Budgeting for Birthdays!

This week is the last week I will have an official "BABY" on Sunday he will turn 1!
Man how time FLY'S!!! lol

With the wonderful creation of pintrest.  There are so many out there with BIG FANCY ideas for their child's birthday.  

  

There is a blog (that I cant think of right now, but I hope to add it later) where there is a mom who feels so overwhelmed because her child does not have 

the perfect lunch.

Or the Perfect Bed

Or the Perfect Planned out Crafts

I am NOT one of these moms.! 

When my Liam turned one.  I was SO EXCITED We went ALL OUT.  We bought every Baby's 1st! birthday thing we could, and we went crazy at the toy store.  We finally had a kid to buy for.  Then he turned 2 and to say that birthday #1 was big.  #2 was BIGGER...

Then, we started to learn.  We were on a SUPER TIGHT budget for his 3rd Birthday, SO I took him to the store and we looked at cakes, he didn't seem to be interested, however when we got to the bakery aisle he was in HEAVEN!! So I bought him the cake of his choice, and he and I make it and decorated it together.

Now as we prepare for our second sons birthday, I remember all the HOOPLA that we did for my first.  However, what difference did it make?  NONE 

So for my little Ewan, we decided to Save our pennies for something that will make a DIFFERENCE,  (getting out of debt and becoming financial free) and keeping his Birthday simple.

Do you have any ways of saving your budget?

School!

School is one of those necessary evil's right? lol

I love school.  I love to learn and push myself.  However now that I am in my last semester of college for my Bachelors of Science Degree I can't wait to be DONE!!

I feel that it is slightly ironic that my oldest Liam started Kingdergarden a few weeks ago.

School is something that really will hit a budget hard.  It can make either little bumps and buses or HUGE divets, or it can make the whole thing come CRASHING DOWN!!!!

At this point, I MUST admit that my son is in private school.  We are not the predominate Utah religion and at this time we are trying to decide what is the best way to work with this.  
ALSO, he is in full day kindergarten, so by having him there I save money by not having to pay for daycare.

I do NOT believe in student loans, for the sake of student loans, Eventhough we do pay monthly on my hubby's.  We are not adding to our school debt. 


What do you feel is the most important part of education?  How would you decide to handle kids education?

Cars!!!!

My hubby and I are just about to pay off our first car.  I have never had a car loan until we bought our BEAUTIFUL 2005 Toyota 4-Runner.  Dont get me wrong this car is SO amazing and wonderful.... HOWEVER it is still JUST a car.
(all of the photos for this post were taken from a simple google images search)

In my married life the cars we have had are the following
-1999 Chevy Malibu : My honey had this when we got married and he had bought it for CASH from his brother.


-1989 Ford Escort: This was a wonderful gift from my husbands maternal grandmother.  She was so kind to give it to us, we needed another car so that both hubby and I could get to work.


When the ford died, we decided we needed a Bigger car.  We go camping ALOT and we wanted something that would hold all our stuff and on occasion pull a flat bed trailer (that my in-laws own).  We looked at alot of different options.  I still wasn't keen on getting a car loan, however I thought it was the best option.  I gave my hubby a budget of $12,000 and asked him to find us something.  I really was excited, however the make and model were indifferent to me.  Chris found us a beautiful USED 4-runner, in my allocated amount.

-2005 Toyota 4-Runner: Our first car with a loan on it as a couple.


I then drove the chevy until it died, and we sold it for a grand total of $500 :)

-1999 Honda Civic:  I wanted to get a car that we could pay cash for.  I gave myself a budget of $3,000.  I really wanted an automatic, however they are on average $1,000 more then manual, so I changed.  I really wanted either a Honda or a Toyota because they have a good track record, and after the problems we had with both our chevy and ford, I didn't want to go that route again.   We did not have enough cash to buy it so we worked with my parents to do a short 6 month loan until we could pay it all off to them.  It was much better then trying to work with a bank and my parents were so wonderful to allow us to do this.


OK so now, here we are.  we have our 2 WORKING cars.  One nice and fancy, a great road trip car, and gets pretty good gas milage.  and my wonderful little commuter car.
As we have told friends and family that we will soon OWN it.  Outright, we keep getting asked, so what are you going to get next......

This makes ms question alittle.... and even more then that I got to the chapter of my book "You aren't what you drive."  It discusses alot about how millionaires purchase cars.  To me a car is not important.  It doesn't mean that I wouldn't love to spoil my wonderful husband with a fancy truck, it is not something I want right now.

Dave Ramsey stated this
"Thinking about buying a new car?

Try this instead: Take your current car out for a drive, open the window, and repeatedly throw $100 bills out the window. Now that sounds dumb, doesn’t it? But when you buy a new car, you’re doing the same thing the moment you take it off the lot."

