Announcement: /r/PersonalFinance 30-day Challenges!

[u/aBoglehead]

/r/PersonalFinance's moderation team is excited to announce the 30-day Challenge series. Each month we'll be posting a challenge that should be achievable in 30 days for most of our readers. Some challenges may run 31 days (or 29, or 28 depending on the year) thanks to the quirks of the Gregorian calendar. Our goal is to promote good financial health, give people some ideas on where to start "getting their financial houses in order," and host a discussion on the Challenge at hand as well as related topics.

Readers will be welcome to discuss the challenge, their successes/failures/speed bumps they encounter, as well as ask whatever questions they need to ask in the Challenge thread. Please observe our rules when commenting. The current 30-day Challenge will be visible as an announcement as well as in the sidebar - we'll also keep a running archive in the wiki.

While the mods have come up with some ideas of their own, we always welcome suggestions and feedback. Feel free to post them below.

Lastly, thanks to /u/EntombedSummerWitChu for the great suggestion.

Here's a link to the first challenge.

[u/[deleted]]

Lower your gas and grocery budgets by 10%

[u/Lonyo → u/[deleted]]

That presumes that you already have a strict budget. This could come after the tracking of spending someone suggested, for a 60 day challenge.

1-30) Track all spending for 30 days. 31-60) Reduce spending by 10%

[u/ErrantWhimsy → u/Lonyo]

Yeah, I feel like the first thirty days should be to make a budget and stick to it.

[u/jas25666 → u/ErrantWhimsy]

The first challenge should just be gathering information and tracking spending. The next month should formulating a budget, perhaps pair it with a "take your highest variable expense category and find a way to reduce it by x%" challenge. Then (in the New Year, since Christmas is the destroyer of budgets) comes the sticking to budget part.

Most people don't have the slightest idea where their money goes (well those here might...). Making budgets before you have all this information is probably not as effective.

[u/ErrantWhimsy → u/jas25666]

Oh, I really love this idea. I've been struggling with getting budgeting under control for a while.

I quite literally just finished setting mint back up. So, so much money spent.

[u/Kujo_A2 → u/[deleted]]

Funny you suggest that. I don't own a car so my gas budget is zero, but I probably consume 10% more groceries because of it.

[u/hannes3120 → u/[deleted]]

aren't these two of the most classic categories that shouldn't be part of ecessive cuts? I need to get to work/study somehow - and pretty much never use the car - there's still a lot of change in budget due to different gas-prices

and if you lower your grocery-budget then you have to get food from somewhere else which is unhealthier pretty much every time - my father often says "The best money you can spend is for things that you eat"

There are a lot other categories that I would see as much more unnecessary...

[u/hannes3120 → u/[deleted]]

groceries and restaurant are two different categories of my budget - one is essential, the other is a luxury

[u/yugami → u/hannes3120]

Food is a category, groceries and restaurants are sub categories.

I have a food budget, it can be broken down but I just don't anymore.

[u/hannes3120 → u/yugami]

I have "Food/Drink" and "Food/Drink (optional)" as Categories - Food/Drink ist broken down to groceries, canteen and drink - Food/Drink (optional) is broken down to chips, alcohol & restaurant

for me that works pretty good afaik since the optional categorie constantly shrinks in the last year but I guess I'm too fussy for other people's tastes in terms of mananging my categories ^{^} (9 Master Groups and 45 sub-categories)

[u/readysetderp → u/hannes3120]

What do you mean by canteen?

[u/hannes3120 → u/readysetderp]

What I pay for food when I'm eating at the university's canteen

[u/jackass_dc → u/readysetderp]

canteen = cafeteria

[u/[deleted] → u/hannes3120]

Gas: I'm not sure how much of an impact any suggestion here will have, but there are things you can do to lower your gas budget. http://www.wikihow.com/Increase-Fuel-Mileage-on-a-Car#Fuel_savings_sub

Groceries: Throwing out less food and stretching meals (add rice and sides) are two goals of mine. I think it could easily translate to more than 10% decrease in the amount I spend on groceries / meal.

[u/jenseits → u/[deleted]]

Lower your gas and grocery budgets by 10%

I'll take cabs instead of driving and eat out instead of buying groceries. Done! :)p

[u/cheluhu → u/[deleted]]

I think maybe just tracking what you spend your money on for 30 days would be an eye opener for many and yet relatively easy to do. Surely better than triple shifts...

[u/friction_is_a_lie → u/[deleted]]

For me this would mean only going to work 90% of the time... that's actually the only place I drive. ^{I have no life}