That way, even though they can’t see the end of the road, they do know where their first step is going to be.

Before reading your post, I’ve been setting aside money for lunch for the rest of the week and trying to catch up with the spendings these last few days (need to make that daily journal one my priorities…).

Immediately after thinking about cutting the daily budget for this, I started to feel hunger and thinking about some expensive alternatives that I usually don’t eat!

Considering that at this time here in Europe is breakfast time and I’ve had breakfast already, I guess I could feel that psichological impact that really prevents us to go ahead in lots of situations.

So, as I usually have lunch with my co-workers, I decided to consider other alternatives such as avoiding Friday lunches, which are always outside the budget (because we share and divide all costs and we have more time to eat) and/or bringing lunch once a week.

Focusing on today, I remebered of fruits and other stuff I brought from home, so, that “panic” of hunger is completely unjustified because:
* eating on a lower budget doesn’t mean necessarily eating less or low quality
* if i’m hunger after lunch I’ll have those things I brought!

A wonderful timing you had with this post!

It was the cheapest diet ever made- I just followed the government’s food pyramid, and rode my bike 30 minutes a day. So incredibly simple- and so FREE!

I now employ 1 day at a time to not purchasing anything new for a year. Otherwise, it would never work!

the reason I say this is because I have a friend who has racked up $30,000 in debt since high school ended (5 years ago. Instead of working on reducing his debt, he feels that by taking on more debt to fund unrealistic business ventures it will lead to an eventual success.

Thanks Again.

I have tried keeping a journal and I failed miserably at that, physically writing down things in a little book.

Then I stumbled on how easy blogging was and it changed my life. I know it is an often used cliche but “Rome was not built in a day” and either is achieving financial success.

Whether you want to save more money, lose weight, run a marathon, or excel at a career or hobby it takes many little steps to achieve your goal. Keeping track of your progress is vital. It can be very encouraging – and surprising – to see how much all of those little steps add up to.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, “Outliers”, he claims that his research suggests that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become world-class at anything.

RDS
http://www.smartfinancialvalues.com

i’m always about changing for the positive, but i am the worst at keeping a journal consistently.

When I lost my job, we were forced to make significant changes. I listed all of our expenses and we immediately cut back as much as we could. Since then, we’ve been making small, lasting changes a little at a time: switching from sponges to washable dish rags; buying store brands as much as possible (I’ve been surprised at how many are just as good or better than the name brands); shopping at a less expensive grocery store; Starbucks is now a once a week treat; selling books, cds, dvds; etc

We’re paying all of our bills, and adding to our emergency fund every month. We were able to pay for car repair from this fund. We’re not incurring any new debt, and think long and hard before most purchases. We hunt around for the best deals.

I’m on unemployment and actively job hunting. We’re living on $27,5000 less than we were last year. We plan on continuing to live this way so we can possibly purchase a house. The above figure would make quite a down payment.

I’m so happy that my spouse is on the same page and has the same goals. It’s all from living as my parents did, and communities like this. Thanks, Trent and all of you readers/comment posters.

Best of Luck, Everyone,
Francine

Keep up the good work!

And if I have a bad day, that is the only thing I focus on – maintain the diet that particular day. Each successful day reinforces new habits and new routines and each successful day is a step to a better tomorrow..

I wish everyone all the best on their roads to better themselves