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    • How To Budget When You’re a Spender

How To Budget When You’re a Spender

September 10, 2017

I can sit here and talk a great game about budgeting and the importance of it and how our family really transformed to rock our budget {which we did}, but the truth is, I am totally a spender not a saver!

It’s almost comical how I cannot save money to save my life. When we bought our house last year, I couldn’t even check the bank account because if I saw all of that money sitting there, a million things would have come to mind on how I can spend it before we needed to write that awful savings-draining check!

So, probably not unlike a lot of you, I have to really reign myself in. Luckily, I am married to a non-spender. I can’t say saver because he’s not that at all, but he literally just doesn’t spend money. Like ever. On anything – except gas for his car. So it’s super frustrating to try to explain that I absolutely needed to spend all that money in Target on new pillows for the couch when I was literally just complaining that we needed to really buckle down for some big ticket things coming up.

This was a really big issue when I was relying solely on unsteady income. We went a year on nothing from me but freelance writing. It paid the bills and we survived, but we never knew how much to expect or when, so budgeting was incredibly hard. Add to this my husband only gets paid once a month and any extra spending could have really thrown everything off. Once I decided to go back to a regular job and our income was once again predictable, the stress was lessened and we could really do a better job budgeting.

Therefore, I needed to figure out a way to make a budget work for me with my occasional spontaneous spending.

The first thing I did was to look at when and why I spent extra money that we didn’t plan for. For me, I shop when I’m stressed. Kind of like stress eating, which I also do. The correct step would be to recognize when I’m starting to feel that way and stop myself, but the realistic way I’m dealing with it is to pad my budget so we have room for those small shopping sprees.

One thing to note is that I buy a few items, not hundreds or thousands of dollars-worth of items on these shopping occasions. This is not a manic phase by any means, usually just a little pick me up like a new book, a new pair of shoes, or a new journal.

Now how did I leave room in an already tight budget for little pick-me-ups? Easy. I budget down.

We already use a zero-dollar budgeting system so that we tell every dollar where to go. In doing this, there isn’t usually extra money. But what I do is round down to the lowest whole number, leaving myself a little bit of wiggle room each month. Meaning, if we got a check for $1574, I would budget for $1500. That $74 doesn’t really have a place to go, so it’s ok if I buy that extra book. Or, let’s not lie, something for the girls, because that’s where most of my money goes anyway!

I’m sure financial gurus out there are shuddering at this post, but fear not, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m not always crazy-stressed out, and I don’t always use this money, so that means that come the next pay day, if there is money left, it goes toward debt or toward something we are saving up for instead of just useless crap.

Another benefit to this is that we have instituted a rule that if something new comes in, something old goes out. This is awesome because it is helping us {slowly} declutter and is making us money by selling the things we don’t use. More about that to come!

Lastly, the best thing this brings is it alleviates the money arguments. Kevin never gets mad that I bought something because he knows that I have left room in the budget for it. And I never, ever make big purchase decisions without him and our 3-month budget in hand!

What are your tricks to staying on budget when you just want to spend!?

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Filed Under: Saving MoneyTagged: budget, budgeting, saving money, spending money, trifty

We Tried Blue Apron — My Honest Review

August 8, 2017

I’ve been curious about trying a meal delivery service for quite some time, but I could never justify spending the money when I didn’t know what I was getting. Lucky for me, my cousin Allison sent me a free box from Blue Apron and I was on my way to three free meals.

The process was easy enough — register and choose your meals. The website does make you enter a credit card and automatically enrolls you in auto-ship, so if you’re anything like me, set a calendar alert to remind you to cancel after your free box ships. Blue Apron also gives you the option to put a “hold” on your shipping (and billing), which is a great way to not have to immediately cancel and have time to try the service before making your decision.

My box arrived on Thursday and I was concerned that it sat on my front step for too long. Luckily it was packed full of ice packs that hadn’t even begun to melt, so my food was as cold as it was supposed to be. I opened the box and set out to put all of the ingredients away. The small packaging for each individual meal was really cute and labeled well so you couldn’t mix up what anything was. What I wasn’t impressed with was that there were two ingredients – garlic and zucchini – that were rotten. Because I cook a lot and we eat a lot of fresh food, I had a few zucchini and garlic cloves lying around. If that wasn’t the case, I would have been really annoyed that I now needed to go and buy these items.

Out of the three meals, the first one we tried was the Sweet and Spicy Beef. The recipe was super easy to follow and it really walks you through each step. A huge plus to this, and where I usually fail during cooking, is that it helps you manage your time so that your entire dinner is done at the same time.

