So we were doing pretty good with our food budget and goal of not eating out as often. Totally failed at not eating out at all since it was the season for events (shopping, dance recital, meeting for lunches, etc) but we were much more careful and infrequent than normal. Thankfully, we were invited to enough free dinners with family to offset the cost. :) We are truly blessed with amazing and generous families.
Bad news? We went outside of budget yesterday and possibly spent too much on groceries (etc) today. Yesterday we picked up some of the 1/2 off sales on Christmas stuff at Walmart. Classy, I know. We gave each of my three brothers and their respective famlies one card, one pop corn tin, and one hickory farms set. THEN, we added a set for ourselves and wine to go with the meat/cheese set and cologne/perfume for each of us as our Christmas gifts to each other (truly, we were out and they were bargain prices) and miscellaneous junk. $75 that was not really planned into the budget.
Bright side? Even though we spent that and more shopping today, and even though my husband's tire got slashed at work on Christmas Eve by a disgruntled citizen and needs to be replaced, and even though my car's window motor broke and is rigged to be held up by a stick and clamp and needs to be fixed, it's ok. Our amazing families and my employer gave cash totaling about $1200 which will repay us for the cost of Christmas, fix our vehicles, and make a small but worthwhile dent in our credit card debt.
Next, I'm sorry to admit that I intend to be part of the "returns" party in the post Christmas era. Even though I assume I will only be offered store credit, I would like to hold on to that until the next season comes and we can purchase children's clothing and any essential items (ie socks and underwear) or shoes for free at that time.
I should also mention that in addition to hopefully not requiring much money to purchase necessities and next season clothes, we also have a "three year" (not really, but that was the offer) supply of soaps and cleaning products from Culligan so we will not have to spend much money in that field either. We purchased a system nearly three years ago and have already run through the first section and we paid off that card. The unfortunate reality is that while we own the unit outright, we paid approximately $5000 for it and could likely only sell it for $2000 or less. Even though we could use that money to pay down a credit card and we never purchase the salt to soften our water anymore, my husband insists that we should not take the hit and lose all that "initial investment" money. I am still feeling very unsure about this decision. If anyone who reads this (though I'm fairly confident I only have one reader!) has an opinion and justification, I would love to hear it. I'm struggling with this one!
Alright, I will leave off by stating that I took $350 from the Christmas money to last until my next pay day on 1/15. That's nearly three weeks so it should be fine. We went to Sam's ($42) and Walmart ($130) so I'm already way down. Our freezer and pantries are pretty well stocked and we have the most critical staples in our fridge. This will, in all honestly, be the first time I have truly pushed myself to remain faithful to a budget (yeah, that 350 was hanging out in an envelope where the leftover cash remains) and I'm nervous. I would love to see any creative recipes or ideas you have for staying true to a budget and not just taking out more money when you run out early. This will be a HUGE step for me!
Thanks for reading!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
About Me (In depth)
Why am I wasting precious time writing this blog?
Here's the deal. I believe the best way for me to hold myself accountable since I cannot find any like minded friends in my real life is to seek out those with similar goals in the virtual world.
On this blog, I intend to share my victories, small and large, but also, my shortcomings and the obstacles on my path. It is my goal to be free of credit card debt - hopefully as soon as Fall 2010.
I am trying to decide about the best timing for beginning my doctorate degree, and while I'm still hashing out the specifics and logistics of that process, I need to be sure that my family is in a place where this will not ruin us.
To lay it all out there, we owe quite a bit on two credit cards. Bummer.
Years ago, when I was a stay at home mom working on my undergraduate degree, I would pour through financial articles from Dave Ramsey to Suze Orman (that's not spelled right, is it?) but more than that, I spent a good deal of time "lurking" on the Family Finances board on babycenter.com. Unfortunately, that site no longer resembles the world which I once stood in awe of and while the fundamentals principles stuck in my head, it was not followed.
Over the last two and a half years, I went to work full time for the first time in my life and worked on my Master's in Education degree simultaneously. I overspent "I deserve it. I work my ass off" and was relatively apathetic if I went over budget (which we did often) "Oh, well, I'll just use my student loans to pay that off."
Boy, was that a smart move. Guess who now owes a small fortune in student loans? Yup. [If you are reading this and have ever thought about doing that, please know that it was most certainly a mistake which I will LITERALLY be paying for for the rest of my life!]
For other bills, currently, we pay way too much for health insurance, and a substantial amount for both children to attend preschool. We have $800 budgeted for all food, clothes, cleaning/toiletry/paper products, gifts, gasoline, car stuff, and so on. While I'm sure it *should* be enough, we are still struggling to make this work. I will be sharing all of my attempts to cut down on these and on our bills on this blog. I very much hope to establish a network for this struggle/process.
Thanks for reading! I would love to hear about your experiences and tips and would be happy to "follow" your blog if you post a link! :)
*Other things you should know: I love commas, parentheses, and ridiculous smiley faces. You have been warned.
