One giant leap

Over the past year or so I have seen a significant decrease in the amount of spending money that I have left over every month. As a matter of fact the "walking around money" that I used to have was at least significant enough to buy a couple of meals out once in a while. Now that pocket money has completely gone missing. After a little research into my finances - nothing has really changed. My debt load has re-arranged itself a few times by going from one credit card to another but has not really increased. So I started looking at my spending. Where did my money go besides bills? Well it seems that I spend money on food which makes perfect sense because I do like to eat. I really do prefer eating to starving. I pretty much grouped all food related purchases together which makes it easier to say that it is okay to have the Venti Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks and not feel like I am spending my money unwisely. A couple of bucks a month go to my nieces and nephews all over the country - since I rarely visit its the least I can do (which of course makes it guilt money, but it all spends the same). One thing I did learn is that I spend almost nothing on entertainment every month - the occasional movie rental was about it. What I do spend a significant portion of my income on is gasoline. And with gas prices rising, it can only get worse. Here is where the leap comes into play. Since I was spending so much money on gasoline, I needed to find something that gets much better gas mileage without costing me a fortune in vehicle payments which, unfortunately, left out the Carver One. However, I found a solution.... More details to come... Technorati tag: leap