January 2007 vs. January 2008

About a year ago, I stumbled upon a wonderful website called Frugal For Life, which launched my interest and participation in the simplicity movement. Since then, I have implemented a number of healthy changes, especially where my spending habits are concerned.

I was reviewing my credit card expenses this month and thought it would be fun to pull out the statement from one year ago, to see how much I spent on my grocery bill and takeout food, and contrast those figures with expenditures from this month, in January 2008. What makes January 2007 and 2008 ideal contrasts? In January 2007 I had just started cutting back on a few unnecessary expenses. 

Let’s see what I spent:

January 2007:

Takeout food (including coffee and liquor): $74.06
Grocery: $116.46

January 2008:

Takeout food (including coffee and liquor): $38.53
Grocery: $100.61

To summarize: I spent $35.53 (%48) less on takeout meals and $15.85 (%14) less at the grocery store. My grocery expenditure has remained fairly consistent, although I am shopping at less expensive stores.

It doesn’t appear to be a significant difference at first glance, but keep in mind that the statements in question overlap with the last half of December. Despite the holidays, a time when one might be inclined to overspend, I still managed to curb my expenses and spent less money this time around than a year ago in 2007.

And although I don’t have an official record of the number of purchases for which I paid cash in either month, I do have records of several trips to the bank in January 2007. This month, I have visited only once — to open a Roth IRA.

Conclusion? It looks like progress to me! I feel like celebrating with some takeout pizza…

…just kidding.