Don't Break the Food Budget

One of the ways that holiday spending can get the best of us is the spending we do on food.  Those little extras that include the oh so popular cheese and crackers, chips, dips, desserts and those beverages!  
I know, you’re thinking “but it won’t be the holidays without the cheese log and the fruit cake!”  You can still have your cake and eat it too…just think a bit more strategically with your purchases.

Tip #1 – Shop your pantry first.  What do you have on hand that you can make sweet treats or savory snacks with?  Grab that cookbook, some post-its and a pen.  You might find that you only need one or two things to complete a recipe.  Many folks forget to check the pantry before shopping and incur unnecessary costs on items they already have. 

Tip #2 – Meal plan.  Write down the events you are hosting or attending this month.  Determine what you’ll bring to each and how much that will cost you. Both in making the item (your time) and the true monitary cost.  Review the list, are you comfortable with how much you are spending? Are there less expensive options?  

Tip #3 – Grab that store flyer.  The Sunday paper or store websites are great resources to snag some deals. Take your grocery list, compare it to the store flyers and clip those coupons from the paper or online sites like coupons.com.  You might need to go to two stores but it could save you big bucks shopping around. 

Tis the Season to Give

Each holiday season, we think about giving back, either in gifts of money or the gift of our time.  Food pantries are low on food, we receive annual gift notices from the charities we support…so how do we sort it all out? 

Four tips for charitable giving:

Tip #1 – Think about the amount you’ve given during the previous 11 months.  Have you supported the cause yet this year?  Do you feel that amount is enough?

Tip # 2 – Evaluate if you can give within your budget.  Have you determine what your holiday expenses will be?  Those parties, extra food, gifts and other extras? Do you have money to support that cause? Can you cut back in other areas to support them?

Tip #3 – Can you give your time instead of money?  With a tight budget, perhaps you can feel just as good giving your time to the organization either now or in the future.

Tip #4 – Check the organizations wish list. Perhaps you have something in your home that you don’t use that your charity of choice can use.  Think furniture and  other household items that might find their way to the resale shop but you haven’t taken them there yet.

 

 

 

 

 

26 Days and Counting

We’re in the last month of Project Money, our participants have done what most would consider a holiday miracle, in 5 months, they have collectively saved $21,000 and paid down $22,000 in debt. 

Months ago, they would have told you this was impossible.  But their journey and hard work have shown our community that when you plan, put your mind to it, watch spending, put savings plans in place and work with someone to hold you accountable – miracles can happen. 

December will be one of the hardest months of the challenge.  A real struggle and mind game that can take progress and wipe it away.  With so many media messages to spend money – of course we are tempted. 

So we challenge everyone in our community to think about this – it’s 26 days and counting.  It’s a month of whirlwind work days, shopping days, gatherings and more.  So what are you going to do differently so on that on Jan. 2012, you don’t have a mountain of credit cards bills? 

Consider this…what our participants did, you can too.

Take the Project Money Challenge…just 3 months – December, January and February. Work with someone at the credit union, as part of the challenge you can:

• Have someone help you plan your spending for the month
• Work to develop a savings and spending plan that works for you
• Receive a copy of your credit report and learn what it says about you
• Create a plan to reduce your debt
• Create a savings plan

Think you can’t save during the holidays? You’d be surprised, So consider it, it may be the best holiday gift you can give yourself.  

Cyber Monday

We bet one of the first things you heard or read about this morning on any given TV news show, radio talk show, newspaper or online article was something about Cyber Monday, Black Friday or projected holiday spending and sales.  All this hype or fact stating is great for speculation about how our economy will grow or not this holiday season, but the focus really needs to be on you. 

What are you going to do this year?  Are you going to shop local?  Make homemade gifts? Spend that yearly bonus on new furniture or the bigger TV?  Are you going to stress about making gift giving equal or increasing your spending just because someone gave you something nicer that year?  Or that sale is too “super” - you just can’t pass it up. 

We challenge you to reflect, to think about what you truly can afford, to live within your means this holiday season.  So how do you do that?  Here are a few tips. 

Tip #1 – Make a list before you head out shopping.  Creating a list and putting a dollar amount you’d like to spend next to the name or item is key to reigning in spending and impulse buying.

Tip #2 – Pause before you shop for yourself.  True, you can get fantastic deals for yourself, but are you shopping because you need to or want to capitalize on the deal?  Have you saved for it or will it go on a credit card?  And, with spending on other people and yourself, then that’s a double hit.  

Tip #3 – Relax. We can get so wrapped up in the holidays and spending on impulse and doing things we think we have to do…that we need to enjoy ourselves, think about what’s important…spending time with family and friends and not about what the media or others are telling us to do.

So enjoy Cyber Monday, but take it with a grain of salt.  Happy Holidays.  

 

 

How Do You Pay It Off?

So you have a goal…to pay off the couple of hundred dollars in credit card debt that seems to be revolving on your store credit cards.

Sure, you say to yourself… “I got a deal on the back to school clothes or the new fall fashions (really fur & feathers are hot?) so it’s OK to have that credit card balance. “ 

You justify it to yourself because either there was a sale, or you had a coupon or it was a limited time to buy one get one 50% off deal.

But now, you aren’t finding the money each month to just pay it off.  Something always comes up and you just make the minimum payment. And, there is always a new offer or sale in the sale flyers that you need to want or just can’t pass up.

So how do you pay it off?  How do you break the cycle of spending?