Working on first financial resolution

Last week, I posted my New Year's resolutions on here. My first financial resolution was to get $1500 into our savings account. We are working hard on getting to this point so that we can begin to pay off our credit cards. My husband really wanted me to start paying off the credit cards right away, but I explained to him that I didn't think that was a great idea. Even financial gurus like Dave Ramsey tell you to save $1000 emergency fund before paying off credit. If something happens (for instance we need to buy a new tire, etc) and we don't have the emergency fund we would end up using a credit card. I finally convinced him that this was the way we should go.

It is my goal this year to post the amount I transfer to savings each week. I will also be posting my weekly meal plans (on Mondays) and how much I spend on groceries each week. Once I have my emergency fund fully funded I will post how much I send to credit cards and how much is left.

This Week's Totals (1/7 to 1/13)

Weekly Amount sent to savings: $550.00

Total Amount in Savings: $558.51

Weekly Amount spent for groceries: $19.73 / $75.00

(hubby went to Wegmans this a.m. - bought a newspaper, 3 gallons milk, pound of deli turkey, 3 loaves of white bread and 3 loaves of wheat)

Total for Groceries this Month: $59.48/$300.00

Meal Plan expected to be done by tomorrow.

Spending Update

So, this week we have been trying to spend as little as possible. We have done well so far with only spending money on a gallon of milk($1.99). I went to Walgreens and Rite Aid Sunday and only spent a little over $10 out of pocket - after rebates and register rewards, they paid me to shop.

We still have to go buy a few things that are on sale at the grocery store this week. Tops has a few good deals this week that when combined with coupons is going to save me mucho money. We will also have to run to Wegmans to get corn on the cob, strawberries and potatoes. I have $30 budgeted for this trip but I'm hoping to spend a lot less.

We're trying to get things sold on Craig's List and Ebay, but no luck yet. One of my biggest pet peeves with Craig's List recently has been all the spam. I posted three sets of clothing and get emails asking me if I am still unemployed! From 3 separate people, supposedly. It really makes me doubt whether I want to sell on there anymore. This is the second time I have listed these lots of clothing and I reduced the price of each by about $10. Know anybody who is needs to buy 6-9 months or 12 months boy summer clothes, or 18 months girl summer clothes? We are also trying to get rid of some of hubby's mics, our treadmill, the bowflex (which was seldom used) and a body by jake machine that works the tummy. If we could sell these things, it would improve our finances dramatically.

Starting next month, I would like to start tracking our expenses on here, on either a weekly or monthly basis. Not sure how I want to do that exactly, but I will decide by next week. Maybe it would help us stay within our budget a little better. Of course, if I was actually offered a job that might help too. LOL. If anyone knows of any employers needing to fill a position for administrative assistant, bookkeeping, it help desk, etc, in the Twin Tiers, please let know.

Have a wonderful and safe day!

Trying to cut back

I was not too happy today when I figured and paid bills. Our checking account is down near $100. Now, keep in mind that the checks for rent and water were just paid and they were well over $600. We don't have anymore bills going out for a week and a half so we will be fine. We also have about $800 in our savings accounts, but I am holding out on transferring those to our checking until I absolutely have to.

Hubby is going to put some tools on Ebay, along with a broken saw that someone could use for parts. He also wants to get the Bowflex on Craig's List. I need to re-list the clothing I put on Craig's List two weeks ago (summer clothes - boys' sizes 6-9 month and 12 months, and girls size 18 months). We could have a rummage sale, but with two little ones, it makes it even more work to have one.

We have about $60 left to spend for the month on food. We do have more than enough in our stockpile, it will just take some planning. We definitely have enough vegetables - I would say there is about 50 bags of veggies in our freezer, plus we do have a few canned. We also have TONS of pasta and rice. I have several bags of flour and sugar so I can make quite a few things that we would normally buy. I can even make our bread, either in the bread machine or by hand. So, we will definitely not starve. It is instances like this, when I am glad that we have a stockpile!

We have $60 for miscellaneous spending for the rest of the month and $120 budgeted for 3 weeks of gas (although we don't usually go through a full tank a week I always budget for extra). So, any extra from those two expenses can go into the food budget at the end of the month to replenish our stockpile.

We are trying to come up with as many ways as we can to save money. As mentioned in yesterday's post, we had our cable reduced today, so that will save us $50 a month. We already had our Verizon cell phones canceled and we got Net10 prepaid cell phones. This saves us $46 a month! We haven't used the air conditioning yet and will hold out as long as possible, by opening windows up at night and closing windows and blinds during the day.

I am open to any other money saving ideas that you would like to share. Please leave me your tips in the comments.

Envelope System for Budgeting

We have decided that we are spending too much money 'here and there'. Well, actually I decided. LOL. Although my husband does agree we are getting low on money. A few bucks a day really add up.

So, we have decided to start the envelope system for our expenses. These would only be for things like groceries, gas and we have a miscellaneous category. All our bills (except rent) are automatically sent out each month. If you haven't heard about the envelope system it is a way to budget your money where you have envelopes marked with each expense. You put the amount you have budgeted for the week (or month) in cash in the envelope and when the money is gone, it's gone. Dealing with cash helps people because they can actually 'see' how much money they have. With a debit card or even a check, you sometimes don't realize how much you really are spending until later.

We will be putting $50 a week in the envelope for gas (this is a little high but if the price keeps going up, we may be up to $50 to fill our tank again soon), $60 a week for food and $20 a week for miscellaneous. I am hoping that this will curb all the extra spending on coffee at the gas station and other spending.

How do you manage your money? Do you have any tips on budgeting or how you keep your spending now? Leave a comment for me and let me know.

THE ECONOMY - SAW IT COMING!!

Our family, as well as many other American families, are concerned with the recent happenings in regards to our economy. I can't say I didn't see this coming. I took an economics in the spring of 2007 and I was already noticing a slow down. I look back and think, why didn't we do more to pay off our credit cards and save more money? Then I start thinking about what was going on last year.

It sure was a crazy year. I quit my job the first week of January so that I could stay home with our then 4 month old daughter. So, living on only one income took a while to adjust too. Though I have to say we actually did better financially after I stopped working. We spent too much money eating out and really didn't have a budget. In August of last year, the union where my husband worked went on strike. So there we were living on a strike bonus of $300 until he could get the unemployment. Once we got that we were getting about $700 a week, which was more than enough to live on. Though we ended up being financially ok, it was a very stressful time for everyone. In November our son was born. My husband put an application in with his current employer and started working there in January of this year. The company had stated there was an impasse and they were calling people back, but my husband hadn't been called back yet. They called him a week after he started his new job.

My husband's new job is wonderful. He gets paid well and the company really cares about its employees. He works Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights 7pm to 7am and gets paid for 40 hours. He brings home a little over $600 a week and we've been doing great with our budget. We have paid off several hospital bills and smaller credit cards. We did have over $600 in our baby EF, but we needed to use that for some bills, because we spent too much when we went on vacation camping.

We are debating on what is the best course of action: save up more money in baby EF (currently about $250) or start snowballing our credit cards again. We had to stop paying off our credit cards for the last few months because we had to save us much as possible to get our house put in (building permits, fees, etc). It won't be a whole lot we will have extra (we are using $250 cash for Christmas), only about $80 extra for the next 2 months. We put $20 a week into savings no matter what. With the economy the way it is, what is the best move. Voice your opinion and post a comment!!

LiveJournal Tags: frugal,economy,saving,credit