First the Beans and Rice Challenge update
Breakfast – Freshly cooked beans and rice
Lunch – Cold beans and rice
Supper – Microwaved beans and rice
3 meals down only 201 to go


I've started working on my budget for the new year.
My take home check is about $1,100 every 2 weeks.
Below are my monthly fixed expenses.

Rent 600
Credit Cards 265
IM Exp 215
Bike Loan 164
Storage 70
Bike Ins 38
Gym Membership 28
Phone 27

Total 1407

NOTES
Rent - Includes utilities. 3 bedroom house on 5 acres
Credit Cards – From self-improvement workshops, easy to rationalize
IM Exp – Internet Marketing Expenses, more about this later
Storage – Storage unit half way across the country. Biggest waste!
Golds Gym – Membership expires in February.
Phone - $100 subsidy from employer. Droid!

More on the budget as I have time to work on it.

I've have decided to do a Beans and Rice Diet Challenge. The only food that I will buy from now to the end of the year will be beans and rice. My plan is to start off plain and start spicing it up. If I ate well prepared beans and rice now I would be disappointed. But after a couple weeks of plain beans and rice, any flavor will be great.

I do have some super healthy prepackaged food. I have McDougall's Big Cups, Spirutein Shakes, Whole Food Energy Bars and Ultimate Meal Shake powder. The stuff is so healthy that it isn't very appetizing. That's why I still have it. After a week or two of plain beans and rice, I am thinking it will taste great. I also have a great many nutritional supplements.

I have some fresh veggies and meat. To use it up today I am making Thai basil beef with chilie and garlic and Thai red curry beef. So in the morning the Beans and Rice Challenge starts. Beans and rice would be better nutritionally with some pricey fresh veggies and fruit added, but it's got to be better than the fast food I have been living on.

Since my work schedule has expanded to 10.5 hours a day (still get paid for 8) I have been eating primarily drive thru food. I haven't had time to cook during the work week. Slowly eating out has become a major consumer of my discretionary income. By not doing it until the end of the year I think I will be able to get control of my finances.

My goal is to build a YNAB (You Need a Budget) buffer of $2,200 by the end of the year. This means that the money I receive in a current month will be set aside to pay bills next month. The money can be redistributed within its assigned month to deal with the unexpected. In extreme cases money can be borrowed from the next months allocation.

I think I can save about half this with the Rice and Bean Challenge and being a extreme tightwad. I figure my house is well stocked so I can just about stop all discretionary spending without much hardship. I have done it before and the toughest part is psychological.

I get paid every two weeks as opposed to twice a month. This means that I get a couple extra paychecks a year. In December I will get three! So the other half of the money will be from the extra check.

After I get buffer in place I will start living on a more realistic budget. The extreme tightwad and rice and bean diet phase is not sustainable. I don't expect it to be much fun, and I want my ongoing life to be fun. But the financial peace of mind this brief period of sacrifice can bring will improve my quality of life from that point forward.

My goal after that will be to build an emergency fund equal to 3 months living expenses. After that I will get a debt snowball payment rolling. I think these accomplishments are the most I can expect to get done with the income from my job.

There is a lot more I want to do. I moved to the Atlantic Coast of the USA to help take care of my mother. She recently passed away. Now I want to move to the Pacific Coast. Since I started looking at my finances I am starting to realize I have been doing wishful thinking. On my income the things I dream about will never happen.

I need to figure out how to generate more income. I can figure out how while eating beans and rice, then rice and beans... but today I eat good!

I get paid and spend that money until the next check arrives. Lately, about every two or three months I have been running out of money before the next check arrives. I mean really running out of money, negative checking balance with no savings.

A motorcycle breakdown out of town wiped me out this time. I had to pay rent 20 days late keep everything from bouncing. I will be close to broke again when my next pay check arrives. At least I think I will. That is part of the problem. I haven't been paying attention to my finances.

I have had the YNAB, You Need A Budget software for years. Every time there is a new version I buy it, but I have never used it. It's time I get started. I will use it to develop a budget and set some goals. Then I will make a doable plan to reach the goals.

Well, I already know that my big goal is to move across the country to California. I want to attend a Non Violent Communication Program there. There are are lot of steps in between where I am now and being able to do that.

I am thinking about doing a hardcore version of Dave Ramsey's Bean and Rice Diet until the end of the year. Wasteful spending on drive thrus seems to about the only place I will have much leverage in my budget.

I have about decided to do it. I am only afraid I am taking on a challenge too big to start with and that I am setting myself up for failure. I will think about it today and if I commit to it, I'll start tomorrow.