Breaking Down the Budget: Food

As I have stated before FOOD is one of the hardest parts of our budget!
It requires ALOT of planning. 
Some of the best tools out there are (I was not in ANY way compensated by any of the links I have added to this post)
http://www.emeals.com/
http://5dinners1hour.com/
I have looked into them from time ot time
Also my sister participates in
http://dreamdinners.com/
I have not done any of these offically but I use them all for tools.

I try to keep what I need in the house at all times.
We are Carnivores in our home.  We have meat with every dinner.  Which adds extra cost.

We choose to buy our meat at Costco.  We then come home, put them in food saver bags and freeze them.


This way as long as we pull meat out the night before, we can make dinner.   Beyond that we eat alot of rice, pasta and veggies.  Overall these items are not expensive.
We are quiet simple but my hubby always can throw a gourmet spin on it.

One of the best things for a Food budget is to PLAN..  Also keep the necessities in the house, and TRY to only go the the grocery store 2-4 times per month. Each trip will cost alot.

I break down our Grocery bill and Dining out into 2 categories. 
I tracked this for about a year.  Estimated what we spent in each.  As months change, needs and wants change, but if we can keep a plan it isn't too hard.

I hope to inspire some of you to build a plan.  I work on a weekly plan, and rather then putting
Monday: spaghetti...etc..
I list 7 items and we can choose the night before.

Our averages change, but knowing where we are and what we are spending is key



How we eat!

Breakfast: Since the boys eat at daycare, this normally consists of coffee and a fruit on weekdays.
On weekends, I buy the BIG bags of sugar cereal.  I loved it as a kid, and I still love it now, so we normally have that or toast.

Lunch: I hope to get better at this one, but once again the boys eat at daycare, and HH and I either eat leftovers, frozen dinners, soup or go out.  We try to limit going out to once every other week on payday, but we are not always good about this.
On weekends: Lunch is much more difficult.  We normally snack, and let our Liam pick what he wants.

Dinner: Where the REAL fun comes in.  My HH is an AMAZING COOK!!! I don't even feel that AMAZING is a good enough word to explain how yummy his cooking is.  He makes gourmet meals that are to DIE FOR, but that requires planning.  Of which I'm not so good at.  We eat Mac and Cheese (Blue Box) about once a week and decide not to cook at least one night a week.  Honestly out of LAZINESS.  (working full time is exhausting and sometimes a pizza delivered to the house sounds GREAT).

Budget Blunders

This weekend we finished our PATIO!! I will share that on Friday, however I am very bad at getting excited and thinking I get to spend money.

Buyers remorse!

Why do we do this?

It all comes from psychology.  We have also been conditioned to Want it and Want it NOW!
We all have this feeling... some of it may be stemmed from a child not being able to buy the toy you wanted, or a treat of some kind.

I remember when I was 19 just after I was married, I went to the grocery store, and walked it.  I saw lots of things all around, I walked through the produce, meat, and grains got what I needed just like normal.  However my mind was racing, I realized I could buy ANYTHING i wanted.  I didn't have to ask anyone, or justify why.  It was an ODD feeling of freedom.

Obviously this didn't last long.  Our first Easter Chris had just been laid off and I was working a new job.  Holidays were a BIG deal, but I knew we only had $10 in the bank.  That was IT.  So I went to Big lots, got a fries container for a basket.

It was 50 cents so I knew I could buy it and spend the other $9 + on Easter stuff. 
It is so much easier to spend money on others then on myself, for ME at least.  I never really bat an eye if my son wants a $10 toy or my husband wants a new phone.  Even though I watch money I watch what I spend on me, and not so much on others.  How do we fix this?


Lifehacker had an inserting article today "How to Trick your Brain Into Banishing Bad Money Habits"
It discusses how we have our brains conditioned to wanting things.  It is up to ourselves to change our Mantra to stop spending.

