2/25-2/28: Living Frugally

I'm just now catching up on the last couple days. I have to say, we've been doing very well at not spending much money this weekend. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we've gotten serious about house shopping, and it really makes you think before spending money when you're saving for something so important.



Thursday was easy, it rained so David drove my truck into work and I didn't leave the house. He did spend $12 on lunch with co-workers but it came out of this $30 weekly blow money, so that's not a big deal.



Friday was payday and I went out to get the envelope cash and gas in the truck. My bank gives rebates for ATM fees, so there was no waste there. Before I got gas I checked http://www.gasbuddy.com/ so find out where the cheapest place in town was. It happened to be Walmart, which is great because it's only about a mile away and I used a Walmart Shopping Card to save $0.03 a gallon. I bought 16 gallons, saving me a total of $0.48. Doesn't sound like too much, but it was something I was going to buy anyway, might as well save a couple quarters doing it, right? Next stop was the vet to buy Bear's hear worm prevention. It was $55, but it came out of his envelope, so again it there was no real effect on the monthly cash flow. Pet care can be expensive but it's SO worth it to keep your pet happy and healthy. A little money spent to protect your pet now can save so much more expense and heartache later on. I cannot stress this enough!



Which brings me to Saturday. Weekends are always, ALWAYS a "budget buster" for us. I should say for me though, because most money spent is because I don't feel like cooking. I'd say 80% of our blow/entertainment money is spent on dining out. There really is no reason for this, especially when we have a house full of food. But I am really making an effort this week, so I cooked breakfast at home this morning instead of running to McD's. We had leftovers for lunch, then met friends for dinner. We went to a local deli, where I had coupon for a free appetizer and we got a military discount. We saved about $6, and the total bill was only $17. After that our friends came over to watch some movies and play Wii. We had a great time, and $17 is not bad for a Saturday spent with friends!

2010 Goals and Plans

It's time to start the new year! I am so excited about 2010. Last year was the first year in my entire life that I accomplished my resolution. I made it a goal in 2009 to end the year credit card debt free, and we did. We still have many other financial goals we want to reach and many habits we still need to work on, but accomplishing our 2009 goal has given me such motivation for the next steps in our financial journey. The plan is to continue on the same path, using the envelope system, and the biweekly budget we are using now. As for the goals, here are the 4 we are going to focus on in 2010.

1. Start 2010 with 7% contribution to our TSP retirement. DONE 1/1/2010

2. Have the Bike paid off by June.

3. Have 3 months worth of expenses saved by the end of the year. (About $6,000.)

4. Stay credit card debt free.

Happy First Anniversary

Yesterday was a year since I wrote my first blog! So much has changed for us financially I can't even begin to imagine where we'd be now if we hadn't made the decision to become debt free. And while we still aren't there, we are MUCH closer. In fact, we'll make our last payment to credit card debt this month and start 2010 with only a truck payment. Here are my top 3 things I've learned this year, and what's worked the best for us:

1. USE CASH: I'd heard of Dave Ramsey but never paid much attention to his plan until this summer. I was still hesitant to use a cash only system. In this day and age it seems "old fashion" and inconvenient to use cash instead of a debit card, but that's just not so. Also, from my experience using a debit card is NOT the same as cash. It's just too easy to swipe the plastic, it's painful to hand over tangible cash.

2. BUDGET: My old budget didn't work because I would plan for what I would like to see happen with my money. When I took total control and told my money where to go, I was able to stick to it. (Example: I used to *hope* that I could spend less then $15o a pay period on groceries. With my new budget, I tell myself I *must* spend less this $150 because that's all the cash I have.) It's amazing what you can so when you have to!

3. BLOGGING: And reading blogs. Sharing ideas is the best way to find a budget that works for you. When I feel myself slipping or wanting to have a pity party I read others blogs and get all the motivation I need. So thanks to all the fellow bloggers!

Here's to another year of blogging and reaching new goals!