Here's the deal. I believe the best way for me to hold myself accountable since I cannot find any like minded friends in my real life is to seek out those with similar goals in the virtual world.
On this blog, I intend to share my victories, small and large, but also, my shortcomings and the obstacles on my path. It is my goal to be free of credit card debt - hopefully as soon as Fall 2010.
I am trying to decide about the best timing for beginning my doctorate degree, and while I'm still hashing out the specifics and logistics of that process, I need to be sure that my family is in a place where this will not ruin us.
To lay it all out there, we owe quite a bit on two credit cards. Bummer.
Years ago, when I was a stay at home mom working on my undergraduate degree, I would pour through financial articles from Dave Ramsey to Suze Orman (that's not spelled right, is it?) but more than that, I spent a good deal of time "lurking" on the Family Finances board on babycenter.com. Unfortunately, that site no longer resembles the world which I once stood in awe of and while the fundamentals principles stuck in my head, it was not followed.
Over the last two and a half years, I went to work full time for the first time in my life and worked on my Master's in Education degree simultaneously. I overspent "I deserve it. I work my ass off" and was relatively apathetic if I went over budget (which we did often) "Oh, well, I'll just use my student loans to pay that off."
Boy, was that a smart move. Guess who now owes a small fortune in student loans? Yup. [If you are reading this and have ever thought about doing that, please know that it was most certainly a mistake which I will LITERALLY be paying for for the rest of my life!]
For other bills, currently, we pay way too much for health insurance, and a substantial amount for both children to attend preschool. We have $800 budgeted for all food, clothes, cleaning/toiletry/paper products, gifts, gasoline, car stuff, and so on. While I'm sure it *should* be enough, we are still struggling to make this work. I will be sharing all of my attempts to cut down on these and on our bills on this blog. I very much hope to establish a network for this struggle/process.
Thanks for reading! I would love to hear about your experiences and tips and would be happy to "follow" your blog if you post a link! :)
*Other things you should know: I love commas, parentheses, and ridiculous smiley faces. You have been warned.
The Beginning of this Most Excellent Adventure
So far, we have been looking for ways to make cuts without making huge dents in our current standard of living. As we begin making progress in paying down our credit cards, perhaps we will be more and more likely to make appropriate cuts.
Phone: We cut our ATT bill from 55 to 35 by dropping our home phone and managed to upgrade our DSL speed in the process!
TV: It's a good thing for us to have increased DSL speed because we canceled our Dish Network service with DVR for 45/month and replaced it with a computer hooked up to the TV offering us free Hulu programming and adding back 15/month for Netflix service with 2 DVDs at a time and unlimited access to Netflix online.
Car Insurance: We went to liability only on both cars. Neither is worth a whole lot (both were purchased with cash) so this was the right decision for us. Not that it doesn't make me a little nervous. (Bad driver - you have been warned!) :)
Cells: With all my husband's dealings on Craigslist, he found he was often being texted by customers. We added the $10/month for unlimited texting and saved an average of 15-20 bucks a month. Go figure. I suppose I should be honest. They are Blackberries. We are not prepared to get rid of them yet. I love having them. Perhaps over time, but once again, we dropped our home phone so we will have to have solid cell service regardless of smartphone capabilities.
So far this is all we have accomplished. I am still looking for opportunities to chip away at our bills, as they are higher than we feel they should be.
Any tips you would like to share? What have YOU done to shrink your bills?
Phone: We cut our ATT bill from 55 to 35 by dropping our home phone and managed to upgrade our DSL speed in the process!
TV: It's a good thing for us to have increased DSL speed because we canceled our Dish Network service with DVR for 45/month and replaced it with a computer hooked up to the TV offering us free Hulu programming and adding back 15/month for Netflix service with 2 DVDs at a time and unlimited access to Netflix online.
Car Insurance: We went to liability only on both cars. Neither is worth a whole lot (both were purchased with cash) so this was the right decision for us. Not that it doesn't make me a little nervous. (Bad driver - you have been warned!) :)
Cells: With all my husband's dealings on Craigslist, he found he was often being texted by customers. We added the $10/month for unlimited texting and saved an average of 15-20 bucks a month. Go figure. I suppose I should be honest. They are Blackberries. We are not prepared to get rid of them yet. I love having them. Perhaps over time, but once again, we dropped our home phone so we will have to have solid cell service regardless of smartphone capabilities.
So far this is all we have accomplished. I am still looking for opportunities to chip away at our bills, as they are higher than we feel they should be.
Any tips you would like to share? What have YOU done to shrink your bills?
Weekend in Review
We have decided that now is the time to really focus on controlling our finances and getting out of debt. Unfortunately, with two children in preschool ($$$) and the Christmas season upon us, it is a challenging time. Extra challenging because 'tis the season for mandatory shopping, and while I love shopping, I find that it is most unenjoyable for me right now and I'm struggling to make functional decisions!
