Money Mondays...Be aware of what you're spending and where....

It's another Money Monday and no I don't have any great bargains for you, or where to get free stuffs, etc. I won't be putting that stuff in here. There are a WHOLE lot of other blogs out there just for that purpose. Last week, I mentioned living below your means as a way to accomplish debtlessness (is that even a word?). That is SO much easier said than done. Does that mean that you eat only beans and cornbread and bologna all week long? Not in the least. Does that mean that you might not get a new console game every month? More than likely. Most people want to put aside a little money for emergencies, or their children's college tuition, or even for their retirement. Really when you think of it, you will have one savings for retirement, one for emergencies, one for each child's future tuition, before you know it, you'll not have any money for bills. And unfortunately, unless you can afford to do that AND eek out a current living, that's not a very practical stance to take. You might even say that you cannot afford to save any money because your current living expenses out weigh your income. That's when you need to evaluate what's important to you, and what you can let go, and what you can pay off early to relieve yourself of your monthly debt. You might even want to keep an expense journal for 30 days just to see how you DO spend money. But for that 30 days, you should just keep the receipts for all your transactions, and your bank statements as well as your payroll checks. This way you see exactly what you have coming in, and just what you spend going out. This means even that 89cent burrito from Taco Bell. Keep that receipt, because this adds up over a year's time.

After your 30 days is up, go through all those receipts. Get you some envelopes, mark them, "household", "entertainment", "car", "grocery", "eating out", and "misc.". In the "household" envelope put your rent, utilities, and home insurance (if your car insurance is also attached here, that's fine, put it here in the "household" envelope)/renter's insurance, etc. The "entertainment" envelope, will carry your cable, internet, movie stubs, games, rentals, netflix, gamefly, etc. "Car" envelope is car maintenance, car payments, car insurance (if alone), and gas. "Grocery" is just that, groceries, that you purchase at the store. "Eating out" should be self explanatory, and is NOT to be placed in the "groceries" envelope. If you can't cook, there are THOUSANDS of sites on the web that can help you, and this is infinitely cheaper than eating out for a week. The "misc." envelope is for things that don't fit in here like if you pay your health insurance out of pocket, savings, etc. After you separated those receipts, you should tally up each envelope and see where the bulk of your money goes. You might be surprised just how much actually goes to entertaining yourself, or what goes into the "eating out" envelope.

After you figure out HOW you spend your money, next you should look at it and evaluate just what you need to do to lower some of these expenses. Generally, your household and car are pretty fixed. Depending on what's in your misc. on whether or not that's flexible. Otherwise, groceries, entertainment and finally eating out are the most flexible. You could cut out your eating out to just 1 meal a week. Decide how much an average meal is, and put that amount aside. The rest is surplus to go towards groceries, because more than likely, you'll be spending more money here. HOWEVER, with careful planning, and smart shopping, this expenditure could go down as well. I have friends who've given themselves spending limits on the flexible expenses.

One friend uses an envelope system. She allots herself only $"X" for groceries per month. And she splits that over the 4(average) weeks per month, and that's all she takes the store with her. This buys all her groceries as well as her toiletries, etc. And she can adhere to that, because if the cash isn't there, she can't spend it. This same friend also relies upon her menu to help her out. I'll talk more about menu planning next week and how it can greatly save you money.

Just being aware of how you spend your money could greatly reduce how much you actually spend.

Money Mondays...

You won't get great investment tips from me or how to get rich quick. This is just a simple matter of living beneath your means, and making your dollars stretch and work for you, rather than against you.

We're really lucky, when you think about it. We don't have much in the way of debt. We aren't buying our home, so we don't have that debt, though we do pay rent. I consider that much like utilities. A necessary evil. We have 2 cars. One is paid for, and the other is almost paid off. So there is THAT debt. We don't have credit cards or any misc. loans. Between the two of us, we have one student loan, which we're hoping to get paid off next year. And that doesn't have to be paid on until I graduate from school, which though, I'll have my associates soon, I'm heading straight into my bachelors program. I'm going to try to not take out another loan on top of that one, but we'll see how that pans out.

For most of my adult life, I've been a single woman with no children. This changed a couple of years ago, when Mr. V and I found out we were expecting. This was a rather large surprise because neither of us were supposed to be able to have children. So, us living in an already crowded duplex, with no means to get anything larger, plus our limited means, really put us in a pinch. So we "tightened" our belts, so to speak, and we started embarking on our trek to financial freedom. Granted, we don't go to the movies as often as we'd like. We don't get video games or trips to see concerts like we used to. However, we are pretty happy in our little space. And we've even knocked things down to only one income. That's right. Only one income. Things are pretty tight. But we figured it out, with daycare, we'd spend more money than I make in a month just for Lil Mr. V's things. And in school my toughest semesters are coming with student teaching and all. So we made the decision for me to quit, and spend the time at home with our little guy and we'd pinch pennies.

Living beneath our means. Seems so simple. Dave Ramsey talks on and on about minding the company you keep, because you're income is going to be much like theirs down the road, etc. And in another blog I read today, she mentions it's more than their salary...look at their attitude towards money. You know those people that seem to accumulate money and yet they can buy things all the time. Makes you wonder how they can do all that, when it seems like all your money goes right out the window. Yeah. Apparently, if you hang around those frugal minded people, you too, will begin to pick up on their habits and you'll start to accumulate money as well.

For me, this is a new adventure. I'm positive I'll make some mistakes along the way. And I'm also positive I'll be making more progress than not. :)

So what are some of your methods of living beneath your means? Do you coupon clip? Go to thrift stores? How about choosing to live in a house that won't break the budget?

Blog plans

Ok, so I'm going to start working on theme days. Mondays will be "Money Mondays". This is my accountability of spending as well as my diary of becoming debt free. Tuesday will be "Reuse, Reduce, Recycle Tuesdays". This goes in with my new take on frugal low key living. It's also my take on getting back to basics and reducing my negative impact on the Earth. Wednesdays is "Wednesday Hearth" this will be baking and gardening and all other of homemaking stuffs. Thursday is "Thimble Thursday" this is where I'll be posting all my crafty goodies and projects. And Fridays are "Food Waste Friday." This will cover other wastes as well. Things I can't reuse, reduce, or recycle. Hopefully there won't be much here. So I hope to see you on this trek of mine. If you have any input, please by all means, tell me, and I'll be sure to answer or respond as best as possible.