I plan to NEVER have another car payment EVER again.  

My hubby does want a beautiful Toyota Tundra one day,   One like this :)  ooooo so pretty.

ONE DAY
 

However, when that day comes, I plan to walk up to the CURRENT owner (I never plan to buy a new car) be able to hand them the cash for the car and keep the title in my wonderful filing cabinet! 

I feel that one of the BIGGEST budget breakers in todays world is Cars.  Plain old simple cars that loose all their value!!

And for the record.  I am VERY hard on cars, which is ONE of the reasons I TOTALLY LOVE my little car! Her name is "My girl" and I love her!! :) ... even more now that her bumper is attached, however that is a discussion for another day! 

Friday FAIL!

I have so many projects going on in my brain.  We have a birthday party for my youngest coming up next week, so it is MAD DASH to clean up the WHOLE HOUSE!! LOL 

I will catch up and share all my fun home experiences and joys.

You should check out these blogs for enjoyment

Young House Love

 

A Bowl Full Of Lemons

IHeart Organizing 

Content

I happened upon this blog and found this post quite compelling! Well actually, more then anything I found the title compelling "Are you content with what you have?"So me being the awesome student I am, I looked up the definition.

con·tent¹

kənˈtent

adjective

adjective: content

1. 1.

   in a state of peaceful

   • satisfied with a certain level of achievement, good fortune, etc., and not wishing for more.

verb

1. 1.

   satisfy (someone).

   • accept as adequate despite wanting more or better.

noun

1. 1.

   a state of satisfaction.

Well there we have it.  Content.  Don't we all just wish that is all it would take to be content, know the definition and WILL ourselves into being content! :)
Sadly it doesn't work this way!

It is amazing to think about what containment really is.  I challenge you to think for the next few days what makes you content, and I will bring up this topic again in the future.  and discuss it more.


 ”But if you’re not careful,” Roth says, “if you don’t have a plan, the life you construct with your money can be a tenuous thing — even dangerous.”
 

Frugal!

I mentioned yesterday about feeling alittle overwhlemed by a lack of funds.  I tried to change my feelings and am feeling MUCH better.  I know that good things come to those who wait.
As I have continued to read my "The Millionaire Next Door" I have loved learning all of the things it has to offer, which I would like to focus on today. The first chapter of the book is called "frugal, frugal, frugal"
I have always felt that I have lived a pretty frugal lifestyle, however the more I read, the less I feel that way.
I love to read blogs, and by doing so I get some great ideas.  I love to fix up my house, and with it not being 100% what I want, little fixes make it much more fun.
Here are a few things I do to keep my life alittle more frugal.  Therefor helping the budget.

1. Cloth Diaper

This is My little Ewan in his first cloth diaper

NO this is not for everyone.  When I first started, I honestly totally bought into the fad.  It is a new thing, and I wanted to try it out.  I was totally inspired but this amazing girl who cloth diapered her TWINS! However now that I have my little man, I would do it all over again.  He has VERY sensitive skin and I hate it when I do have to put him in disposables, because his little bum goes scarlet! I chose to use bum genius elemental diapers along with a few flips and g diapers.  Now that my boy is almost 1 it is a lot of work, however it REALLY does save me money.  (A side note, we only pay for water with our HOA therefore it doesn't matter how much I use, so that has not become a cost for me.)

2. Laundry Detergent
Yes, once again a Fad!  I blame it on Pinterest! although now that I do it, I will most likely never go back. 

This is what I used for my first batch.
1 cup Borax
1 cup Super Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
1 bar Ivory soap

After using it for a while, I missed the sent so I bought some purex Crystals and I use about 1/2 cup to the batch.


I also made another batch which I omited the Ivory soap and used oxi clean in its place.
1 cup Borax
1 cup Super Washing Soda
1 cup Oxi Clean


I did this type for diapers.  The soap is bad for the diapers so the oxi works much better. I also already use oxi on my diapers once a week so adding it to the detergent is great!

Yes, once again a Fad!  I blame it on Pintrist! although now that I do it, I will most likely never go back.
I do have a tried a true love for Method deterget,

and use it from time to time especially for my diapers, and it is highly concentrated so it is less expensive for me then regular tide or whatever you choose to use.  I love using my wonderful good smelling stuff.

3. Household cleaning
Vinigar as fabric softener
Olive Oil as Pledge
 Lavender Oil as benadryl cream

4. Cooking at home
  - making home lunches
  -  Coffee from home

5.  Making our own entertainment!

Getting By!