November 1-7 Spending:

11/1:
$10 Burger King-Breakfast
$5 Target-Halloween Clearance
$12 Marshall's-Halloween Clearance
$13 Kirkland's-Halloween Clearance

11/2:
$9 Heros-lunch with BFF

11/3
$9 Dog Food
$14 Candles, Soda, Chips, TP
$1 McD's Burger

11/4:
$5 Coupon Order

11/5:
$3 SnoBalls

11/6:
$7 Cracker Barrel
$10 Walmart
$20 Gas

11/7:
$4 Target
$14 Walmart
$5 Dollar Tree
$20 Hero's

This week I spent $137 on things that we didn't NEED. Ugh, that's a lot. In red are the things that were wants and could have been avoided. Technically all but about $50 were within budget because we used cash. But lately I've been wondering if we spend the cash because we have it. Just because I have $10 left in my Blow Money, doesn't mean I need to go to Target and see what I can buy for $10. I need to really work on that! Hopefully this week will be better. My weakness is seasonal clearance, I've spend a lot on marked down Halloween stuff. Which is fine if it's stuff I'll actually need and use next year. But naturally I get sucked into buying crap just because it's 75% off. Another weakness if boredom. I want to try to stay out of stores more this week. Last week I went shopping almost everyday just because I could. But again-that doesn't mean I SHOULD. If I stay out of stores and busy doing something else then I can't spend any money, right!? I'll check back in next week.

8/31-9/14 Budget

I love it when payday is on a Monday, I feel like my week falls into place better when I can start my budget on the beginning of the week. August was our second full month on Dave Ramsey's "Envelope System", and like I keep saying-it's WONDERFUL! You know your plan is really working when you forget it's payday because your not out of money! This last pay period was the dreaded 3 weekend pay check, which normally leaves us broke by the 3rd weekend. But in fact, we had more left over then normal and I didn't even realize today was payday until I logged onto my bank this morning and saw the deposit. Then later, a friend mentioned how long this period had been. Normally I complain along side her, but this week I was so grateful for the changes we've made and the peace of mind it brings!

For the next 2 weeks it will just be me, David will be out of town again for work. This lowers our grocery and blw money ammounts, but since I'll be traveling back to Florida our gas budget will be higher. Here's the plan:

Food/HBA: $30
Gas: $100
Blow Money: $60
Misc/Entertainment: $30
Dog: $20
Travel/Gifts/Christmas: $150
Marine Corps Ball: $50


I am SO, SO excited about September being here. It's probably my favorite month! It's the start of football season, cooler weather, fall smells, changing leaves, MY BIRTHDAY, and most exciting-next weekend is my parent's 25th wedding anniversary!

How do you stay on plan?

It seems like this time of year everyone is busy with back to school, or vacations before school starts back, camps, and family reunions. For us, David is leaving this week for a short deployment, and I'll be heading to my parents house for most of the month for both my brother and sister's birthdays. My brother will also be coming home from his deployment!!!

So with all these great things going on, I've been thinking about about how I can stay on budget and still enjoy the last bits of summer. I've come up with a few things I think will help.

• As always, before I made my budget, I sat down with the calendar and filled out all the events for the month. Then I budgeted according to what's going on. I think it's extremely important to base the budget on the events of the month, otherwise you are bound to go off plan.
• I won't be home on the next payday, I so I made sure to have a copy of the budget in my purse, on my laptop, and even downloaded to my phone. That way I always know my budgeted amounts.
• I also have alerts since to my phone via text from my bank. It lets me know the balances of my account daily, as well as any transactions that have posted. This is a GREAT help, and also gives me such peace of mind. It's great security because if something were to be incorrect or stolen from my account I would know very soon and can take the proper steps.
• Again, I can't say enough how the envelope system has helped us! We will definitely be continuing it.
• I've also printed off, or gathered coupons I know I'll use while traveling. For example I've earn some free 20 oz. Coke coupons from www.mycokerewards.com and also free jerky and candy bar coupons. These will be so helpful while traveling!

These are just a few things I hope will help me stay on plan while away from home this month. If you have any, please comment. I'd love to hear your ideas!

Envelope System, Day 15

Yesterday ended the first pay period of our new Envelope System. We are very, very pleased with the results. I was nervous at first since we took a trip to Florida over the 4th and other trip to Mobile last weekend. Then there were a couple birthdays thrown in there. But we managed to do it all on the set amount of cash we pulled out at the beginning of the month. We did use the debit card once on gas, but that was IT. I'm amazed at the amount of money left over that was about to go to paying our credit card.

