wallet. Next week I will start to calculate what I do with my cash flow increase and see where it ends up.

Thanks for checking in!!

GWprepper

RV travel trailer living maybe?

I checked into RV living. This could actually be a great way to save money.  I live by myself so it very easily could be an option.

Based off of preliminary numbers I could easily save over $200 a month. That isn't counting lowering my electric bill and stuff.

So, here are the possible numbers so far...

Base cash flow after all bills and food is $16. Cut out smoking up to $91 cash flow. RV living?  Potential to take thar number well over $300 per month.

Guess what, it takes money to make money...possibly save that $300 a month for about 6 months and have a down payment for a small piece of land. Get the land setup for the RV...money saved could really grow at this point and my money would be going towards my future instead of lining someone else's pockets.

Maybe get the RV and land paid off quickly? Possibly start building a pay as I go home? When I get done I wouldn't owe anything and I would have something great to pass on to my kids.

Just thinking out loud.

Cutting food budget expenses

I have been trying to streamline my food budget. One thing that keeps popping up is buying in bulk. The only problem I have with this is having to eat a lot of the same thing all the time.

I guess that the whole point of this blog is to reduce monthly expenses and increase cash flow, so I am going to do it.

Over the next few weeks I will describe what I am doing and let you all know my results.

Hospital offering 50% payoff?

In my monthly bills I have to budget $25 for a surgury I had last year. I owe $1200.

I received a letter in the mail today from the hospital. It tells me that I have been selected to have an opportunity to settle my bill for $600 if I do it in the next 30 days.

$25 doesn't seem like a lot, but when you think about where I started with $16 a month left over it is a pretty good chunk.

If I can figure out how to pay it I will effectively increase my cash flow to $116 extra a month total. $16 originally,  $75 for not smoking, $25 potentially for hospital bill.

I will keep everyone posted on how this works out.

Also, if you have medical bills it might be worth contacting to them to see if they offer an early payout.

Quit smoking update

Well, my home finance blog has temperarily become a quit smoking blog LOL.

I cold Turkey quit 3 or 4 days ago. It has been a nightmare.  Horrible sleeping issues.  But I must confess...not going to the store to buy cigarettes is very fulfilling. It will be nice to start adding that extra money into my finances.

The First step into increasing cash flow... obvious choice!!

I have decided to quit smoking. Based off of my end of the month cash flow surplus of $16 this seems like the most obvious of choices initially.

I calculate that I spend $75 a month on buying cigarettes  Dropping this bad habit will increase my end of month cash surplus by over 4 times!!

Total end of month cash flow = $91

How do single people survive today's expectations dictated by society?

I have an analytic personality and I am always calculating everything whether I realize it or not. I pay my bills every month ahead of time and don't have any loans or credit cards. I own my vehicle. I know money is tight and every purchase has to be precisely calculated. Tonight, I put everything into a spreadsheet just to see how tight things really are. After calculations I found that I have $16 left at the end of every month to do whatever I want with. My question is how do single people make it if they have a car payment or credit card bills? It is beyond me. It seems to me that today's expectations are to have a duel income household. If I had someone living with me their entire paycheck basically would be free. So it looks like to me that we are being forced into having 2 jobs, spouses, roommates, partners, or whatever just to have any kind of lifestyle that requires money...such as hobbies, recreation, trips, socializing, or anything to have fun. The problem with 2 jobs is that you don't have any time to spend with kids if you have them. I am going to use my analytic mind over the next few months to see if I can beat these expectations and increase cash flow. I personally think that an individual, to be fulfilled, needs $200-$400 a month to do whatever they want with. If you have any ideas post them below. I would be glad to take them into consideration.