Time to Spend

I read this article on The Dollar Stretcher talking about how we can have a dollar today or a dollar tomorrow. Basically, that if we spend our money today we will not have it available tomorrow. If we save it today at some time in the future it will have earned interest and be worth more than a dollar. I totally get the point of the article and agree, but also have thoughts that are not meant to be in disagreement but just points to ponder. Is this always true that our money will be worth more? Our banks are paying a horrible rate of return the last couple of years- way below the cost of inflation. When is it true that the dollar you have today is only worth $.80 in the future because of it's buying power?

We have watched the price of groceries and other products go up at an extraordinary rate. Would it have been better to have spent my money earlier before the rise in price so that my dollar bought more? My thinking the last couple of years has been, yes, to that question. I have made it a part of my quest to build an emergency fund, to have not all of our funds in monies but some of it in food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, medicines. If I can buy at the lowest price and stock up I do not have to spend more buying at full price when we run out and "need" it. It has been two fold- to get the best price, but also to have items on hand. If we should lose our job we have a lot of food to keep us from starving sitting in the pantry and freezer. In a way, I am making an investment in items we use rather that keeping it in the bank to purchase later at a higher price. It is a better use of that money. Now, this is not a good plan if you are buying things you do not need.

What are some ways that spending is saving?

1. Maintaining our cars and home so we do not have expensive repairs. We pay more for a better tire for our Yukon so it rides smoother. It was about $50 more a tire, but is an investment in what we are driving. We have older vehicles so it is a way to enjoy what we have verses going out and buying something newer.
2. Buying school supplies, office supplies, gift items, and other stuff when I see it clearanced. I buy backpacks at garage sales for $1 and have a few put away just in case we need them. I buy a lot of notebooks and supplies when they offer it for $.10 right before school starts.
3. Investing in exercise and healthy foods so we don't get sick. I paid upfront for the gym membership and it is half price from what it would cost if I only paid monthly. I still had to sign a contract for the same amount of time commitment.
4. Spending money on the garden so we can grow our own food. I have been "investing" in soil each year. I have a compost bin, but am not making enough yet to fill my four raised beds. I bought 8 bags of humus this year to add in with my compost and the soil that is already in the beds. It is money now, but hopefully I will not have to continue this many years. Slowly the Alabama red clay is turning into nice rich soil. I also have heirloom seeds which cost more upfront, but the seeds can be saved and replanted year after year. So, a little investment for the future. Right now it is the $50 tomato, but they are 100% better than store bought tomatoes.
5. Buying quality clothing that lasts longer. I am not a clothes snob but some brands you just know will wear well and are worth paying a little more for. Osh Kosh for little kids, Levis,Gap, Ann Taylor, Liz Clairborne, Talbots, Dockers, Chaps, etc. I still find all these at garage sales and get great deals on them. My husband has foot pain and has had surgery on both his feet. When he wears regular shoes and tries to work all day his feet are in severe pain. We buy Echo shoes for him to work in. We have paid $120-$180 for them. A lot of money for me to even think about, but it helps him not to be in so much pain and keeps him working and making money.
6. Buying DVDs instead of paying to go to the movie theater.
7. Buying a pressure canner, bread machine, crock pot, or other appliance that helps you put up and prepare meals.
8. I just bought two hydrangeas, a gardenia, and some bedding plants for the yard. Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers. I cannot wait to cut and use the blooms inside! And have you ever smelled a gardenia? Oh my, it is like Heaven. My nose gets all happy. The hydrangeas were $25 each, not cheap, but I hope they bring many years of happiness in their reward. I am going to try to start new bushes off these to fill along the fenceline.

I guess the question to ask is if you spend today is it an investment towards your goals, or is it skimming money from what you are hoping to do in the future? If you are spending today on things that hold no long term value then you will have lost the future value. So, sometimes it is the time to spend so you can gain benefits from your money, it is just a matter of what you spend it on and how you look at it all.

Spending money to save money

Do you calculate the cost long term of items or look at the monthly charge? I made a blurb on my face book page about joining a gym and got many suggestions of alternate gyms in our area. My comment was that I had to wait to get paid again to have the money for the down payment. Well, it is a huge amount upfront and I can go to another gym and only have to pay $35 or $50 a month and not have to put out a chunk of change upfront. The only thing is that when you figure the monthly cost after paying upfront for two years I will be paying $20 a month. I save $340 to $700 over the monthly fees offered by the other gyms.

This is not the only area I am willing to pay more to save long term. I pay bills yearly to save additional charges when you pay monthly. I buy bulk items when it is a better price per unit. When purchasing cars and campers I don't look at a monthly payment, I look at the cost. I pay more for wrinkle resistant shirts for my husband over the other shirts that wear quicker and require a lot more ironing. I purchased a canner so I can save by canning my vegetables that I grow or that I find a great deal on.

It comes in to bite me when we go out to eat. I compare the cost of paying $5 for a chicken breast that would cost me less than $1 to buy at the store. Hard to enjoy it when that is going through your mind.

What are some areas that you spend more on upfront? Are there things you purchase monthly that you know if you had a chunk of money to pay annually that it would save you?

Are You a Dave Fan?