Today is the start of another pay period. We technically got paid yesterday, because our bank releases the funds early. But we "pretend" to not get paid to day to simplify out plan. We sat down after dinner again last night and went over the money from the previous pay period, and made a budget for the next. Then we went to the ATM (we don't have any local branches of our bank) and withdrew our cash for the next 2 weeks. Here's how it looks:

Grocery/HBA: $120
Spending Money; $100
Entertainment/Misc: $100
Pet: $20
Travel: $40
Gifts: $60
Gas: $75

I also was shocked at how fast the pay period went by. Normally, I am stressed and praying for pay day to get here because I need more money. But I actually forgot it was even payday until I checked my account yesterday. That just doesn't happen here, and it was total wake up call. When you tell your money where to go, you have total control over it. It DOES NOT control you.


Hope everyone has a great afternoon!

Envelope System Day 7

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! We had a wonderful time at my parents house. This holiday is especially meaningful to my family. David is in the Marines, and my brother, Matt, is in the Navy. Matt is currently underway and will be back stateside by fall, so this weekend was bittersweet.

We left Thursday headed to my parents house and stayed there through Monday morning, then headed home with my sister. She'll be staying with me again this week, since she only had a few more weeks before school starts back. I was nervous about traveling on the ES, but it worked out really well. For me, the best part was not having to remember to write it all down in my check register. I am awful at doing that on vacations and while traveling, so using cash made that much easier. We only used the debit card once, and that was for gas. We didn't spend more then we planned and we didn't dip into our money for this week. So I'd say that's a definite success!!!

Oh, and I didn't make a post about this because I was busy getting ready for the weekend, but last week I made a trip to the commissary and got some great deals. My total before coupons was $80, and my final oop was less then $3. $4 was the surcharge, so my total savings was 101%. I was with my best friend and I told her I almost wanted to cry. I really needed that good trip to motivate me!

Our Envelope System

Happy Saturday!!!



I've got some down time today, so I thought I'd take the time to post a blog about our new budget/spending plan. I've mentioned a couple times that on July 1st David and I will start an envelope system (I'll call it an ES). We'll essentially be following Dave Ramsey's plan (http://www.daveramsey.com/). It's something I've been hearing and reading a lot about lately and I have a couple friends who have recommended it. Our budget works when we stick to it, but lately that just hasn't been happening. And while things are much better on the financial front then they were a year ago, we could be saving more and repaying more. So we'll use our regular budget that I've been posting on here, but we'll do it with cash instead. We've sat down and come up with a couple guidelines for our ES.



1. Categories: These will be the envelopes. I should add that all bills will still be paid with the debit card or web bill pay.

• Grocery/Household
• Bear (Pet)
• Entertainment/Dining Out
• Spending Money
• Gas
• Travel Savings
• Auto Maintenance
• Gifts

2. The Plan

• On the night before payday we will sit down and write a budget for the next pay period (2 weeks). Each budget will be different depending on the activities and needs during that time.
• On payday, I will go to the ATM and withdraw all the cash we will need for that period.
• Gas will not be pulled out in cash, but will be put on a Walmart gift card. (This is dependant upon the price. Walmart is almost always much cheaper after the 3 cent discount, but if it's not, then we'll get it somewhere else). Gas will be purchased on the first day of the pay period.

3. The Rules

• If one category goes "negative" we can withdraw from another category, but NO going back to the ATM.
• At the end of the period, all remaining funds will be pooled and re-budgeted into the next month.
• Re-budgeted money will take the place of the money from the following pay period. Thus leaving more money for savings/debt repayment.
• There will always be some money on the debit card for "in case". But at the end of the period all money on the debit card will go to savings/debt repayment.
• Any additional income, or found money will NOT be budgeted into the plan, but go straight to savings/debt repayment.

So that's the plan for now. Of course, as we go along we might need to change and tweak some things, but for the first 2 weeks at least this is the general idea. I will be using regular 'ole envelopes and I have them in a zipper pouch in my "money binder". We will each keep our spending money on us, and take the envelope we will need with us when we leave the house. I won't keep all the money on me all the time.

Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas, too. I'd love to hear them!