Last time around, a couple other families started talking about their plans for saving money for the holidays. Generally, I'm not one to get in the Christmas spirit until at least the day after Thanksgiving. I think people that turn their holiday lights on the day after Halloween are nuts, and it really bothered me that IHOP started advertising holiday eggnog and gingerbread pancakes the week BEFORE Halloween. Nonetheless, the holidays are coming and, as our coach, Mike, pointed out at our check-in last week, we'd be better off if we started planning for it. So this week's task is figuring out who we need to get gifts for and how much we can afford to (or plan to) spend.
I think this holiday season is going to be scaled back for a lot of families. I know we've already decided not to exchange gifts between some of the adults in our family. Like Rachel and Kari and Darek, I've thought about doing some homemade gifts to save money (I make a mean batch of cinnamon-sugar nuts!). Willie and I also decided that we are not going to buy something just for the sake of buying something. So often we draw a blank when it comes to getting gifts for certain family members. A lot of times we end up buying them useless junk that they don't need. For example, just because Aunt Myrtle loves wiener dogs and collects wiener-dog-related stuff doesn't mean that she NEEDS that winter scarf with the knitted wiener dog head on one end and the tail on the other. (This is just a hypothetical example--Aunt Myrtle is not really a member of our family and we would probably never buy such a scarf! Just saying that it's easy to fall into the trap of buying something, ANYTHING, just because so-and-so kind of likes things with that theme.)
We're also planning to use some alternatives to mall-shopping to come up with these gifts. We've had luck with eBay in the past (as long as shipping costs aren't too high) and other online sites where you can get things at a discount. I bet we could also find some neat things at the Dollar Store or thrift stores. Craigslist might be another good option--I've never bought anything from it, but we've sold plenty of things on there. And that's one thing we're doing to try to raise money for our holiday gift fund--yesterday I made $30 by selling some used video games.
How do you budget and save money for holiday gift giving?
You might think from reading the title of this blog entry that we are confused about the competition we’re in, but really, Project Money and The Biggest Loser have a lot in common. They’re both about tightening your belt: getting rid of the excess fat that weighs you down (your debt), working out hard (managing your budget), and building muscle to keep you strong (increasing your savings to build a solid financial foundation). Calories in, calories out = paycheck in, debt out.
Like on The Biggest Loser, it was easy to start out strong because there were so many things we could do to really kick things into gear. After those big things were out of the way, it really became about discipline and staying on track. We’ve definitely continued to make progress as we “weigh in” each month, but there are times when I feel like we’re one of those contestants who seems like they work out hard but then only pulls a one or a two at weigh-in time. I think most of the time this is due to consuming “extra calories.” Sometimes these are for a legitimate reason, like having to take our cat to the vet again. Other times they could surely be prevented.
Take this month, for example. I really wanted to go see Daughtry at the coliseum when they were in town. I had thought about buying tickets for months but I had enough control to say No, I don’t need to go. We can save that $70 (or however much it was after taxes and fees) and put it towards our debt. Then the end of October came and Willie and I had an opportunity to have a kid-free night out (coincidentally on the same night as the concert I wasn’t going to). I really wanted to see this one horror movie that was supposed to be one of the scariest movies ever, so we went. We went to the matinee to save money (although, when did the “cheap” tickets go up to $6.50?!), but I’m one who just cannot resist a big bucket of buttery popcorn at the movie theatre, so we got that, too. Afterwards, we had time to spare and were still hungry because we hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so we decided to try a new restaurant in our neighborhood. After all of this, we were out about the same amount of money I would have spent on those concert tickets. The food was pretty good and it was nice to have a night out, but the movie wasn’t that impressive and at the end of the day, we really had nothing to show for the money we spent. Talk about ruining your diet with too many “empty calories.” At the end of the day, I would have much rather gone to the concert—at least then I might have had a memorable experience.
