As mentioned previously on this blog, I was no stranger to budgeting and frugality. I've spent much of the past several years working in media production, where budgeting is par for the course. Prior to working in the media industry I balanced my studies with part time administration work - so I've spent many hours reconciling my employers' spending and balancing their books. I'm good at it. I get paid to do it. And believe it or not, I actually enjoy it.
Combined with the fact that I HATE any form of waste, I like to live as sustainably and self-sufficiently as any urban, inner-city professional can and I try to be as healthy as possible - frugal living comes pretty naturally to me. I'm also pathetically, hopelessly, BAD at shopping (no seriously, I am). A trip to the supermarket can take hours, as I scan the shelves for every available option before intently reading the list of ingredients and weighing up the health implications versus the potential savings of every item I put in my basket. As for clothes shopping... 99% of the time I get so overwhelmed and exhausted by the vast array of choices, I end up leaving having accomplished nothing more than circling an air-conditioned mall for a few hours and getting sore feet.
Regardless - being tight-fisted is one thing, but saving enough to fund a few years without income is a completely different matter. That required a whole new level of frugality. I explained in my previous post how we came to reach the figure that we did ($30,000). Now without going into too much detail, let's just say that's close to half my annual salary (as a freelancer, the exact figure goes up and down). So that meant living on half my annual salary (or less) for at least one year. The first step? Knowing how much I was currently spending.