I have a LONG time dream of buying a house, like REAL house, where we don't share walls, and I can play piano or vacuum at 2 in the morning and only bother people in my family!! I am constantly looking up homes on our local real estate site, daydreaming.   This however can be VERY DANGEROUS!!! I find homes I WANT!!  There is one currently on the market that meets all but one of our wants, and for the record we have A LOT of wants.  However, the hubby and I made a deal 6 months or so ago, that we will not be changing ANYTHING financial until we are out of debt, other then the house.  At some point I will try to share that, however it is alittle embarrassing for me right now.  I searched through our budget and am trying to find ANY extra pennies I can, to add to paying off our debt.   I came up alittle shorter then I had hoped, therefore I am on the search of cutting costs, because that house (or any house) is a goal we are working for.
As I have continued to read the Millionaire Next Door, I have realized how much I need to cut out of my lifestyle.  I live as a UAW and I want to be a PAW, and I am the only one that can change it. 
Today, i'm going to use some ideas from others on ways to lower my cost of living, and how to save little by little.

1. Know where your money goes
2. You spend TOO much
3. Keep motivated!

I am feeling alittle discouraged today, but that just leads me to want to get out of debt faster, and find ways to cut into the budget even more!!!

Sorry this is alittle rant today.  I know we all get there and WE CAN DO IT!!! Financial Freedom WILL come!

Vacation!

We all "deserve" some good R&R from time to time. 

Or so we think! However vacations can cost a lot money. One of the BIGGEST BUDGET breakers can be this little Relaxation.. TURNED STRESS!!

The new "in" thing is the stay cation. Not a bad idea however many who attempt this stay cation feel that because they aren't spending the money to get out of town end up spending more.

This last weekend my little family went on a little vacation.  My WHOLE family. IE myself, my parents (whom live out of state) and my sister all go together to the Utah Shakespearean Festival. 

We have been going now for the last 19 years, and we LOVE IT!! And I am NOT going to say it is a cheap trip, because it ISN'T!!!! Hello LIVE THEATER= expensive. 

However there are many ways that we cut corners to save money.

My hubby grew up ALWAYS going out to eat while on vacation, my family always would go to the grocery store and buy food for the weekend.  Changing habits are hard, so with our kids we try to do a good mix. 
We aren't really breakfast people and lunch is pretty simple as well, however we do like us a nice dinner. 
So with this little weekend get away this is what we did.
#1: Stop by the grocery store to get "car food".  Juice boxes, water bottles, soda and snacks, chips, and sunflower seeds.
#2: get some simple breakfast and lunch items/snacks rather then going out.
#3: Budget for dinners, and know that they will be more expensive then normal.
#4.  AS ALWAYS Plan Plan Plan. 
Everything is alot less stressful when you plan for it!

Linen closet!

 I really enjoy starting with small things.  I am a simple person and I really enjoy starting with the SMALLEST rooms first.  I love decorating and organizing my laundry room, closets etc.

This week I happened upon this TOTALLY AWESOME blog! I am not quite sure how I happened upon it.

I am normally pretty good with things, however I am VERY picky about how I fold towels.  A good friend of mine taught me how she folded her towels.  You can see in this next pic how she taught me.  I loved it, because they stacked well and looked pretty good.

 

Not too shaby do you think! I had my whole linen closet looking like this.

As you can see my linen closet it pretty small so I could fit 2 stacks of towels. 

HOWEVER, I happened onto the blog linked at the top... and have now changed.

LOOK AT THIS BEAUTY!!! I have been slowly refolding all the towels and I love how they look!

My simple PRETTY linen closet!!!

The WHOLE SHABANG!! Part 2!

I hope everyone got a good night sleep and DIDN'T think TOO much about how to break down the budget.

When we left off we had $695 per 2 weeks to use and divide up! for pay check 1 and pay check 2.
I just kinda played around with what I have, along with looked through what we spent on average and added that in.  Hoping for alittle left over in the end
Remember how I said this is a living document, this is where that comes in. BIG TIME

Food	Food	200
	Dining Out	50
Other	Boys	45
	Church	220
	Clothes	20
	Dates	50
	Gifts	20
	House	20
	Personal	20
	Shady (dog)	10
	Spending	40

The spending is $20 Cash each for myself and my hubby to do ANYTHING we want with. No need to report or explain.
The boys money is split into both of their accounts as an automatic withdrawal along with the church money that is just pulled out of our account.  We "don't ever see it".
The other ones are the hard ones.

I recommend starting with the ENVELOPE system. IT IS HARD!!! trust me it is, but if you want your money to grow on tree's it takes some work.
This is where you need to break them down, put the correct amount in each and see how it goes.
BEFORE you decide to take money from one category to the other you MUST talk to your spouse.  You MUST take your envelopes with you when you are spending money! WATCH IT LIKE CRAZY!!!
Find out what you need to barrow from where and build your next budget.

