Puttnig Some Good Out There

Every year when the seasons change I do my best to make a decision about the coming year. It's sort of like my personal new year's resolution.

Last year I decided to become more budget conscious and focus on decreasing my spending and increasing my savings while paying down the credit card debt that I ignored for years. It worked amazingly well. I certainly didn't deprive myself. If you look at my spending over the past year I certainly didn't go without. I went out quite a bit. I went to my friend's wedding without incurring any extra debt. I went on a mini vacation to Washington DC and I developed some badly needed awareness about my financial situation.

Here's a list of the following steps I took to pursue increased frugality:

1) I built an emergency fund and consciously saved up a small cushion.
2) I paid off 2/3 of my debt
3) I stopped shopping completely: I went from being the girl who shopped all the time to the girl who never shopped unless something wore out. It was kind of amazing, and you know what? I didn't go naked once nor did I feel out of place. True, my pants are starting to disintegrate, but it's good to know that I wore them out.
4) I stopped buying books: I started only going to the library, and I've read so many books for free. As an added bonus, I didn't bring any extra clutter into my home. I don't miss buying books that often which is weird for me because I read a lot, and I used to spend tons of $$$ on amazon.
5) I stopped buying movies AND I decreased my netflix account to the one movie at a time plan. : I sort of do miss having more movies, but I think it forces me to find other things to do.
6) I took advantage of my company's benefits i.e. I signed up for my phone plan through them, and my gym plan as well. I still haven't done transit checks, but I plan to.
7) I stopped treating myself to food as often: In the old days it wasn't rare for me to get coffee every morning, order lunch every time I got paid or run downstairs for a diet coke every afternoon. These had become habits instead of treats. Lately, I'll admit I've lapsed here, but overall I did improve.

Things I could improve on:
1) Drinking/Dining Out. I can't even begin to tell you how much I spent in this category, but it's seriously %75 of my discretionary spending. I certainly had fun, but there was no need to have that much fun. I think this year I'm going to have to apply the same discipline to what and where I drink i.e. no barfood/ drink specials/ no more than 2 in an evening.
2) Food: I tried, but I certainly lapsed here and there and those dollars add up.

More to come on my decision for this year's little project.