Starting June 1st, I’ll be taking some serious steps towards implementing a new frugal lifestyle that will go along with the bootstrapping of my new company.  To begin, I’ll be taking a look at my spending, and separating them into fixed costs (mortgage, property tax, condo dues, gym memberships, subscriptions, etc) and variable costs (food, clothes, music, books, etc).

From there, I will create some new daily spending habits as I did when we were starting up the Robot Co-op.  Back then I was going through a similar process in my head, preparing for a serveral year bootstrap process (selling all of my possessions, moving into a tiny studio apartment, changing habits) that in the end wasn’t necessary since we found investment relatively quickly and were able to keep good salaries.

I also remember back in college when I lived in a 10-bedroom house with between 11-14 other people and paid $125/month in rent.  I made burritos and smoothies at Todo Loco and had a daily allowance of $11 (after rent and tuition costs).  I read books like Dharma Bums, walked around in kung-fu slippers, stole toilet paper from work, and did everything I could to save enough money to buy a CD every month or so.  So I know I can do this, and also do it happily.  I don’t look back on my frugal days of the past with distaste… to the contrary, a lot of the lessons I learned and philosophies I’ve created since then have very strong foundations from that time.

This time around, I plan on taking a slightly different track.  Rather than eating disgusting Ramen and Mac & Cheese, I’ll eat fruit and veggies from the market.  Rather than sacrifice cost for health, I plan on making as many cuts in the direction of sustainability, re-use, and non-commercial entertainment.

Stay tuned for a series of posts on this topic.  For now, I’ve got one more week til my 33rd birthday where I can spend however I like, and I will certainly enjoy the send off.

This entry was posted by Buster on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 7:48 pm. It is filed under Frugalification. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.