Goodbye Target?

This morning in the shower I was thinking of ways to save money in the coming year.  With the new year starting soon, it actually is the perfect time to do this.  Often I get on these kicks in the summer, and it is really hard for me to start something new at the wrong time.  Like, if I want to do a twelve month experiment such as this, I cannot go from July to July, I just think, "oh, I'll start in January."  It's just an excuse, but it's an excuse I don't have this time.

So this morning I'm in the shower and I'm thinking and I'm reminded of this book I read a couple of years ago, Not Buying It.  I love this book.  It was the inspiration for our living more simply the first time.  In this book the author and her partner make a commitment to drop out of consumerism for a year in order to pay down their credit cards.  And, as I'm taking a shower in preparation for an outing to Target (after my outing to Wal-Mart yesterday), I think, "do I really need whatever it is I'm going to buy at Target?"  Probably not. As far as food goes, I have a pantry full and a freezer half full.  All of us have closets and drawers full of clothes.  And no one needs more DVDs, Blu-Rays, or video games.  And I'm in the shower looking at the array of fine smelling shower gels lining the tub and remembering how when I was a kid I got a bar of Ivory soap and some Suave shampoo.

I pride myself in our lifestyle.  I feel that we spend a lot less money than most people.  We don't have a car payment (though both cars are on their last legs, so there is a threat that a car payment may be imminent), we don't have cable (though we do pay $10 a month for Netflix), we only eat out about once a week.  But really, there are so many ways in which we could stop spending money without it really hurting our lifestyle.  We buy just to be buying.  Sure, our expenditures are at Target and Wal-mart instead of high end establishments, but they're expenditures all the same.

So today my goal is to come up with a list of guidelines for the following year.  Will my husband like it? No, he will not.  But I'm thinking if he saw our budget and checking account balance as much as I do, he would like those even less.  So wish me luck as I come up with my list, which hopefully will not include too many easy outs.

OK, OK, luckily I only have one follower!

Yeah, yeah, so the 25 day thing didn't work so well.  Let's just let it go now and move on to bigger and brighter things....

It's the middle of November and that means, in Steph's financial terms, that it's time to prepare for the new year!  Basically, this year is kaput.  We've already made enough bad decisions to follow us into the new year.  Now it's time to figure out how to deal with that.

I often look back on the time we were saving to pay of our debts and buy our house and think, "how the HELL did we manage that?!"  Because at this point I really do not know.  I can blame the fact that I no longer bring in an income, but really my income was so small that I don't think that's the real reason.  I think we just set our eyes on the prize and made it happen through sheer determination.  Once we attained the house, we haven't truly devoted ourselves to any other goal, and because of this our budget has suffered.

For me the new year will, hopefully, bring a renewed focus to getting our finances in order.  I DO have financial goals, it's just that up until now none have seemed as pressing as buying our house was.  But now that Sallie Mae wants to take all of our money to pay for that business degree I'm squandering, it's time to tighten our belts and get some shit done.

Today I am motivated.  Sucky time to find motivation, really, what with Christmas coming up and all.  And I know of these money-saving ideas for Christmas, but I cannot seem to follow them.  Christmas is my weakness, I LOVE buying gifts, I cannot resist shiny new wrapping paper (even if I have a closet full from last year), and I think I spend more on cookie baking than any rational person should.  I have started shopping early, thinking that would help me find things on sale and kind of spread out the spending so it wouldn't hurt so much, but oftentimes this just makes me nickel and dime myself to death. So we'll see what happens in the next month.  Lord, give me the strength to not max out my credit card between now and then!

Day Two

Day Two of my 25 day financial journey tells me I should track my spending for thirty days.  Well, I am far too impatient for that!  But I DID look at my online checking account statement to see what it had to share.  It has little nickel & dime purchases, mostly for household maintenance.  This made me realize I need to reevaluate my wonderful envelope system.  For anyone who happens upon this but has never read anything else, I believe strongly in the envelope system as suggested by Dave Ramsey.  The basic idea is that you have envelopes for all the different categories you spend money on, you put a predetermined amount of cash in said envelopes, and you only spend what you have in cash.  This makes life much easier because you don't have all these itty bitty charges on either your debit or credit card, which can add up and are easy to lose track of.  I currently have envelopes for Groceries, Pets, Car Maintenance, Gift, Clothes, and Medical expenses.  When I began this system, we didn't own a home, we rented a townhouse.  It wasn't that big, and any issues we had were dealt with by the staff, so having a home maintenance envelope wasn't worth it.  We also weren't actively homeschooling (which has also been a major source of income drainage), so no envelope for that either....  So here's the problem:  I already feel like I should be putting more money into the envelopes I already have, how am I supposed to add MORE envelopes?  AND still be able to pay my bills??

....when I figure that one out, I'll let you know.  Methinks it might be time to revisit Dave's Total Money Makeover book and see what he has to say on the subject.

I also began really scrutinizing our bills and seeing if there is anything we can do away with.  Unfortunately, I didn't find much.  Well, that's sort of a lie.  See, I'm a bit spoiled.  There are certain things that aren't necessities but I just cannot live without.  Like Netflix.  $10 a month and I have all the movies and tv shows I could ask for.  We love it and watch it daily (it's streaming through the Wii now!) and, though that $10 could probably be used elsewhere, I just can't let go.

While meditating over my spending habits, I did however come up with some ideas that would save money in one area:  Groceries.  The biggest is my Coke addiction.  It started with Coke Zero.  Man I love that stuff!  I drank at least two a day.  Then I decided that artificial sweeteners were probably bad for me.  But did I give up my soda altogether?  Hell no!  I switched to the (waaaaaay more expensive) pure cane sugar sweetened stuff.  So not only am I consuming hundreds of empty calories, I'm spending (at least) twice as much money at the same time!  All of the sudden it hit me:  why not give up soda?  Sure, it's a tasty beverage and gives me that much needed afternoon caffeine kick, but maybe I could get that elsewhere?  I already own an iced tea pot, and tea bags cost, what, like five cents each?  I can sweeten it with a little "all natural" sugar, and boom!  Acceptable in its health qualities AND super cheap!  I've just saved myself at least $20 a month!  ....now if only I could find about ten more simple, $20 saving solutions.  THEN we'd be getting somewhere!

Day One

Important Life Goals


Ahh, the listing of life goals.  I can talk a lot about myself, but I always have trouble really looking deep down and figuring out what the hell it is that I want.  Maybe I think too hard.  Here's what comes to mind when I close my eyes and don't try to figure out if it's the "right" goals.

• I want to be a stay at home mom and homeschool my kids.
• I want to have a happy family.
• I want to live comfortably with the money and life we have.
• I want to, in the long term, run my own business (this is something I want in 10 years or so, once my kids are a little older).
• I want to grow my own food.  Maybe not all of it, but I really really want a garden.  And to learn to can.  It's a little life goal, but it counts, right?
• I want to have no debt.  This includes no mortgage, no car payments, no nothing.  I want to own the things I have and be able to send my kids to college debt free.

