Get your budget written, groceries first!

We are going to start writing a budget.

First I recommend that you take a look at your spending history via online banking to see how much you spend in certain categories (groceries, household items, entertainment); I don’t recommend you write those numbers down as your monthly budget. If you want to start saving money, you need to spend how you haven’t been spending before.

Here are my recommended steps to start setting up your written budget. You will need a blank sheet of paper, a pen, and a calculator.

1. Write down all of your ATM purchases for 2 months. This includes gas, restaurants, groceries, household goods, entertainment,  and ATM withdrawals.
2. Next to each dollar amount, write the category that the transaction belongs in.
3. Total up the dollar amount for each category.
4. Review the dollar amounts, and notice they are high! You really don’t need to spend that much!

Now that you know how much you are used to spending on groceries, eating out, and random purchases, here is what you need to do:

• First, pick your favorite restaurant. Just one. The dollar amount for one dinner out, including tip, will be what you are starting with as your monthly restaurant budget.  You can make adjustments later.
• Go to Google, and type in a question like “Average monthly grocery bill in <insert county>”. This will give you a vague idea of what sort of grocery budget is realistic in your area.
• Write a grocery list of items you regularly purchase. Milk, bread, eggs, butter, chicken…include realistic dollar amounts for each item (not on sale/coupons). This is the start of your grocery budget. These are your staple items. No matter how much or how little money you have, these are always at the top of your shopping list. Now slash the dollar amount by 30%
• Look in your cupboards. Do you buy lots of snacks? You probably don’t need all of them. Decide what you might buy on a weekly basis (again, not on sale). Write that down, too, along with the estimated prices.
• Total up the weekly cost of your staple items and your snacks.
• Next, look at your cleaning supplies. Are you brand-loyal? Do you break down cost by ounces? How often do you need to buy your cleaning supplies? If you know the dollar amount you usually spend, lower it to at least 70% of what you are used to. If you don’t know how much you spend, figure $1.50 for all purpose cleaner, $5 for laundry detergent, $3 for dishwashing products, and $7 for paper products. These are estimated weekly figures.
• Add your grocery budget as of now (using above steps) to your cleaning supplies budget. Add $10/week to this, and if you have kids in diapers, add another $5. This total is your weekly grocery/household budget.

For the next 2 months, I want you to go to the bank once a week, and pull out cash to cover your budget. Start using the cash envolpe budgeting system. Pull out enough cash for each of your categories on the same day every week. It might be challenging to not borrow from the next week, but try your best not too. You may be amazed by how well you are able to hold on to your money.

 If you think this budget is not doable, keep checking in on my posts, I am going to show you how you are going to cut your spending!

I use cash envelopes as my budgeting system. I write checks for rent, use my bank account for bills, and cash for literally everything else. Here are my envelope categories:

• Grocery/Household
• Birthdays
• Entertainment
• My money (treats)
• Tithe
• Clothing
• Gas

Here is the simple way I created my budget. I did write out all my spending for 2 months, just to see how much extra money I could have each month. I then picked a dollar amount ($40) that I wanted to spend every week on grocery and household items. This is for groceries, snacks, household items, diapers for 2 kids, and wipes. Some months it includes pet food for 3 dogs and 3 cats.

Yes, that’s right; I live in California, and I spend $40/week on groceries and household goods for 2 adults and 2 little ones. Some might say that the only reason I am able to keep my budget that low is because I have 2 very young children who eat almost nothing. While that is partially true, I also have 2 young children who require diapers and wipes. Those are not cheap to buy!

Next week I am going to review how I came up with my spending categories, and how to pick the dollar amount you can stick to.

Have you ever had a written budget? Was it hard to stick to?

Monday already...Time to deep clean!

Time seems to go by so much faster now that I'm not going to work. I thought it'd be the other way around. I expected my days to go by so slow, since I am home all day, every day, with the kids.

Anyway, after a long rainy weekend, it's time to steam clean the carpets again. With 3 dogs running around indoors, it is very easy to get these carpets nice and dirty in just 2 days! Since I've tried to severely cut my budget, especially when it comes to cleaning products, I have been putting off buying a refill for my steam cleaner. Even the cheapest brand of carpet shampoo costs me about $15.00, and I can never find a coupon for it!

