I feel like Sisyphus trying to get on the right path to Fi

In Greek mythology Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down when it nears the top. Wikipedia

After discovering the financial independence community I have struggles to make signification changed.

I have been thinking about it a lot and how to make progress.

What I've currently done.

• Calculated my last year expense and set that as a budget for this year.
• Calculated my Savings Rate
• Setup budget for next year with reduction of expenses in the discretionary that should be possible to increase my savings rate by 18%
• As one of my big expenses was travel. I start down the path of using travel rewards.
• High recommend listening to ChooseFI episode 009 and 031
• Had a talk with my wife

What calculating Expenses include everything for you and spouse, start with base salaries also include any 401k match, then list and subtract all expense including taxes and medical.  I believe these are important because when you are getting close to FIRE you will have to pay these out of pocket and best to know what you are paying.  The Savings Rate is your (INCOME - EXPENSES)/INCOME

Both my wife's family and mine live in different states.  This requires us to travel twice a year just to see family.  One way to help reduce some cost was to get into Travel Rewards.  This is a big subject and I am excited to start this hack.

Now talk to the wife went well.  Took multiple conversations for her to sort of understand why I want to go toward FIRE.  She loves her job and doesn't want to stop anytime soon.  So it has been hard.  I have showed her the budget and how much we spend.  I will say it did raise an eyebrow on how high clothing, shopping, and travel were. As I have found saying we are going to spend less and doing it has been the problem.

I've decided to take a different approach.  We are going to focus on one category Food. 

We spend $320 a month on dinning out and $795 on groceries.

For the next month we are going to focus on these Food to get them at $100 for dinning out and $650 for groceries. Saving of $365 a month.  That one change would increase my savings rate by ~2% for the year. 

We will do this   :)