A month of success :week 4

I'm declaring this month a success! 

1st of all, I'm so proud that I've started tracking our spending, and have been working to reduce my day to day spending, that is a huge accomplishment in itself. 

2nd. I'm so proud that I've gotten other people to start thinking about saving money and working towards their financial goals. 

3rd. It is great to know where our money goes and to begin thinking about money in terms that we can begin to control.  

4th. I looked at our savings account and saw a wonderful thing.  While we deposited money to the account as we do every month with our automatic deposit, we DIDN'T take any money out of the account. That means for the month of January 2012, we spent less money than we made. So far, we have a profit for the month that will help us out somewhere down the line. That is a huge accomplishment. If we do it every month, we'll have created a substantial growth in our saving account.   

5th. We were able to track spending and make cuts along the way. For the month, we only went "over" in one category, "Gasoline/Fuel" but the amount over was.... $4.17. Not bad.  

6th.  The other category we wanted to boost was Charitable Giving.  The bar graph shows our lameness, but it doesn't show the amount we donated this weekend at our church, nor does it show a donation made to our charity of the month Braille Without Borders.  This organization is dedicated to helping people in developing countries learn Braille in order to be able to go to school and be considered helpful members of society.
To learn more about Braille Without Borders, read the amazing book "My path leads to Tibet" which tells the history of the project and about the way the blind founder, Sabriye, dealt with becoming blind.  Further she wrote “Tashis neue Welt” and the latest book is titled  “Das siebte Jahr” ("The seventh year") which tells the story of Sabriyes and Paul's seventh year in Tibet.You can also watch the movie "Blindsight" which tells the story of 6 of Sabriye's blind orphans and mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer, who attempted to climb Lhakpa Ri, a 23,000 feet high peak next to Mount Everest.


Braille without borders is an excellent organization that we are proud to support. They are working to empower people, change lives, and promote life skills for people who have been cast aside by society.  If you are interested in learning more about them or making a donation, you can check out their website http://braillewithoutborders.org/ENGLISH/index.html.  To receive tax credit for your donation (501 c 3) you actually need to write out a check for them.  Writing a person check is touching and personal way to support an organization. While writing out a check, you can also write them a letter telling them how you admire the work they do, its another way to fortify their work.

We are quite proud of our month, and would love to hear how you did, if you were able to save a little extra this month, pay down a loan a little more, or give to a cause you believe in. Please leave your success stories in the comments below! 

Enjoying some last minute spending

I've been enjoying some last minute spending before 2012 begins and my wallet is closed.  I went to Target and got whatever I thought we "needed" before the year begun. I've also had a few excessive drinks at Starbucks.

You may think, "well, that kind of not spending isn't going to save us money," but it might.
Today for example, I went down to the National Mall with my kids. I stopped at Starbucks and spent $7. Later on, I brought the kids over to the carousel, which I thought they would enjoy looking at.  No, my son just wanted to play in the dirt. He glanced over at it a few times, but wasn't that intrigued. 

 I thought about my children then, and how wonderful and easy they were to entertain. Also, how cheap they were. I was gloating over my cheapness as a mother.  I was thinking how great it was that I hadn't bought them any presents for Christmas - and the beautiful thing was, they didn't even know they were supposed to get presents!  I am, and always have been a supreme cheap-o.

Well, 30 minutes into the dirt playing, little boy looks up and asks to go on the Carousel.  I could have told him, "no, sorry, we can't go on it." or "oh, that carousel is just for looking" and that would have been the end of it.  But in a moment of spending frivolity, I looked at the ticket booth which both took Credit, and allowed children under 1 in for free, I forked over my plastic and spent another $7 for the day.

So we had our delightful 3 minute carousel ride. 

And 20 minutes later they were both playing in the dirt again.

Most young children are really easy to entertain and don't need fancy toys, snacks, or entertainment devices.  I was reading the newspaper this morning and Suri Holmes asked for $130,000 worth of presents, including a pony, diamond earrings and a fairy princess dress, all of which her parents were going to buy for her.   Does a 5 year old really need that stuff, probably not. No, definitely not.

What else could $130,000 buy? In Waslala, Nicaragua, a college student project has turned into a Social Justice project that is transforming lives. Water for Waslala  is seeking to provide clean drinking water to the entire state of Waslala.  So far, they have provided water to 3000 people in 12 rural villages.  It takes $100 to provide one man, woman, or child clean drinking water for life. Suri's Christmas list could supply clean water to 1,300 people for the rest of their lives.

So what about my $14 adventure today? Does that really make a difference in spending? Well, yeah. Since I go out almost every day with my kids, it does.  I try to limit my spending to once a week. $14 once a week is $728.  That's 7 Waslalans with access to clean drinking water, that's almost 4 months of student loan payments, that's enough for....

A cow - $500

A flock of chicks - $20
 

A pig - $120

A flock of geese - $20

 

 

 

 

 

 ...from Heifer International with $8 left over for a modest Starbucks trip for you and a friend - or two rides on the Carousel, plus $1 for a homeless dude.  That $728 is money that can transform lives and make the world a better place.  To me, that's what this year is about.  I want to spend less frivolously so that others may have more. Even when it means paying extra on student loans or building up savings, it means that we pay less interest in the long run - and are able to have more money later to give away, or if we have savings - we build a safety net which we can rely on instead of needing to go into debt.  

A trio of rabbits - $60