Although I was very skeptical about the serving sizes being way too small, I was pleasantly surprised that they ended up being just right. And the meal itself was really good. However, there will be no left overs or second helpings, which was kind of a bummer since we like to take them to work for lunch the next day.

So my overall reaction – it was good, but we won’t continue with the service. This is a really awesome thing for people who don’t cook or are just learning how to cook. It is almost idiot-proof to get the desired results and the food is great. I really enjoy cooking so I spend a lot of time looking at recipes and trying new things. These meals are not a time-saver, and in fact took longer to make than most of the homemade meals I cook after work. Also, although I will say again how good it was, it was way over budget. For $60 you get three meals for two people, which breaks down to $20 per meal. There was no way this meal would cost me that much to make if I were buying the ingredients myself, and we would also get more servings.

I’m not totally against every trying another meal delivery service, I just don’t think this one was the right fit for our family, but hey at least we got a few great meals with recipes that I will (most likely) make again!

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Filed Under: UncategorizedTagged: blue apron, budget, cooking, delivery, dinner, meals

Lily’s $100 Christmas!

December 16, 2014

On my to-do list today was to wrap presents.  Part of my weekend to-do list is to clean out the room where all of the presents are, so I wanted to get them wrapped and out of the way before Lily accidentally peeks at them.

This year was supposed to be a really small Christmas.  We are going to Disney World a few weeks after the holiday and were going to take Lily on the Pirate and Pals Firework Voyage, which was going to be her big gift, running us about $160.  Well, after looking into it further and talking with a wonderful Cast Member at Disney, we decided that Lily is a little too young to really enjoy all that it has to offer – especially for that price!  So, although I thought in October I was done shopping, I decided to spend a little more!  Realistically, she needs none of it!

I love to spoil that kid!  She plays with all of her toys and loves them.  There are certain things she is very into – she is very much a girly-girl, so I carefully selected every toy I purchased!  Something I don’t love is how much toys can cost.  Those suckers add up so quickly!  Lucky for Lily, I never ever buy anything full price, so I was able to get some phenomenal deals.  I tell you, shopping early is the key!

Without further adieu, here is Lily’s Christmas Gift List… totaling $104.93!  If I would have had to pay for it all, it would be over $300 and that was at sale prices!

Doc McStuffins Table and Chairs – $20

Little People Aladdin Flying Carpet – Free

Doc McStuffins V-Tech Clipboard – Free

Doc McStuffins Microphone – Free

Vegetable velcro cutting set and boards – Free

Rapunzel high heels – Free

Melissa and Doug Cookie Sheet Set – Free

Rapunzel doll – Free

Sleeping Beauty DVD – $23.99

Goofy Stuffed Animal – Free

Belle and Beast Little People Set – $4.99

2 pair of Disney Pajamas – $4.99 each

Doc McStuffins Operation Game – $19.99

Gone Fishing Game – $4.99

Sophia Tea Party Game – $4.99

Hook Playset – Free

Ariel Pajamas – Free

Cinderella Shirt – Free

Little Critters Book – $6.00

Disney Jr. Book – $6.00

Stitch Ornament – Free

Sophia the First Ornament – Free

Total – $104.93

 

As you can see, this kid is not being neglected, is still getting her favorite characters and toys, and I didn’t have to break the bank!

So how did I get all of those free things?  Well first let me tell you that only two things on this whole list did I pay full price for:  The Doc McStuffins Operation game and Sleeping Beauty on DVD.  I will also tell you this, I *thought* the operation game was only $8.88 on black Friday, but apparently the Doc version was not included.  The signage was terrible and I tried to get Wal-Mart to honor the fact that the game was in the $8.88 section, but they would not.  I almost did not buy it, but knew it would be a big hit for Lily so I went ahead and purchased it.  I will also tell you that I only shop at Wal-Mart once a year for their Thanksgiving sale, but after this year, I don’t think I will be back.  I didn’t feel their sales were anything spectacular!  The Sleeping Beauty DVD came from our Disney Move Club membership and truthfully we only got it because I forgot to decline it.  I knew Lily would love it, so I kept it for her!  Everything else, including the free items, I got on sale!

The Doc McStuffins Clipboard is my favorite deal because I “worked” for it!  I used my swagbacks rewards to accumulate Amazon gift cards and ordered it there.  The Goofy doll and Hook playset were BOGO at the Disney Store and everything else free was because I used gift cards we got for Lily’s Birthday that I saved!

To top it all off, I am getting $7.50 back from E Bates for ordering everything – so basically for all of the free things I got, I am making $7.50!  Now that’s my idea of shopping!

Stay tuned for how to make money and save money on your every-day life and especially at Christmas!  If you aren’t doing these things, you are doing it wrong!!!

