what a difference a year makes

As I've previously posted, living in China has made me a bit of a cheapskate. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and it's actually the direction I was headed before we moved here. I've written about my interest in minimalism, as well as how my job concerns last year helped to spark some changes in the way I approach spending, saving and consumerism, in general.

Just for fun, I pulled up my savings account this morning and started reviewing how much money was in the bank and how that balance was changing with various transactions, starting from February 2011. It was pretty sad, actually. We've always done a pretty decent job of saving in our retirement accounts (probably because we automatically deduct the funds from our paychecks and can't easily access the funds), but our regular savings account was pretty dismal. The balance was shockingly low relative to the amount of money we made, and it wasn't growing very much. What does that mean?

1. We had no safety net.
2. We were spending almost everything we were making.

Fast forward to May 2012. We now have more than 12 times as much money in savings as we did in February 2011. And that's saying a lot, considering:

1. We took two fabulous foreign vacations in that time, and made a few domestic trips as well.
2. We spent a pretty serious amount of money moving to a different country.
3. The little lady hasn't been working for about three months.

I'm not going to say that there haven't been unexpected sources of income. We sold both our cars when we moved here and didn't buy new ones when we arrived, which put a pretty serious amount of money in our accounts. I spent tons of time in the 3-4 months before we moved here selling stuff through eBay and other channels. I got an unexpected bonus last week, which was fairly sizable and a nice surprise. All that said, however, the most important thing is the lifestyle changes we've been making. We drastically reduced our spending on stuff, got more focused on things we actually care about like health and photography, and have been trying to be more on purpose about the way we use our resources.

The changes are big, but you know what? I don't feel like anything is missing. I don't miss the random purchases, the new CDs every week, the pricey dinners, or anything else. I'm itching for a vacation, and maybe we'll take one in the next few months. When we do take that vacation, however, it will probably be the first one we've ever taken where I won't have worried about how to pay for it. That alone will make all the changes we've made worth it.