I just want to thank everyone for your words of encouragement and all the money saving tips. I have had friends and family sharing their budget ideas, ways to save on formula, and even a website for a weekly news letter. I want to share them with you and ask that you post any great information on this site for all to see.
Enjoy! And thanks again!
Budget Ideas
I love your new blog about finances. I think it's great that you've been able to change your habits and make things work. That's such a relieving feeling. I thought I'd share some of things we do with you, and maybe something will help:) Before Tyler and I got married we mapped out our finances and decided who would pay what. Because Tyler keeps a detailed register, and I manage my finances by having 4 separate accounts, we keep our money separate but are completely honest with each other about all our spending. When we first got married money was really tight (after paying for wedding stuff and tuition and everything). So when I started by internship at RR Donnelley and started getting paid almost twice as much, we acted like we still had the same income. I put $300 away every paycheck so that we wouldn't get used to the extra money (since it was only a 5 month internship), and so we could save up for a car. I had that money go right into a separate account and never withdrew any of it unless we had other car emergencies. During the 5 months of my internship we've saved $3000 and we'll be able to replace my truck with a car that actually runs and go on a cruise in December!A main backbone to our finances is an excel spreadsheet that I made to keep track of EVERY expense. Before the beginning of each month I estimate our income and expenses. If our income is a little less than expected then we see where we can cut back on expenses. Tyler gives me receipts and I ask him about his expenses so we can track everything. It's great to see how much we can save by doing this. Honestly, we haven't stuck exactly to it every month, but it does help to mentally know where we need to cut back and to see the outcome. The thing that has worked best for me is to have separate accounts. I have one account with automatic withdrawals for insurance, cell phone, and internet payments. I have another separate account just for savings (which is our car account right now), another account strictly for school, and just a normal checking account. I guess it's kind of my way of doing Dave Ramsey's envelope method thing. I know this doesn't work for everyone, cuz Tyler thinks I'm crazy for doing it that way, but I love it!Well, that's mostly how we've made things work for us. It's kept us on top of things and happy. It's so much better to have your money work for you, rather than have your money work you over. This semester has been really neat too because I have a class about Estate Planning, one on Retirement Planning, and one about Real Estate and home buying. I've really learned so much about money this semester I absolutely love it!
Lindsey
Save on formula
Just wanted to let you know that Costco has formula... you get two 25 oz cans for like 20$, buying the Kirkland brand saves me over half of the cost of name brand formulas.
Cathy
Helpful websites and newsletters
http://www.utahsaves.org/
daveramsey.com
mytotalmoneymakeover.com
(if you are a Zions bank customer, you can sign up for My Total Money Makeover for free for 3 months. You will receive news letter and a site to track your progress. It’s really fun! I think you have to get there from Zion’s page to get the deal.)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
So far...
So far this month are doing really well. John and I were so excited to find out that when the pay check came this month, the balance WAS several hundred more than the deposit. Normally there is a few dollars more (or less if we went into the over draft). It seems like we have so much more money, but really, nothing has change but our way of thinking. It's crazy how much more money you can have (or think you have) when you just pay attention to where it is going. We are on track to have I think $700 extra this month. Wow! It kills me to think that there were times in the past that we could have been more conscious in our spending and not be in this mess.
There have been so many blessing in our lives since we made the decision to really buckle down and stick to our plan. I have had a friend call out of the blue and offer me a bag of flour and laundry soap on two separate occasions. I have had friends call and give me money saving tips and places to learn how to save money. We are getting more back in taxes than ever before, and the refinance on the house has had blessing after blessing show up. There was a Monday that I got a rebate check in the mail for almost the same amount that I had paid to my church the day before. This has been such an amazing experience already. Thank you to everyone that is lending their support to us.