I guess the point of my story is that it doesn’t take much to blow a “weigh in” and make mistakes when it comes to sticking to your financial plan. The good news is, each time you do something like this, you feel bad about it and maybe you’ll remember it for the next month. We are not giving up on improving our financial situation, but we do realize the tackling this challenge is much like weight loss in that it doesn’t happen overnight and we’ll really have to work hard to get where we want to be. It took years to put on all those “pounds” and will take some time to work them off. We accept the fact that we might not be “the biggest loser” for the Project Money competition, but we are looking forward to being slim and strong financially down the road.
Now if only I could get Bob or Jillian to ride along in my purse and keep me in line whenever I leave the house…
I’m not particularly a fan of fall (I’m more of a spring person), but one thing I do look forward to every year is taking a trip to the pumpkin farm. Willie and I used to take my niece to Schuster’s Playtime Farm when she was younger, and this year we got to take Owen to pick out his first Halloween pumpkin. Aside from helping out a local farming family, I really enjoy going because it’s fairly cheap and a fun way to spend the afternoon.
Owen enjoyed seeing all of the farm animals, including pigs, goats, chickens, donkeys, llamas, and kittens. He also did pretty well on the hayride around the farm on the way to the pumpkin patch (although I think he enjoyed staring at the lady at the end of the hay wagon more than he did the scenery. If you’re reading this, sorry! I know it’s rude to stare.) We ended up picking a medium size pumpkin—the perfect size, because it’s small enough that you don’t have to clean out too much pumpkin guts, but big enough that mommy can get some nice pumpkin seeds to roast and snack on. Next year should be even more fun because he’ll be able to enjoy more of the other activities they have there for kids.
As far as other things concerning Halloween go, we decided not to spend a lot on a costume for Owen since he’s too little to go trick or treating. Instead we bought a little jack-o-lantern onesie and pants and a matching hat with a pumpkin stem on it (for way less than $10), figuring that he could wear pieces of it again.
I’m curious to know if any of you have other tips for being thrifty around Halloween time. What inexpensive activities do you do with your family this time of year?
Sometimes I miss shopping just to shop. It used to be a way for me to get out of the house and have some “me” time. I’m the kind of person that flips through the Sunday paper and enjoys reading the store ads more than the news. When I was a kid, I used to sit down with a yellow highlighter and highlight everything I wanted on all those glossy pages.
Sometimes, shopping has also been kind of an activity for Willie and me to do together. (You know, like, we could go to a movie, go mini golfing, go to the mall...) Nothing better than spending an afternoon strolling through the Home Depot, daydreaming about all the things we’d want to do around the house if we just had the money. And we’ve both had times where money just burns a hole in our pockets. He’s said to me before, “I just want to buy something!” Most of the time (at least lately), I think we manage to put out the fire, but it’s still kind of an itch you need to scratch every once in a while.
This month was raise month at work, so I had a little extra money in my check. I decided I was going to treat myself to a couple new fall outfits because I haven’t bought fall clothes I could wear now for two years (last year I only bought maternity clothes). Well, wouldn’t you know that when I actually wanted to spend some money, I couldn’t even find anything that I liked (of stuff that I liked that also fit me right!) My plans were foiled, and I was left with that sense of want. At least I am a few dollars richer for now...
September brings the changing of seasons, but for our family, it’s not just summer turning to fall. It means softball season is changing to bowling season. Bowling has been a huge part of Willie’s life since he was a kid. His dad owns the pro shop in Dream Lanes, and Willie pretty much grew up there. He’s been bowling since he was about 5 years old and he now bowls in a men’s league two nights a week and in a couples’ league with me and his parents every other week. He also helps his dad out by working at the pro shop two nights a week and Saturday during the day. So what does that mean for us and our family?
