New Challenge for August - November

We (Joe and I) have decided to challenge ourselves for the next few months, we’re going to put aside $25k towards our condo’s mortgage and our savings account. It’s do-able, we know it is but it’ll be a challenge because it’ll require a lot from us, including the way we exercise, eat, and socialize. I want to document our progress here because I think it’ll be a great part of our journey to reflect on for when we decide to challenge ourselves again. In order to fully document the challenge I’m going to put dates and numbers to everything we have goals for, I’ll also have to explain a few things to provide further context and detail. So here goes :)

Exercising: Let’s start with the easiest one we got here, exercise. We will be spending money on our gym and that can vary based on the types of gyms we choose. Joe will be opting for a crossfit gym and since they do yoga I’m most likely going to be heading to the same gym. Looking forward to what a crossfit gym is like, since I’ve never actually been in one that felt inviting let’s hope this is different this time, I’m optimistic for it! That means the cost of our gym together will be $250/monthly. Yes it sounds like a lot, I’ve felt this way for a long time about crossfit gyms BUT I am hopeful the money is worth the community you get involved with. Other then this, that will be our commitment to the gym, it’s a little pricey but we really feel like our health and exercise routines are worth that.

Eating: Second up is food, this requires a little detail into the macros and way we eat food already. Joe and I eat certain macros based on our goals. There are three phases we go through, cutting (leaning out), midding or maintaining (keeping current weight), and massing (gaining weight). Within this challenge I will not be in a cut phase any more but will be maintaining and I’m almost positive Joe will be here too. Regardless of the phase it doesn’t require too much extra for us in terms of food. My macros are as follows:

Current Weight: 120lbs

Macros for 1 day = Carbs: 160 grams Proteins: 115 grams Fats: 45 grams

These macros can be easily hit by buying a protein source which we usually choose beef, chicken, or tofu. A carb source which can be rice, bread, or tortillas (or others if we want but these are our go-to’s) and a fat which we usually have cheese. I will make another post on food specifically and our grocery shopping because this one is tough to find prices for when I’m not currently in our grocery store. But I usually have two packets of tofu for a week so I’ll guess that’s around $8-$10, tortillas for the week is about $6, and cheese for the week is about $15. If I add that all up that’s about at the maximum $31 for me for the week but again I can come back to this and give true prices for what we buy, these numbers are an estimate. Along with food we usually have a cheat meal, where we can go out and eat anything we want for a meal and for the next three months we’re not going to do that to save money. Our cheat meals aren’t too insane but it does usually mean we head to a restaurant and get food and that puts the price up by a lot. We’ll give these up for the next few months. I’ll keep you posted, this one is going to be much easier said than done!

** Grocery update! I wanted to come back to this post and update the groceries we just bought for the week and their prices, they are as follows:

2 packs of chicken breast ($16.35, $14.69) = $31.04

Rice ($6.79) = $6.79

2 Packs of Tofu ($2.98 each) = $5.96

2 Blocks of Cheddar Cheese ($5.99 each) = $11.98

Total groceries: $55.77

Socializing: This one is tough because I’m half an awkward human who loves to be alone and half enjoy the company of good people. I try my best to find the balance between the two by picking and choosing my hang outs but this gets hard because the cost of hanging out is kind of high (high being more than $1) unless it requires no time in a restaurant/bar and not doing anything involving money. Which I just don’t think I can do too often at this point. So my plan here is to first be up front and let everyone know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. That is, I am not spending lots of money at the moment because I am going to save a lot and put it to other things. Therefore I can hang out, we can have coffees (I get an americano for $2.50 or a tea for $2) and we can watch movies and hang out at my place. We can workout, go for walks etc. But that’ll be the extent of my hang outs unless I have additional money saved up that I can allocate to socializing which may also be the case. I won’t completely deprive myself but my hangouts will be limited for sure.

In summary, for the next three months, that is until my 29th birthday in early November, I am going to save as much money as I possibly can and update my blog as I do so. I want to save money to put towards our newly bought condo and towards our savings accounts. I can foresee this being a tough challenge that will likely leave me indoors reading books, watching netflix, and gaming (Thank goodness the new Zelda game comes out in September :D ). Which oddly enough I am okay with. We chose this number of $25k because combined with Joe and myself we calculated that it was do-able but not too far fetched where it’s unobtainable. So here’s the start of it! I’ll update the blog weekly about our progress in terms of savings and spending.