My Feelings


How does my current financial situation compare to those life goals?  Well, I currently am a stay at home mom and am homeschooling my kids, but I fear I won't be able to keep that up for long.  Right now they are very young and don't require a lot for their schooling.  But the reason I want to homeschool is to give them opportunities and experiences they can't get in public school.  A lot of those things cost money.  My oldest just started karate.  It's so great to see him excited about something.  It gives him good physical activity and he has the chance to meet other kids with a similar interest through this.  This is almost $100 a month.  In the next couple of years my younger child will want to get involved in something similar, probably with a similar price tag.  There are co-op classes, field trips, museum memberships, and other expenses that come along with our lifestyle, and as they get older and become interested in more things, those expenses will only increase.  Right now I barely know how to pay for the one activity, what will I do when they want more?
And as far as staying home, I still am dealing with the issue of trying to pay off my student loans on top of all our other bills with only one paycheck.  I am often tempted to go get a "real" job for a few years just so I can get them paid off.  But if I do that, the kids will have to be put in daycare/school, and it defeats everything I feel so passionately about (not to mention the costs associated with daycare, school, a new wardrobe, a reliable car, and meals might offset any money I make anyway).

Financial Goals


My financial goals aren't that much different from my life goals, I guess.

• I want to pay off my student loan (about $30,000-- yikes)
• I want to pay off my mortgage
• I want to get back to giving 10% of our income to charity
• I want to have enough to give my kids the extracurriculars they want
• I want to pay for my kids' college educations

Obstacles and Action Plan


Ugh.  The dreaded action plan.  $30,000 of private college debt and I still don't know how to properly write an action plan.  Again, too much thinking.  So first, the obstacles:

• Sometimes I use my credit card to buy myself things I don't really need, but I kind of feel like I deserve because I'm working so hard to keep my family happy and healthy and not in the poorhouse.  And then I have to find a way to pay off said credit card, which then takes away from all of those more important financial goals.
• We keep finding more new and exciting ways to spend our money, without actually bringing more money in.
• We rely a lot on cards (mostly the debit card, a little on the credit card) for daily purchases, which seems to make the money disappear faster than it should.

And now for the action plan:  How to deal with these specific obstacles....

• I should probably put my credit card in the freezer or something.  Maybe I can find something to do with my time that doesn't involve going on a Target shopping spree or buying overpriced makeup, but is still fulfilling.  Maybe I could begin volunteering one evening a week or something?  
• We should take a look at where our money is really going and where it should be going and try to get on a better financial plan.  We need to really prioritize our spending and decide what needs to stay and what can go.  

Now, I know that "should" and "maybe" have no place in an action plan.  But I'm having a really hard time coming to terms with the fact that I once again need to put myself in check.  It's just plain embarrassing to admit that I lost control of my budget once again, when I was so sure of myself before.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I'm baaaaaaaack

Well, folks, I took a little hiatus, but I'm back now.  My commitment to my budget sadly ebbs and flows.  Today I had one of those moments that makes you realize how great budgets can be, and how much I really need to control mine.  See, my poor puppy has an ear infection.  He had to go to the vet today to have it looked at and get medicine and all of those expensive things.  Well, I have been dutifully adding money to the "pets" envelope every paycheck and wondering why the hell I was accumulating so much "pet" money when I could actively be using it elsewhere (like, say, on new clothes or some name brand shoes)... and today that question was answered as I handed over half my cash to the receptionist at the vet's office.  It felt so liberating!  Oftentimes in the past, when an emergency comes up it's been necessary to hand over the credit card and figure out how to pay for it later, or deplete the entire (very small) savings account.  Today I was able to walk in, take care of my dog, and walk out, all without having to sweat about where the money was coming from.  I think this was just the boost I needed to get me back in the swing of things.  Because, unfortunately, my budgeting skills have kind of dulled in the past few months.

It wasn't so long ago that I balanced my budget in beautiful ways.  We tithed our ten percent and still had enough money for all of our expenses.  I lived and breathed my cash envelope system.  But lately, I haven't been so good.  I might sometimes put meals out on the debit card instead of using the "grocery" cash.  Sometimes maybe I put my "wants" above my "needs" and use my credit card to fund things I shouldn't.  Which then leads to using my "pay down the student loan" money to pay off the damn credit card-- AGAIN.  Life happens, and expenses just keep coming.  I feel like we are back in a place of living paycheck to paycheck, and that's not a really fun place to be.  SO, I have officially set aside my latest Gossip Girl novel in order to read a "get your shit together and pay your bills in 25 days" book, and my goal is to share every one of those 25 with you.  Here's the thing:  I might consolidate a little bit if I can.  The book is broken down into these 25 chapters so you can read and accomplish one a day.  I'm not big on only reading one chapter a day, so we'll see if I can actually stick with it.  Sometimes I might do multiple days in one, if it's possible.  As I promised from the beginning, it's going to get personal and probably pretty ugly.  But that's the joy of the internet: as ugly as it gets, I don't really know you so it's all good.  I'll be back later today with my Day One report.  I should warn you (and myself): I have not looked ahead so I have no clue what the daily "assignments" will really consist of.

on Why I Suck

It has been about six weeks since my last post.  Would you like to hear WHY, Dear Reader?  Pretty much because I suck.  Remember that tax refund I told you about?  And about how there are wise ways to spend windfalls?  Well, hopefully I didn't talk too much about that, but I planned on it.  Because if I HAD preached about the importance of being frugal and careful with windfalls, I would be a big fat hypocrite right about now.  You see, our small windfall came in and all of the sudden we turned into nouveau riche assholes.

Pretty much, we blew it.

Mind you, we did the most important thing: we payed off that little lingering amount on the credit cards.  I also paid down a student loan, though in retrospect I probably should have used more for that.

When we bought this house I really had this grand idea that all windfalls would be put directly into either the mortgage or student loans.  We spent years living on sheer willpower, never really making enough to survive.  I took a personal finance class, read a couple of books, then started really managing our money.  We cut out ALL extra spending.  Like, we're talking, I didn't order a pizza for like a year.  We paid cash for everything, so there were never any extra surprises coming out of the bank account.  I had the whole thing figured out and we were disciplined, and we managed to save up and purchase our first house within a year.  I was really nervous to purchase the house because, being the Dave Ramsey fangirl I was, my first thought was, "but Dave Says..."  Dave says don't take on any new debt when you're still paying the old stuff.  My original plan was to get the CC debt totally gone, then work on saving a large down payment while paying the student loans.  But, the hard truth is, apartment living sucks.  We had an adorable little townhouse, with less adorable neighbors and just downright unpleasant management.  We got out as soon as we saw an opportunity, which meant spending one of those little windfalls plus cashing in a retirement account to do it.

I don't regret our decision.  I love our home, and I think it was just something that had to be done.  And, with the tax credit, we came out ahead.  UNFORTUNATELY, we weren't smart enough to put back the money we had borrowed against the retirement or invest the money back into our home.  You know that feeling you have when you've been dieting for a little while (OK, for me it's like 14 hours), eating nothing but salads or grapefruit or whatever the fad is?  And then you just say, "screw it, I am STARVING," and you just eat everything you can get your fat little hands on?  I think that's what happened.  We spent so long saving and scrimping, we just got too hungry.  So here's my lesson, and it seems to be a common theme with me:  sometimes we make mistakes.  I didn't run up MORE debt, so that's a good thing.  I just wasted some money I probably shouldn't have.  Now the only thing one can do is dust themselves off and start again.  Consider me dusting.

