I am on DAY FIVE of writing down all expenditures. Every day I write down everything that goes through my checking acct and my beloved Frequent Flyer VISA. Except for $1,000 which I will pay off in two weeks, it has a zero balance. Very soon I hope to use it like a debit card and payoff each VISA expense every day from our linked checking account. I LOVE tracking our expenses and I feel very in control.
Yesterday you all gave me some honest advice. Although I have to admit initially it was a bit hard to take, almost immediately I appreciated your honesty as your input is necessary for me to change my overspending ways.
All in one day, ImaSaver reminded me that rentals can be living hell and Jerry reminded me that with regard to giving my son money for grad school, maybe there were other options which would have done the same thing. My greatest "lesson" yesterday came from Patient Saver and her kind kick in the pants directness. She told that I needed to separate my emotions from money. This is so true for me as I an be very emotional. Then she said after that, slow down and take TIME to make the correct financial decision...to look at the PROS and CONS. This was great advice! Had I taken her advice before I made the no interest loan to my son on the spur of the moment, I would have researched it and found him a good student loan for the 10K. After all, both my husband and I had them and while they were a bit uncomfortable, slowly paying them off on schedule was a good learning experience for us.
CALL FOR HELP!!!
Since I am a financial newbie, if you could give me some tips that you use I would really appreciate it. Just through reading your blogs and understanding your mindsets, I am already starting to change. For example, I am starting to think it's a joyful challenge to have a "no spending day"...I want to have one today! Also, I used some of your financial creativity to remember to watch our Netflix last night and have dinner at home rather than think we "deserved" a Friday night restaurant meal. I also plan to get hold of the info on our 401K/IRAs and try to track our networth on a MONTHLY basis.
I will consider and use any tips you have. At 52, I may be an "old dog" but I think I'm up for learning some new tricks!! THANKS FOR YOUR WISDOM and your willingness to share. I appreciate it!
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR WISDOM!!! General Tips Requested!
January 8th, 2011 at 11:01 am
January 8th, 2011 at 02:07 pm 1294495655
January 8th, 2011 at 02:42 pm 1294497749
January 8th, 2011 at 04:15 pm 1294503303
I found that changing my mindset was what got me on the right track. Did I deserve fun, or did I deserve financial security? Which one was really better? Once I chose financial security, everything started to fall into place.
And I have found almost everything I do to save money -- FUN! A simple life personally suits me much better than a consumer-driven life, and I have found I love to cook, make creative gifts, and fix things myself (within reason, of course!) That's the real secret of the frugal life -- it's a good life!
January 8th, 2011 at 05:32 pm 1294507975
January 8th, 2011 at 06:11 pm 1294510263
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January 8th, 2011 at 11:16 pm 1294528571
If I were to contribute one idea, it would be that if you're looking for places to save money, focus on those things that will give you the "biggest bang for the buck." In other words, while skipping lattes or saving a buck here or there is nice, spend your time and energy on those areas that will result in the biggest cost savings first. Some places to look at might include homeowners insurance (cut premiums by taking a safe driver course, increase deductibles, etc) or car insurance (increase deductibles, drop collision on an older car, check with insurer for all possible ways to save).
Food definitely is a big expense; it was my #2 expense right after my mortgage/property taxes. I can see from tracking my expenses in 2010 that I spent a grand total of $2,642 on food, which seems high for a single person; it comes out to $220 a month. So, I've somewhat arbitrarily decided to cut my grocery bill by 16%, which means i can spend no more than $185 a month on food, or $45 a week. Doesn't seem like much at all but I want to see if i can do it.
I just decided this today. So I looked at what I've already spend on food for the first 8 days of January, and the bad news is, I have just $16 left to spend in January if I'm to keep to my limit! (That's partly due to a $40 membership fee for Costco I decided to renew.)
I have plenty of food in the house, so it would be nice to try to "eat down" what I've already got and save that $16 for when I'm following a recipe with ingredients I've already got on-hand and missing a key ingredient, or for staples, like milk.
But anyway, I love your enthusiasm!
January 9th, 2011 at 03:23 am 1294543410
I do have quite a bit of enthusiasm, but due to my emotional nature, even that can be bad as I tend to hit things very hard at first (overly hard) when my emotions are running high and then end up giving up after a few months when emotionally I cool down. Just like you said earlier, I need to slow down, think things out and make a DECISION that it is important to slowly and steadily improve my finances. I also liked what you said about taking the biggest expenses first and working on them. I will take a look at that. I really know my husband and I do need to take a safe drivers class to help cut our insurance costs. Especially since I have had a wreck and my insurance went up. I think food bills are also a high area for us. For me, though, the absolute best way I can make an impact is to keep writing down my purchases each day and avoid going off on spending sprees. I know sprees are not even something you worry about as you are so good at this, but my "sprees" are when I can spend way too much money on stuff I don't need. I truly do need to remove my EMOTIONS from my money situation. If I can't do that I won't ever be able to tame this beast. In looking at my list of goals for 2010, as usual I probably went overboard. The most important thing is the emotion/money thing. Thanks so much for helping me realize that. I truly appreciate your candor.
January 9th, 2011 at 01:48 pm 1294580923
February 21st, 2011 at 05:55 am 1298267759