Boquet of newly-sharpened pencils

 "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." (You've Got Mail) 



I LOVE back to school!  I love it!! I love walking into the stores and seeing rows of notebooks, crayons, paper, etc.  I LOVE school supplies! 
I was never really the "I CANT WAIT FOR SCHOOL TO START" kid, but boy I LOVED shopping for school supplies (ok that should be love).


Well the problem is that back to school is one of the MOST expensive times of the year, second to Christmas. 
We all have to have the "new backpack" all the new supplies and not to mention the CLOTHES!




None of us want to live this way, however we are often caught up in the hype of back to school.

Tips for saving your budget!
1. PLAN: remember just like christmas, we know school starts, every year in the fall.

2. NECESSITIES: You don't have to be just like everyone else.  I know for me that outfit you wore the first day of school could make or break you.  However by day 2-5 no one even cares.  So get a few new things, but a new wardrobe is NOT necessary.

3. SALES (don't buy into marketing techniques):  There are some amazing back to school sales.
Crayons for $.45 rather then retail $3.50
Notebooks for $.10 rather then retail $5.00
The list goes on and on... HOWEVER don't forget to look at everything. Most of these stores have lined the end caps with items marked UP then on "SALE" to get you to buy more.  Make a list of exactly what you need and stick to your list!

4. Budget for the Unexpected: There will be times when more specialized items your child will need for school, don't let these catch you off guard. 

Patio Part 2

A week has gone by and the work is still there!!

ALWAYS WORK!!

I am loving how it is looking though.  We have wanted a place to sit out and relax and now we have it!

Pavers Pavers and MORE PAVERS

We ended up with a total of 3 pallets of stones. 

After alot of research we decided to go to with pavestone pavers.  We got them from a local sprinkler store and we love them!!

OUR WONDERFUL neighbors let us borrow their there truck.  A total of 5 tons and LOTS OF MOVING the stones were moved.

We dumped a truck load of sand on our drive way of our 1 car garage, and moved it back little by little.  I swear ALL our neighbors were ready for the sand to be moved; we got 2 tons and it took us about 2 weeks to move it all.

 Here you can see our 1 in PVC pipe helpers to guide a 1 in layer

Here we moved the stones one by one from the garage to in  front of the dog door (backdoor).  We would bring the sand around the back (and to make matters worse, since we have a town house, we only have one entrance into our back yard, and that is through our next door neighbors yard which was redone last year).  I felt bad moving wheel barrel by wheel barrel of sand though their year old sod.  (however so far it is doing well, and if we kill it, I am the first one willing to replace it.)This project was SLOW moving.  We would move sand through the yard, stones through the house, level it out and do an area then repeat... about 100 TIMES!! This process took a good 15+ hr (just for the stones)

Here is our completed patio from the back door to the east

Here is the completed view straight to the south of our back door.  So we are done..... RIGHT??????  I wish but NOWe then moved onto our garden.  We knew we wanted to build it up a bit we were just unsure as to how we exactly wanted to do that.
We wanted a look like this..... And well i know my wonderful husband and I wish it would be that easy, however...,, I thought of a different solution.Im not sure if I have posted this yet, but i TOTALLY LOVE Lowes!!I swear they always have exactly what we need, and it is the CLOSEST store to our house (as long as you don't count a gas station).  So i'm partialWe found these stones

 

And the day we got them they were on CLEARANCE!! So at just about $2 a pop it was hard to pass up.  1 Pallet loaded up by the handy men at Lowe's later, I began moving the stones.  Chris placed the stones while I carried them two at a time through the house.  I am not one that is good with lines, so he was in charge of making it pretty! 