Ms. Obvious's money saving tips

I don't seem to be that great at saving money.  Try as I might, I just really really like to give in to consumerism, ESPECIALLY when it comes to my kids.  For myself I will buy clothes at Goodwill, only shop for clearance makeup...  OK, I have my weaknesses too, I guess.  I like good quality coffee.  I like Coke Zero.  I like candy (a cheap indulgence, but one that adds up calorically AND financially).  But for my kids I am a sucker.  They want a new t-shirt with their latest cartoon character?  Well, OK, it's only $7 and they COULD use clothes for the new season.  The latest Disney movie on DVD?  Well, I'm sure that's a necessary indulgence.  After all, I grew up with a massive collection of Disney movies...  See?  Any waste of money for my kids can be justified.  I'm trying to tell myself that they are kids, they don't REALLY care about all that crap, and whatever it is they will lose it, break it, or stain it, so there is no point in spending the money.  But here are some areas that it IS fairly easy and, to me at least, obvious to save money.  Yet somehow they are often overlooked.

Cable television.  I have read so many budgeting articles and books that tell you to write out your fixed expenses and include cable on that.  Guys, you don't need cable.  I know many of us grew up on cable.  I sure did!  I was born the same year as MTV, so to me cable is like my favorite sibling.  I LOVE the freedom of turning on the television and finding someone to watch at any hour of the day.  There are channels that play nothing but music videos, nothing but cartoons, nothing but soap operas and game shows!  It's AMAZING!  ...but it is not necessary.  If you are looking to save money, this is a good place to do it.  Thanks to the wonders of the internet you can watch just about anything you want on Hulu.  And any show worth watching (that isn't on network television, which you can get without cable- duh) will wind up on DVD and you can borrow it from the library.  OK, I know, not all libraries are as great as mine and you might not have that option.  Netflix is an option that is still technically a luxury but is a lot cheaper per month than any cable you can get.

Movies.  Occasionally I go to a movie with a friend.  It's a good way to get out of the house and it makes me feel like a kid again, when I went to the movies every single weekend.  It's a nice splurge, but again, not necessary.  The DVD comes out within three or four months.  Few movies are worth watching on the "big screen."  Wait for the DVD and have a nice night in.  All the free popcorn you can eat and none of the cell phones.  Oh, and you save a buttload of money.  Cheap DVD options include your library, Netflix, or the newest option, Redbox.  At $1 a night Redbox is awesome (as long as you remember to take it back), and you are more likely to get the newest releases than at the library.

Generics vs Name Brands.  There are certain brands I'm partial to.  Like I said before, I LOVE Coke Zero.  I often buy the name brand on that one because there aren't too may generic sodas that I think taste as good.  But keep an open mind on generics.  I always try generics, but I've learned not to waste the money on a cheaper inferior product.  That being said, a lot of generics are as good as national brands, if not better.  I LOVE Target's store brand diapers.  I didn't discover these until my youngest was about 18 months old, and I could just kick myself for the years I spent buying name brands.  I could have been putting that extra money in my kids' college funds instead of on their bottoms (of course, on the diaper issue, cloth diapers will save you the most and be the most eco friendly, but I was never brave enough to try it).  We buy tons of store brand products, but I also shop with coupons.  I buy whatever will be the best deal for me, and whatever tastes the best.  Did you know a lot of stores are coming out with organic and "all natural" lines of their own brand too?  How great is that??  Finding affordable, healthy food is one of my favorite things!

These are just the money savers off the top of my head.  There are obviously other things like, you don't ever need to eat out, and you don't need to buy books or music (again, that's what the library is for!).  I'll share more with you as I think of them.  Until then, happy budgeting!

Adventures in Baking Soda

As I've discussed before, I've been trying to move into the realm of nontoxic cleaners.  A few weeks ago I discussed my amazement with vinegar.  Today I have discovered the joy of baking soda.

Yes, baking soda!  Not just for baking anymore!  Actually, I've always known it could be used to soothe an upset tummy, brush your teeth, and put out a grease fire.  So when I picked up my white vinegar in bulk, I bought a giant bag of baking soda as well.  It has gone unopened all these weeks, sitting in my laundry room staring at me accusingly, a glaring reminder of all the items I've wasted money on when I get my mind set on starting some kind of new crazy project that I then quit a couple of weeks later.

Well.  Two days ago I put a load of clothes in the washer.  Then I forgot about it.  Until this morning.  Sadly, this has happened before.  You know how it goes.  You open the washer and say, "please don't stink, please don't stink."  And it stinks.  Then you look at the dryer and think to yourself, "well maybe if I put an extra dryer sheet in..."  but you know from experience that doesn't help.  So you're left with running that load AGAIN, wasting money on the energy and water you're using, not to mention all the extra soap you have to use to get that stench out.  We've been known to have to wash the load three more times AND use extra dryer sheets in order to make amends for my absent mind.

So this morning I am going through all those thoughts when I happen to look down, and a light was hitting that giant bag of baking soda straight from Heaven.  Angels were singing.  It was a Moment....  OK, maybe not.  But at least I saw the baking soda and thought, "what can it hurt?"  As the water was running to refill the washer, I dumped in about half a cup of baking soda.  Guess what, folks...  it actually worked!  It only took one run-through and my clothes smelled fresh and clean!  This time I'm pretty sure angels really DID shine down from Heaven.  I am DEFINITELY a baking soda convert.

Other uses for baking soda include using it as a scouring cleaner (like the powdered Comet, except it's not going to chemically burn the skin off your hands when you decide to scrub the sink with no gloves); an odor eater (you can put it in the garbage, the fridge, the diaper pail. I like to put some in a little cup or saucer or something and put THAT in the fridge rather than an entire box-- doesn't that seem a little excessive? Why waste the whole box?); cleaning your drains (I read two different ideas for this- in one you just dump the soda down the drain while running warm water.  In the other you make a solution of 1/2 soda, 1/2 white vinegar and dump it down the drain, let that sit for a few minutes, then pour a kettle of boiling water down the drain.  Personally I'll be trying the second, it just sounds more credible.); AND you can make some mean biscuits too!

For more ideas, check out the Arm & Hammer website or The New Homemaker.

Bitches on a Budget

So there is this whole genre of books dedicated to personal finance for women.  Of course we've always had the Suze Orman stuff, but this is different.  It's like non-fiction chick-lit.  Given my love of all things chick-lit AND my fascination with personal finance, I thought this might be the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

Not so much.

Bitches on a Budget is actually my second dip into this type of writing.  The first was so unimpressive and irrelevant to my life that I can't even remember it.  Bitches started out pretty much on the same level for me.

First of all, I apparently am not a "bitch."  (Yeah, try telling some of my exboyfriends that!)  A bitch, as defined by this new fad in books, is a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it.  She's a ruthless professional climbing her way to the top, but still likes to be feminine and treat herself to the nice things in life.  You will find these bitches, apparently, spending A LOT of money.  They like spa days, professional grade makeup, and incredibly expensive clothing with brand names I'm not even sure if I pronounce correctly...  If that's you, super.  Maybe you can get something out of this book.  But it's pretty much the opposite of me, or any person I would ever hope to be.

This book is full of ideas on how to compromise your insanely high expectations and still maintain your standard of living.  For example, instead of shopping at the highest end retailers and buying the most expensive apparel, check out the moderately priced stuff-- you'd be surprised what great, professional looking clothes you can get from Banana Republic!  And there's no reason to never enter a Sephora again.  You can go and only buy the lipstick!

Well, yesterday I visited the Banana Republic website and, while I admit I do like their clothes, I felt like I'd been punched in the gut when I looked at the prices.  Bear in mind, I do not work outside the home so I have no need for professional looking clothing.  Maybe I would feel differently if I did.  And Sephora?  Never even been there.  For me a splurge in clothing is visiting Target or Old Navy.  Makeup splurges involve buying Cover Girl instead of the dollar stuff from Wal-Mart.  And I've got to say, the author TOTALLY lost me when she said one should never shop at Goodwill, because that is a place for the truly poor and one should never take advantage of that unless they have to.  She claims shopping at Goodwill is like stealing from the poor.