I have seen a lot of posts about New Years resolutions to try to get their spending under control by following Dave Ramsey. I just want to stand as a prior Dave listener and follower to tell that because of his teaching we are where we are. We never took out credit card debt but we were charging everything and paying the balance each month. Because we did not make a lot of money we were just living paycheck to paycheck. It was not bad spending, I have always lived by a budget and spent less than whatever we made. But, we did not have an emergency fund and I always felt the pressure of that. Darryl could care less about worrying about finances. If we had just enough he was okay with that. Me, being a planner, would see that at the smallest medical bill or car repair we would be thrown into a negative state. One thing I have learned from Darryl is that we take each day as it comes and not to worry about tomorrow. I have learned more how to trust in God for our future. We have gone through many tough times, but always been given what we need- even if sometimes that giving required wearing our bodies to the bone in hard work.

We were living 20 miles from anyone in the country trying to change our life. We could not afford any home in Niceville so we bought 10 acres in the country. I am talking country like- the neighbors had no teeth. The saving grace was that church friends bought the land next to us and our kids played all day in the woods. We lived there for a year and finally decided that this life was not for us. We wanted to be back in town, but knew we couldn't move yet. We stayed four years total because our expenses were low and we were able to save for a different life. We took on a paper route- the biggest in Niceville. It paid really well but the hours getting up at 3:30 were awful. We used the income from the paper route to move into town. Without that extra income we could not afford the life. Stupid tax was paid and we were stuck having to work that job to afford our life. We weren't living extravogantly- we had a 2100 square foot house built in 1986. It was in a nice neighborhood, but nothing "fancy." We would alternate doing the papers except on Sunday- we had to both deliver the Sunday paper since it was so big.

Then, stupid tax was paid again. We had a paid for van. It was side swiped while parked at a garage sale and repaired. We went to Disney and backed into someone (a small car that was up on our bumper so you could not see them) and it was repaired, then I was sitting at a stop light and a guy rear ended me. Well, my husband saw that the frame did not look right and felt we needed to get rid of it. We bought our 2001 YukonXL (In 2003) and financed $23000 after a trade in and down payment. It was over $32000 for it. I love my Yukon but we were stupid to go into a car payment. We listened to Dave every morning while delivering papers and just totally ignored him. We thought we were working hard and we deserved it. We had to have a reliable car. We had the money for the payment (after the $450 payment we had $800 left each month) Whew, stupid , stupid, stupid.

We decided to get really serious and follow Dave. What did we do? Added more work to our schedule. My husband got his handyman license and worked for a lady at his real job that had about 20 rental houses. When she bought a new one or someone moved out he would paint, replaced plumbing and drywall, and did remodeling type work. Another guy that was flipping houses also used him to remodel for the flips. He also got with another guy and they boarded up the windows on the luxury beach houses in Destin when hurricanes were coming. I took over three homes that a friend cleaned when she moved away. One I did every week. One was once a month. And one was every two weeks. We were making a lot of money. The paper job brought in $2300 a month. He was paid $30 an hour for handyman stuff. And I made $25-$30 an hour cleaning the houses. We totally wore ourselves out. We went gazelle and got stuck running at gazelle intensity for a long time. We had money, but at what cost?

We finally got to the point that we had to find a way to stop the ride. Dave says that he suffered from thinking he could out earn his spending. Well, we were like that. We weren't spending crazily but we were able to find ways to earn more and work to live a life that really we couldn't afford- it doesn't matter that it was not a luxury lifestyle. We were not a slave to debt- we were a slave to work.

The solution is to either make more or spend less. We couldn't spend less- I really was still frugal and not overspending in any way ;other than the car payment or house payment was $1300 a month so it was not too big in most worlds. The housing market had gone crazy in Okaloosa county in Florida. Houses on our street were selling for $389K (we paid $152K) The good was that we had a lot of equity in our home and could change our lives if we sold. The bad was that we could not afford another home there. A 3000 square foot home was over $600K. We had lived in Huntsville for 5 years and talking to friends found that the market was still very reasonably priced. Jobs are really good in Huntsville with all the technical and defence jobs supporting the Arsenol. So, we began to seek moving here. We had hoped to make almost $200K and almost pay cash for our house, but that was not God's plan. I guess He had some other lessons for us to learn.

We moved and got a rental for the cheapest we could find without worrying about the area- $1000 a month. We needed to be in the city limits for our daughter to attend the high school. (Our high school is in the top 3% in the nation.) Our house in Florida took 15 months to sell. During that time our Florida house payment went to $1600 because taxes went up. We were paying $7300 a year for taxes and insurance alone. We lowered the price $114K total to get it sold. For whatever reason we weren't financially where we had hoped but God had a purpose for our waiting. We have a nice 3000 square foot home and were able to put money into an emergency fund and live off of Darryl's ONE income. We have three cars- all paid for. No, we no longer have over $800 a month left over after paying our bills, but we are not a slave to working either. I have to be more careful to watch our budget but not to a point of worrying. We have what we need.