Last week we went to the closing and that was so crazy. I guess the company that is doing it is very particular about your signature being the same and NO mistakes. I thought I was going to need a drink afterwards I was so stressed. At one point, John wrote the wrong date and you could just see the color leave his face. Luckily the lady had an extra copy of that sheet, otherwise, we would have had to set up a new closing and start over again. No pressure, right!?! As we went over the fees she kept commenting on how good our rate was, how low the fees were and could not believe how lucky we were. Luck, no, blessed, YES!
I had been going through the storage room the week before and pulled out some papers that John needed to go through. In that pile was paperwork from our last closing that would give us a 40% discount if we used them within so many years, blah, blah, blah. Well, we were so close to everything being finalized that if he would have waited even one more day, it would have been too late. We also locked our rate in at 4.875 just before it went up again.
As we were finishing she reminded us that we would not have a payment due until April, yes APRIL!!! We just looked at each other and smiled. (I know John was thinking DISNEYLAND) Well, after all is said and done, we will be paying only $22 more a month after combining our equity line and mortgage, pay off a CC that we used to finish our house projects and free up almost 300.00 more a month to pay on our student loans! Not to mention the extra money that we will have each paycheck for changing our deductions! THIS FEELS SO GOOD TO BE IN CONTROL!
Wow, hows that for numbers!
There have been so many blessing in our lives since we made the decision to really buckle down and stick to our plan. I have had a friend call out of the blue and offer me a bag of flour and laundry soap on two separate occasions. I have had friends call and give me money saving tips and places to learn how to save money. We are getting more back in taxes than ever before, and the refinance on the house has had blessing after blessing show up. There was a Monday that I got a rebate check in the mail for almost the same amount that I had paid to my church the day before. This has been such an amazing experience already. Thank you to everyone that is lending their support to us.
Last week we went to the closing and that was so crazy. I guess the company that is doing it is very particular about your signature being the same and NO mistakes. I thought I was going to need a drink afterwards I was so stressed. At one point, John wrote the wrong date and you could just see the color leave his face. Luckily the lady had an extra copy of that sheet, otherwise, we would have had to set up a new closing and start over again. No pressure, right!?! As we went over the fees she kept commenting on how good our rate was, how low the fees were and could not believe how lucky we were. Luck, no, blessed, YES!
I had been going through the storage room the week before and pulled out some papers that John needed to go through. In that pile was paperwork from our last closing that would give us a 40% discount if we used them within so many years, blah, blah, blah. Well, we were so close to everything being finalized that if he would have waited even one more day, it would have been too late. We also locked our rate in at 4.875 just before it went up again.
As we were finishing she reminded us that we would not have a payment due until April, yes APRIL!!! We just looked at each other and smiled. (I know John was thinking DISNEYLAND) Well, after all is said and done, we will be paying only $22 more a month after combining our equity line and mortgage, pay off a CC that we used to finish our house projects and free up almost 300.00 more a month to pay on our student loans! Not to mention the extra money that we will have each paycheck for changing our deductions! THIS FEELS SO GOOD TO BE IN CONTROL!
Wow, hows that for numbers!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
I went to a Women’s Conference yesterday at my mother-in-laws Stake. It was wonderful to hear Brother and Sister Eyre speak and I was even more excited when I say that one of the classes was on Finance. Of coarse that was one of the classes that I attended, but I was soon disappointed and a little discourage with the teaching. Now the information was great and the speakers had put together a good presentation, I just thought that they were missing some very important points. They did give out a flyer with a quote that I thought was valuable and worth sharing.
