How I Grew To A 74% Savings Rate

I had just graduated with my Master’s, was riding high from working as an Aquatics Director for the YMCA making $12 an hour, and had what felt like a crippling amount of debt. Ahh, it feels good to be an adult!
 
While in graduate school I was donating plasma for extra money and living frugally - like extremely frugal. Rice, beans, and chicken almost every night frugal. Honestly, any increase in money was going to make me feel rich but I wanted to live as frugal as I could, for as long as possible. This would allow me to save money and pay off as much debt as I could tolerate.

I knew the best way to do that was to create a budget since I was disciplined enough to stick to it. There are fancy spreadsheets but I just opened up Microsoft Word and created a document. If you need help creating a budget click here.
 
I work in the school system and adjust my budget based on the school year schedule. Listed below are my real budgets from the corresponding years.  
 
Budget For August 2014 - July 2015
 
Monthly Net Income - $2985.31
 
Savings
$ 100 – Personal Roth IRA
$ 100 - Travel Account
$ 250 - Savings Account
$ 75 – Car Account
 
Total Savings: $525
Remaining: $2460.31
 
Fixed Costs
$ 450 - Rent
$ 54 - Car Insurance
$ 1061 -Loans
$ 29 - Gym Membership
$ 8- Netflix
$ 50- Robinhood Stock Trading Account
 
Total Fixed Cost: $1652
Remaining: $808.31
 
Variable Costs
$ 300 - Food
$ 100 - Gas
$ 408.31- Fun Money
 
This was my first salary job and my first budget. I was paid year round on the last business day of every month. This made budgeting easy as I took care of all my fixed costs and transferred money into my savings accounts at the beginning of the month and lived off what was left.

Savings: I have 8 separate savings accounts that I transfer money into. They each have a purpose as I project future needs or wants like travel, a car, or a rental house. When the time comes for these expenses I'll be prepared.
 
Fixed Costs:  I budgeted for a phone but my mom offered to pay for it until I was done with my loans, so I added that money into my loan payment. My student loan payment was $315 a month and I was paying off my car loan, which was about $200 a month. I paid the minimum on both and put extra toward the principal on the loan with the least amount remaining or the one with the highest interest. The debt snowball! Robinhood is a stock trading service that I used to see if the stock market was something I would be interested in doing… it was not. I started putting that into my IRA instead which worked better anyways. 
 
Variable Costs: I never track my spending. I simply knew I had $200 per week and wasn’t able to spend more than that. I say $200 because that is my monthly fun money, food, and gas added together and then divided by 4 for the number of weeks. I rarely came close to spending all of it and eventually built up a reserve in my fun money account. That came in handy any time I have an inconvenient expensive, think new car tires, or spend over my weekly amount on a weekend trip, that money is there.
 
If you combined my loan payments and savings I was living off 47% of my income.
 
Budget For August 2015 - July 2016
 
Monthly Net Income - $3095.46
 
Savings
$ 100 – Personal Roth IRA
$ 100 - Travel Account
$ 400 - Saving Account
$ 75 – Car Account
$ 75 – Ring Account
 
Total Savings: $750
Remaining: 2345.46
 
Fixed Costs
$ 450 - Rent
$ 54 - Car Insurance
$ 1100 -Loans
$ 29 - Gym Membership
$ 8- Netflix
 
Total Fixed Cost: $1641
Remaining: $704.46
 
Variable Costs
$ 300 - Food
$ 100 - Gas
$ 304.46- Fun Money
 
I was still being paid year round, on the last business day of every month.
 
Savings: I increased my savings and even though I was single, I started putting away money for an engagement ring. Those things ain’t cheap and I wasn’t going to finance something.
 
Fixed Costs: Only real change was increasing my loan payments. 
 
Variable Costs: I built up a nice cushion in my fun money account and cut back there and saved more.  $176 per week was more than enough for a single guy.
 
If you combined my loan payments and savings I was living off 40% of my income.​
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Let’s enter the time machine and fast forward to present day to see how things have evolved!

Or the Millennium Falcon (I know it doesn't time travel, but it's a cool picture, alright..)

​​Budget For August 2018 - July 2019
 
Monthly Net Income - $3709.48
 
Savings
$ 300 – Savings Account
$ 200 - Travel Account
$ 1475 – House Account
$ 100 – Car Account
$ 250 – Real Estate Business Account
 
Total Savings: $ 2325
Remaining: $ 1384.48
 
Fixed Costs
$ 70 - Car Insurance
$ 414 -Loans
$ 30 - Gym Membership
$ 11 - Netflix
 
Total Fixed Costs: $525
Remaining: $859.48
 
Variable Costs
$ 175 - Electricity
$ 300 - Food
$ 100 - Gas
$ 284.48 - Fun Money
 
I'm paid bi weekly, and not during the summer, which makes things more tricky. I look ahead for months that have 3 paychecks, and try and save those to hold me over during the summer.
 
Savings: I'm buying a house in the fall of 2019 and am aggressively saving toward that. I put money into my real estate business account to help cover repairs and improvements.
 
Fixed Costs: This area had the biggest change. I don't have a rent payment because I'm house hacking a quadruplex and live for free. To see the numbers on that check out my first deal. I have also reduced the amount I am paying toward my student loans. I am able to access student loan forgiveness in the fall of 2019 and can’t pay more unless I want to lose free money!
 
Variable Costs: The hardest thing to predict is my electricity bill. I have it as low as $39 in the winter when I only use a space heater and as much as $230 during the summer. It is a crazy place but I’d rather be on the safe side and build my reserves for the expensive months.
 
If you combined my loan payments and savings I am living off 26% of my income.
 
If you have looked at my articles on side hustles you know I have more than just my day job as a source of income. My real estate income stays within the business for repairs and improvements. All my income that comes in from my contracting goes directly into my house account. The money I earn from website testing is used for bigger life events like flying to a friend’s wedding in Mexico, taking my mom to a concert, or buying my dog, Harper.
 
My budget has changed and I tinker with it, but for the most part my spending has remained about the same and I just increase my savings.
 
For the time being, and only having a dog to rely on me financially, this works for me! Every circumstance is different and do what makes the most sense for you. If you are having trouble don’t hesitant to reach out. I clearly enjoy this stuff!