It means $170 a month in bowling dues. It also means that we get to eat dinner together only on Wednesday nights and weekends. This is part of the reason we have struggled with eating at home in the past. Sometimes it’s just a lot easier to pick something up if you’re eating alone or if we’re eating together after he gets home at 9 pm. I’m pleased to say that we have managed to break that habit so far and are eating almost all of our meals at home. I think the key to doing this has been buying foods that are easy and quick to make for one person, like ingredients for quesadillas or sandwiches, soups and salads, and frozen foods that won’t spoil if you don’t eat them fast enough. It’s good that we are saving money by eating at home because those bowling dues really do add up. That $170 could really help to pay off some of our debt every month, but we are trying to manage doing both because it’s the one thing Willie does for fun and it would be devastating for him to give up something that’s been a part of his life for twenty-some years.
Since we’ve been spending more time at the pro shop lately, I’ve been trying to think of things from the business part of the shop that we could apply to our personal finances. Here’s what I came up with:
• Don’t buy things you don’t need. It’s bad for business if you build up your inventory with things nobody wants to buy. Likewise, it’s bad to buy a bunch of stuff and have it sit in your closets, cabinets or dresser drawers at home.
• Know what you need before you go shopping. There have been times at the shop when we’ve placed an order for merchandise only to find that we already had it in the back room. At home, you might find that you already had a black sweater like the one you just had to go shopping for, or extra toiletries in your cabinet.
• If there’s something you know you’ll use, stock up on it when it’s on sale. With bowling balls, we can often get a discount if we order several of them at once, so it makes sense to order a lot of the most popular balls to take advantage of the savings. At home, it makes sense to buy several packages of items you know you’ll always use (like toilet paper or cleaning supplies) if you find them on sale.
• Don’t pay other people to do things you can do for yourself. At the shop, this means that we make our own signs, print our own business cards and flyers, and maintain our own website (check it out: www.chipandwilliesproshop.com). At home, this could mean doing your own home maintenance projects (like painting, carpet care, or small remodeling projects), yard work (mowing the lawn, landscaping, or shoveling), and automotive care (like oil changes or car washes).
Managing money would be a whole lot easier if everything was a fixed expense. We’re finding that we do great at planning for normal bills, like the mortgage, credit card payments, and services like TV and phone, but struggle a bit with things that vary or that we don’t buy on a monthly schedule. We spend pretty much the same each month on important things like gas and groceries, but then there’s a bunch of miscellaneous things are hard to plan for. Like printer ink, wasp spray (we had a horrible nest under the eave in our backyard), a picture frame for my office at work, makeup, or Scotch Guard for the furniture (you can only clean baby puke off of things so many times before it starts to show…) Not only are these things hard to plan for, but they also don’t tend to fit nicely into the categories of our budget.
It’s easy to take a receipt from Woodman’s and put it in the Groceries category or a receipt from PDQ and put it in the Gas category. McDonald’s goes in the Dining Out category, and most of the time, JC Penney goes in the Clothing category. But where does Wal-Mart go? It could be any combination of groceries, clothing, baby stuff, personal care items, or the miscellaneous things I mentioned above. I find it frustrating to try to divvy things up from these receipts to assess how much we’re really spending on what, especially when you have to deal with sales tax on top of it. Do you have any good ideas on how to handle this? I’m really curious to hear if others have found things that really work for them as far dealing with mixed receipts and budgeting for these miscellaneous expenses.
We also got our water bill last week. Just a reminder that we need to come up with an extra $200 twice every year. Because it’s been six months since we thought about a water bill, we hadn’t really planned for it this time around. I just checked the city water website, though, and it looks like you can set it up to pay monthly. I might look into doing this—at least then we’ll be budgeting for it each month.
This week is all about Owen. He had his 4-month checkup on Monday, so we finally got to find out how big he’s gotten over the past two months (14 lbs., 25 ½ inches). Everything is looking good. We asked the pediatrician about introducing some solid foods because it seems like Owen’s hungry all the time, and we got the OK to try rice cereal mixed with formula or breast milk. So, being the excited mom that I am, I had to go out and pick up a few goodies for this new experience—soft-bite spoons, a little kiddie bowl, cereal… Now we are just waiting on the highchair I ordered online because we hadn’t gotten one when he was born. I guess this is just one of many new experiences we’ll come across as Owen gets older—each one with its own price tag! At least we were able to buy everything through Walmart.com or in the store so Willie could use his employee discount. The high chair won’t arrive until sometime this week, and we have been waiting to try the cereal until we get it, but maybe we’ll have an update for you next time on how it goes!
