Frugality Breakthrough

I sat down a couple of days ago to mull my financial situation and discovered I was fastly driving myself into bankruptcy. Yes, I have a budget, and yes, I stick to it. But I haven't been forecasting future payables so well ... things like first and last month's rent, moving to toronto, ridiculously expensive CA courses, and of course all those trips has really added up. So I've entered what really feels like a new age. Paleozoic > Mesozoic > Cenozoic > FRUGALITY. I've decided to try and not spend any money (beyond bills and groceries). Obviously this isn't completely achievable, but I figure if this is the goal then I'll still be doing pretty well, even considering the occasional take out or whatnot. I went to the mall today to buy 4 gifts for some up-coming birthdays and managed to spend 2 hours in Masonville and 30 mins in Futureshop without purchasing anything other than said gifts, of which I only exceeded my "gift" budget by $10 or so.

I even considered getting rid of my cell phone, but decided that would be slightly too sketchy as I don't even have a land line. What if someone important (like Deloitte or FedEx needs to reach me), or what if I have to fill out some kind of application where phone number is one of those starred fields? So I decided to just be really careful about my minutes so I don't get any extra charges.

I decided I pretty much couldn't live without my PVR or high speed internet, but that I certainly don't need any new clothes, lunches at school, dinners out, etc. I also did some more apartment hunting and found that my standards are much lower now!

Finally, I reworked my Europe budget and found that if I control my day-to-day budget quite well that I can save up to $4,000. Without sleeping in parks! Here it is:

(per day, in Euros, 1.5 CND exchange rate)

Accomodations - 25
Food - 20
Inter-City Transportation (metro, buses, bike rentals) - 10
Admissions - 10
TOTAL = 65

So here's to the dawn of a new age in my budgeting process. Time to file my taxes.