The Challenge: "Haven't seen you in a long time, buy me a drink!"

Not a good start to the challenge I must say. After putting in a double OT shift I decided to meet up with a friend whom I've not seen for many moons. First thing she says is "Hey long time no see, buy me a drink la!" Haha..there goes $11.70 or whatever it is in drinks at the Bean. Oh well.
I must say Im pretty pleased with myself though. I don't go out as often, and the times I do I don't go all out on food like I used to.

Well, $3 lunches and the occasional tuna over rice with cheese, microwaved. Total cost $2.40. Funnily enough it tasted good. Well better than the $4.50-$5.00 I used to spend on Thai food for lunch. Not like I had any choice. Why oh why did all the half-decent, quick-serving restaurants that decided to open in Jerudong had to be Thai beats me. And the decent Chinese restaurant nearest to where I'm stationed happens to be in Sengkurong, 15 minutes away. Don't you even dare to mention WYWY.

Anyway treated myself to a Root Beer float just now, $2.50. Man I'm splurging, hahaha. Doing this is starting to feel good in a way, its something I can use to micro-pace myself, mini-targets if you will, to the biggie. Stay tuned.

The Challenge

Woah its been a long time since my last blog: so shoot me! I've been busy and now even busier considering we're picking up the pace..I've had an interesting month to say the least. We have a new colleague who happens to be the sister of an old acquaintance. She has discipline like no tomorrow (Virgo bah!); can save and save to the point of being accused of stingy. But Virgo's also have another trait: Man, can they talk!!!! Trust me I've 2 female friends and a female acquaintance who are Virgo's and the character is similar across the board. Not that I'm complaining, merely making an observation so don't shoot me down in a torrent of spoken words and pincushioned voodoo dolls.

Anyway she inspired me to try something that I have never tried before. With all commitments financial which every working person must saddle, she has been living on the grand total of $300 a month. Including petrol. Daily commuting. From KB. Granted she has no car loan and she eats like someone auditioning for "Ms Anorexic of the Year". But she can do it, as well as inspired her own partner to do it.

So in this day and age of revolving loans, credit and whatnot, I have embarked on the challenge of living on $300 a month, every month. Why? Because I think I am a sucker for challenges. And also it wouldnt hurt the wallet as such. Now, I am doing this differently however. I've got car loans and other financial commitments, car upkeep and general maintenance to pay every month so living within this amount will be slightly more challenging. And there is a target I am aiming for so that makes it legit.

Those who know (or should it be knew) me well should know that I had 5 primary goals I wanted out of life. And those same people will have known that I had already achieved 3/5 of them. Well, time for Goal Number 4. Wish me luck, God knows I'll need it for the peserverance. Self discipline and money never went together in my vocabulary.

Check out my progress and cheer me on or shoot me down, or even drop some hints on that all-dandy money saving tip you all have. Ideas are what I want!! $$$$$$$gambadeyoo!!!