Following the Budget theme, the next easiest step to saving money is watching sales and clipping coupons. Now, I'm not saying you have to not buy anything not on sale. If you did you WOULD save a lot of money, but it might take you several months/years to get that 60" flatscreen on sale.
Simply begin getting your paper. Watch the sale ads and every day they come out with coupons (we get them twice a week) make sure you save them. Every week (or two, whatever) whenever you make your shopping list, pull out the sale ads and try your best to shop for your food based on what's for sale. We make a menu plan for each week on Thursday/Friday and make a list of everything we need for the week. That way, when we're in the store we're not going "Oooh! that sounds good, and that, and that, and that." Next thing you know you have $300 in groceries and you're still having to eat out 5-6 times that week because you don't have any breakfast/lunch foods.
As for coupons, go meticulously through them and clip anything and everything you may possibly buy. Don't worry if you don't use them, it's better to have them expire than never be considered. We have a zip up trapper keeper that we put a bunch of baseball card holders in and dividers. Each section is labels, Dairy, Meat, Dry Goods, Health & Beauty, etc. We put the coupons in and every week we go through them and see what coupons we can apply to the shopping list. Just remember, just because you have coupons doesn't mean you have to use them. If you get to the store and milk is $3.00 a gallon and you have a $0.25 coupon, it may be cheaper to get the store brand for $2.00. Watch unit prices and don't buy the more expensive stuff just because you have a coupon.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Budget
The MOST important, yet most difficult part of saving money. The Budget.
A budget is an intimidating thing if you haven't done one before. Simply put though, you take your income and "spend" it on paper right before or soon after you receive it. You can make it as simple or as complicated as your personality or time allows.
A simple budget would be:
Income: 3000
Spending:
- Rent : 1000
- Utilities : 400
- Food : 400
- Car Payment: 500
- Insurances : 400
- Misc : 200
- Savings : 100
Remaining : 0
This is obviously ridiculously simplified but you get the point. If you wanted to get even more complicated break utilities down to water, electric, phone, internet, cable, etc. Budget only so much for each and then use that to motivate you to use less water or turn off lights around the house. For the Food budget I personally count anything I buy at the grocery store as "food". This means that all my toiletries, health and beauty, etc gets lumped under food. As a result my "food" budget is rather large, nearly $700 a month.
Now, to keep yourself on budget you need to track it. There are literally hundreds of budget programs, forms, and systems you can find. I use an excel spreadsheet that I keep on Google Documents, this lets me access it from any computer anywhere. Basically, whatever you decide, you need to make sure EACH and EVERY purchase you make is counted against that category. One of the easiest ways is the envelope system. If you budget 400 a month towards groceries, then put 400 from your paycheck into the envelope and only use what's in that envelope to buy groceries. If you run out, you either need to get creative with what you have at home, or take from another envelope. By physically watching your money dwindle you're less likely to spend it. If you use your debit card to make most of your purchases then simply putting a written budget up on your fridge and writing down all your purchases may work well for you.
End of the day, it doesn't matter how you budget, simply that you do. If you don't budget then your money will fly right out the window and at the end of the month you're going to be confused and bewildered that you ran out of cash a week early and had to charge food, gas, etc just to stay alive. Don't be surprised if it takes a few months to balance out your budget, keep to it, and find what numbers actually work where. If you've never done one, then you're going to need practice. Just do your best, stick with it and always check your budget before spending anything that you WANT and remember that your NEEDS should already be in the budget.
A budget is an intimidating thing if you haven't done one before. Simply put though, you take your income and "spend" it on paper right before or soon after you receive it. You can make it as simple or as complicated as your personality or time allows.
A simple budget would be:
Income: 3000
Spending:
- Rent : 1000
- Utilities : 400
- Food : 400
- Car Payment: 500
- Insurances : 400
- Misc : 200
- Savings : 100
Remaining : 0
This is obviously ridiculously simplified but you get the point. If you wanted to get even more complicated break utilities down to water, electric, phone, internet, cable, etc. Budget only so much for each and then use that to motivate you to use less water or turn off lights around the house. For the Food budget I personally count anything I buy at the grocery store as "food". This means that all my toiletries, health and beauty, etc gets lumped under food. As a result my "food" budget is rather large, nearly $700 a month.
Now, to keep yourself on budget you need to track it. There are literally hundreds of budget programs, forms, and systems you can find. I use an excel spreadsheet that I keep on Google Documents, this lets me access it from any computer anywhere. Basically, whatever you decide, you need to make sure EACH and EVERY purchase you make is counted against that category. One of the easiest ways is the envelope system. If you budget 400 a month towards groceries, then put 400 from your paycheck into the envelope and only use what's in that envelope to buy groceries. If you run out, you either need to get creative with what you have at home, or take from another envelope. By physically watching your money dwindle you're less likely to spend it. If you use your debit card to make most of your purchases then simply putting a written budget up on your fridge and writing down all your purchases may work well for you.
End of the day, it doesn't matter how you budget, simply that you do. If you don't budget then your money will fly right out the window and at the end of the month you're going to be confused and bewildered that you ran out of cash a week early and had to charge food, gas, etc just to stay alive. Don't be surprised if it takes a few months to balance out your budget, keep to it, and find what numbers actually work where. If you've never done one, then you're going to need practice. Just do your best, stick with it and always check your budget before spending anything that you WANT and remember that your NEEDS should already be in the budget.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Welcome
Welcome to The Spartan Dollar.
I'm starting this to chronicle my family's journey to not only spread our dollars as thin as possible, but hopefully find new, easy, and exciting ways to encourage our dollars to multiply. As I get setup my postings will be sporadic but I hope to make regular posts in the very near future.
For now though, welcome to The Spartan Dollar.
I'm starting this to chronicle my family's journey to not only spread our dollars as thin as possible, but hopefully find new, easy, and exciting ways to encourage our dollars to multiply. As I get setup my postings will be sporadic but I hope to make regular posts in the very near future.
For now though, welcome to The Spartan Dollar.
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