1. Today, we finally purchased a programmable thermostat. During the work week, it's set to go up to 68 at 5:00 AM and back down to 62 at 7:30; then up to 68 at 3:00 until it finally lowers to 63 at 10:30. The weekend is much less frugal because it will only go down for a matter of hours as we sleep since we often try to stay home more to prevent unnecessary spending.
2. When we returned home after a long day of running errands (my husband is beginning his own side business of fixing and customizing Xboxes and advertising through Craigslist and his own website) I didn't have much time to cook as we were terribly hungry! Rather than caving in and ordering a pizza or stopping by Taco Bell, I'm proud to say we ate some similarly disgusting-but-cheaper frozen dinners. I'm not sure at what point I purchased these individual dinners, but they do not move quickly in our house and I can now see that it was a foolish decision. But at least they have filled their purpose and not been thrown away, right? :)
Ok, I confess, I had to throw one away. Like tossing a dollar in the trash can, I am fully aware.
3. After dinner and watching a Netflix online movie (alright, it was Wall E and we have it on DVD somewhere, so this is not frugal), I decided to get something done in preparation for the week. I used generic flip-top sandwich baggies (very cheap-less than a penny per bag) to make snack bags full of Cheez-its and another tray full of generic Fruit Loop cereal for breakfast for the week+. I will admit it is a rare treat to have brand name Cheez-its in our house, but these were Scrabble style with the letters and, as previously stated, I have preschoolers so I decided to use this opportunity to make learning letters fun and tasty. The cereal is a staple at our house. Sure, it's not all that healthy but for $2.99 for 2 lbs, it is a tasty treat. I like to send them with a bag of it and a banana for a better breakfast.
Other things I bought this weekend:
1. Today, we finally purchased a programmable thermostat. During the work week, it's set to go up to 68 at 5:00 AM and back down to 62 at 7:30; then up to 68 at 3:00 until it finally lowers to 63 at 10:30. The weekend is much less frugal because it will only go down for a matter of hours as we sleep since we often try to stay home more to prevent unnecessary spending.
2. When we returned home after a long day of running errands (my husband is beginning his own side business of fixing and customizing Xboxes and advertising through Craigslist and his own website) I didn't have much time to cook as we were terribly hungry! Rather than caving in and ordering a pizza or stopping by Taco Bell, I'm proud to say we ate some similarly disgusting-but-cheaper frozen dinners. I'm not sure at what point I purchased these individual dinners, but they do not move quickly in our house and I can now see that it was a foolish decision. But at least they have filled their purpose and not been thrown away, right? :)
Ok, I confess, I had to throw one away. Like tossing a dollar in the trash can, I am fully aware.
3. After dinner and watching a Netflix online movie (alright, it was Wall E and we have it on DVD somewhere, so this is not frugal), I decided to get something done in preparation for the week. I used generic flip-top sandwich baggies (very cheap-less than a penny per bag) to make snack bags full of Cheez-its and another tray full of generic Fruit Loop cereal for breakfast for the week+. I will admit it is a rare treat to have brand name Cheez-its in our house, but these were Scrabble style with the letters and, as previously stated, I have preschoolers so I decided to use this opportunity to make learning letters fun and tasty. The cereal is a staple at our house. Sure, it's not all that healthy but for $2.99 for 2 lbs, it is a tasty treat. I like to send them with a bag of it and a banana for a better breakfast.
Other things I bought this weekend:
- de-icer for my windshield. It's worth noting that the pool table in the garage which is a good source of frugal entertainment with friends-forces my car to endure the bitter cold. Since the frost tends to make me run late to work, I feel this is JUSTIFIED.
- Books for my kids that were completely unnecessary $25 (BAD) though I justified this at the time by contemplating their potential for use in a hypothetical future classroom with younger students.
- A study guide for the GRE exam which I am scheduled to take December 31st (yes, I chose this date. I have no idea why, now. This $25 is JUSTIFIED because not passing the $150 test would be way more wasteful!
- Art supplies and craft type activities for my kids for Christmas (not previously budgeted). $16 Still undecided here: part of me says "Hey, this is for the kids. For Christmas, for crying out loud! Of course it's justified!" while the other part says, "Hey, dummy, this must be how we acquired our stinking credit card debt with all this justification!". Sooo, I'm thinking BAD.
- I'm not sure I even want to admit that Friday night, I drove for an hour to meet an old friend for Christmas shopping. Because I dropped the kids off with hubby right as he got off work, I had to grab lunch (yup, Taco Bell) and then we later grabbed dessert and drinks for a grand total of $17 in food just for me. Oh, and $3 for the school lunch. Worst part? It has been my goal to have our family of four eating for LESS than $20 a day. I killed that all on my own that day........
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