It's no secret to anyone that really knows me, but I am a person that knows what I want and when I want it, it's VERY hard for me to be patient and wait for it. This can be good in many ways, but when it came to spending money, it was not always the greatest for our monthly budget.
Going along with this, Greg and I have very different spending habits - which I have to admit, has always been the #1 thing we have argued about.
Greg = Frugal
Me = Spender
We have always had kind of a "loose" plan about what was coming in and what was going out, but
After running through the numbers of what I personally had spent over a given month, I was a little shocked (and embarrassed) at how quickly all those candles, make up, beauty services (hair cut, color, manicures, eyebrows), clothes, iTunes purchases, books and household items I "needed" added up. Combine that with how freely we spend money at the grocery store, (and, ahem, Total Wine and More....) it felt like a lot of money was being thrown away without considering what else we could have been doing with it.
Earlier this year, Callie turned me on to The Dave Ramsey Show Podcast - and I've gotten quite obsessed. I've read 3 of his books already AND I listen to his podcast daily. His principles of money (getting out of debt, saving, paying cash for everything, investing) have kind of taken over my life - in a good way!
If you are a person that struggles with budgeting, over-spending, or just not having clear enough goals to inspire you - I highly recommend you download this Podcast to find a little motivation:
Which brings me to budgeting.
For us, this was always kind of tricky. Using the spreadsheet we had put together wasn't tracking the actual transactions as well as I would like (or in real time). There are also bills and expenses that do not occur every month, so that always kind of threw me off. Additionally, Greg being in sales means he has varying income, which made it hard to plan what we were taking in each month. I have used Mint a lot in the past, but the budgets/targets and the way the transactions rolled in never lined up the way I wanted them to.
SO, when EveryDollar was released (almost a week after I started listening to the Dave Ramsey podcast) I jumped on board and Greg and I have used it every month (and every day) since:
The idea of this is that you sit down each month, before the month begins, plug in your expected income, and then assign every single dollar a name. You allocate specific amounts for groceries, utilities, gas, retirement, savings, going out to eat, etc etc etc. If you have something specific coming up (for example, travel to an out of town wedding, a birthday gift to buy, a specific item you want to purchase, etc), you work it into that month's budget. I tend to round up in my budgets - for example, if we tend to spend about $250 in gas each month (damn you Kent commute), I will round up to $275. Then anything
left over can be allocated towards a specific goal you might have. That
might be paying off debt, or saving for a vacation, etc. Anything we don't spend in each category at the end of the month goes towards savings or something specific we are working towards.
We now (happily) have specific monthly savings goals for:
- Vacations (saving ahead for next year's vacation so it will be paid for before we go, which is something we plan to continue to do - vacations to look forward to make hard days at work so much more manageable).
- Car/Home Repairs (for the inevitable oil changes, maintenance, repairs that come up throughout the year, vs being "surprised" and pissed off each time something occurs).
- Christmas (saving monthly for December vs. feeling broke every January).
- Emergency Savings
I cannot even explain how tremendously helpful this has been for us. I am sure so many people are using this system, but if you are struggling and looking for something to help you, try this. It's free!
Okay, moving on to slightly less nerdy topics:
THIS SOAP.
I learned about this soap a couple weeks ago from a mother of a teenage boy. She was saying how it gets all of the grass and dirt stains out of her son's white baseball pants, and how it also can remove grease stains. She SWORE by it. It's about $1.50 at the grocery store in the laundry detergent aisle. I immediately went and bought some and removed about 95% of the stains that were all over a white hoodie of Ben's that I had assumed was ruined. GO GET THIS SOAP.
My friend Jamie has been using this app for a few years now. I finally got around to doing it this year. It's so fun to look back on (Ben loves it) and I hope I can continue to do it forever :)
Having just joined the gym, my workout clothes are in need of a major update. I have seen this company's commercials (Kate Hudson is the co-founder) the other day while scrolling through Facebook saw a link to join and get your first outfit for 50% off (which ends up coming to $25-$30 for a FULL outfit and free shipping). Budget friendly ;)
I didn't realize that it was a monthly membership thing - where each month they will send you an outfit for $49 - but it's similar to Blue Apron in that you can cancel or just skip a month anytime you want.
I
definitely took advantage of the first outfit (arrives this weekend -
stay tuned) and will see if I like it enough to continue. (No, I will
not be buying myself a new $50 outfit every month, but maybe
occasionally if something is cute enough).
Just For Men Beard & Moustache (for eyebrows):
My hairdresser turned me on to this tip a couple weeks ago. I was in getting my hair and eyebrows done. I was contemplating getting my eyebrows tinted. It costs a little more, but honestly doesn't last very long - and once the color has worn off I'm back to filling in my brows with a pencil. She stopped me and told me to instead, buy a kit of Just for Men for $7 (vs. my $18 eyebrow pencil) and it will last me YEARS.
Mind = blown - and I like the outcome much better than any of my previous alternatives.
Just For Men Beard & Moustache (for eyebrows):
My hairdresser turned me on to this tip a couple weeks ago. I was in getting my hair and eyebrows done. I was contemplating getting my eyebrows tinted. It costs a little more, but honestly doesn't last very long - and once the color has worn off I'm back to filling in my brows with a pencil. She stopped me and told me to instead, buy a kit of Just for Men for $7 (vs. my $18 eyebrow pencil) and it will last me YEARS.
Mind = blown - and I like the outcome much better than any of my previous alternatives.
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