Another expense we had for Owen this week was buying supplies for his new daycare. Unfortunately, his Grandma Jana has to go back to work, so he’ll be starting at another in-home daycare on the 31st. We bought diapers, wipes, formula, and some spare bottles. I did have $12.50 in coupons for those items, plus Willie’s discount, which helps a little, but things really add up quickly. Our first payment for daycare starts this coming Friday. It is $175 weekly, which is more than we were paying this summer with our family discount. We’ll have to be careful to make sure we have that extra $300 each month so we don’t come up short.
There was one other big first for Owen this month--his first haircut. We decided to try doing it ourselves at home. Lesson learned: there’s a reason you pay people to do this for you! I guess the good news is that we have an extra $10 or so to put towards debt or add to our savings, right?
So, we had kind of a happy surprise this month. August is the first month since Project Money started (and first month since Owen was born) that I had a normal paycheck. Remember how I started contributing 3% of my check each month to my 401K back in June? Since I also changed my W-4 exemptions, my check was actually over $100 BIGGER this month, even after the 401K came out. This really made me think about how much I’ve missed out over the past few years. I was so afraid to contribute because I thought I’d be hurting for that money every month. Now I didn’t even miss it! I am glad that both Willie and I are now saving for a happy retirement.
Even though my checks are back to normal now, next month will bring more change because we’ll have to pay another $300 more for daycare from then on. After a couple months of that, hopefully we’ll be at our new “normal” and stay there for a while. I’m watching our account balances closely this month to practice having that extra money come out. It’s just too bad we didn’t have more than one month to practice. This is something I wish we had done better before buying our house or before Owen was born. Like I mentioned in one of our earlier blog entries, if we had pretended like we were already paying that mortgage or daycare, or buying diapers and formula, we could have put all that “extra” money to good use back then.
July turned out to be kind of a rough month for us. That air conditioning repair bill came in the mail (luckily, most of it was covered by the home warranty that was included when we purchased our house), and one of our cats, Milo, ended up needing to go the vet unexpectedly. Adding that in on a month when we were already short on income kind of hurt and I feel like we didn’t make as much progress as we would have liked to. This is one thing our coach, Mike, has talked to us about — saving for these kinds of things so we have a “emergency” fund when the unexpected happens. That way, we can avoid putting them on the credit card.
Reading the other Project Money blogs this month also got us thinking about how we wish we would have taken control of our finances sooner. It doesn’t cost anything to meet with someone at Summit (or even most other credit unions, I’m guessing) and get advice on how you can better manage your money. Why did we wait this long? Why didn’t we consolidate our credit card debt earlier?
We also can’t help but be angry with ourselves about why we didn’t do better at saving before. When we met four years ago, we were making a lot less money, but we did OK. Then I got a new job and a salary increase to go with it. We intended to keep living like we were before my new job and put that extra money in savings for the down payment on our house - or we could have used it to pay off some of that debt. But somehow, the money was always gone at the end of the month. Looking back, I wish I had arranged for that extra income to be automatically transferred to a savings account when my check was deposited, before I ever knew it was there. If we had done that, we could have put a lot more down on our house and not needed the extra down payment assistance loan. We could probably be paying a few hundred dollars less per month on our mortgage, not to mention what we would have saved on interest. It’s amazing that now we pay almost twice what our rent was before we bought the house and still manage to pay all our other bills, yet when we were living in that apartment, it always seemed like we didn’t have enough money. We would have seemed rich back then if we had been able to hang on to the equivalent of an extra rent payment and put it to use!
So hopefully, if you are thinking about buying a house or you are getting a raise, you’ll take my advice and save, save, save so you’re better off later and try to use that extra salary towards something useful. And by all means, go talk to someone at your credit union to get advice about improving your financial situation. Why wait?