It is because of Dave and our continuing to work and have hope and a dream for a better life. We had $10K in savings when we moved. Man, did Murphy ever come. We had to put in a new lawn pump and then our air conditioner went out. That was almost $4500. Then, we had to pay to have our home cleaned and yard done while it was on the market. We did everything that we could to survive that 15 months- cut out contributing to 401-K, I spent $300 on groceries a month, no clothes, no cable, no eating out, no activities that cost money-the boys did baseball but did not do basketball or football. My husband changed jobs after we moved and went from having to wear jeans and polos to pants and ties. I went to the thrift store and found expensive name brand shirts and pants for him then we supplemented with JCPenney sales (fabulous sales) when we got birthday or Christmas money. If we had not had the original $10 K saved we would have gone under. My MIL kept asking if we needed money, and we did accept $3000 at the end - then paid it back when we sold our home. She could not believe we were paying $2600 a month for house payments and making it. Man, did it kill me to have to accept that money! It just got to the point where we had $10 in our account and just could not go any further. Our house payment was going up another $300 the month after we sold for the increase in insurance. When we sold in Florida you are required to do any repairs for anything found on the inspection. Guess what they found? Termites. We had to repair and treat for termites. Then, we had to pay $1000 to take down a hundred year old oak that was next to the house because the insurance company would not insure them with it that close to the house. I handled the waiting during the 15 months pretty well. I think the last month of repairs and all really about made me go coo-coo. God really allowed us to be pushed really far so I am anxious to know for WHAT REASON!

There are a lot of things that can become slaves- living in a home, working, continuing to buy things you don't really have the money for. You may see the money,but is it there because you have made working for it a requirement? I would rather have less with time with our family over all the things and a big beautiful house. I look around and feel blessed beyond imagination because I do have a beautiful home and all we need. I, at times, can see bigger and better and forget that, then sometimes I feel embarrassed that we have so much more than others. It is weird to have that feeling of being embarrassed for having things. I guess there are times when you don't want people to think you think you are better than them or for them to feel like what they have is not good enough. Believe me when I say I have lived there. We started out in a 1000 square foot home and just tried to make each one the best we could. Don't let things take any priority- make whatever you have clean and neat. Find things at garage sales to make it a beautiful homey place. Take care of what you do have, no matter how ugly it really is. You are creating a home and that is not what it is furnished with but who it is furnished with.

Setting up a budget

Everyone is really paying attention to their money now that the economy has been struggling. It is really easy to let small amounts of money fall through your fingertips, twenty here, five there. The easiest way to control what you have is to budget and tell your money where to go. I love budgets, I am a real nerd. It is hard for me to conceive that everyone does not like to budget and work with numbers but I talk to people all the time and see that they really get anxious at the thought of having to sit down to budget. They look at it as torture or don't want to be "tied to a budget." It is not tying yourself down, it is freeing you to be confident that you will have money at the end of the month. It is just a tool to use.

How do you set up a budget? What do you include? Well, this is how I set mine up.
First, I make a list of all my expenses. Include everything. There are some things that you do not pay monthly, but you have yearly or semi annually, like car insurance or Christmas spending. Include those items. I take those items that occur less often than monthly and divide by the months that come between each payment. That is your monthly amount you need to save. What are some of the catagories?

Tithe
retirement
medical
House or rent payment
auto insurance
life insurance
food
gas-automobile
electricity
gas- home
water
cell phone
home phone
internet
cable
clothing
gift
school
activities(baseball fees, AWANA, dance lessons, etc.)
entertainment(movies,dinner out, family outings)
household(decorating, maintenance)
auto maintenance(tires, oil,repairs)
allowances

Think of anything that you are spending money on and make a catagory. I find that if I have more specific catagories that I am able to watch where my money goes better than if I try to lump a lot of things into one catagory like "household."

Next, I write the amount by each item that is the minimum required for that item. For example, what is the base amount charged for your phone. I do not add any extra amount for flexible long distance or add on features. At the top of my page I write our take home pay. I then take the amount we get for the extra two paychecks we get per year and divide by twelve and add that to the base monthly pay. I then subtract the amount of all the catagories and see if we have any money left or if we have used all the money. If you are over budget (don't have enough money for all the items) you have to go through and reduce things to fit. Take $20.00 of groceries, remove vacation funds, whatever you have to do to make your amounts work. If, after you remove/reduce all you can and you still don't have enough you HAVE to find additional income. You are really upside down and just are not making enough to support a basic life. Hopefully, you have money left, instead. Now, go back and increase items that you usually spend more on or make the decision to keep those items at a bare minimum and save the additional money. It is really cool to take what you think is a thrifty budget and sqeeze more by reducing catagories just $5 each or as much as you can.

I like to add up all the items that are not monthly expenses and have that amount automatically taken out of each check and transvferred to an additional account for saving it until the payment is due. It is so nice when Christmas comes to know you have money saved and sitting there when you go shopping.

If you are beginning to get control of your spending it is a great idea to put money for food and clothes and other items in envelopes and pay cash only for those items. It is much easier to control spending and know what is left. You end up making better choices in what you buy. You don't add items to your cart as easily.

I set up every bill that I could on automatic payment. I don't have to worry about trying to get a bill sent off. I set up our bills and checking account on a Quicken program to record and track spending. Through that you can set up your bills and it will show a list in order of what is due next. We get paid every two weeks so I sit down the Thursday before the Friday pay date and record all our payments. This way I only have to do budgeting stuff every two weeks. I pay/record every bill that will be paid or due withing the next two week period. I have been lazy and have not been recording our daily reciepts for purchases for items until that two week period. We have been living on a budget for our 20 year marriage so it is all second nature. If you are starting out you need to record them daily or more frequently just to keep a check on yourself. Better if you are using the cash system for items, you don't have to worry about recording reciepts. I love that I can sort on Quicken by catagory to see if I am on target for groceries or whatever catagory.

