31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 5: Impulse Purchases

I am an impulse buyer.  From everything from a snack at the gas station when I only wanted to put gas in my car, to a cookie at the check-out line of the cafeteria, to a brand new couch that we can't afford, I impulse buy.  I am the reason stores have shelves by the check-out line.  Miniature bottle of hand sanitizer?  Well, aren't you just the cutest thing!  Jump on the conveyor belt!  Lighter?  What if my car breaks down and I have to light all the junk mail on the floor boards on fire?  C'mon in!  A bottle of soda for $3.00 when I could get a fountain soda 20 feet away for 1/3 the cost?  You betcha. 

To combat this, I just haven't gone shopping in over a month.  Pen does the grocery shopping, and if it's something I really need (like Avenger decorations for a Birthday party), I order online.  Sure, I have to pay $6 in shipping, but I would pay that in gas just getting there, plus I would probably spend more money at the store!

It is physically impossible for me to get out of Target without spending $200.  I can't leave Sam's Club without a year's supply of coffee creamer and tampons.  I have no self control.  My solution of not shopping altogether might sound extreme, but extreme circumstances are a cause for extreme measures. 

Three years ago I purchased a crappy couch from Ashley Furniture.  We paid $600 for a microfiber couch with a pull-out bed.  I hate that couch.  It is uncomfortable (don't tell that to the people who might be buying it), and it's only use right now is to have a place to put the folded clean clothes.  We used a portion of our tax return that year to buy it. 

Fast forward three years, and I have just graduated with my Bachelor's degree.  I received a little money from friends and family for my accomplishment, and I decide I'm going to buy a new chair, because the recliner in our living room broke.  I mean, the back came completely off.  It was a hot mess.  I begin sitting on chairs at the furniture store, then I meet J.R.  J.R. not only sells me a chair for more money than I came into the store with, but also a couch.  And not just a couch, a couch with custom fabric, which increased the price by $200. 

I cannot be trusted.  I cannot be trusted to walk into a store and behave like a mature woman, so I'm just not going to walk into any stores.  I have also unsubscribed from all the stores that send me emails so as to not be tempted by a sale that I just can't refuse.  Kohls, Target, Fashion Bug, CJ Banks . . . Gah.  I miss shopping.

I'm treating myself as if I'm an addict.  Alcoholics should not go into liquor stores.  I will not go into any stores, because I just can't be trusted.  If I do decide I have to have something, I will write it down on a piece of paper on my fridge.  If I still want it in three weeks, I will start saving for it.  Once I save for it, I will spend that money on something else that we need more, such as an extra payment on our medical bill, or putting it away for one of the Piglet's Christmas presents.  I'll begin saving again.  If it's something I still want by the time I've saved for it again, I will purchase it, with the consent of my husband.  This will be my new process of purchasing something not in our budget that will only benefit me.  I have been selfish with our finances for far too long.  I have put my children's well being, future, and home at risk with my selfish wants.  When I said that stopped at the beginning of September, I meant it.   Damn it.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 4: Meal Planning

I've been planning my meals for about three years now.  As a template, I just use the "Understated" calendar in Microsoft Publisher and write in the dinners we're going to eat throughout the month, including lunch on the weekends.  I don't meal plan based on what's on sale that week because I'm lazy.  Instead, as a general rule, we just eat cheap! 

The secret to meal planning is to eat the meals you plan. I know, I know. REVOLUTIONARY!

For this month, we're trying to spend no more than $100 to feed our family of 4 every week.  Keeping that in mind, I decided to pick cheaper meals this month to make sure we stick with that budget.  My goal is to have money left over at the end of the month so we can use some of that budgeted money to fill up our deep freeze when select items are on sale. 

To make it easier on me, we pretty much have the same thing for dinner every week.  We eat tacos every Tuesday and homemade pizza every Friday.  On Mondays we generally have spaghetti, and Thursdays we generally have breakfast for dinner, but that can vary depending on what we have meat wise in the house.  My children appreciate the routine, and so do I! 

I also recommend throwing in one or two cheap meals that essentially cost nothing to eat every week.  I'm lucky that my husband will pretty much eat anything I put in front of him (except green beans).  My mother is not that lucky!  My step-father insists on meat, potatoes, and vegetables pretty much every night.  I think it might be a generational thing, or maybe it's because Pen was in charge at a young age for cooking dinner for his family, so he's just happy to have someone else cook for a change! 

Our weekly cheap meals are grilled cheese and soup, and breakfast.  The four of us can eat for less than a dollar a piece on these things, sometimes cheaper! 

Figure out what works for your family.  For us, having simpler meals throughout the week work for our schedules. 

From our monthly meal plan, Pen does the grocery shopping on Wednesday nights for the next week.  That's my best tip of reducing the amount of money you spend on groceries - send your husband, because Pen's main goal is to get out of Walmart as soon as humanly possible, thus reducing our amount of needless spending dramatically!

We've stuck with our meal plan all of September and the entire four days of October, and we're even going to be under budget for this week's groceries.  Pen spent $35 at Walmart last night, and we only need a little more meat from the other store tonight.

On a side note: our dishwasher has been broke since the first weekend in September, we have a couch on layaway that we have to pick up (and pay off), and our dryer broke last night.  Yep.  This is my life.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 3: Audits

Welcome to Day 3!  If I've learned anything during the previous 33 days, it is that it's not enough to keep track of your finances (although that does help . . . a lot).  To truly understand and know where your money is going, you have to audit your expenses and income!  It's a happy accident that I decided to do this 31 Days Challenge after I had already been keeping track of our expenses for a full month. 