After much research (I love research!) I came up with my own concoction. Here it is:

1/4 cup free and clear Purex laundry detergent
1/2 cup white distilled vinegar
a few drops of essential oil, if desired

Add mixture to soap dispenser in steam cleaner, and top off with water (to fill line on the dispenser).

This seems to get the dirt out of the carpet much better than the shampoo I was buying. Also, adding the vinegar helps rinse the carpet to get out soap residue.

I have a toddler and an infant, so keeping the carpet clean is an absolute must! Here are a few steps that I take to make sure the carpets are not only clean, but free of chemicals:

1. Rinse carpet with hot water prior to using "shampoo" setting on cleaner.
2. Use shampoo setting so that it uses the least amount of shampoo as possible. It will still clean the carpets!
3. After cleaning the whole carpet on shampoo setting, change the setting back to "rinse" and use only water, to help eliminate residue that may be left on the carpets.

I realize that this will take more time, and literally more energy, but I hate the idea of my daughter crawling around on a dirty floor, or on a carpet filled with chemicals!
Oh, and for the laundry detergent, I recently bought a 110-load bottle of Purex Free and Clear for just $4.99!

More than Mom

I've been having a really hard time trying to figure out what I want to do. I quit my job in order to be home for my husband and children, and was planning on getting back into real estate. Once we figured out that my husband was making enough overtime to cover my pay for a few months, I decided to "think" a little more on what I really want.

I have been having bad hair days like you wouldn't believe. Litterally, bad hair days! I feel like a frumpy house wife because my hair isn't nice. I haven't had a hair cut in a year, the length is starting to really bother me, and now I keep noticing that my eyebrows are a darker color than my hair! And I don't even dye my hair! I found a box of hair dye under my cabinet that I may just use today.

But, I don't now if dying my hair is going to make me feel any better. I think I'm going through an identity crisis. My husband and I had an argument the other day, and then he told me that he loved me. When he listed the reasons, one of them was that I was the mother of his kids. I didn't hear anything else he said after that. All I heard was: Mother. Is that all I am now? I don't have a job anymore, I haven't seen friends in a very, very long time because I've been busy working and being mom for the past 2 years. I don't go to all of my family's parties and events, because my family is huge and I hate to pick and choose who I see. My husband works a lot, and I don't have anyone who can watch my kids in a moment's notice if I want to go on a date with my husband.

So, for now, I guess "Mom" will have to do. It's not that I don't love being a mom. I do love it, and it's the best job I've ever had. It's the hardest, most unappreciated, challenging job that I've ever had. It is also the most rewarding job I've ever had.

Anyone else having, or had, an identity crisis after having kids? I would love to know that I'm not alone!

Weekly Finance Update-No grocery shopping!

Well, my success story this week is...I still have $30 out of my $40 weekly grocery budget!



The bad news is, I'm going insane :0) I will post about that later!



We did an impromptu "eat from the pantry" challenge this week, and let me tell you, it was a challenge! I did go buy a loaf of bread on Monday, because I couldn't be bothered with making a loaf as I had planned. Other than that, we have survived on whatever I could find!



My husband worked a lot of overtime last pay period, so we had some more cash to move over to savings. So far, it doesn't look like we are going to be missing my extra income this month. I know it's only been a week, but we have saved more than what I made in 2 months. Things are looking good.



Current financial goals:

• Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 1 DONE
• Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 2 in progress
• Cut $40 a month out of our budget by using Swagbucks and Survey site redemptions for pet food.
• Find a new home to rent so we can start a home buying fund.

I am not sure how long we will be in Baby Step 2, since we will need to accumulate over time from my husband's job for that. Unless of course he gets the job he is hoping for. It pays well, and we will be able to put more money towards savings every month.

Any success stories you want to share?

What's a happy mom?

The Today show had a segment this morning on happy moms. They interviewed the author of "10 Habits of Happy Mothers". This got me thinking, what makes me a happy mom?