I’ve got food on my mind this week. Our $50 dining out budget was blown by the fourth of July, and it’s been hard trying not to give in to temptation since then.
I never realized how many fast food commercials are out there until we were trying to eat at home instead of dining out so often. Suddenly, I find myself salivating at mention of a five-dollar foot long, cheesy bacon beef and potato burrito, or bacon cheddar angus burger. With all those TV commercials, billboards, and radio ads, it’s easy to see why we find ourselves wanting to eat out so often. And with trying to limit ourselves, it’s been kind of like dieting. When you know you’re not supposed to have that piece of chocolate cake, you want it even more. And if you’re not careful, you might just go crazy and eat the whole darn cake.
To help Willie and I stay on track with our plans to eat at home, I’ve made a list of reasons why people eat out and possible solutions/alternatives for each situation:
1. Wanting to try a new menu item. Blame this on all those commercials you see. My advice on this is just to wait on it— give it a couple days or even weeks and see if you’re still thinking about the new menu item. If you are, go ahead and get it. Just make sure you account for it in your budget.
2. To celebrate a special occasion, like a birthday, promotion, or anniversary. What kind of celebration is complete without food? Sometimes you have to just go along if friends or family invite you out to celebrate. But if taking your friend out for her birthday is your gift to her (because you can never think of what else to buy, like me) try taking her out to do something else, like going to a museum, concert, or festival. As far as anniversaries go, what’s better than having a romantic dinner at home? (Hint hint, Willie). :)
3. To socialize with friends or family. It seems like whenever people get together, food is always involved in some way. I suppose that makes sense given that we all typically eat three times a day (plus snacks). Maybe instead of going out to a restaurant, you could have a cookout or potluck at home. My girl friends and I used to get together once a month for girls dinner in. We’d take turns hosting and each month was a different theme, like Mexican, fondue, or tapas. Each person would bring a different part of the meal and we got to try lots of tasty things without ever spending a whole lot.
4. Convenience/time crunch. It’s easy to justify going through a drive through when you’re busy rushing from work to pick up the kids to a softball game to home, sometimes with errands in between. I’ve never tried this myself, but maybe you could prepare a make-ahead grab n’ go meal the night before, like sandwiches or wraps. Stick them in the fridge or a cooler and pick them up if you stop home in between.
5. Craving something in particular. I’ve tried to manage cravings by trying to make my favorite fast food or restaurant items at home. You can find “copy cat” cookbooks or many websites with recipes for famous restaurant items, like Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits and Cinnabons. Other things are pretty easy to replicate if they have simple ingredients (like crispy chicken snack wraps).
6. Traveling or going out of town. Depending on where you’re going or how long you’re going to be away, you can try to bring food with you when you’re on the go. Pack a cooler of sandwiches, sodas, and snacks for on the road. If you’re going to be staying somewhere for several days and have a kitchen, you could pick up groceries when you get there to make meals in. Of course if you don’t have anywhere to store or prepare food, you’ll have to dine out, so just make sure you’re budgeting for it in advance.
7. Eating out just for something to do. Sometimes going out to a restaurant is an event in and of itself and it’s nice just to get away every once in a while. One alternative to this might be to take a picnic lunch or dinner to a park.
8. Date night. People have been doing the whole dinner and a movie thing for so long that they’re even offering discounts at certain restaurants if you show your movie ticket from the same day now. (I never did understand this, though— you should get the discount at the movies for showing your dinner bill since you normally eat first, right?) Suggestions for this might be to go on that picnic I mentioned above, or just eat at home and then go out and do other date night activities that don’t involve food.
9. Tradition as part of other activities. A lot of time food goes with other things, like pizza and beer after bowling, hot dogs at a baseball game, or brunch after church on Sundays. It’s hard to break tradition, but perhaps you could cut back to every other week so that it takes up less of the food budget.
Now that I’ve thought this through, hopefully the next time the urge to grab something out comes up, I’ll be able to refer to my list and come up with a better solution for us. And if we do end up eating out, we’ll try to savor each bite and do better next time.
