As I have noted a few times on this blog I’m keen to focus on saving more money and investing it for the simple reason that more buying means more work and less riding. I can have the sweetest gear all the time and little time to use it or I can have a few excellent items and much more opportunity to get outside and play.
Unless you are independently wealthy you have the same choice to make.
I have been reducing my cost of living over the past few years and I am making some solid progress. My savings vs. my income has at least doubled which is awesome. As I looked at my spending in 2015 to see where I could cut further the following areas came to mind:
- bikes and related items
- outdoors gear
- fly fishing gear
- surfing/kiteboarding gear
- clothes
- electronics
- vehicles
- food/drink
On the gear front my plan is simple – buy nothing new unless something I need to keep my bikes/gear operating dies or needs maintenance. In that case repair/replace it. So if my fork needs a seal kit on 15 Jan 2016 I’m not going stop riding that bike for the whole year. I’ll just spend the $30 on a new kit and get it back on the trails.
As I look at my past gear spending maintaining what I have is not expensive, but buying new stuff is. So I’ll cut the new stuff out this year.
I have enough clothes to last many years as I have purchased quality items and I don’t abuse them. So no clothes in 2016 either. My caveat is one off items that might get damaged/lost/stolen. For example I wear 4 pairs of shoes regularly [Keen shoes, Keen boots, bike shoes and crocs] and I can realistically wear out the Keen shoes and Crocs in a year as they get used the most. They would get replaced.
Electronics are black hole for money as they come out with upgrades and new devices so fast and furiously. Other than cameras I am pretty good about not succumbing to consumer lust in this department [ie. I have never purchased an iPad]. Cameras are my weakness for sure. My Canon point and shoot just stopped working so this will be a good test of my resolve as I am not buying a new camera since I have a waterproof point and shoot I can use in its place. The WP camera is not as nice for image quality, but it is paid for! I can also haul my DSLR around if I want sweet photos.
I have a truck for work and a motorcycle. I ride the motorcycle whenever I can as it’s cheaper to operate than the truck. My current contract involves a 50km round trip commute which is not ideal. 10hr shifts and the lack of showers makes me unmotivated to commute by bicycle regularly. I did move to a 4 day work week in 2015 thereby reducing commuting costs by 20%. That meant 10hrs shifts which leave me quite tired and less interested in pedalling to work. I will not take any new work that is not a bicycle ride from my house.
The main change here will be only insuring my moto for 6 months when I renew the insurance. I can ride through some of the winter, but it’s probably not worth the cost to insure the bike. I had pondered getting a new motorcycle, but that’s now off the table. I can use the one I have or sell it to reduce my vehicle costs. For now I’ll keep it since it’s paid for. I’m thinking hard about the fact that if I never buy another motorcycle that saves a significant chunk of $$ from my annual budget forever. I enjoy riding a moto, but the money I spend on a moto each year would easily fund a 2 week trip to Moab and that’s not including actually buying a moto. That’s just operating costs. Moab every year or motorcycle?…hmmmm!
We cut ~20%-25% off our food/drink bill in 2014/15, but we can probably cut another 20% at least. Our focus for 2015 will be reducing meat consumption and meal planning more rigourously. The meal plans will mean less wastage and we can ensure some very low cost vegetarian meals are included in the mix. On the drink side we consume lots of water, milk, tea and coffee at home. None are expensive so I’m not worried about them. $5 coffees at a cafe are a problem so those will be rare. I’m budgeting one six pack of beer a week and Sharon buys one six pack of cider or a bottle of wine a week.
Eating out once at week at $50 or less is our goal. Special occasions/holidays excepted.
As noted above new stuff costs a lot. Some examples:
- new mountain bike = $5K-$7K
- new surfboard = $1K
- new fly rod and reel = $500 – $1200
- new kite and kiteboard = $2K
- new laptop = $1K – $2K
- new camera $1K – $2K
- new motorcycle $12K – $15K
So if I just save one or two big purchases in 2016 it will add significantly to my savings and investments. Especially if one of those purchases is a new mountain bike. 😉
vikapproved MK2 
Great moustachian goals! Was out meeting clients at a fancy lakeside settlement the other day (I was working, they were on holiday) and was somewhat jealous until I remembered that most of what they own is on debt and I would never be happy with all those toys until I can learn to be satisfied with what I have.
Since having a family my bike budget has voluntarily disappeared so now I have a challange for myself that I can’t buy new bike bits unless I sell something else I’m not using (was old snowboards last time) to fund it or making money on the side. This is both a good mental challange and also helps purge equipment I rarely would use (avoid the ‘I’ll use it on a rainy day’ mentality)
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Yes I am also allowing myself to sell stuff to buy other stuff and to use any gifts that come my way. As you note that lets you liquidated unused stuff and get what you need.
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It pains my soul to see people giving each other expensive single-use novelty electric kitchen contraptions, and similar garbage, over the holidays. It’s total mental clutter, ruining peoples’ lives, and it’s depressing that all of our productivity increases and human progress have been directed toward producing garbage. Your goals could change the world, if only more people would realize that experience is worth so much more than material. (I’d pledge along with you, but I REALLY want an alpacka raft :P)
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Skyler I think a “Buy Nothing but an Alpacka Raft!” resolution would be totally legit. 😉
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Sykler – the consumer crapfest going on 24/7 is cray-cray. What’s really sad is nobody is happy. At least a pig wading in a sea of food scraps is loving life.
Even more sad the bike industry is as bad or worse than what’s going on main street. We just accept that buying loads of gear and constant upgrades are meaningful. Again I wouldn’t mind so much if that led to tons of awesome biking, but for most people a bad bike bling habit means working like a slave to pay for it and hence limited riding.
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Although on the other hand, if no one buys anything this year, we all may be unemployed next year!
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@Coleridge – robots are coming to replace you and take your job anyways.
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great resolution! Stay strong 😉 it may be hard
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Found your blog researching bikepacking tires. Thanks for sharing this personal info for everyone to see. My wife and I just met with a financial adviser to help with some of these same things.
I got some advice from a mentor years ago. He shared to pick one hobby and go with it. Thankfully I picked biking. I am currently saving up for a fat bike and hopefully can meet that goal soon.
How’s it going one month in?
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@john – That’s good advice. I try and keep it under 6 hobbies! If I could just ride my mountain bike and stop there I’d be retired already. 😉
Jan went well. Met all my no spending targets. I am just waiting to calculate how much I saved for the month vs. my savings goal and then I am going to post the results.
My advice back on investments is that unless you are a multi-millionaire you shouldn’t have any investment fees above 0.3% for any account. If you are paying 2%+ you are losing out on so much of your potential returns it’s sickening.
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