The quoted part below is not necessary to read, I just write it naively and in detail since I don't know what the community is like here, and in hope that someone might have some constructive input..
I don't really need anything that costs money except food, which became very expensive in the past year or so.I am 31, single, and come from a very poor country, but have moved to Germany last year for work at mcdonalds which is probably my only option for now, and it has good savings potential (i chose mcdonalds because I have no degree, nor any valuable skilled trades, and my German is beginner level)
Last year I was splurging (and had 0 savings by the end of the year) and decided that for this year I will live on my December's salary for the whole of 2023. I started reading a lot about investing, watched dozens of videos on saving strategies, frugal practices, how others have succeeded etc, learned basic accounting and started recording everything to the last cent in gnucash, 2 weeks ago I discovered Jacob's book and after having read it, I was even more inspired and motivated.
So my current financial situation looks like this
I earn 12.3€/h (13.1$) and have a work contract for 168h/month. My monthly gross salary is at least 2066.4€ (2200$). Yearly 24796.8€ (26,405$). On top of that working for holiday, night shift, paid holiday, vacation bonus and christmas bonus can push it to 30 000$ (other factors include free lunch at work and tax return at the end of the year). But of course, I have to pay taxes, mandatory public pension, health insurance etc. and my actual net salary is much lower. Approximately net salary is 1500€ (1,597$) of which 253€ (269.4$) are automatically subtracted for rent.
My expenses per month that I have to pay myself (those that are not subtracted from my salary automatically):
-6.12€ (6.5$) Public broadcast (18.36 per month obligatory payment for almost everyone in Germany per apartment - we divide it by 3 in ours)
-4.94€ (5.2$) Liability insurance (almost everyone has this non mandatory insurance, its the most recommended thing to have)
-4.99€ (5.3$) SIM and 6GB data for phone (this could have been avoided if I didn't sign up for the contract last year)
___________
Why I didn't mention rent is because at the moment moment my rent which is 253€ is directly deducted from my salary, because the apartment is leased by the the company. And in that every other utility bill is included.
16.05€ (17.1$) Total semi-mandatory expenses per month, I can stop the liability insurance and maybe try to cancel my phone contract. The only thing which I couldn't do without is monthly internet DSL connection which I currently have a 2 year contract of which the first 10 months (until the end of this year) are free.
I don't have many posessions, all of the stuff I own is very cheap, except the smartphone (nord2) and PC which I custom built and a upgraded through the years (I took it with me to Germany, knowing full well that I could buy the latest and best hardware when I moved here).
I think the most I can improve is to adopt this method of "cooking for myself" (I have never cooked myself), but started learning a bit, and successfully managed to fry scrambled eggs, cook rice. I got inspired by this sentence
"One will get used to eating just a few different kinds of meals surprisingly quickly and be as happy about eating as someone who eats out all the time. The great thing about this is that being invited somewhere for their regular dinner is a real treat. Those who eat a standard diet require much more to be happy about eating something they don’t usually eat."
I wanted to ask what is that, what are those same meals that I can eat everyday, its probably rice and beans, is there an elaborate post on the forums or guide on how to eat on ERE. I have 1 meal for free at work, and for breakfast I always eat the same (either yoghurt, oats and blueberry which costs 70cents, or milk and musli which costs 55cents). I have read about the warrior diet, fasting etc, but I am more inclined to not overcomplicate or experiment too much, I would rather have something that is fast and healthy to make, I am really curious if jacob ever posted what he recommends to eat specifically, I know he mentioned the pressure cooker and he probably uses it to save on gas.