Wednesday, April 30, 2014
What's For Dinner (Tomorrow)?
Yes, it is 9pm. Yes, I should be unwinding and getting to bed. But instead, I am asking you what is for dinner tomorrow. For real, you should quick run to your kitchen and scope it out so you can pull something out of the freezer tonight if you need to. Or set up your crock pot. Just plan it now or the time crunch of tomorrow evening is going to sabotage your time and money. Typically, I recommend a weekly menu planned from your shopping list and sale ads, coupons ect. but this week I was on vacation mode spending some long-overdue time off from the real world with my mom, sister, and newest nephew. It was well worth it, but we are now a tad bit behind on meal planning. So, at 9pm I rummaged through the freezer, found a pound of our favorite bacon, checked the egg situation, and Voila! No need to stop by the store tomorrow after work, or even worse get takeout or sneak to a restaurant! Money saved, time saved (no need to sit and defrost, shop, ect.) not to mention my kids love waffles, bacon, and eggs for dinner. So, what is for dinner tomorrow?
Kids Can Be Cheap Dates!
Although the blog has really focused on little money lately, I need to refocus on little kids. I remember something my dad would say often, "There is always more money to be made." I stayed up late last night, too late, and went to sleep feeling a bit down after realizing I need to cut my monthly expenses $200. Ewww. That will be addressed, but ultimately, money is a tool, but not my priority. My kids will not be kids forever and they need to be important--even more than my budget. There is something SO ENJOYABLE about buying my kids movies, toys, and spending on family outings. I really do enjoy it! But I need to get that in check. My kids and I had a Taco Bell date today after school. We spent less than $6 and guess what they said??? "This is fun. Can we do this every day?" Then I remembered something..roll back to when I was a teen...my mom and I had a standing Friday night date at Taco Bell, just her and I. I guess I know why now. It was a cheap outing and a time to connect. As I enter this season of cutting back our budget, I need to remember this. There is always more money to be made, kids are only kids once, and thankfully, kids are cheap dates!
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Sophisticated Budgeting
So, this upcoming Tuesday night is our first meeting with our money coach we have snagged for free as semi-finalists for the Money Makeover. I am imagining like a Jillian Michaels/Biggest Loser/personality who is going to like spring up on me when I splurge as I like to on a pedicure or dinner out----YES, I love to save money, but I spend my share, too. My husband is lukewarm at best, probably fearing our crazy premium channels will soon be cut off. Yet, nonetheless, I am psyched! That whole Dave Ramsey, live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later sounds good to me! However, I have quite the library of personal finance books, and I have read them each at least once, so part of me is afraid I am going to coach the coach. We shall see. Therefore, before I make any big changes from some money coach, I am going to share with you what I am doing now---and it works!
1. Add up all of your outgoing bills for a month. I just put down my payments, not groceries and gas money, ect. yet. In my example below, imagine I pay out $2800 each month for mortgage, electric, water, cable, phones, student loans, car loan, credit cards and other bills/debt.
2. Divide the total amount of outgoing bills by the number of checks you will receive in the month. This is my target number to pay out each paycheck. In my example, $2800 divided by 4 paychecks equals $700 per paycheck.
3. I use an ordinary notebook and use a page for each month, I will try to post a picture after the text is posted (not the tech expert...) For example, right now, it looks like this because I have 4 paychecks in April:
April 2014
Check 1 Check 2 Check 3 Check 4
car 313 Bank of A. 268 Nelnet 165 Mortgage 582
mortgage 200 Geico 125 Sallie Mae 140 save 75
ect bills and more bills and more bills ect. bills
My Goal is to get as close to the target number you found in step 2 (in my example, that amount is $700)so that about an equal amount is paid out each paycheck. However, mortgage and other big bills might need to be split among two or more paychecks if they put you over the target number. My mortgage is $982, too much for my target number for one paycheck. I earmark the chunks for mortgage from the other checks in my savings account and transfer the money over to checking when it is time to pay the mortgage. If I am below the target number, I put the extra money in saving OR push a bit extra to my icky credit card bill, so each check leaves me with equal cash flow for gas and groceries, ect. Also, make sure you pay attention to bill due dates before you decide which paycheck you will write each bill under. I try to pay all bills due before the 15th of the month on the FIRST paycheck to avoid pesky late fees (not to mention, tarnish your credit score with late payments).