I am certainly not happy all the time. Lately, I've been in the 43% (as the segment reported) of mothers that are unhappy. Leaving my job as helped tremendously, but I'm not quite there yet! Here's my list so far on what makes me a happy mom:

1. Coffee. Coffee makes me a happier mom, without question! I need my 1 cup a day. I try really hard to finish a cup in the morning, because that caffeine does give me some energy throughout the day. Lately, since I haven't been able to sit and drink a cup of coffee, I have been using my Magic Bullet to make myself frappuccinos. I can drink those down in 2 seconds flat! I've been blessed with being immune to brain freeze

2. Sleep. Well, it would make me happy if I got any. I find that I am way too grumpy for my kids when I don't get enough, or any, sleep. Unfortunately this has been my #1 problem right now. I just cant sleep!

3. Baking. If I actually get a chance to get in the kitchen and bake, I feel like I've accomplished something great!

4. Seeing my kids smile. I think our kids are a reflection of us, so if I see them smiling, I must be doing something right! This makes me happier.

5. A clean kitchen. I think I spend more time in the kitchen than in any other room, so when I walk in to my clean kitchen, it's a very relaxing feeling.

6. Drinking a cup of tea and taking my vitamins. I know I don't always eat healthy; some times, I don't eat enough. I drink my tea and take my vitamins, I feel like I'm making an effort to take care of myself.

7. Grocery shopping alone, with a latte. I don't do this often, but sometimes, I'll leave the kids at home with my husband while I grocery shop. I will pick up a coffee on the way, so that I can slowly browse the grocery store and sip my drink. My husband wonders why it takes me so long to grocer shop :0) I don't buy extra things, I still stick to my budget, but this is the only "me" time I get.

What makes YOU a happy mom?

Start REALLY Saving Money

I was going to be doing a series on managing a home and business in one (WAHM-ing it!) but I changed my mind. I will put that on hold for a few months, as I just quit my job and need time to get myself organized in that area.

I will now be doing a Moneysaving series. This will include some very basic ways to save money, and some ways that are a little more work, but definitely worth the effort.

First and foremost, let’s clarify the definition of “save”. Webster states that this is: to put aside as a store or reserve: Accumulate. Maintain, Preserve. To make unnecessary.

I know that seems formal to include this definition, but I’ve read lots of books, blogs and articles that have very simple ways of “saving money” by skipping that Starbucks latte, or that candy bar at the gas station. They emphasize that you can do these things to save money, and not have to have a written budget. You can save without really thinking about it. While this may work for some people, I think for the general population, this is wrong.

Given that the word “save” literally means, “to make unnecessary” a budget is required, even if you save $5 by not purchasing your morning latte. Why? A few years ago my husband and I realized that we were spending $10 a day (combined) at the coffee shop below our apartment. We converted that to a yearly cost of $2,600 (when buying 5 days a week, which we did), and quit the coffee shop altogether. You want to know how much money we ended up saving? Zero! We didn’t have a budget, so when we stopped buying the coffee, we simply spent the money on something else. We didn’t make that money become “unnecessary”. None of our money was allocated to a certain category; it just sat in the checking account waiting to be spent. It didn’t sit for long J

I challenge you to write a budget. Without a written budget, when you “save” $5 on a latte, or $100 on eating out, you may simply up your spending somewhere else, because the money is still there to be spent. Look at your bank statements and see how much extra money you spent over the last 2 months. Look at the restaurants you’ve gone to, add up the small gas station purchases. Once you see how much extra money you could have every month, writing a budget becomes much easier. You will feel such a relief when you realize that in that budget, you can pay yourself! Not money for groceries, or gas, or clothes (I have envelopes for these also) but for a coffee when you feel like it, or a manicure! I haven’t decided what I want, so even though I’ve been paying myself every week, I have only spend $7 of it in the last month, and that was to take my son out to pizza.

My husband and I wrote our budget, stuck to it, and opened up a savings account at a different bank. All of the “extra” money goes into that account. It is a savings account, so it has no debit card. We cannot do impulse purchases with the intentions of quickly transferring money into our checking account (we’ve done this many times!).

Next week: Get your budget started

un Happy Mom

Today, I’m not a happy mom! It’s Sunday, and my husband has been at work all day. He will be leaving again tomorrow morning for a job and will return Thursday or Friday. He has been working 75 hours a week, and he was supposed to be off today so that we could go and use our Elephant Bar gift card before he left for the week. The kids were both up until 1 am last night (or this morning!), my daughter doesn’t want to take a nap, and my son is extremely fussy because he does want to take a nap. I never finished my coffee this morning. The dogs are outside barking because it’s cold, but I won’t let them in because it rained this morning, and I don’t want muddy prints all over the carpet. I also have not made it out of the house today, I missed my first Financial Peace University class, and I have not been able to go and buy the Sunday paper. This does not make for a very happy mom!