If you freak out at the thought of a budget I would love to know what it is that makes you feel that way. Is it a feeling of being told what to do? Is it a fear of not having enough? I am just curious what it is that makes you want to avoid it.

Reorganizing

I have been working on how to get back down to our budgeted amounts in the areas we have been going over. I had forgotten that we have $625.00 a month going into our Medical flex account. That is the largest thing that has hit our budget and at the first of the year I will not need to fund it at that level. We have three in orthodontic treatment this year is why I put $7500 a year into that account. This is a good example of how having money automatically taken out of your paycheck and put into another account helps you. I knew the money was there but "forgot" it is coming out. We became accustomed to living without it. Orthodontics is not an expense that will be occured every year- we pay it and that will be done.

I bought $1200 of Kroger gift cards in the last few months. For those of you without a Kroger, they had a promotion where if you bought a gift card worth $300 you got a bonus $30, $60 for a $600 card and $120 for a $1200 card. Kroger is my closest store and I can also purchase the cheapest gas without driving about 6 miles to Sams (I would use the difference in price to drive to Sams only for gas)

I have been looking at each of the areas where we have been going over budget. Before I just increase those catagories I want to try to decrease my expenses instead. Here is some of my ways to reduce the cost:

FOOD
1.We have been eating out a lot. Because I have not been prepared my husband has picked up lunch a lot of days. I am watching to make sure that we have lunch items for the kids and my husband prepared.

2. I am cooking food to have for quick meals. I used to do once a month cooking but that is too much work and time involved. It is easier to make up a few things at a time. I baked potatoes and made twice baked potatoes to freeze- those are great to pull out and microwave. I am planning on cooking up some things to freeze like brown rice, cook my dried beans, diced potatoes, more baked potatoes, pancakes, french toast, calzone/ hot pocket type sandwiches, uncrustable sandwiches, biscuits, ground chuck, chicken meals, cookie dough, and I really want to try to make homemade bread and tortillas.

3. I pulled up my squash and zucchini plants because the were attacked with vine borers and died this week. This weekend I replanted the spaces in my garden with pole beans and lima beans, a row of cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce. Hopefully we can get some of that to grow before it turns cool in November.

4. I am trying to be more watchful of what the kids eat. It seems like they eat as fast as I bring in the food. I need to monitor them more carefully so they don't eat me out of house and home.

5. I am watching my leftovers and using or freezing them. I have thrown away a lot of food lately.

6. I am looking for new menu items because I have been making the same things over and over. I like to try new things.

Electricity and Water
1. Changing the dishwasher to air dry at night instead of heat dry. If we have to wash in the daytime we have to heat dry because we need the dishes back. Our counters will fill up with dishes waiting to go into the dishwasher and I hate that.

2. My kids will take a bath at night then again in the morning because their hair was crinkled. What!? Stick that pumpkin under the faucet!

3. I have been doing this and it is working well so will continue to gather all the water for my plants and garden that I can. I take all the glasses that are in the kitchen and pour leftover water from melted ice into a pitcher I keep by the sink. I will have the pitcher full by the end of the day with "caught" water and pour it on the base of my garden plants. When I planted my tomato plant in a container I planted a water bottle with holes in it and I pour the water into that bottle to water it from the bottom. Sometimes I use my HUGE popcorn bowl and fill it with water. I throw in the crusty dishes and then rub off the gunk before putting them in dishwasher. I then take that bowl of water to the garden or compost pile if it is dry.

Our water bill was still $99 last month. Normally, it is around $80 so I am not sure why it increased so much. Whatever we intake in usage we pay for in sewage.

4. Hanging clothes to dry. I put them in the dryer for about 5 minutes so they aren't crunchy. I have three drying racks. I put them outside on my back deck on nice days or in my laundry room if it looks like rain. Anything that I can hang I hang in the laundry room. You can even hang towels- two to a hanger.

5. I am filling my oven when I turn it on. I either make two or three meals or make cupcakes or baked potatoes at the same time. Don't waste that space while you are already paying for the heat.

6. I read to put the crock pot outside to cook so that you don't heat up your kitchen. What a great idea! I also want to make our solar oven as a school project.

7. We have the air set to 78. The upstairs is on a timer and is higher in the daytime so it is miserable upstairs during the day. We spend our daytime downstairs and use the fans. I am not suffering all day to save anymore money in that area.

8. We have our main computer in our bedroom upstairs and a laptop downstairs. I have been turning off the upstairs computer because it really adds a lot of heat.

9. I have learned to say no to the kids about spur of the moment baking of cupcakes or cinnamon sticks. I was really wimping out and giving in to their puppy dog eyes and whimpering. I do need to pick up some things they can snack on that don't require baking- like freeze pops.

10. I need to make sure the kids put up their clothes that aren't really dirty so I am not washing so much. They don't need to play in clean clothes. Am I the only one that finds folded clothes under the dirty ones when you are sorting for the wash? That is lazy and really inconsiderate of them to make me work again for their clothes to be clean. I am addressing that character flaw.

11. We bought and installed some bamboo(?) shades in the family room and breakfast nook. The evening sun was horrible. I have been pulling the curtains shut on the family room windows to block some of it. Heat...Dark....Heat....Dark.... It is a toss up in your life.