OK, I thoroughly disagree.  I love Goodwill!  I was turned on to it about 8 or 9 years ago by this hippie-chick who was all into protecting the environment.  Why buy new clothes that were made in sweat shops when there are perfectly good used clothes out there that are just waiting for a second life?  Think of all the clothes you get rid of.  I get rid of at least a couple of garbage bags a year.  Every house in America probably does that.  That is more clothes than the poor alone need.  And by the way, Goodwill still costs money.  I am still purchasing things, not taking them off the homeless guy's back.  I would never go to a church or other organization that GIVES clothing to the poor and take them, but if I can get cute shirts for $3 a piece AND be doing my part to keep more crap out of landfills, I'm going for it.  I have even been known to buy shoes from Goodwill (though I totally Lysol them first).

That being said, there were parts of this book I enjoyed.  I liked the chapter on eating well and exercising on a budget.  It's easy to fall into that trap of buying junk and convenience foods because they seem cheaper than buying whole foods, but it is true that you can get great on a small budget.  I work towards that goal all the time.  I also thought the chapter on traveling was fun, though I'm not sure how plausible it is.

Overall, I was not the audience for this book.  To be perfectly honest, it made me want to buy more!  I WAS perfectly satisfied with my life until I learned of all the cool stuff I'm missing, that apparently are the things that "Bitches" are going to be downgrading to.  Now I'm considering redecorating my home and buying better makeup.  I didn't think I needed it before, but now I'm not so sure...  If you're a Bitch, give this book a shot.  Maybe you can find something in it that I didn't.  If you're REALLY on a budget, do not be fooled by the title: this book is not for you.

Just a little update...

Creating and maintaining a daily blog is HARD!  I don't know how people do it.  They clearly have a better schtick than I.  I have the upmost respect for my fellow bloggers who can find things to say daily and find people to read those things.  And the ones who are even fortunate enough to make money off of it, you are amazing.  Many years ago my uncle had a blog.  This was back in the day before Blogger and WordPress, when you actually had to work at it a little bit.  He had people from all over the world visiting his blog.  Me, I'm just lucky if I can get a handful of people I actually know to read it....  Though maybe if I updated it occasionally that might help....

My world got slightly busier for a few weeks due to school, but now I'm back in the land of the unemployed and uneducated!  I have a few ideas for posts coming up, so I will strive to pick up the pace a bit.  I am in the process of reading a book that I have tons of opinions on, so once the book is done I will share those with you.  I'm also exploring the ideas of fun (and free) stuff to do now that the weather is starting to warm up.  Maybe I'll throw in some random posts that have nothing to do with anything, too, just I can say I updated.  Let me add that if there is anyone out there reading this, pass it on to your friends.  Don't give up on me just yet.  I'll do better about updating.  Promise.

My New Friend, White Vinegar

A month or two ago, my dishwasher ran out of Jet Dry.  I totally forgot about adding more, until my dishes starting coming out like this: 

Yeah, it's really gross.  What's grosser?  That was a month or two ago.  On Sunday I finally did something about it.

Now don't get me wrong, I half-heartedly tried.  I added Jet Dry, I changed detergents, but the fact is once that stuff is on there, it ain't coming back off without some elbow grease.  OR vinegar!

Yes, while looking up how to clean cloudy dishes, I discovered that vinegar can do pretty much anything.  I read a lot of books about frugal living, and pretty much all of them mention vinegar at some point or another, but I had no idea!  First of all, behold the awesomeness of using it to clean cloudy dishes:

I soaked the dishes in a sink full of vinegar water (about 1 cup of white vinegar to a sink of hot water) then ran a sponge over them and let them air dry.  Who knew?!  Well, probably my grandma.  But not me!  Now this is also super convenient for me because I have been trying to get away from using a lot of chemicals in my house.  I bought some of that "all natural" all purpose cleaner made by one of those big name cleaner companies.  Then I went on this big "keep the house clean" kick and realized how fast one really goes through a bottle of all purpose cleaner.  Now I've realized that I can keep the house clean all the time naturally without breaking the bank.  I got 2 gallons of white vinegar at Sam's Club for about the same price as one bottle of all purpose cleaner at the store.  Then I bought a $0.98 spray bottle at the store and can now create my own all purpose, all natural cleaner.  It's amazing!  Apparently there are a million and one things you can do with vinegar.  My favorite resource for vinegar goodness is The Vinegar Institute.  Here's another good article about the great ways to use vinegar.  So go out and buy some vinegar, and you'll probably never have to buy anything else again!  (OK...  maybe a slight exaggeration, but you never know...)

Month 2 Revisited

OK, February is over.  I thought a short month would be easier.  In some ways, it was.  We did not have to borrow money from the Savings to cover the Checking, so that's a good thing!  But by the end of the month, I was kind of holding my breath and hoping that paycheck would hit.

I looked over the statement for February and I think I've found our problem.  See, I try to do everything in cash now.  I've set it up so that all groceries and other similar transactions come out of nice little labelled envelopes that are filled on payday.  Every 2 weeks we get paid, and every 2 weeks I load those kiddos up in the car and make an ATM run.  I pull out all the money I need for my envelopes for those 2 weeks.  This is what we did last time we set up a budget, and it works super well if you stick to it....  Unfortunately, we don't seem to have that down again this time...

Let's think about this.  Every month we get 2 paychecks, I make 2 ATM withdrawals, then there's bills that are paid either through automatic deduction or check, let's say that adds up to 10 (I'm being generous here because I'm too lazy to go back and count and I want to give us the benefit of the doubt here).  We also use our debit cards for gas (it's just easier to pay at the pump than go in with cash).  That's about 6 transactions.  That's 20 transactions that should occur in our checking account each month.  Let's be REALLY generous and go up to 25, just in case I'm forgetting something.  25.  How many transactions did our checking account see in February (a short month, remember)?

49.

Basically double what it should have.  Wow.  Talk about sucking!  No wonder we never have extra money to pay down debts!  No wonder we're always just squeaking by from paycheck to paycheck!  We clearly don't understand this self-imposed "no debit card use" rule at all!  WHY???

Because life happens.  I'm looking over it and there is not a single payment to Taco Bell or any of the fun stuff we used to waste money on.  There's a payment to the dentist.  There's insurance on Hubby's new iPhone.  And so on and so forth.  Most of it is stuff that we just never even thought about and didn't have the cash set aside for.  Or trips to the grocery store that were not planned and we didn't have the cash on us (we don't exactly carry around all of our cash all the time- we're weird but we're not crazy!).  Of course there are a couple of instances of lack of communication between Hubby and myself.  Like car washes.  I noticed a few payments to the car wash on that list.  Well, if you look at my car you know that I do not take any pride in it.  It gets me from point A to point B and I do not care how it looks, so I'll go a year without a car wash.  Maybe if it gets really bad I'll hose it down, but that's about the extent of it (yeah, I know the benefits to washing your car, I know that it's going to rust together or rust apart or whatever and I would save a lot of time and money in the long run if I gave it regular washings, I just really don't care).  But Hubby is another story.  He likes a clean car.  He takes car maintenance seriously on his baby.  I understand this and I actually have an envelope set aside for the specific purpose of maintaining his car.  But he clearly does not know this, because the envelope has cash in it that goes untouched while my checking account has 3 car washes plus an oil change on it.  Obviously this budgeting thing is not something I should be doing alone, but should be a family affair.  Then maybe we would all be on the same page as far as how car washes should be purchased.