4. Each payday, grab your notebook, pay the bills assigned for the paycheck, and cross them off the list. Then, record the balance of your checking account after bills and estimate how much you will need for gas, groceries, and other neccessities. As you spend in between paychecks, mentally calculate what you have after each purchase---I actually keep a digital sticky note on my laptop for this. I also record the savings account balance and amounts earmarked for future bills so I know the true amount I have saved (for example, my checking account might look like I have $780, but if $200 is earmarked for mortgage payment upcoming I really only have $580 and I record that. It keeps me in "reality" with my bank accounts.
5. When next months' bills come, write down the amount of the balance to be paid in your notebook for easy reference to avoid paying interest. I usually keep the paper bills in the notebook for that month as well. This is done in minutes using online bill pay.
6. Enjoy knowing when your bills will be paid and paying them on time! Never miss a bill again!
Let me know if this works or if you will try it! And by the way, the title of this post is a joke because I am sure many of you have like crazy excel sheets or computer software....I use a notebook...hahaha...keeping it real old school.
1. Add up all of your outgoing bills for a month. I just put down my payments, not groceries and gas money, ect. yet. In my example below, imagine I pay out $2800 each month for mortgage, electric, water, cable, phones, student loans, car loan, credit cards and other bills/debt.
2. Divide the total amount of outgoing bills by the number of checks you will receive in the month. This is my target number to pay out each paycheck. In my example, $2800 divided by 4 paychecks equals $700 per paycheck.
3. I use an ordinary notebook and use a page for each month, I will try to post a picture after the text is posted (not the tech expert...) For example, right now, it looks like this because I have 4 paychecks in April:
April 2014
Check 1 Check 2 Check 3 Check 4
car 313 Bank of A. 268 Nelnet 165 Mortgage 582
mortgage 200 Geico 125 Sallie Mae 140 save 75
ect bills and more bills and more bills ect. bills
My Goal is to get as close to the target number you found in step 2 (in my example, that amount is $700)so that about an equal amount is paid out each paycheck. However, mortgage and other big bills might need to be split among two or more paychecks if they put you over the target number. My mortgage is $982, too much for my target number for one paycheck. I earmark the chunks for mortgage from the other checks in my savings account and transfer the money over to checking when it is time to pay the mortgage. If I am below the target number, I put the extra money in saving OR push a bit extra to my icky credit card bill, so each check leaves me with equal cash flow for gas and groceries, ect. Also, make sure you pay attention to bill due dates before you decide which paycheck you will write each bill under. I try to pay all bills due before the 15th of the month on the FIRST paycheck to avoid pesky late fees (not to mention, tarnish your credit score with late payments).
4. Each payday, grab your notebook, pay the bills assigned for the paycheck, and cross them off the list. Then, record the balance of your checking account after bills and estimate how much you will need for gas, groceries, and other neccessities. As you spend in between paychecks, mentally calculate what you have after each purchase---I actually keep a digital sticky note on my laptop for this. I also record the savings account balance and amounts earmarked for future bills so I know the true amount I have saved (for example, my checking account might look like I have $780, but if $200 is earmarked for mortgage payment upcoming I really only have $580 and I record that. It keeps me in "reality" with my bank accounts.
5. When next months' bills come, write down the amount of the balance to be paid in your notebook for easy reference to avoid paying interest. I usually keep the paper bills in the notebook for that month as well. This is done in minutes using online bill pay.
6. Enjoy knowing when your bills will be paid and paying them on time! Never miss a bill again!
Let me know if this works or if you will try it! And by the way, the title of this post is a joke because I am sure many of you have like crazy excel sheets or computer software....I use a notebook...hahaha...keeping it real old school.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Money Makeover 2014
It is official! We have been chosen as one of the families competing for a $2500 cash prize with our local credit union, VyStar (you know, the one I told you all to sign up for...! Here comes my competitive spirit!! The contest works like this: We will meet with a money coach regularly and use tools ect. to reduce debt and increase savings. The family with the biggest financial change from May to October, WINS! But truly, even if we don't win---We are going to get regular meetings with our money coach at no charge to us. If we improve our financial situation, even if we are not THE winners, we WIN! Plus, I will share any great stuff that comes my way on this blog--so I guess we all WIN!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)