I choose to use the system and breakdown what is being taken out, and it is hard, really it is.

I will attach my docs that I use.  I choose to use Google docs, because I can view them on my phone, on my computer at home, at work (during lunch), or anywhere else there is the internet.  But I will be adding them as excell Docs.

This budget gives me an extra $250.  I choose to keep that in the account, because this is just a GUESS I have no idea how the budget will go, and hopefully it is left over and that goes STRAIGHT to debt!!

Well HONESTLY this is my favorite thing.  Building my budget working with it and addressing it.  Hopefully you all agree and can learn from this!

The WHOLE SHABANG!!

 There are MANY different ways to build a budget.  I have shown already my 3 basic categories!
Bills 
Food
Other

Now we have a few steps we should take.
Something to remember: a BUDGET is a living breathing document.  It changes more then anything else out there.  It is necessary to work on it, and there is no such thing as a perfect budget, because it CHANGES!
 
1: Get rid of the Credit!!!
When working on a budget you need to take a Leap of Faith.
-Hebrews 11: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I will discuss a few things in the future about His money Her money, but NOT today!! So stay tuned.  The readers digest version I DO NOT believe in separate money.

With this leap of faith, it is time to cut up all the cards. EVERY ONE OF THEM, even if it saves you 2%.  YOU NEED THEM GONE!!!

2. Have everything in ONE account.  It is really easy to lose things when there are many accounts you need one.

3.  Now you need to decide a time frame.  There are a few options

   a. Monthly

   b: 1st and 15th

   c: weekly

   d: biweekly

   e: MIS.

This is how you will break down your budget.  For my family for all of 2012 and prior I did it monthly.  While working on our budget for 2013 we decided to mix it up.  We have changed our budget to biweekly.  My husband and I get paid every other week, so we used that as our framework.  The once a month budget wasn't working so we needed to change it.  

4. Decide what form you will use a spread sheet, a Google doc, or a plain peace of paper.

5. Now the fun part :) Well if you are me.  

Start by working with your time frame.  If you choose 1 month, put all your bills and the dates they are due.  

I do mine biweekly (since my bills are due the same day every month, but my paychecks are not on the same days)

 This is MY budget for Aug 2013

We get paid on 8/2, 8/16, and 8/30 (a 3 check month!) 

Bills

Daycare (1)

HOA (1)               Check 1

Power (1)

Mortage (15)

Gas (23)

Cell Phone (23)

Insurance (24)         Check 2

Student Loan (25) 

Internet (26) 

Netflix (28)

Debt

I have 2 debts take those and split them in half.

Now that I know what bills go where this is what I do next.

 

	Check 1
	Income
Bills	Daycare
	HOA
	Power
Debt	Car
	Credit Card
Food	Food
	Dining Out
Other	Boys
	Church
	Clothes
	Dates
	Gifts
	House
	Personal
	Shady (dog)
	Spending
	Check 2
	Income
Bills	Mortage
	Gas
	Cell Phone
	Insurance
	Student Loan
	Internet
	Netflix
Debt	Car
	Credit Card
Food	Food
	Dining Out
Other	Boys
	Church
	Clothes
	Dates
	Gifts
	House
	Personal
	Shady (dog)
	Spending

Build this!! Now we need to put money into it.  

This is REALLY the hard part!

	Check 1	Money	Amount Left
	Income	2200
Bills	Daycare	600	1600
	HOA	110	1490
	Power	100	1390
Debt	Car	133	1257
	Credit Card	125	1132
Food	Food		1132
	Dining Out		1132
Other	Boys		1132
	Church		1132
	Clothes		1132
	Dates		1132
	Gifts		1132
	House		1132
	Personal		1132
	Shady (dog)		1132
	Spending		1132
	Check 2
	Income	2200
Bills	Mortgage	1200	1000
	Gas	100	900
	Cell Phone	25	875
	Insurance	120	755
	Student Loan	130	625
	Internet	100	525
	Netflix	9	516
Debt	Car	133	383
	Credit Card	125	258
Food	Food		258
	Dining Out		258
Other	Boys		258
	Church		258
	Clothes		258
	Dates		258
	Gifts		258
	House		258
	Personal		258
	Shady (dog)		258
	Spending		258

From here you can see we have quite a few blanks, ALONG with having an extra amount. 1132+258= $1390 to still work on. And this is the challenging part.  We have all the food and others to break down now.

This is when I recommend you pull out your previous bank statements and find out an average of what you spend, or just break it down.  Take what we have and use your best guess as to where to put it.  For ME I would take the 1,390 and divide it by 2.

Giving me $695 for 2 weeks.  Then time to break down.

Time to continue to think about this.... This is a LONG Enough post for one day.  We will meet back here tomorrow to finish building this budget!