Just completed the best mod ever

well . . . . that may be the destination. there's a reason it's called Whole Paycheck.

 

Yeah their stock would take a big hit if I quit eating them.

 

Congrats on your discipline. My wife and I years ago learned to let a credit card be our checking account and let the bill be the check register, so to speak. As such, we only cut the one check at the end of the month for the card balance. In this way those financial blood suckers do the work and yet offer me at least 1% cash back rewards and not make so much as a penny off of us. 22 years of making money off those leaches. And the sweetest reward is screwing them for a change. But it's all about discipline. Ok, off my financial soap box. Again, good job!

 

1+

 

Whole foods is a fancy pants rip off.

You can get great quality foods for way cheaper, but you may not have 'pre-made' options or pretty stores.

 

I like pretty stores. And the produce is awesome!

 

We shop at costco, Walmart, Trader Joes and Grocery outlet. We don't eat junk like Ramen or Frozen dinners. We tend to buy a lot things on sale.


One tip is to just buy big portions and freeze. However, the biggest key to spending less on Food is planning and cooking everything yourself. We cook three meals everyday. I meal prep for the week.

Many times, I will just eat brocoli and Chicken/steak for lunch because I don't like to eat so many carbs.

Also, our kids are used to eating adult foods, so we don't buy them kids foods to eat separately. Last night, my four year-old and 2-year old ate salmon and roasted brocoli. We cooked three pieces of salmon for the whole family.

 

Coming here to Tacoma world and seeing all these cool builds and products was the hardest part about this!

 

I'm more fascinated about how you managed to spend $400 on groceries for a family of 5...we spend about $400 alone on diapers and food for my baby, haha

Edit: Congrats OP on being debt free, I live my life on the other end of the spectrum, borrowing money from banks to invest, etc and at 0.9% and 1.9% interest on our cars i have no problems paying that interest if thats 60k i can invest elsewhere.

Plan is to be debt free and retired by 55. I have 25 years.

 

$200K? How?

 

Just consolidated & refinanced my $265K in student loans. only $3800/month for next 7 years until debt free...

 

How does one get started with this Dave Ramsey stuff?

 

Its easy, basic principles are: be as humanly frugal as possible, no credit cards--only cash so you can be aware of what you are spending

 

We use credit cards, but have no debt. We pay it off in full every month. Our problem is not debt, it’s just spending too much!

 

I 100% know what you mean. My wife and I make great money and are able to stock away into a 529, max 401k, but we still save and go on vacation twice a year but fuck man, money goes quick!

 

Dang, please tell me you are a physician fresh out of school

 

Is that every dollar app worth the time?

In other words, how can save money elsewhere to pay for my go GoFastCamper I just ordered. Lol.

 

I automatically stock money away each week into an online savings account which earns 2.5%. This way I never see it and when the time comes you'll be pleasantly surprised whats in there

 

Wife and I need to look into this Dave Ramsey thing it seems. She is frugal as hell and never had any real debt except her car, I was terrible at money years ago but at least got myself out of debt except for vehicles by the time we got married two years ago. Debt isn't my problem these days it's the spending. Totally guilty of Amazon impulse buying and learned to add most things to the "save for later" section and let it sit for a few weeks before I buy. I am really bad about eating out and from time to time catch myself getting more than just coffee in the morning. It usually isn't a problem but I have been so swamped with schoolwork the last 6 months that I have not been able to work any overtime like I use to do to make up for the spending. Being paid weekly instead of bi-weekly isn't a great way to learn self control and I have 10 years of bad habit with this job.

At least I am throwing 13% at my 401k and the wife and I both max out our IRA's. But retirement savings doesn't help with next week/month/year.

 

2.5% of each paycheck (and matched by my employer) goes into retirement. But every other dollar gets spent! Haha.