AND WOW!!!! Look at that!! PRETTY!!! isnt it!
We opted to use the 6x6 stones for the edge, I didn't feel we needed to purchase a different type of stone, and the types we liked were not in stock, so we stuck with the same ones. 
We rented a paver cutter from Diamond Rental! BEST THING EVER.  We had read some things about using a tile cutter, however with these stones, which were about 4 in deep we were so glad we opted to spend a little more and get the proper tool.  The cutting only took a few hours, lots of walking through the house, but we figured out a good system I would mark and move, and he would cut, I would mark more and go get the ones done.  I feel this next part.... was prob the HARDEST!!!This is the east corner of our yard, which leads to our next door neighbors yard.  We have to have this door accessible so we built it down.  It took ALOT of work to shovel out all the extra dirt, and to make matters worse, we know there are power lines so we knew we had to be CAREFUL too!
It was worth ALL the extra work, cause it looks AMAZING!!MY WONDERFUL mother in law (who happens to live close by) came over to take care of the boys while we were busy working.  We went back to diamond rental again and borrowed the plate compactor again.  I didn't think this part was really necessary, however I AM SO!! glad we did it anyway.  We had a few places we were unsure of it being level and this helped to calm any concern.We used THIS amazing advice and opted to use the polysand

I think that my HH was so excited to do this part, because it means we were near the end? While I was at work, he laid sand, pushed it into cracks with his NEW broom, he also used our leaf blower (the directions recommend it), sprayed it down and REPEAT about 5 times.
When I got home I was SO EXCITED!!!! We went out to find a patio set.  I had looked and looked and looked, and we had decided on a set from Smiths Marketplace and to make it even better... it was on CLEARANCE!! 
Love SeatAnd now really, what is a patio withOUT a fire pit.  BORING!!! :) lolIt was about 100 degrees outside and I lit a fire.  Chris thought I was CRAZY but boy Liam and Ewan loved it!
Here you can see how the sand worked so great, also you can see our edging pretty good around as well.... Oh and my SUPER CUTE baby boy!   Last but not DEFIANTLY NOT LEAST our tiki torches!!Chris has always had a fetish for them, so we purchased 6 at walmart, along with a centranella candle since mosquitoes LOVE ME!
Now I really wish I could say we are done....BUT NOPE we aren'tNext up.  Stairs.....Dirt....Grass.....working sprinklers..... transplant garden......and drip system!!!WISH US LUCK!!!

Breaking Down the Budget!

The hardest part about money is the BUDGET!
 
We can all say it is simple. because it is, but that doesn't make it fun.
The best way to make your money work, is to give each dollar a name.  Easier said then done right...

We all know the breakdown.

Bills
Food
Other.

Pretty simple... RIGHT??

However we budget out amounts without TRULY looking at it.

A budget is not a one time thing.  It is a constant changing living document.

This gives some good ideas as to how to start building your budget, but this is my style.

For the next few days I will go over categories

#1 BILLS

these are those annoying things that we ALL must pay... well if we want to keep a roof over our head and heat in our home.

I am gonna list the bills I have at MY house

Daycare

Mortgage

HOA

Power 

Questar

Medical

Car Insurance

Qwest

AT&T

Netflix

 I have tried to list these in importance.
For the most part we can guess what our averages are for each of these items.  Remember how I told you I wasn't going to hold back, well here are my numbers. ON AVERAGE for the last 18 months or so.

Daycare:   $800

Mortgage $1200

HOA        $110

Power      $100

Gas           $50

Medical    $50

Car Ins     $115

Internet     $35

Cell Phone $150

Netflix       $9
TOTAL MONTHLY BILLS $2,619

That does NOT included ANY debt.. which we do have

So now that we have those numbers we will start there.

Start by listing ALL your bills, not including debt, and see what your monthly requirements are just to keep life moving.

Cost of living continued!

I have been really trying to post every week day. however yesterday July 24, is a Utah holiday!! Pioneer Day, and since we are government employees we got the day off!!

So now back to our regular scheduled program! :D
 

So when I returned home on Tuesday night, I thought about the numbers I posted.  I did a few calculations.  I took the House values and divided them by the gross income to see how many years of income would be required to buy a home.
                       2010      2000         1990          1980                1970         1960           1950        1940

US	125000	$119,600	$79,100	$47,200	$17,000	$11,900	$7,354	$2,938
Gross Per Year on min	$15,080	$10,712	$7,904	$6,448	$3,328	$2,080	$1,560	$624
Years	8	11	10	7	5	6	5	5

This information I calculated shows that in 1940: it would take 5 yr income to pay off a house and so on.  This shows that the dollar to home ratio was worst in 2000 and we are now dropped between 1980-1990.