We had our taxes done last night.  Due to our new home purchase, we had to file a paper return which means a few extra weeks of waiting for the big payout, but I'm actually OK with that.  I remember a time when that little refund was the difference between bills getting paid or not.  We're very lucky to not be in that place anymore.  Sure, refund time is fun, but it's not necessary to our survival anymore.  I cannot wait to get it though because budgeting it will actually be a lot of fun.  I'm hoping to sit down later today and see where exactly we can put it.  I'm thinking something like this:  10% to charity (I actually have a lot of fun trying to decide which worthy organization should get this money-- though really I know if I have it my way I'll give it all to our local PBS station, no contest), 10% for totally selfish purposes (we already have picked out our big splurges, Hubby and I each get our own, no joint purchases this time around!), and the rest for paying things off and saving.  You know what?  I just might buy that $30 water saving shower head too!  That's right, Big Spender in the house today (or in 5 to 7 weeks when we get our refund, I should say).

My March resolution is to provide a better blog.  I can't guarantee it will be a daily occurrence, but that's what I'm going to shoot for.  So check back regularly, as I'm sure to have tons of fun and excitement to share with you.  Until then, happy budgeting!

Week in Review

At the beginning of this week I made a resolution to get my home life better under control.  I shouldn't say "home" life, I guess.  That implies an issue in my family.  "House life" would be a better term.  Someone once said that your home reflects yourself.  The meaning being that if your house is in shambles, your life probably is too.  That's certainly true for me.  I realized I owe it to my family, and myself, to get my shit straight.  I had a grand plan to work on scheduling and time management this week, but that didn't exactly work out.  Here are some things I've learned this week, and how they apply to budgeting:

1.  Start where you can.  Unfortunately for us perfectionists, life is never going to be perfect.  You will never be in the perfect place to do ANYTHING.  You think, "in order to start a budget, I need to have X amount of money."  Not true.  In order to start budgeting, you need to have exactly what you have.  I remember the first time I was introduced to budgeting.  I was working a job making $7.25 an hour.  I scoffed at the person who could have been my savior, because I felt like I didn't even have enough money to budget!  Now I kick myself because had I listened to her then I could have saved myself a lot of heartache later.  But we live and learn.  We start where we can.

2.  You won't do it right the first time you try.  Yep, it's true.  Again, Perfectionist Number One here.  I have given up on pretty much everything I've ever tried to do.  Well, I've stuck with a few things, but they're always the things that were waaaaaay too easy for me.  Like, I spent five and a half years at a job because they never asked more of me than: 1. Put dirty laundry in washer, 2. Put washed laundry in dryer, 3. Fold laundry from dryer.  I could do that from day one and never had to question myself.  For me, keeping my house and life organized are really, really hard.  It's much easier to let messes pile up and freak out about it than it is to try to learn the new skills it takes to manage my life effectively.   Budgeting your money can be really, really hard.  I'm trying to learn how to do it with one income, and guess what, I'm failing sometimes.  Sometimes I have to juggle money between accounts just so the checking account doesn't bounce.  Sometimes I just have to take it out of the meager savings account for that reason, then it never gets put back.  It's frustrating, and it's tempting to throw that budget in the trash and just rely on blind hope that money will miraculously be in the account when it's supposed to be (never worked before, but ya never know).  But I try, try again.  At the end of the month I look at where I went wrong, why I ran out of money, and I learn from my mistakes.  Well, at least I know what my mistakes are.  Sometimes I make them again.  But one of these days I'll get it right.  (*note: this weekend is the end of the month, so I'll be reviewing and letting you know how February worked out for me.)

3.  Do the best you can.  In my week of prioritizing and cleaning, I have learned to accept the best from myself, and know that that's not always the best in the world.  A sad fact of life is that I am not Martha Stewart, no matter how much I would love to be.  I will never have a house worthy of a magazine cover.  I have kids who leave toys EVERYWHERE, and pets that leave hair in even more places than that!  This week I focused on one room a day to clean.  Tuesday I cleaned my bedroom.  It was the biggest mess in the world.  Seriously.  Awful.  It took me half the day.  I absolutely overexerted myself.  But it's clean!  But then I spent the rest of the week totally burnt out.  So clearly I did something wrong.  But here's the thing, I didn't give up!  That's a first for me.  I haven't wanted to clean much since then, but I did the best I could.  Sure, I used the Swiffer and ReadyMop on the bathroom floors instead of the real broom and mop.  But at least I did something.  I did the best I could.  Same thing goes for budgeting money.  Sometimes we do great, other times not so great.  Sometimes we make purchases that we then think "OK, I probably could have lived without that," and we feel guilty about it.  Don't feel guilty anymore!  Accept it for what it is and move on.  If that wasn't a wise purchase, don't give up on the whole thing, just don't make that purchase again.  Just do the best you can.  With practice and perseverance, your best will get better and pretty soon you'll have a balanced budget!

Making a List

So I'm trying this new time management thing.  Today is really day 1.  So far I'm not so much managing my time better as spending it better.  A lot more has gotten accomplished today, but that's pretty much just a manic fit.  I did not get an hour-by-hour schedule created, but I did make a list of the things I wanted to accomplish in any given day.  The list goes like this:

1.  Unload/load the dishwasher

2.  Wash, dry, & put away one load of laundry

3.  Spend 1 hour on homework/studying

4.  Read a big stack of books to my boys

5.  Make 1 room bearable to live in.

6.  Make dinner

And the crazy thing is, I accomplished it!  It is 3:15 in the afternoon, and all of the things listed are done.  Of course, this probably means that I don't have an ambitious enough list.  But it's sadly a lot more than I get done with no list.  

And speaking of lists, I am currently on the search of resources to tell me what my daily routines should look like.  Today I turned to Martha Stewart.  Her site has a plethora of checklists for daily, weekly, etc., chores that, if done, will leave your home looking like hers.  OK, maybe not, but it's worth a shot.

I was also referred to FlyLady.com.  This site offers a month's worth of "BabySteps" to kick start your home organization.  Step 1:  Shine the sink.  I have done 3 loads of laundry, 2 loads of dishes, and cleaned 2 rooms, but I have not accomplished shining the sink yet.  I have an hour and a half of "work day" left, I think it will take that entire time to gather up the courage to shine the sink.  Time to stop blogging and start shining, I suppose.  

Time Management

Of course the "budgets" in the title of my blog refer to the budgeting of money, but I am beginning to realize there are many other things out there we can budget.  My pet budget today: the time budget.

I was watching a news story this morning about procrastination.  Now as you can probably tell from the three weeks since my last post, I have a little issue with that.  Well, little issues become bigger every day.  My older son is now four.  I've made a commitment to my family to be a stay at home mom and a homeschooler.  We're getting to the age where homeschooling is something that actually needs to be done instead of a philosophy that will come to fruition someday.  My responsibilities are growing constantly, but I have yet to change much.  I have no schedule to speak of, beyond "it's 2:00, go take a nap so I can sit here and stare at the tv for a while."  My day usually goes something like this:

7:30 or 8ish: wake up, give the kids some juice and whatever convenience breakfast they want (Finn likes instant oatmeal and Jude likes those cheesy peanut butter crackers-- yeah, I know, worst mother ever. My kids eat processed crap for their most important meal of the day.).
8:30:  Turn on PBS Kids. The kids stare at it for a while and I drink coffee and check my email... somehow this turns into 2 hours.  I think Bejeweled might have something to do with that.
10:30:  Realize we've all been staring like zombies at flashing screens for the last 2 hours and turn off the TV.  From here sometimes we make it to the library or grocery store, but more often the boys just go play in their room and I... what do I do?  I couldn't really tell you, honestly.  I throw a load of clothes in the washer sometimes.
Noonish:  Fix some sandwiches or something equally easy for lunch.
12:30-1 I usually chat with Hubby.
1:  Sometimes we read books, sometimes we go our separate ways and they play some more.  Sometimes we color or work on a project, though sadly these times are rare.
2-4: nap/quiet time.  I do homework, watch TV, surf the internet (for what, I don't know), and take a shower
4-5: prepare dinner.  at 5 Hubby gets home and there is absolutely no schedule after that.

