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| Photo credit alphamom.com |
Living within my means, this is my goal for the new year. I haven't even thought of a spiritual or fitness goal, because this one has been all consuming for me. I feel like no matter how much we make, or no matter how well off we are, living frugally and within our means is an eternal principle, that I have always struggled with. I've struggled with consistently accounting for every dollar spent. I've struggled with not spending money we don't have. I've felt very prompted to get on top of our budget, and so far for the month of January I have been 100% perfect at accounting every single penny we have spent. It's discouraging at first to realize how tight things really are, and that I have not been living as tightly as our finances allow for, but it is completely awesome to know exactly where my money is going and has gone.
I have a testimony of it. Life feels so much more simple when your not spending money you don't have.
So, I felt like I should share some tips on enlightened Mama's, and I really want to hear your budgeting secrets too. How do you save money? How do you budget? I really want to be enlightened by you Mamas.
The very first thing I did on January 1st was set up a budget. I found THIS great tutorial online for setting up a simple, and very easy budget. It took Jaron and I about an hour to get it all set up, but it was worth it.
Once I realized that our costs are more than our income, I realized something has got to change. So the last three weeks I have spent time calling and negotiating bills. Because of a phone call to our cel phone provider, our internet provider, and our car and home insurance provider I was able to save us $50.80 a month. That's $609 per year! That's like Christmas right!? I was so excited that I had to share. Here is a great link I found on how to negotiate your car insurance rate. Do it! Seriously! It could save you money. I know I sound like a used car salesman, but honestly, the fact that I'm using my precious nap time to write this, only can me that I love you ladies, and want to pass on good info that I've found on living on a dime.
Even though things are so tight, it feels good to be getting on top of our finances, and really as odd as it sounds, even though I have literally $2.50 left in my bank account that has to last me two more days until pay day, I feel so grateful for all that I have!
Now it's your turn to share. Lets start a thread going here. Let's learn from each other.
How do you save money? Do you have college accounts already set up for your kids? I want to know what you like best? How do you earn money? What are great investments you've made? Let's share our knowledge.
For further references to help with financial spending check out Dave Ramsey's book on Smart Money Smart Kids. It has great ideas in there for adults and kids.
Love you ladies.
Jess, I love this so much! I am hoping to find sometime this week to sit down and write up all of the things I do to save money. It has become a totally hobby for me. Ha ha I call Judy and Jeff the dealios because they are so good at finding the cheapest way to do things and last week Judy told me that I may be the new crowned Queen Dealio. Ha ha it made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteGuess where I do most of my grocery shopping? Walmart. They have a savings catcher program and they give me money back for all of the competitors sale prices in the area. I have earned about $50.00 back in six months and it comes as a gift card to walmart. Pretty cool huh!
I am signed up for freebies2deals emails and quickly browse through them for any amazing deals.
I pretty much buy clothes, shoes, home decor only on deep discount sales. I did just buy overalls for my girls at walmart that weren't on sale but at 14.97 I was sure I wouldn't find them cheaper! Ha.
Buy cars with cash(we can afford a new car but our cars are still running great so we aren't buying a new one until we have to. We hit 200,000 on the land cruiser last week.) A new car is a want not a need. I really want a suburban but until we need it we won't buy it.
Save save save- When Whitney was looking for work we had the security of our savings. It lasted a long long time. And then it ran out, but we were so grateful to have that security that supplemented our income for years.
Use a southwest credit card for all your spending and pay it off every month. And then use the miles to fly your family home or on a vacation for free every year. It is the best, easiest perk ever!! Call me if you have questions.
Last but not least spend less than you make. It brings such peace!
Pay your tithing.(I know you do but I have to put it down because we have been so blessed as a direct result of paying our tithing.
Ok, so I got most of my ideas down. Love this topic. Love you! You can share this in the blog if you want to.
Jane- thanks for your comment! I love that name. The Queen Dealio! Awesome. I used to look at freebies2deals and just got busy with life. The problem for me is that it takes so much time to coupon shop and things, but it is worth it. I think it will be easier when my kids are mostly in school, but for now, I'm going to just do it at night.
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