So this statistic bugged me.  THERE IS NO way it has changed that much... or has it?

Step #2.  Find out the AVERAGE wage per year.
I used this to find my data
http://www.davemanuel.com/median-household-income.php

	2010	2000	1990	1980	1970
US	125000	$119,600	$79,100	$47,200	$17,000
Average Wage	$47,425	$40,418	$27,922	$16,200	$7,494
	2.64	2.96	2.83	2.91	2.27

This tells us something quite different.
This shows that really the wage has not changed THAT much. We are still back between 1980 and 1990, however the gap is not there quite so much 


What does this really mean? 

So far my claim is when it COMES TO HOUSES.... they really aren't that much more expensive then they used to be... NOW the next question..


markbw.wordpress.com
WHY ARE WE ALL SO BROKE? (I will address this question in a future blog post)

Cost of living

 On my drive home from work I discussed a few things with my mom.  We started with talking money, my parents taught me about how to stay out of debt, but they have also inspired me as to how to live my life long term with money.  My parents grew up with parents who were alive during the great depression. However, my in-law grandparents did not live through the same situations.

 We discussed how my parents are different from my in-laws and I was curious as to why.  My parents are only 5-6 years older then my in-laws, but as we discussed more my grandpa was 30 yr old when my mom was born, and my husbands grandma was 20 yr old when my mother in law was born.  With this difference there are 15+ years between them.  Quite a difference!

I asked my mom about how the depression affected her parents, and she gave me the information she remembers her father (STILL LIVING 88 yr old!!) telling her about it.  Her maternal grandfather was a car mechanic and the depression didn't hit him too hard.  Her paternal grandfather was not affected by the great depression because he didn't have any debt.  NONE!
My mother went on to explain to me that my Grandpa (her dad) Papa Enz, had only ONCE ever had a car loan.  I don't know all the specifics, however he went to the post office to get this loan. He took his stock certificate with him, and used that as collateral.  Other then that my Papa NEVER had a car loan.

I told my husband this along with reading a few lines from my most recent book (Financial Peace Revisited. By Dave Ramsey)  "Larry Burkett of Christian Financial Concepts says that in 1929 only 2 percent of American homes had a mortgage and by 1962 only 2 percent didn't have mortgages."   
He said, well the cost of living is different.... So today my goal is to look into that

The following statistics are from the US Census and U.S. Department of labor 
http://www.census.gov
http://www.dol.gov.

Median Home Values

2000          1990      1980          1970      1960     1950         1940

United States   $119,600   $79,100   $47,200   $17,000  $11,900   $7,354  $2,938

Utah               $146,100   $68,900   $57,300   $16,800  $12,600   $7,409  $2,320

MIN WAGE $5.15        $3.80       $3.10        $1.60      $1.00      $0.75      $0.30  
Gross Wage $10,712 $7,904 $6,448 $3,328 $2,080  $1,560 $624


So looking over this data it shows tat wages have changed alot less the home prices

What does this MEAN?? 



I am still working on evaluating this but it is quite interesting regardless
Stay tuned for tomorrow....

Budget Breakers

We all have things that break the bank.
I have tracked my expenses for the last few years and it is EASY for me to see the majority of my money goes to FOOD!

I wish I could say I overspend at the grocery store, cause I would be proud of that, but its not that!
It is DINING OUT!

Here is the truth.  Over the last 5 months, with a STRICT BUDGET (or trying to) we have spent an AVERAGE of $200 A MONTH on eating out.