“Create peace of mind through building some financial security for yourself… As you work toward getting your finances under control, you are bound to find your feelings of peace and happiness on the rise.” “Try an experiment; spend a whole month not purchasing anything in a store except your normal groceries and gasoline. When an item breaks, try repairing it instead of buying a new one. Make do with what you already have available to you. It’s amazing how creative you can become. Break the buying habit!” “We become a slave to our unnecessary possessions. They steal our time and our life from us, forcing us to leave home and to work longer and harder than we would otherwise need to.” “In our rush to obtain wealth, we often neglect, and sometimes forget, where our greatest treasure lies.” “Rather, the success of your life may more accurately be measured by how much true happiness you have experienced, how much spiritual growth you have achieved, and how many lives you have touched for good.” “Money, and more importantly how we pursue it and our attitude toward it, can be either a blessing or a curse in our lives. It can help us achieve greater happiness or can multiply our misery. Learn to use it wisely…” By Gregory Wille Happiness 101
This goes right along with the theme that I have chosen for our family this year; Fix it up, Use it up, Make it do, or Do without. We made the decision not to purchase any gifts for friends and family this year and have already been put to the test. We have made a gift for a birthday party, I made a table runner for my mother-in-law’s birthday that was today, and we made a CD of music that each of the kids helped put together for my brother-in-laws birthday. It really makes use think about the person and what they would like.
The quote also goes along with the theme that my in-laws have chosen for this year and that is to “Simplify”. I have spent a lot of time the last few weeks cleaning out closets, the storage room and drawers, getting rid of things we don’t need or making uses of the things we have. It has felt so good and I look forward to being able to spend more time taking care of my family and less time taking care of my stuff!
I think I would like to try the experiment of not buying anything extra for a month. (February is the shortest month!) I think I would be surprised at what I could save. January we were able to have almost $250 extra by being very conscious of what we spent. So here is the challenge, if you dare, only buy the things you need at the market. That is food. If you are running low on soup or shampoo, use the little bottles that you take form the hotels (don’t tell me I am the only one that has those under my sink). Be good, you can do anything for a month, it won’t kill you. Then we can report back and see how we did. Let me know if you are up for the challenge!
“Create peace of mind through building some financial security for yourself… As you work toward getting your finances under control, you are bound to find your feelings of peace and happiness on the rise.” “Try an experiment; spend a whole month not purchasing anything in a store except your normal groceries and gasoline. When an item breaks, try repairing it instead of buying a new one. Make do with what you already have available to you. It’s amazing how creative you can become. Break the buying habit!” “We become a slave to our unnecessary possessions. They steal our time and our life from us, forcing us to leave home and to work longer and harder than we would otherwise need to.” “In our rush to obtain wealth, we often neglect, and sometimes forget, where our greatest treasure lies.” “Rather, the success of your life may more accurately be measured by how much true happiness you have experienced, how much spiritual growth you have achieved, and how many lives you have touched for good.” “Money, and more importantly how we pursue it and our attitude toward it, can be either a blessing or a curse in our lives. It can help us achieve greater happiness or can multiply our misery. Learn to use it wisely…” By Gregory Wille Happiness 101
This goes right along with the theme that I have chosen for our family this year; Fix it up, Use it up, Make it do, or Do without. We made the decision not to purchase any gifts for friends and family this year and have already been put to the test. We have made a gift for a birthday party, I made a table runner for my mother-in-law’s birthday that was today, and we made a CD of music that each of the kids helped put together for my brother-in-laws birthday. It really makes use think about the person and what they would like.
The quote also goes along with the theme that my in-laws have chosen for this year and that is to “Simplify”. I have spent a lot of time the last few weeks cleaning out closets, the storage room and drawers, getting rid of things we don’t need or making uses of the things we have. It has felt so good and I look forward to being able to spend more time taking care of my family and less time taking care of my stuff!
I think I would like to try the experiment of not buying anything extra for a month. (February is the shortest month!) I think I would be surprised at what I could save. January we were able to have almost $250 extra by being very conscious of what we spent. So here is the challenge, if you dare, only buy the things you need at the market. That is food. If you are running low on soup or shampoo, use the little bottles that you take form the hotels (don’t tell me I am the only one that has those under my sink). Be good, you can do anything for a month, it won’t kill you. Then we can report back and see how we did. Let me know if you are up for the challenge!
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