Uber Frugal Challenge: Day 4

Wow, we are already four days into the new year? Awesome! I managed to get myself to take the bus to and from school again today.

The Frugalwood's challenge today isn't a huge challenge over here.

Today’s mantra:  “spend less than you earn—invest the surplus—avoid debt.”

Today’s action: Use this calculator to determine how much money you’d have in the future if you eliminated a few recurring expenses and instead invested them.

I like the mantra and that is what I am trying to live! As for the action, I have an app on my phone I have been using. It's called Pretirement. I have it on Apple, but I'm pretty sure there is an Android version. You set it up with your numbers and it tells you where you are at when it comes to your savings at any given point in time, along with some cool graphs . (And bitches love graphs!) 

You can also in real time see how a spending choice can make or break you.  Tempted to drop $20 at a restaurant? Type "20" into the app and click spend -- in my case, that $20 sets my retirement back by 17 hours. What if I did it once a week? 2.5 years later! Save that $20 every week and I retire 2.5 years sooner!

My challenge to myself is to use this handy little app for every inessential purchase over the next month (at least). This should give me a good feel for how my decisions are affecting our longterm goals.