For a while I have tried to be good at planning meals, but I suck at it.  There are so many blogs and pins etc etc etc out there, but I'm not them.  I use many of their ideas to help me, but when all is said and done.. I'm not perfect and many days Mac and Cheese is what's for dinner, and some nights it is just this.......

I know super embarrassing!!! This is soemthing that I am trying so hard to change but it is EASY



And we have tried to change things from that to







THIS



if we are going to spend money to go out, lets eat GOOD!!
MY HONEY IS AN AMAZING COOK and I'm so glad  he will cook for me, but I need a better plan.

I am NOT the cook of the family, but I am going to try to be better because if I don't fix this problem no one else will do it for me!
I am hoping to work over the next while to give some money saving ideas with food! 

What are your BUDGET BREAKERS?

Patio part 1!

Myself and my handsome hubby live in Utah. The cost of living is not too bad.  However we love where we live and we live in the MOST EXPENSIVE County in the state.  We have a beautiful 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom 2,200 sq foot townhouse.  However it is still a TOWN house. We hope once our debt is paid off to build our DREAM house.
One of the draw backs of our current home is our backyard.  It is 23’x18’ we have a massive tree that takes over, along with killing all our grass.  We decided it was necessary to change this.

BACK YARD!!

We purchased our town house in just over 6 years. We have tried to do things from time to time to make our house a home!!!

Our back yard was a wood rotting deck and we had a huge tree shading our yard. We has tried for years to grow grass but with the tree there was no hope. 

We were able to get our tree removed by our HOA.

Our BIG tree

Up up up it goes!!

We came home from work one day and it was GONE.  It was a huge relief.  

I planned and planned and planned and planned what we would do with our yard.  

We started with thinking about what we wanted to do.  

It started with a deck

I love www.younghouselove.com  You should check them out, they gave us SO MANY ideas, and ive linked to them a BUNCH!!

I love this blog and I loved what they did.  The more and more we looked into it we realized we would be struggling with alot of wasted space.  

We then thought of copying out next door neighbors with cement. 

  NEIGHBORS YARD!

 However our yard is ONLY accessible through their yard, so we would either have to cart it in, or pay a butt load of money to have it poured.

Idea for Concrete. 

We then once again returned to www.younghouselove.com and found their wonderful idea.  

PAVERS!! are they beautiful or what?

Now the fun starts

Here is my plan, then the alterations from my HH. 

He doesn't like straight lines WTF! LOL
So he added the curves. I was not looking forward to that part!

After the tree was removed we started to move the sprinklers. Neither of us have done them before. It was really fun and a lot of work!

Here you can see our basic outline for our yard.

We wanted to make these as level as possible! 

We uses this cute little thing to make sure the ground is level.

We had 5 sprinklers and we caped off 2 and moved 2 to the (future) grass area and 1 for a drip system in the future garden.

 

Here is the view from our back window, before the tree stump was gone.

The stump was then removed!!

We then moved on to the gravel. This process made for a LONG day!!

The next day we got a plate compactor to level it all our!

My little man helped his daddy!!

Now we are ready for sand!!!

Diet VS Budget

Budget and dieting really are the same thing.
Most of us know we need them, but we don't have them.

At a leadership training years ago I was taught, we all know what to do, how to do it, but what matters is what we DO DO.. Yes DODO... (ok in high school it was alot funnier)
But Really, we are not judged on what we know, on what we are capable of it is what we do!!

Many Financial experts compare budgeting to weight loss, they are very simple in theory

Dieting: Eat good and exercise
Budget: Spend more then you make 

Simple RIGHT!!!

According to Centers for Dieses Control and Prevention
More than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese.
 


AND

Consumer credit includes credit cards, auto loans, student loans, and other types of household debt, but excludes mortgages. It rose from 14.0% GDP in January 1990 to 18.0% GDP by January 2009. It fell to a trough of 16.4% GDP in July 2010 and was back up to 17.5% GDP by January 2013. (According to the Federal Reserve Database) 



So what does this say about us?

It is MUCH easier to do what we want rather then do what we know!