Triumph of cheapness - Weekly report - Feb

It has seriously been a busy month for our family. So busy that I haven't had time to really get out there and spend OR track my budget. The good thing, is that we are really under budget in some areas, and doing great overall. 

If you notice on our money manager graph, our Utility column is bright red! We have a quarterly utility payment that is pretty substantial (its like two grocery trips!), and it was due this month.  Because we have our money manager, we remembered it, and remembered to cut back in other categories of spending in order to make up for that cost.  

One area where we'd like to cut back is in our grocery bills. We were kind of shocked last month to see how much we really spend on food. We eat half organically, somewhat locally, all very high quality nutrition.  We eat very good quality food, and I'm not interested in sacrificing quality of food in order to save money. We also have special dietary concerns (gluten free), and have to be brand specific for health and safety reasons. 

So if we want to spend less, we will just have to eat less.  This is a noble quest, as this family is a bunch of chubby food- addicts (but we are very lovable!).  Seeing our combined grocery and restaurant tally from last month, was a big wake-up call.  We have started being cheaper and eating less, and the results are seen in this month's spending in those areas.   I also have to add that we had some sort of stomach virus run through the family, and that probably helped stretch the food in the fridge a little longer than normal.  (no, it definitively did).  Next month will probably be more telling.  The thing that varies with groceries is sometimes you have stock-up months, where you get TP, paper towels, or a big order of meat from the Amish.  So, months will vary, but as long as we stay under-budget every month, we are going to be ok.  

I hope everyone is working towards their goals. We are feeling more confident in our abilities to save and not spend. The triumph of cheapness is permeating all we do - and that is a huge accomplishment! 

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! 

Week 2: doing better!

This week, I'm going to consult the Money Manager in my USAA bank account. I've set a goal limit for each line item, and it tracks my spending from my credit card, debit card, and Target card. It doesn't track my husband's spending, so that's the only thing really missing. Our spending is tracked for the entire month of January, so this chart shows the past 14 days.  The bars are categorized by percentage of budgeted spending, not by amount.Green means good, orange means "getting closer" and red means "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh"

  

When I first viewed this list I thought, "we're doing great!" but then I thought, "we bought gas, why isn't it here" and we had some other purchases not reflected.  I went back to review our checking account and how things were categorized, I saw some things were left out. So, I had to go into the checking area and categorize some items.  This is what it looked like at the end.

Our mortgage was paid.  We've done some charitable giving.  One of our goals was to meet numbers for Charitable giving, we are at about 1/4 of the bar, and half way through the month.... hmmm... we'll have to work on that item. We've paid one phone related bill - our internet. The rest of that line item goes to the cell phone.  The restaurants/dining line item reflects our spending over the birthday and anniversary weekend. And the ones down there are gas and groceries we've bought so far. At the very bottom is a line called "non-budgeted spending" and that's a catch-all for "other" which I would also like to keep really really low over time. 

  

This week I've done very well in not spending anything outside of groceries and gas (allowable). I've saved some items for reusing.  I've gone through our home to make it neater, more useable.  I have passed on some baby clothes to help another family save money! I announce this week to be a complete success! I can't wait to see how the rest of the month goes.  

Week 1: blowing it already.

So this week was a bust for saving, not spending. It wasn't a great way to start the new year, but I know I can start over tomorrow for the following week. We spent two extra days on vacation, meaning two more days of rental cars, two more days of dinners out, snacks for the plane, yesterday was our daughter's birthday so we went out to eat, and today was my husband and I's 6th anniversary of marriage, also a cause for an expensive celebration.

However, when I look at my "payments" outside of allowable spending for the year 1. groceries 2. sanctioned celebrations (birthdays and anniversaries). I didn't do too bad. I went out for lunch one day, which was a huge stress reliever and welcome break. I spent $12. It was awesome to go out by myself. I didn't NEED to, but I did. I also spent $10 on disposable diapers because we were traveling and we were out of diapers. At home today, I switched back to cloth diapering, which I hope will help us save money in the long run.  The pack of $10 diapers is almost gone, and I'd like to ration them a little bit. 

So overall this week, I didn't meet my goals, but I only spent $12 of money that could have been saved instead. 

I'm watching my credit card bill, and will try to analyze it at the end of each week for usage. This is where I spend most of my money every month, using the great plastic dragon. I am hoping I can cut my CC bill in half, quickly, and then we can save that money that I'm not spending.  It is tricky to make the CC bill my indicator for spending. In the past I've done things like, "I'd like to drink less caffeine, so I'm not going to have any coffee this week." Instead I'll drink a ton of soda. Then a few months later, I'll say, "I'm drinking too much caffeine, I'm not going to have any soda." And then I'm back to drinking coffee.  I seriously use my CC for almost every purchase, and I solemnly promise NOT to use cash or my debit card instead.  The CC will be a good indicator as much as I can possibly allow it. 



So, that's my report for this week, my weigh-in so to speak... 

Weightwatchers works because of two reasons 1. every week there is a weigh in, and 2. there is a big meeting where you meet other people who are trying to achieve the same goals. you share ideas of how to get there.

That's my plan for this blog. Let's Save It, Don't Spend It! And meet our money goals together!