Gas
I made a list of where we drive to try to figure out a gas budget. We have a YukonXL, full size GMC truck and Toyota Camry.

1. Drive the Camry whenever I can to use less gas. My husband has to go early to church on Sunday mornings. He was taking the truck and then we all would come in the Yukon. I realized that he should take the Camry and that would save a little.

2. I combine all our shopping into one big trip. Walgreens, Publix, Staples and Southern Market are all on the way to church. Target, Walmart,and Sams are all about 6 miles away. I am going to make those stores a monthly trip instead. We have a CVS, Kroger, Dollar General Market, and Rite Aid less than a mile away.

3. The only other trips that we make are for work and my daughter going to the college. We told her that she needs to start paying for her gas, but we provided it up to this point.

This is pretty much all the areas that I found to reduce these expenses. We just have a big family and that requires more food, water, electricity and gas than a smaller family. We are also all home all day so we use more than if the kids were at school or I was at work. A $500 grocery budget is really tight. I hope to add to my garden little by little and be able to produce a lot of our food, but for now it is a hobby. Our electric company said they expect to increase their costs by 10%. I would rather reduce where I can than absorb the increase in each of these areas.

Our Budget

Without getting too personal into how much we make I am posting our budget. I love to look at other budgets to see how I am doing and how others spend their money. You can see other recent budgets at Thrifty Florida Mama, and Blessed Frugalness.

$$$$ 401-K funding on percentage of income with company match
10% tithe on gross
$$$$ we support some friends that are missionaries
$1583.00 mortgage
$57.00 extra mortgage
$645.00 medical flex account(we have 3 in braces and put aside $5000 in savings for this expense and are having money taken pre tax out of check. See more here Our normal yearly medical expenses are $80.00 a month. I transfer prescriptions between stores to use their offers for gift cards. Now that I am getting so much free from CVS and Walgreens this will probably go down further.)
$200.00 electricity/gas
$65.00 water
$70.00 cell phones (3 phones,basic phone at $50.00 plus add two for $10.00 each)
$40.00 home phone and internet
$30.00 Direct TV
$500.00 groceries (including paper and cleaning)
$100.00 clothes
$80.00 household (decorating, maintenance, haircuts, photo, mailing)
$83.00 activities (baseball,church camps, basketball. I give each child $200 a year and they pay any additional fees if they want to do things)
$300.00 auto gas and maintenance
$75.00 gifts I put $50 aside for Christmas and use the $25 month to find clearance items.See my gift box here)
$80.00 school( I home school and have most of texts. This is for class fees and association fees with our group plus fees for the two in public school to take certain classes
$120.00 auto insurance (3 cars- we pay for daughter's gas and insurance because she has done well in school and received a scholorship to college. This has been her job to do well in school. We have full coverage on my vehicle and husband's vehicle because although they are paid off they are both worth over $8000.00 and it is worth the cost to not have to pay out of pocket to replace. We carry liability only on the auto daughter drives and tell her if she wrecks it we will do without replacement:))
$120.00 allowances ( we give each child 1/2 their age per week. They get a raise on each birthday. It has been a good amount: a 8 year old gets $16.00 a month, a 17 year old gets $34.00 a month. They have chores to do to get the money. They have to tithe and save some then buy what they want)

Our kids take on babysitting jobs, mowing grass, raking, selling lemonade and cupcakes and muffins to earn money when they want to go somewhere like church camp that is over $200. Or they save their birthday and Christmas money that they get from grandparents.

I don't currently budget vacations. My parents own a time share so we have been vacationing with them and all we have to pay is some of the food,gas, and what entertainment we do. We have unexpected income through the year that covers this. We do buy season tickets each year that saves us money. We bought season Disney tickets for all 7 of us for $1200 when we were in Florida. This let us in Magic Kingdom, Epcot,and Animal Kingdom. My MIL gave us the money for Christmas and told us she wanted us to take the kids. She didn't know we would be able to buy the season tickets and use them for more than one trip. We stayed with my dad in a time share unit so did not incur hotel costs. When we moved to AL we bought Space and Rocket tickets. It was over $20 a piece to get in and my dad plus 3 others were up. For $120 we bought the family pass and it included 6 guest passes, so it was cheaper to buy the season than daily pass. We are going to Gatlinburg for Spring Break and are getting Dollywood and Dixie Stampede tickets on the base for a cheaper price. We thought that we would rather go to a "new" destination in the summer and fall so did not buy the season tickets; but they were only about $100 more for Dollywood.

We have $10000 in an emergency fund plus the $5000 to put into monthly budget for braces. We need to increase life insurance and fund a Roth IRA when we get next raise or additional money unexpected (like the tax rebate)

I don't have a real amount that I set aside for car service. We usually just adjust everything if something happens until we are back on track- money will usually come in that we didn't expect.

I take my money that parents give at Christmas and birthday and will buy an outfit, magazine subscriptions, or things that I want. I used to get about 6-7 magazines a year, but only get 3 now. I find so many at garage sales and thrift stores that I decided to only buy the ones that I would not be able to wait to find it used and wait on the others.

I don't account our tax refund into budget. We don't pay Federal taxes because of having 5 kids and we are still getting back a lot of money this year. And then, we will get the tax rebate.