Despite all that, I’m going to put a smile on my face and make myself be a happy mom! Fake it ‘til you mean it, right? My son finally cleaned up his legos, because he wanted a yogurt, and my daughter is now happy in her jumper. I may be able to finish my morning cup of coffee after all! Yes, I will re-heat that coffee at 6pm and I will finish that cup!

My Basic Preschool Plan

Basic Pre-school Lesson Plan

Letters of the day: A and C

Color: Red

Sign: Help


Shape: Circle

Activities:

· Morning Prayer
· 30 minutes of “Baby Signs” every morning after breakfast.
· Coloring letters A and C with corresponding animals or characters.
· Read Toy Story to point out A, C and the color Red.
· “Treasure Hunt” for red items, circles, and magazines with A’s or C’s.
· Books: Alphabet and Shapes book.

Blog Plans

I have been blogging sort of haphazardly, but I am now going to try something new...structure! Here is my outling so far for this blog, which includes upcoming series and a weekly schedule:

Monday: Children's learning plan. As I will not be able to send my son to preschool, I thought I would get an early start on home preschool. I will be posting my weekly lesson plan on Mondays, as well as re-capping our accomplishments for the previous week.

Tuesday: My local grocery store coupon match ups. This will most likely only consist of Savemart and FoodMaxx, since I have found great sources for every other store that is in my town.

Wednesday: Monthly Topic. Since this will be my first month as a WAHM, my first series will be "Managing a home and business in one!"

Thursday: Random Thoughts

Friday: Frugal ideas (could be shopping, cooking, outings...) and Financial Update

I may or may not post on the weekends (most likely not, unless there is something that just cannot wait).

My decision to stay home

We have been on a written budget for one month now, and so far, it has been very easy to stick to. My husband has been very good at holding onto his cash for much longer than he used to, and has limited his debit card use. I have only been using the envelope system. I have even under-spent in some categories!

In addition to adhering to our written budget, we have managed to put $1,000 in our emergency fund!

I have been praying about my decision to leave my job, because even though I don’t make much, it’s something. I have been worried about what it’s going to do to our finances. I found these scriptures, which I think support my decision:

• 
  “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.” Proverbs 21:20
• 
  “The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5

These stuck out to me because I have been trying to come up with ways to save money, or at least stick to our budget, when it comes to groceries. I have been thinking about meal planning, and possibly Once-a-Month cooking. These scriptures may not have been talking literally about food choices, or meal planning, but I think it fits perfectly. If I can make a plan and stick to it, not just with meals, but with schedules and budgeting, then we will succeed in whatever we decide to do.

I am confident that the Lord will help me stretch our dollars further when I leave my job, because I’m not where I’m supposed to be right now.

Life Happens

Well, it looks like we are putting our written budget to the test...a BIG test! I will be turning in my notice at work within the next few days. I have thought about it, and prayed about it a lot, and I think this is the best decision for my family. Maybe not financially, but emotionally.

My husband and I work opposite shifts at work because if we had to pay daycare, it litterally would not be worth it for me to work. I get home at 10 or 10:30 pm, nurse a hungry 6 month old, do some tidying up, and I am in bed by maybe midnight. And, since I've spent the whole day chasing kids and working, I can't sleep because I remember everything I meant to do...I also do not get more than 5 minutes to spend with my husband. We have Sunday's off together, but that day is filled with church, bible study, church basketball, and some grocery shopping. Not much extra time there!

So, I will be resigning from my job. My hope is that since I will no longer be working until 10 pm, I can get my kids on a better nighttime schedule. That will help me get to bed earlier, and hopefully get up earlier. If I actually got to sleep by 10, I'm sure I can be up at 5 or 5:30, atleast an hour before either kid wakes up. I plan on using this time to do some of my work for the consulting business I am planning on starting, earning some extra date night cash by taking Paid Surveys at Opinion Outpost , and re-reading and having a quiet time. I have a few bible study books that I plan to go through, and I am not sure which one I want to do first. I will be posting portions of the study online.

Of course, this all sounds good in theory, lets pray that it works!