I also wanted to say that in general, the more money people make, the more that they feel like they need to spend more lavishly. And once these habits develop, it can be quite costly and difficult to reverse. I just started working a year ago and I quickly learned that working life costs more than college life. While I have more income, I spent a decent amount on work clothes, shoes, and accessories this past year. My new friends go to nicer bars, fancier restaurants, and on better vacations. I bought real furniture for the first time (plastic drawers from Target don’t count) and had to start paying back my student loans. When I was in college, I was able to live off less than half of what I make now. Point is, making more money sometimes requires spending more and saving isn’t always easier(especially when you first start working!).

I’ve talked about wanting to save money but it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve really NEEDED to spend less. I got a wakeup call when my credit card (that has a relatively high limit and had 0% APR until a couple of months ago) got maxed out. I realized that I need to be a smarter spender and pay off my credit card debt.

I just turned down my thermostat by 5 degrees this past weekend so I’m going to count that as completing the second tip. As for the lunch part, it’s going to have to wait until next week because I can’t afford groceries until the 15th. *sigh*

Thanks for all the comments. J.D. and I talked about how different the comments are here vs. on my site, and I definitely understand we have two different audiences.

A lot of the comments here have to do with the fact that some people may not be able to cut $1,000 of fat from their budget. True — which is why I wanted to add the “earn more” and “optimize existing spending” to the challenge. But as I said, lots of people may not be able to save $1,000. Still, $200 or $500 is still better than nothing.

And my site is definitely written for a different audience, hence the different language and the focus on entrepreneurship/earning money instead of frugality. There are plenty of excellent bloggers on frugality (including J.D. and Trent from SimpleDollar). I’m not one of them.

In fact, the challenge was designed for people who have a bunch of financial fat they can cut out of their lives (aka, a lot of my friends). If you’re frustrated that the tips don’t apply to you, I’m willing to bet you’re already frugal. In that case, the only suggestion I can think of is to earn more and optimize existing spending (which I’ll cover in a few days).

Btw, this has now become way too long, so I’ll just point you to 3 other commenters on this post who made my points better than I did: guinness416, Cathy, and Miss M.

And he thinks that telling everyone about his challenge is going to save $100 – $500 dollars? Come on!

In his comments, he points out that he isn’t trying to post universally useful tips, but rather tips that he himself would use. Why, then, can he not respect that other people might find gardening tips useful as opposed to retarded?

The thing is, I used to read his blog, and while I didn’t always find his writing enjoyable, I found it thought-provoking. Now I just feel he doesn’t respect those of us who use different methods than he does.

Line me up with the “don’t have that much disposable income in a month” folks, and I’ll take a heaping helping of “he can take his racist attitude and stick it sideways”. Is he always that patronizing? Or was it something special to attract new readers?

It sure didn’t work for me.

Seriously. I haven’t got the heat turned on yet, pack lunches every day, and have nothing to sell. This kind of advice makes me imagine that richer people live lives of total madness, flinging money around like kleenex.

After all it’s not a savings if I spend the amount somewhere else.

I am going to create a recurring transfer with my bank account every day for $33.33 to go from my spending account to my savings.

http://www.savingadvice.com/blog/2008/11/03/103221_spending-diet.html

As far as the approach and vocab used, I don’t hink it’s over the top. Ramit tries to connect with a younger (read: less frugal – no age knock, I’m only 23) audience then the average reader of this site.

As far as not being able to get away with the full $1k, the point is to get away with as much as possible, so just the attempt should be enough. I’ll give it a go (especially trying to sell stuff on eBay).

packing lunches and turning down the thermostat are parts of daily scraping by and making ends meet, i couldn’t make the bills and still eat unless i did those already.

So I’m going to use the challenge as a reality check to see how well I’m doing. I’m going to keep track of what I could be spending if I wasn’t using these tips. (For example, my first entry today would be $150 saved for packing my own lunch everyday).

I’m curious to see how much I could be spending if I didn’t already use frugal tips

Maybe he needs to work on his communication style instead of recycling frugality tips.

Here’s my ultimate frugal tip: don’t leave the house.

Thermostat? Well neither my heat or AC are on now. The thermostat is set but it is too hot for the heat to kick on. It would probably help If the weather didn’t change from needing to defrost one day and 80 degrees the next. AC has been off awhile. Then when I turn heat on, its 80 degrees the next day.