We used to get a lot of overtime with last job and we were doing remodeling/handyman jobs that would bring in unexpected money. My husband has a salary position now so we do not get overtime, just time off, and we no longer work any 2nd jobs(YES!) so I am adjusting to being more set in things rather than knowing money will come in unexpectantly. I will be tweaking everything this year. We will put enough aside from taxes to take care of any of the things that I don't have budgeted, and then adjust as I see how much our utilities and gas and food actually come to be. Your budget is a guideline and a goal. We have had years where we could not fund even all the basic budget items and we had to be very strict. Through the years it has been a tool to keep us focused and where we can tell our money where to go instead of the money telling us where to go. We have the luxury to be more flexable now. I want to encourage those of you who are getting out of debt or just starting out to hang in there. Life will not always be so tight but if you will sacrifice now for a little while you will change your future. See my post on how we stopped living pay check to paycheck and sacrificed by working two or four jobs to win.

Three in Orthodontic Treatment

We had records taken the end of last year and I went back today for the treatment plan for my three kids that are going into orthodontic treatment. I have known about this and put money aside but it is still hard to look at the numbers on a contract for treatment. I have one that only needs to have an expander, but two are going into full braces. The part that was not known is that two need wisdom teeth removed and two need adnoids removed. Our part of the orthodontist treatment is actually a little less than I thought it would be and will cost us $7500.00. Still a big number to me. I am so grateful for insurance that will pay $900.00 of one child, and $1500.00 for each of the other two. We planned for this expense and put aside money from the sale of our home in Florida. We also have $625.00 a month going into our flex medical account which is pre tax money. That alone saves us over $70 a month in taxes. It feels so good to have the money and not go into debt or have to struggle to pay a monthly bill.

Financial Epiphany

Gather little by little is collecting your story about when you had a financial epiphany at http://www.gatherlittlebylittle.com/2008/02/26/my-epiphany-time-for-a-change/.

My mother died a month before I turned eighteen. Overnight I went from being a teenager to a teenager responsible for a house with an acre to mow and all the monthly bills that came with it. I was always taught to only buy things that you could afford and I guess my nature is to be a planner and budget maker. So, I made a budget and lived within that.

A few years later I married my husband while he was in his last few months of college. We didn't make a lot of money but with it just being us two we had a comfortable life. We had a home built that was based on both of our salaries but found out when we moved in that I was two weeks pregnant. I made a little more than him, so we were at poverty level without my salary. I was determined to make it and tried to continually grow to learn new ways to do things cheaper or do without. I used cloth diapers, hung out clothes to dry, learned to cut up chickens, started buying thrift and garage sale items.

My epiphany came not in the form of doing better or that we were doing anything wrong. We started listening to Dave Ramsey and it hit me that yes, we were doing good and getting by but if we wanted to get past the getting by we had to do something drastic. We took a paper route and started getting up at 3:30. I started cleaning two homes. My husband got his handyman liscense and started doing some remodeling for people that flipped or rented houses. We worked hard- for 6 years we delivered papers. We wore ourselves out. It was not a pursuit of money, it was a pursuit of digging out of the hole of getting by. We didn't have debt, but we didn't have savings other than our 401-K. Now, we have moved to a less costly area and have a beautiful home, emergency fund, and comfortable lifestyle. We don't have to work two jobs and can have a lot of family time. We are looking forward to finally being able to enjoy traveling with the kids. I am glad we worked hard for a little while to make our future life better. Dave says to "Live like no one else so that later you can live like no one else. "

Taxes are Done!

I have been working on getting all our tax information gathered and entered into Turbo Tax. I finally finished this morning. We had no idea what to expect since this is our first year to file a full year in Alabama. Because we have 7 deductions we do not have any Federal taxes taken out of my husband's check. State will not let you do that so we had to give them money all year knowing they would be sending it back. We are getting back $2722.00 from Federal and $1342.00 from State. Yipee!!! On top of this we will get the rebate check Bush is sending out.

I don't know what exactly we will do with the money. Three kids are going in braces in a month- two full and one in an expander. Our part is $7900.00 and I have $5000.00 that was already set aside to pay that. So, that leaves $2900.00 we can set aside and not worry about any monthly portion to save. We need to replace the fence around the garden area in our back yard. It was built in 1993 with an arbor gate and all. I really like having it because it is a nice garden area. We have been getting a lot of birds lately landing on the top of the arbor. But, the wood is all about to rot and needs to be replaced. We also have our oldest going to college in the fall. She is staying home and has received a full scholorship, but somehow I am sure we will have expenses. One thing that I would really like to do is put something aside so that we could go skiing in the winter. We went in 2000 and now we would not have to carry baby carriers and toddlers. I think it would be much more enjoyable now that everyone can walk.

Snobby Article

I was checking out the articles for this week on www.stretcher.com and they have an article titled How To Know IF Your Neighbor Is Wealthy. I read it and it says to just look in their driveway and see if they have a SUV. If they do they are not wealthy because they are so expensive to drive and maintain.... WHAT?! Are they serious? What a big long stretch of the imagination that has riled me up. We have a SUV. A YukonXL to be exact. We do not have a car payment and get a discount on insurance because of the safety of the vehicle.( If it is a chicken game between me and you in a small car- I win, that is what it amounts to.) Yes, it costs more in gas, unless we take two cars to church and on trips so we can fit in all the kids. Excuse me for liking to take the kids AND our ball equipment/luggage/groceries/whatever in one trip. I love my big auto because I have room for all of us and it is still comfortable. I just found the article rather snotty and one sided. We can afford our maintenance and gas and insurance. We also own a full size truck that is as bad on gas as the Yukon. Guess what? It is paid for also. We bought it from Mother in law at Christmas. It is a 2000 model with only 30,000 miles on it. I guess by the article we are poor stupid folks. In reality, we have 3 paid for cars, about 5 months emergency fund, and no debt. You cannot box people in and assume things by what they have in their driveway!

