No More Excuses

Today officially marks the beginning of our journey with Project Money. Even though Willie and I have been aware of changes we need to make in our financial situation for some time now, we haven’t done it. Now that we’re participating in this program we can no longer make excuses for ourselves for not saving more, spending less or paying more off our debt. I think this is just what we need to get ourselves on the right track, especially now that we have a newborn son, Owen, and will need to come up with money for daycare for him in the coming months.

We are still working on finalizing things with our coach, Mike, but so far our plans are to:

• Consolidate some of our debt to lower our monthly payments and save money on interest

• Develop a savings plan since we haven’t been regularly putting money into savings (despite our good intentions to do so)

• Look at places where we can reduce spending, whether it’s to save on other monthly expenses or cut out unnecessary costs.

When we were reviewing our monthly expenditures to prepare for this, I was amazed to see we were spending between $200 and $300 a month on dining out. That could buy a lot of groceries! And the $5 a month we initially spent on movie channels for our TV bill is now $40 since the promotional period ran out—I didn’t realize how much it all adds up. I think being aware of what things really cost is a great first step in identifying where changes can be made.

As I made Hamburger Helper for dinner the other night, I realized it cost us about $3 for the whole meal instead of the $15 to $20 we might have spent on fast food. I’m already planning to make weekly menus so we know what we’re eating each night instead of falling back on picking something up on the way home. Hopefully this will also help us stick to a shopping list at the grocery store. Sure, we will miss the tacos and the cheeseburgers, but maybe I’ll finally dust off those cookbooks in the kitchen! We are looking forward to seeing how well we can do and making positive changes in how we handle our money.

Comments

[Cheryl & John]

My husband does all the cooking - lucky me & we have been saving for years by making a big dinner & taking the leftovers for lunch or using the meat for another dinner later in the week. Pasta & sauce is great re-heated (my husband makes great sauce in 5 min. with some canned diced tomato, a few herbs & a little tomato paste). Slap some leftover meat on bread, add some condiment/s, lettuce, maybe a little cheese, cut up veggies or chips & you have a $10.00 sandwich that cost pennies. We've found that doing our own cooking, staying away from fast food places & pre-packaged meals/foods is so much healthier, takes only a little more time & saves a bundle.

[Macy Farnham]

I like Hamburger Helper.

[Joanne Jackson]

I'm with you on not paying for pricy movie channels! We "rent" them for free at our local library.