Now, somedays there is a special event or I am just feeling motivated and I clean a room or exercise a bit.  But more often than not I am about the laziest, most slovenly person.  It's a bit ridiculous.  So today I decided I would look up time management.  I found a totally awesome blog, Wanting What You Have, that I will be referring to A LOT over the next few days as I try to create lists of things that need to be done everyday, a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule, and all those other good things.  Maybe this seems extreme to some of you, but believe me, I need it.  As a natural born Procrastinator, the thing I need most is an hour by hour schedule telling me exactly what to do.  Or else I'll spend 12 hours of my day playing puzzle games on the internet.

This may seem counter to my money budgeting plans, but it's really not.  Time is money, as they say.  I waste so much time and get so little accomplished, I know I have got to be paying for it in my finances.  As my breakfast example already proves.  Instant oatmeal and snack crackers cost a lot more than homemade foods.  With better time management there is time to make from scratch breakfast foods that can be stored and used throughout the week for convenience.  Also, I just had to shell out $12 in late fees to the library because I forgot to return items.  A clearer schedule would probably keep me more organized and items would not be late because they would go back to the library on scheduled library days.

It's a grand goal, I realize.  If anyone has any time management tips, I would love to hear them.  Currently I'm still trying to figure out how to even begin.  I'm not even sure what things are supposed to be done every day, much less allotting time to do them.  Wish me luck.

Is this a test?

As I've mentioned before, living on a budget is nothing new to our family.  The thing is, that budget used to be fairly loose.  Now, it's much much tighter.  So while this is not our first year on a budget, it is the first year of living frugally.  And let me tell you, it is NOT easy.

I keep finding myself in these "you have to spend money to make money" situations.  I have these grand visions of planting a garden and living off the land (at least a little), but I have all of zero gardening tools.  So yes, we could in theory save money by planting, harvesting, and canning our own vegetables.  But in the meantime we must purchase everything we need to do all that.  I have no gardening tools, no seeds, no planters (I'm toying with the idea of container gardening this year. It seems a bad idea to ruin half my yard when I don't even know if I can grow a tomato yet), and none of the tools required for canning, should we make it that far.

This is just the biggest example.  There are others, such as the fact that my water bill is atrocious.  I know we could greatly benefit from a water-saving shower head.  And I know you can get those for as little as $30.  But then I think, "is that in the budget?" And the answer is no.  The budget is a work in progress, we're still trying to figure out how to buy the things we need right now, so we're definitely not at a place where we are saving for the next home renovation (and yes, in my Budget Nazi head, a $30 shower head is a major renovation).

Today my bread machine died.  I use my bread machine at least once a week, oftentimes more.  It provides us with pizza dough, dinner rolls, and cinnamon bread, among other things.  I'm trying to figure out what my new Frugal Self should do.  On one hand, the answer to the question, "is a new one in the budget?" is not one I want to answer honestly.  On the other, it saves us so much money and provides us with such yummy goodness, how can we not replace it immediately?

So to sum it all up, being frugal is way harder than I expected.  You don't realize how spoiled you are until you really start questioning every purchase you want to make.  But I'm determined to see this through.  I know I'm not perfect.  I already know I'll be buying concert tickets sometime this week.  Is a concert a necessity?  Is it in the budget?  No.  But ya know what?  I haven't been to a concert in at least five years.  I've been waiting for this particular concert for even longer than that.  I have already made the decision to sacrifice in other areas so I can be there, because it is really important to me.  I will not go further into debt for it, I will use "real" money.  There are probably more practical places for that real money to go.  Like I said, I'm not perfect.  But I'm learning.  And I think now I am going to go Google how to knead bread dough, because I no longer have a machine to do it for me.

Where the Hell is my Money

When creating my budget, I pretty much just looked at how much I was already spending, and where, and wrote that down.  I have read in magazine articles and such that your expenses should be broken down by percentages, but I didn't really know what those percentages were.  For fun today I decided to look that up, and see how my budget measures up.  

I am sure there are a hundred different ways to break this down.  Every "financial expert" has their own opinion.  I just googled it and trusted the first "expert" I found.  It was from CNBC.  It breaks it down like this:

House (mortgage or rent, taxes, insurance):  30%

Transportation (car payment, gas, insurance, maintenance): 18%

Debt: 10%

Food (including toiletries & anything else you use daily): 14%

Household (utilities, cable, internet): 7%

Savings: 10%

Everything else: 11%

Now here's what I actually spend:

House: 29.4% (pretty good, huh?!)

Transportation: 8.3% (we don't have car payments, thank goodness, though we should probably be saving more towards the purchase of a new vehicle should either of ours give out)

Debt: 7.1%  (you would think as much as I complain about paying of debt I could up that to at least the recommended)

Food: 14.1% (pretty close)

Household:  13.1%  (almost double the recommended-- that's something to work on)

Savings: 5.3%  (suck)

Everything else (and here's the bad one): 22.6%!! 

Clearly there is some work to be done here.  I will be reevaluating things to try to get us at least slightly closer to where we should be in some of these categories.  Upping Debt and Savings are the main goals. We'll look at this again at the end of next month and see what we can do.  

By the way, I highly recommend checking out the CNBC link above.  It has a budget calculator so you can put in your monthly income and it tells you exactly how much, according to the aforementioned percentages, you should be spending in each category.  

And with that, happy budgeting.

Month 1 Revisited

Well my goal of creating a daily (or even weekly) blog kind of fell apart, didn't it?  I guess that's my way of showing life reflecting budget.  The budget kind of fell apart as well.  But really, that's the beauty of budgets.  They fall apart, they evolve, they do many wondrous things.  My budget used to be a beautifully regimented thing, because I lied.  I budgeted out Hubby's salary but never added my part-time job.  So I'm thinking, WOW, I can really balance a budget!  Everything always worked out and savings were never dipped into.  Now that I don't have an extra paycheck I realize how hard it is to actually make these things work.  There is no extra padding, we only have what is written down on the piece of paper.  That piece of paper is so unforgiving.  It doesn't care if everyone gets sick and needs medicine that costs more than the "Medical" envelope allows.  It doesn't care that it's somebody's birthday and it would be really nice to order pizza to celebrate.  It doesn't care if someone unwittingly left the garage furnace running for three days and our power bill shot through the roof.  All the budget cares about is itself.  It cares that, come the end of the month, it doesn't have a negative balance.  Selfish bastard.

So since that silly piece of paper doesn't care, it's my job to care.  And I have spent this month doing a lot of caring.  It's been pretty interesting to find the foods that were shoved to the back of the pantry and creating new meals, desperate because I know there is only $20 left in the food budget and that has to be saved for milk (though, who knew, I have a box of powdered milk-- if all else fails, I guess we'll find out how that tastes in our morning cereal).