Bargain Clothes

I took my daughter and two friends to see the Hannah Montana concert movie last night. While they saw the movie I looked around at some of the shops. I went in the Ann Taylor Loft store and found this top and two pair of jeans. The top was $9.99 and the jeans were $3.88 each. Ann Taylor is one of my favorite shops but I try to wait for their sales so I don't spend so much. Always look through everything in your size because these were the only two jeans that I saw for the price.

My daughter and her friends thought it was cool because outside the theatre there was a limo and a guy was set up with a video camera. They decided someone famous was in the movie with them- maybe even Hannah Montana!

Save Money On Your Mortgage

One of the things that we are doing to save money is to pay extra principal on our mortgage each month. The cheapest way for us to finance our mortgage was to take out a second fixed rate mortgage for $24,999.00. We qualified for a VA loan but doing a conventional plus this second was cheaper down and kept the monthly payment within $4.00 of the VA loan. It is set up on a 30 year loan. If we pay an additional $57.00 a month it knocks off 15 years of the life of the loan and $34,872.00 off interest payments. We hope to add more in additional payments and pay it off even earlier then roll payments into the first mortgage to pay it off more quickly. It just takes a little to make a huge difference in the long run.

How your past influences you today

Over at beingfrugal.net she asked how things from our past influence us today. I grew up in a divorced home where money was very tight. We got just enough clothes to get by having one outfit to wear for each of the days of the week. In 8th grade a boy asked why I always wore the same 5 outfits to school over and over again. It really embarrassed me that someone noticed and I became over conscious of what other people thought about my clothes. I then went on to high school and would spend a whole day trying on clothes seeing how many ways I could put things together so it was not the same outfit each time I wore it. I then made sure that I didn't wear the same thing together usually within the month.

One time when I was in about 6th grade I decided to wash clothes to help my mom out. I filled the washer with my brother's jeans and poured a cup of bleach on them. His jeans had white bleach spots all over them. He had to wear them for about 3 months until Christmas and he could get more.

One time mom and I were in The Limited. I wanted the vee neck sweater so bad. Do you remember these? This was the 80's. We would wear them backwards so the vee was in the back. Well, they were like $30.00 which was like $60.00 in today's money. Mom said,"We can go to K-mart and get the same thing for a lot less money." Can you believe the nerve of the woman? Everyone in THE WHOLE MALL heard her and I couldn't show my face there for 5 years.

One girl got a reputation because word got out that her Izods came from the irregulars at Stein Mart! She was like the only girl that had multiple colors of Izods and everyone was amazed that she could have so many.(What a smart girl, huh? Now she is probably the proud author of a frugal blog teaching others about her frugalness.)

Mom shopped for groceries twice a month. Every week before the payday we would have run out of milk and many other things. We didn't have money to go to the store and pick it up so we did without. Instead, we would eat macaroni and cheese or biscuits and gravy. I have realized that I admire people that can make due with little and still maintain warmth and love. It is not what you are given but what you do with what you have. I see that having food and toiletries and a gift box and stuff stocked up gives me the assurance that I will not have to do without. I think it gives me the pleasure that some would get from having a diamond ring or other expensive luxery. I don't really want the luxeries, I want the basics... lined up, color coded:)

When we were first married I wanted to stay home so we didn't even have enough money to make our basic necessities, but somehow made it each month. One thing that I have always tried to maintain in our almost 20 year marriage is happiness with what we have. I have tried to make the little apartment, small 1000 square foot 1st home, trailor, patio home and the last two bigger homes pretty and warm for guests. I haven't always had pretty things, but tried to take care of what we had. I inherited china and stuff that I haven't waited for special occassions to use. Every day is special.

We attended the funeral of my husband's grandmother years ago and I will never forget the lesson I learned that day. This woman was always what many would consider poor. She had 7 kids and her husband died early. She never drove, had a tiny home probably 800 square feet, had old furniture that was cheaply made, but she would have a meal on the table in 15 minutes when you stopped by. She knew every tidbit of information of every relative near and distant. If someone was in the hospital she was there for the day or week. She loved you and it showed. She cared about your life. In her tiny home all these kids, and their kids, and their kids would come each holiday and play music and sing and dance. It would be so hot you would have to go outside to breathe sometimes. At the funeral person after person got up to tell of how she fed them and cared for them. I realized that having pretty things does not make a home, it is the love and care that make it. It is not the size, how it is furnished, or anything else that really matters.

Surviving an income crisis

This past year and a half we experienced a job crisis and move that tried us financially. My husband worked as a military contractor and they lost their contract. He totally changed careers and started working as a network administrator. We lived in Florida where the cost of living with real estate taxes and insurance was killing us. For 6 years we had delivered the newspaper to make it in the area where we lived. We decided to look for a job in a city where we lived when we first married and he was accepted for a position.

