Yea I don’t disagree. Our average retirement savings rate was 8% and discretionary savings was about 3%. It’s our goal this year to add another 5% there, which shouldn’t be hard.

Funny I started these since Covid! Probably out of boredom.

We have two cats, both are insured. One had an overnight ER visit in June. One requires daily meds. We have to get a special food for urinary health too. And we use Rover to watch our cats while we are away - almost monthly.

After typing that out I’m actually pretty happy with $3.9K for the year.

Fair point, I wonder where they live though. I’ve only ever lived in east coast cities so Im used to the mark up.

I could probably cut back even more than that. But I’ll notice the difference on anything over 10%. It would mean less food, or more trips to budget grocery stores, or conscious decisions to dine out less or avoid nicer restaurants, and sometimes saying no to social gatherings.

While I’m aware we overspend on food and beverage - It doesn’t bother me all that much. I see it as an investment in good memories. We’re rarely eating fast food, instead we’re arranging plans with friends to try new restaurants and bars. Heading into my thirties, I’m also aware that these gatherings will be less and less frequent as we all start making families.

Tomorrow is never certain so personally, I try to balance out how much I’m saving for the future with how much I’m investing in todays experiences (and future memories).

All that to say, I’m going to stick with a 5% reduction goal because I love food, drink, and good company 😅

Thank you!

That’s awesome! I agree Aldi is great for staples but IMO needs supplementing. We have a Trader Joe’s next to our Aldi and we like to hit both when we decide to take the drive. A great combo that happens to be owned by the same company!

Think I’ll add to my 2023 goals to get back in the habit of doing that

That’s impressive!

Gotcha, well done! We do buy a lot of meat and while we try to go to Aldi, it isn’t the most convenient option for us compared to some overpriced grocery stores. I’m thinking if I build Aldi into our routine more, I could cut back a good amount.

Just curious, is that a guess? If I were to guess I would probably think the same but am always surprised to see how things actually build up.

I hear you because I was in your boat only a few years ago. I had 4 roommates in a decent apartment in a major city and paid less than $10k that year in rent. My lifestyle at the time was a lot simpler so I made $40k work quite well.

Now that I make more than double that, I can tell you one thing - I feel exactly the same, honestly I reminisce on those days quite often. 40k was all I “needed”. What mattered more was being surrounded by good people.

Tell me about it lol. It is partially due to us moving to a new city last year and wanting to experience the local fare.

That said though, our goal this year is to cut back 5% on food and allocate that to savings.

Source: Me

Tools: SankeyMATIC and Adobe Illustrator

Note: “Food” includes booze (as if that makes $2k/month justifiable somehow 😅)