There are five days left in the month, and we have not quite run out of money yet.  Of course, I have not paid off as much of the credit cards as I originally hoped, and I still have license plates to renew, but for the most part I've made it work.  Hopefully next month will be more productive.  Sadly at this point I just feel like I'm holding my breath until tax refund time.  That's no way to be, but what can you do?  On a positive note, we were able to pay all of our bills and not starve to death.  We will not be losing our home or cars or anything else due to lack of money this month.  That's a lot more than some people can say.  The earthquake in Haiti was a big eye-opener for me.  I didn't want to, but I watched the fund raiser with all the celebrities talking about how sad life in Haiti is (what can I say? Kid Rock was singing when I turned the TV on, and the white trash in me will not allow me to deny Kid Rock my attention).  My life is not perfect, but it is wonderful.  I sat on the couch with my microwave popcorn and my name brand soda and cried my eyes out, realizing how blessed I am to have my home and my family safe, and yes, I have consumer debt-- but in a way isn't that a blessing too?  If the worst thing I have to deal with is paying off some stupid purchases, I am the luckiest person in the world.  I have thus far never had to dig a family member out of the rubble that was once our home because my city has been destroyed by a natural disaster.  I have never had to depend on the kindness of people on the other side of the world to make sure I have the basic necessities of life.

Sometimes it's easy to forget these things.  Especially when you want so much to pay off bills and be financially secure.  Tithing is such an important part of my budget, and for a few weeks I let myself forget that.  But what is ten percent of my income, really?  Believe me, it's not that much money.  Sure, it COULD be used to more quickly pay off a debt that I never should have allowed myself to accrue anyway.  But aren't there millions of people who could put it to better use than that?  Thanks to Kid Rock, I realized the error of my ways.  And I think I sleep better at night knowing that my money is helping people survive rather than helping me purchase more crap I don't need, or paying for the crap that I already bought that I don't need.  We made our token donation to the Red Cross after watching that show, though I will admit it wasn't as much as it should have been.  My goal for February is to continue on my path towards simplicity so I have the money available to help the world outside of my 4 walls.  I don't go to church anymore, but I still firmly believe that all I have, I have because of God.  Therefore, giving back ten percent in order that His world can be a better place, really is a small price to pay for all I have received.

The Dreaded Power Bill

There is no better way to ruin a weekend than to see your power company's e-bill sitting in your inbox first thing Saturday morning.  I woke up Saturday to a $300 power bill.

This is my first winter in a house (well, in a house I've been responsible for paying the bills on).  Apartment dwelling has its benefits, especially in the utilities department.  Not only was our townhouse significantly smaller than the house, but it also shared walls on both sides, which makes for awesome insulation.

I clearly didn't totally take these factors into consideration when planning my budget.  We went from a much smaller townhouse with gas heating to an all electric house.  Obviously I expected the power bill to go up a bit, but not in my wildest dreams did I imagine we would hit the 300-mark.  Needless to say, I spent the weekend in a panic, trying to re-budget for the month in order to come up with payment for this.

January has been a crap month for budgeting.  It's the first time since the summer that we've been sticking to it, and unexpected expenses seem to be coming out of the woodwork.  Dues for various community organizations are due, the new experience of Homeowners Association is upon us, the repercussions of spending too much on Christmas hit, AND apparently the power bill also goes through the roof.  So it's taken a lot of reorganization.  Here are a couple of immediate steps I took:

1.  Live off the pantry.  I buy a lot of food.  A lot.  We have a fairly full pantry and freezer.  This normally doesn't mean much because we have a few basics that we always eat, and the rest gets neglected.  So as of Saturday we are officially not buying groceries until we have eaten through what we have.  Now of course we're already hitting that time when we have run out of some essentials (like canola oil) that will have to be bought in order to cook the food we have.  But I am limiting the purchases to those type of things.
2.  Turn off the space heater.  I am naturally cold.  I sleep with the space heater on, and turn it on at various times throughout the day.  Since Saturday I have learned to layer clothing and carry around a quilt.
3.  This one I don't necessarily recommend for others, but in a moment of desperation I borrowed from the nest egg.  According to Dave Ramsey, there are certain steps one should take in order to eliminate debt and live a financially secure life.  He recommends an emergency $1000 savings account which was discussed earlier, then devoting all your extra cash to paying off consumer debt, then setting up a larger emergency fund that should have 3-6 months worth of living expenses.  I call this emergency fund our nest egg, just to clarify between it and our $1000 savings account (which, also as discussed before, isn't quite up to par right now).  We put this money aside before paying off consumer debt because we are a one-income household and my husband works in a somewhat insecure industry (who doesn't these days?).  Just for our sanity, we wanted to have a few thousand set aside "just in case."  This money is in a money market account that is not used at all except to hold this money and gather a tiny bit of interest.  Well, I used that interest to pay the homeowners association today.  Not sure if that was the best idea, but at least it's paid.

Now my big question becomes: how do we lower our power bill?  Beyond the space heater thing, I don't really know where to conserve energy.  I fear the thermostat needs to be lowered a couple of degrees, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do that yet.  My power company has a list of helpful hints here, but I didn't find them overly helpful.  Except the one about the convection oven.  Apparently they use a lot less energy than a regular oven.  Though I don't think I can really justify that cost quite yet.  So over the next few days I will be attempting to compile my own list of energy saving techniques to share with you, and hopefully I'll learn a thing or two myself.  Until then....

Family Feasts for $75 a Week

While one day whining about my sometimes fruitless quest for frugalness (frugality?  I dunno), I was told to check out this book.  So I hit the library's website (libraries rock, I'll get to that in a second) and requested it.  I was pretty skeptical given that our family has self-imposed dietary restrictions that don't always mesh well with books about food.  But last night I began flipping through it and, oddly enough, I cannot put it down.  It is full of such great advice and hints on how to save money at the grocery store, how to prepare food ahead of time, and ways to better organize your pantry and grocery list in order to save the most money.  It is GREAT!  It is so great that I intend on actually paying money in order to have my own copy!  (Well, not entirely true-- I have a couple of gift cards for bookstores.  So I won't actually pay MONEY for it, but I will utilize a gift card for it.  That's still something, right?)

Back to the library.  My city's library system is great.  Maybe not the best, I don't know, but pretty freakin' awesome nonetheless.  I can access my account online and see everything I have checked out and when it's due, and renew if I need to (that often, though not always, saves me on late fees) and I can search for things and put them on hold.  They could have a wait list or they could just be at a branch an hour away, either way I can request it and when it's ready it's sent to my branch.  All from the comfort of my couch!  We try to make a library run about once a week.  We fill up a giant reusable grocery bag with my holds, anything else that looks interesting to me, a giant stack of kid books, and a few DVDs.  Yes, our library has an amazing collection of DVDs.  There is never a need to pay for a movie because you can always get it at the library.  Though sometimes we do still pay for rentals because we're Americans, we like instant gratification.  You can't necessarily get the new release on the day it comes out at the library.  Though sometimes you do get lucky, like this week I got a copy of District 9 which came out fairly recently.  Those days when you can get a new new release, your chest just swells with pride.  It's like using a double coupon on a sale item and getting it for free!