The real estate market in Florida was totally saturated and you could not sell a home there. We moved from the area leaving it on the market and it took 15 months to sell. So, for 15 months we lived with two house payments. We tried to find the cheapest rental that we could get without putting our family in a bad area. We have five kids so 2 bedroom apartments would not rent to us. Our house payments were over 50% of our take home pay. So, how did we do it?

1. We stopped contributions to our retirement funds. We felt eating was a little more important at the moment.

2. We did not have any cable t.v.- just the basic 4 channels.

3. No new clothes, household items, or anything on our budget but gas, food, electricity, phones, tithe, life and car insurance.

4. I home school but my kids could not attend Friday classes with our cover group.

5. Our food budget was very low and we ate a lot of rice, pasta, beans, soup. Meat was only added in a little and I used beans as a filler. There were many times I would see that the end of our supplies was coming and someone would invite us over or I would get a coupon in the mail from a grocer for $10.00 off your $50.00 total.

6. I didn't drive anywhere I didn't have to go and I combined trips to pick up stuff on the way.

7. We took advantage of church functions, used free movie coupons and the library, parks. We went to festivals in nearby towns and enjoyed getting out.

8. I hung out my clothes to dry when I could. I tried to make multiple things in the oven while it was hot.

We had been Dave Ramsey fans and had $10,000 saved when we started out. We had to pay for yard service and house cleaning on the home in Florida. We saved money by hiring teenagers to do this. Slowly, the money we had saved disappeared and we got to the end of everything we had worked hard to achieve. We always trusted in God to provide and knew that He had a reason to allow this in our lives. If you are going through trials trust in Him to provide and to protect you. Get an emergency fund in place. I cannot imagine where we would be without that money to fall back on. There are many things you can do without. Count the cost of what you put your time and effort into. Family is worth it... things are not.

Budgeting For Dummies

First, I make a list of everything that we spend money on in the year. This includes Christmas and insurance premiums and other things that we don't have to pay monthly. I divide those items by 12 and come up with a monthly amount that I need to set aside to pay the expense when it occurs. I have all the money for those items not paid monthly automatically deposited into another account until payment is due on these items.

I have set up our checking account on Quicken and it has a feature that lists in order your recurring bills. We get paid every two weeks so I pay everything that is due between the pay period on the day we get paid. That way, I only have to pay bills two times a month. Most of our bills are on automatic payment schedules. I go to the bank and withdraw money to fund our envelope system and pay the kids allowance.

Make sure to keep a set amount in your checking account as a cushion so you never have overdraft fees.

One of the biggest helpers to organizing my bills is to buy a portfolio that I can carry from room to room. I set up catagories within it for auto, receipts, medical bills/forms, recipes I tear out of magazines, decorating, craft ideas, school papers, rosters with contact information for baseball/school, and my best help... To pay and To do. I put all our bills in the to pay. I put all papers that require me to call someone or has papers to fill out in the "to do" folder. I also put copies of rebates I am waiting on, pending insurance forms, etc. so that I can know to check on it if I need to. We just moved from Florida where we had hurricanes every year and I kept our social security cards, birth certificates and important papers in it and could just grab the portfolio if we needed to leave in a hurry. I also can take it from room to room and work from our laptop to pay bills.

We have money automatically set aside from our check into a flex medical account. This is pretax money. When I have a medical bill that I turn in I staple it to the form that I have to turn into the flex account manager for reimbursement. I file this in the "to do" folder until I receive reimbursement. When payment comes, I staple that to the forms and file in my medical folder. This year we have two going into braces and one getting an expander costing $900.00. Our total amount due the orthodontist will be $7900.00. We have the maximum that we can withdraw for our flex account which is $7500.00. Our monthly amount taken out for taxes is 11.75 percent, so we are saving about $73.00 a month in taxes. Be sure that you can use all the money you put into a flex account because if you do not use it you lose it at the end of the year. Last year we had $200.00 left so I got a pair of prescription sunglasses and stocked up on over the counter medicines.

Just simplify it as much as you can and keep it organized in one place so it is not a chore to locate everything- or forget something.

CVS and Walgreens

My goal for 2008 is to stock our pantry with free or near free stuff from CVS and Walgreens. I stumbled on http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ and am amazed at how Crystal can put together the deals with coupons to get so much free stuff. I have always been a bargain hunter and thought I did a good job, then saw her and how far I have to go.

When we first had our oldest daughter I made it by on $35.00 a week on all my groceries, including toiletries and paper/cleaning products. We only had the two of us plus a baby. I nursed and used cloth diapers. We had chicken every night. I had 30 chicken recipes and would buy whole chickens and cut them up. One chicken would feed us 3 meals. This was in 1990, so I wonder if it even compares to Crystal feeding her family on $35.00 a week now. They don't have much meat which is a big difference. In 1990, my husband was still VERY picky and had to have a meat and potatoes type meal. Luckily, I have changed him into a normal human in the last 19 years and he will eat anything except green peppers.

My goal for the next three months is to only spend $500.00 to feed seven of us. I am stocking my pantry to have atleast 3 months of food on hand and start eating out of the pantry and just buy sales each week. We have been lazy lately since we were remodeling and eating out or buying more food to quickly prepare. I would like to give extra stuff to our church pantry or try to make some in garage sales twice a year.