Christmas-Gifts

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Filed Under: baby, Being Mommy, couponing, Saving Money, shopping, UncategorizedTagged: budget, Christmas, presents, saving money, shopping

Monro is our Hero today!

November 4, 2014

For those of you that remember A Tale of Nine Tires, the last time we purchased tires was in the winter of 2012.  In some states, tires may last a long time, but with rough PA winters, tons of rain, and very little highway driving, two years is a good amount of time for tires.  Our tires were… well, bald!

So obviously we failed inspection due to bald tires.  I long to move back to Florida where there are no inspections and you can’t get fined for trying to make it another month when money is not so tight to get new tires.  But anyway, we were left trying to get the best price possible.  I had our budget completely worked around our upcoming Disney trip, that I’m not really sure we can afford but are doing anyway!

Point of the story — we called Monro Muffler, who did our tires in 2012 because they had a 40,000 mile warranty.  We only put 19,000 miles on the car since then, so we expected at least half off new tires.  We NEEDED half off new tires, as we didn’t budget for brakes or tires this month!  The little punk manager, who was there for like a day, told me the best he could do was $20 off per tire on $85 tires.  Umm… no, not having it!  My husband was the one who handled the initial contact, and I love him to death, but he doesn’t have a fighting bone in his body!  I am the negotiator, the one who gets things done around here.

I had him call back (I was sick and didn’t have the fight, but I could guide him) and *surprise* there was a new manager already!  He said he definitely thought he could give us half off, but we would need to make an appointment and bring down the car.  No problemo!  I told him that we would see what they had to say, but if they wouldn’t honor the 1/2 off for tire tread warranty, I’m not going to get new tires with another warranty they won’t honor.  I would rather pay someone else who would.

We took the car down the Monro and he said he would call us before he did anything with a final price.  About 40 minutes later, he called to tell us our total would be $244 for all 4 tires and road hazard warranty.  After Kevin popped a tire a week after we bought it last time, we will ALWAYS get road hazard!!!!  Sold. Put them on, we’ll be down in an hour to get the car.

So we venture back to Monro to get the car and the manager said, I want you to know I really took care of you.  Those tires were pretty bad.  He put us in a better tire, with road hazard for… wait for it… $75 total!  $75 out the freaking door!

I almost died.  I wanted to cry and hug this man!  We never seem to catch a brake on car things like this and this was such a wonderful surprise!

Except for the punk who is no longer there, Monro has always been a wonderful place to deal with regarding our cars.  I started going there in 2007 and, except for the few times we’ve had to go to the dealership, we have always had a wonderful experience with them!  I know every location is different, but especially for my friends in our area, I highly recommend taking your cars there for service.  Nice, easy to deal with, willing to work with your budget and honest.

Monro Muffler Brake, Inc.

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Filed Under: Saving Money, shoppingTagged: budget, car, car care, car repair, monro, tires

Our Start to Financial Freedom

August 22, 2014

The summer is coming to an end and here in the Taylor household, we are rejoicing.  Don’t get me wrong, we all LOVE summer, but after taking a new job that has a two month pay delay, summer meant some creative finances and some serious struggles I thought we would never overcome (but we totally did!)

This new season ahead is officially going to be called The Taylor Family Financial overhaul!  I spent the summer doing more accounting than I ever did while working in a business office!  I have analyzed and spread-sheeted our lives down to a single penny.  And what I realized is, we just can’t live like this anymore!

Get-out-of-debt-now-and-earn-your-financial-freedon

We started our lives together in debt, taking out a personal loan to move to Florida, and I am determined to not live our lives paycheck to paycheck anymore just to keep up with everyone around us.  What is so difficult is that most of our monthly expenses we can do nothing about.  We have two high car payments that are not going to be paid off this year.  I am HOPING we can pay one off early next year, but that may be a big stretch depending on how the year plays out.  This is a big challenge and change for our family, so we are definitely going to need some encouragement!

One thing that is for sure is that we are going to be living on a shoestring budget, on purpose, and throwing everything extra to debt!  One of the hardest things for me is giving up vacations, as I truly believe you learn more and get more out of experiences rather than material items!  I am going to TRY really hard to complete as many Swagbucks surveys as I can, shop through Ebates when I need to order something online and try every other way possible to have a little extra so that we can get to Disney this year!  We have been so lucky to have so many free, or almost free, trips in the past two years, we have been too spoiled to give it up!

I hope you join us on our journey, and as this blog takes a little shift.  I am so passionate about this right now for everyone!  Hop on board!

And if you have any tips and tricks to not make this transition so awful, I’d love to hear them!!!

 

 

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Filed Under: Saving MoneyTagged: accounting, budget, debt, financial freedom, paying off debt, saving money

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