Speaking of coupons, I've been trying to figure out the best grocery store strategy.  It's been weighing heavily on my mind for a week now, and last night the aforementioned book highlighted it.  The author keeps a book listing the best prices for all her regularly used products at all the stores in the area.  That seems like A LOT of work.  But I guess it's worth a try.  I normally shop at Aldi, which does not take coupons but has incredibly low prices; Wal-Mart, which takes coupons but doesn't double them; or Kroger, which doubles coupons but has obscenely higher prices on everything else.  Now, driving a little out of my way is a Meijer, which advertises low prices and doubles coupons, and I'm thinking I might have to experiment one day and see where it falls in the grocery store spectrum.  I don't know if I'm up for shopping at multiple places in a week.  I know if you shop the ads and double coupons and all you can probably come out ahead going to a lot of places, but I'm doing this with 2 little boys and we are lucky to get through ONE store without somebody getting bored and freaking out.  I'm not sure saving money is worth the insanity it would bring to drag the kids in and out of stores all day in search of the best deal on O.J.  But my thinking is that I can visit different stores over the next few weeks and check out the prices on most used items, as the author suggested, then work out a system where I shop at a different one each week.  I don't know, I'm still working it out.  I'll let you know when I get it figured out.

And God laughs...

OK, this week is off to a bad start in the budgeting department.

First of all, let me stress the importance of an emergency fund.  It is a REALLY good idea to keep $1000 in an easily accessible savings account.  That way when something goes wrong (the car breaks down, the water heater stops working, etc.) then you don't have to run to your credit card in order to fix it.

...I recently had such "emergencies" as Christmas shopping, paying bills after doing too much Christmas shopping, and buying the dog's 6 month supply of heartworm medicine (OK, the last one sounds slightly more justifiable than the others, but really it's not-- if you're going to own a pet you really need a "pet" section on your budget that covers food, vet visits, and medication).  Needless to say, my emergency fund kind of sucks right now.  I wasn't too worried about it.  I thought, "holidays are over, the dog is healthy, we'll be fine for a few months."  ...and then God laughed...

Back to the pet budget.  Pets are a HUGE responsibility.  I swear my dog costs as much as another child.  Between his adoption, food, and the medications he's needed to clear up parasites from being a shelter dog (shelter dogs are the best dogs, but can come with the worst problems-- PLEASE adopt from a reputable shelter if you're in the market for a pet, but also be financially prepared for fixing any issues they might have), we depleted the "pet" budget that I had saved for so long in preparation for our joyous addition.  There are always more costs with a pet, at least with a dog like mine.  He's a large breed puppy, so he goes through toys and rawhides like you wouldn't believe.  Oh!  And the food!  ...but I feel I digress...  The point is, my pet budget is not funded as well as it apparently should be.  I thought $60 a month should cover food for both pets (we also have a cat) and litter for the cat.  It does, but that's about all it covers.  It does not leave room for incidentals.  Or emergencies.  And unfortunately, today we have an emergency.

Kitty seems to be sick.  We'll be heading to the vet as soon as Hubby gets home from work tonight.  Of course I'm worried about her as a member of our family, but I also just keep seeing these dollar signs dance through my head.  And not in the good way.  Even a minor emergency is more than my wimpy budget can take right now, and I fear this might be a bit more than minor.  Of course we won't know until we get there, but I'm very nervous.

Isn't it funny how these things always seem to happen at the worst moments?  It couldn't have happened two months ago, when I would have thought nothing of putting it on the credit card, or three months ago, when I had a fully funded emergency fund.  No, it happens now.  God's laughing, you know He is. All we can do is step back and laugh with him.

Resolutions, or helpful suggestions

Well I had two half-hearted new year's resolutions to help with my financial goals for the year:  no more eating out and pay cash for everything but gas (don't use the debit card for any purchases but gas).  Yesterday, January 2nd, I failed on the cash one.

It is so easy to just pull out the debit card!  I consider us lucky that we immediately run to the debit card rather than an actual credit card.  At least with the debit card the money is immediately gone, you're not just racking up interest on debt you'll have to pay for later.  But still, our debit card spending is out of control.

The biggest problem is, as nice as cash sounds, you actually have to go to the bank to get it.  I never go to the bank.  It's out of the way and a hassle to get to.  And why should I?  Our paycheck is direct deposited into our checking, our savings account automatically takes money out of the checking account after the paycheck is in there, and if I need to monitor/pay/question any transactions, I can do it all through online access.  Ahhh, the wonders of technology!  I can be even more of a hermit than I already was!

So now I'm going to have to actually write it on my calendar or something and force myself to go get cash twice a month....  So far I haven't done that, hence the trip to Sam's Club that was partially put on the debit card (I say "partially" because I used a gift card for part of the purchase. thanks, Mom, for buying my toilet paper and Boca burgers).

It's amazing how fragile budgets are in the beginning.  You think you have it all worked out, but there is always some reason to put something on a card instead of paying cash, or to justify buying the kids ANOTHER book with money that is technically allocated for charitable giving.  I know that once you get in the habit of budgeting, it's really not that bad.  It's just getting IN that habit...

Why is it that bad habits are so easy to fall into, yet good habits are impossible to start?  Smoking, drinking, caffeine, sugar...  these are habits I can really get behind!  Those things, you do it once and you're hooked.  It's harder NOT to smoke than it is to smoke.  But budgeting?  It's not something that you can do once and find it impossible to stop.  Oh no, you could do it twenty times and, though it does get easier, it is still a pain in the butt and oh so easy to give up.
Though maybe I am just looking at it wrong...

The New Year's Resolution

How many blogs do you think start on January 1? My guess would be a lot. We all make these resolutions then need someone- something- to hold us accountable. My method of choice: the blog.

Though really, I am not doing this for the New Year's glory. I'm doing it because I read too many books. I read so many books that I thought, I want to write a book! A.J. Jacobs writes these great memoirs all about him doing something completely weird for a year of his life. In The Know-It-All, he spent a year reading the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, in The Year of Living Biblically he... well... you can probably guess.

So I was sitting here reading A.J. Jacobs one day and I said, "I want to write a book about doing something weird for a year!" My husband said, "good luck with that." ...I am rarely taken seriously in my house... Then he suggested I start a daily blog about doing something weird. That's how many of these books are started, he says.

So I thought about it... what could I do every day for a year? The goal I came up with: no eating out for a year! This is an honorable goal. The drive-thru lady at Burger King knows us by name. My kids think Taco Bell is part of everyone's daily diet. I was really gung-ho about this. I created a month's worth of menus (breakfast, lunch, AND dinner). I thought about making a graph. All kinds of excitement. But then, I really started thinking about the rules. What does "no eating out for a year" really mean? What if someone else is paying for it? Then is it OK? We love eating out. Could we really do this for a year?

I made a list of exceptions, such as if someone else is paying then it's OK. Then I realized, that's just bogus. It doesn't count if you have twenty exceptions.

So unbeknownst to my sweet husband, I'm giving that one up. Though not entirely. The new goal is to budget like I've never budgeted before. Thanks to the genius of Dave Ramsey, I dug us out of a hole once. We got most of our credit cards paid off and saved enough to get out of renting and into a mortgage. That was last year. Then we moved into said house, and then Christmas came, and now we have about $2000 in credit card debt again. And the mortgage. And I will soon be a college graduate so student loans are right around the corner. A lot of student loans. And did I mention I'm a stay at home mom?

Our belts definitely need to be tightened, so that's what this blog is about. This year I intend to do whatever it takes to get our finances in order. There will be lots of personal information shared, probably a few failures, and hopefully some successes. Dear Reader, we will travel this lone and murky road of personal finance together, and we will both come out the other side, though I cannot guarantee unscathed.