Today, I am auditing our spending for the month of September!  I'll wait until the roar of the crowd dies down before I continue . . .

. . . Moving on.

If you haven't already, pretty please take a look at our spending for the month of September here.  I've messed around a bit with the Excel spreadsheet I was using so that all the dates were in order, and highlighted it from Sunday to Saturday in different colors.  Like this:

Debit	-5.05	Groceries - DNR	9/7/2012	276.96
Debit	-3.25	Groceries - IGA	9/7/2012	273.71
1084	-5.00	Check cashed at hospital	9/7/2012	268.71
Debit	-20.00	Fuel - Me	9/9/2012	248.71
Debit	-5.00	Groceries - Family Express (milk)	9/9/2012	243.71
1085	-182.77	Utilities	9/10/2012	60.94

That way I can see where one week ends and the other begins.  As Pen gets paid every week and I only get paid every two weeks, this will be aid us in seeing the weeks where we really do need to cut down on the spending.  Examples of ways we could cut down could be Pen only putting $30 into his gas tank that week instead of $50, or we could drink vodka eat pancakes for dinner three nights a week.  No, just kidding.  We haven't done that since college.  On both accounts. 

I thought that the first and second week were rough for us with our car payment, mortgage, and insurance all due at the beginning of the month, but I wanted to know for sure.

The first week of September, we spent $4325.84, and brought in $4,108.71.  Hellooooooo deficit!  (I would like to add that spending $4325.84 in one week is not a "normal" for us.  I received a check from my employer for a leftover tuition bill for $3,000).  We didn't overdraw at all in September, and the money that was leftover from the previous month because we didn't pay our bills held us through for this week.  -217.13

The second week of September, we spent $658.33, and brought in $674.37 ($127.20 was refunds from items I purchased on Amazon that I never used).  Well . . . it's not a deficit, but it sure isn't looking too good.   +16.04

The third week of September, we spent $807.25, and brought in $1139.09.  Looking better.  +331.84

And finally, the last week of September we spent $734.88, and brought in $438.33.  Oh, hey there deficit.  Welcome back to the party!  -296.55

Again, we didn't overdraw at all during the month of September, and that's why it's important to have money in your checking account left over from the previous month!

For the entire month we

Spent: $6526.30
Made: $6360.50

That means we spent $165.80 more in the month of September than we made!  See how important it is to audit your spending and income?  I had no idea we spent more than we made in September until I was actually writing this post!  I am currently sitting here in a state of shock . . .

I'm not sure I have the koalifications to write a blog about making good financial decisions! (HA!)

Now that all our bills are caught up, hopefully our October finances will reflect a positive number versus a negative number.  If not, we'll have to seriously consider reducing some of our expenses (cable, Netflix, Internet, etc.).  How else will you know unless you AUDIT?

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 2: Cheesy Potatoes

One of my secrets to feeding my family on a budget it to make more for dinner than what we actually need.  I know this may sound counter productive, but if you actually eat the leftovers versus just putting them into tupperware containers to throw away in a few months week, you can save a lot of money!

We do a big dinner on Sunday nights.  This serves two purposes for our family.  It allows us to spend quality time together, yelling at the children to stop spitting, telling Piglet 1 to stop blowing bubbles in his milk, begging Piglet 2 to eat something for the love of god, and getting up and down multiple times so that my dinner is cold by the time I actually get to eat.  Mmmmm . . . cold mashed potatoes.  Is there anything better?  The second purpose is that it gives Pen and I something to eat for the rest of the week! 

One of our favorite meals is ham and cheesy potatoes.  Who doesn't love that?  My younger brother takes pigs to the 4-H fair, and my parents always butcher one or two of the pigs.  A year ago we bought a portion of the pig, but that's all gone now . . . because pork is delicious.  However, the processing place gave them several smoked hams, which they do not like.  Jackpot!  Hams for everyone!  Or just us.  Seriously, we have six hams in our deep freeze.  And these suckers are big.  One ham will feed us dinner for two nights and yummy ham sandwiches for lunch most of the rest of the week.

I always make a big side dish of cheesy potatoes to go along with our ham because it's better the next day, and it's a cheaper than chips with the ham sandwiches!  It takes a little bit of time to put it together, but you could always do this the night before, too.

Cheesy Potatoes:

Potatoes
2 Cups Sour Cream
2 Cans Cream of Chicken
1 Cup Velveeta Cheese
2 Tablespoons Butter
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder

Slice 7-20452405827450 potatoes (this number is at your discretion.  Last night we used 11 potatoes of varying sizes).  Put half the potato slices into a bowl.  Add one can of cream of chicken soup, a cup of sour cream, a handful of shredded cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic seasoning.  Stir until all potatoes are covered in the deliciousness.  Pour into a greased casserole pan.  Add a tablespoon of cut up butter and a half cup of diced Velveeta cheese.  Repeat the entire process with the other half of the potatoes, add it on top of your first delicious layer, then top with more shredded cheese on top.  Cover with foil and bake at 375 for about an hour and a half, or until a knife inserted into the potatoes goes through without resistance (or a little resistance, depending on how you like your potatoes).  I also like this a little brown around the corners, so I take off the foil for the last 10 minutes are so, but watch carefully if you do this because it can burn rather easily.

This stuff will rock the night you make it, but will be even better the next night.  Cheese and potatoes and sour cream.  It's okay to have this for breakfast, right?

This is a post in the 31 Days to Financial Freedom challenge. Check back here every day to see the newest post. You can expect craft projects, money saving tips, recipes, and much more during the 31 days of October.