Everything's Coming Up Green

Archive for the ‘Budgeting’ Category

I am supposed to be keeping you updated on our grocery expenses. I have not done so well as of late. So here is the update for January. We have one week left in February so I will wait on that.

In January I spent 182.24 and saved $10.65 which leaves us $67.76 under budget. Ya, there was only one week in there that I used coupons. I was quite tired especially coming off the holidays. We are tracking well for February and will come in well under budget this month as well. I look forward to sharing it with you. I am considering reducing our budget to $200 a month. I’d like to spend even less. Hopefully by the end of next month we will be moved out to my parents’ house in the country. I will start out combining both our budgets for the month and after a couple of months will review if we can reduce the combined budget. Part of my contribution to the house will be doing most of the grocery shopping. My mom is a teacher in the city 35 minutes away and her school is a test school with longer hours. She often doesn’t have the time to shop and never has the time to shop sales with coupons. I am very excited to bless them in this way! I will also be making the majority of the meals so that will save money as well. How are you doing with your budget thus far? Are you right on track or have you blown it? It’s only February so it’s not too late! Keep trying, you will get there!

Joel and I made a trip to Hy-Vee today to stock up during their 2-day red hot sale. I put most everything away when I got home before I remembered I hadn’t taken a picture and I wasn’t about to haul it out again. I do have the break down though. We did four transactions. The ad said “one ‘on your next order’ (OYNO) per customer” for the cheese. Though I think I could have done both transactions myself without Joel but I wanted to follow what the ad said. Joel and I each did two transactions. The first was the shredded cheese and the second was everything else so we could use the two $5 OYNO on the rest of the items we were purchasing. Though I am not due for another 3 weeks, I didn’t want to chance delivering early and not being able to use them before they expire.

Here is the beakdown.

Transaction #1

5-Kraft shredded cheese  5/$6

Bag Refund    -$0.05

Total   =$5.95

Received    $5.00 ONYO

Transaction #2

Almond Bark Pretzels $4.99 marked down to   $0.99

Red & Green Pretzels $4.99 marked down to  $0.99

Hy-Vee Crinkle cut   $2.48

BC Blueberry Muffins $2.81-MQ $0.40= $2.41

8pc Chicken strips from deli  $8.99

Bananas  $1.80

Bag Refund  -$0.15

Used $5.00 OYNO  -$5.00

Total  =13.14

Transaction #3

5-Kraft shredded cheese  5/$6

Bag Refund  -$0.05

Total  =$5.95

Received  $5.00 ONYO

Transaction #4

6-2L Wild Cherry Pepsi  $4.62

3-2L Pepsi  $2.31

1-2L Sierra Mist  $0.77

Used $5.00 OYNO  -$5.00

Total  =$2.70

I had two bags for this transaction but she forgot to credit me for it. Oh well. There was a lot going on.

The cheese was 5/$6 – the $5 OYNO= 5/$1 Oh ya!!

Total for the day $27.74

We may stop in after church tomorrow and pick up some more cheese. We’ll just have to see.

I made a trip to Hy-Vee earlier this week and spent $23.06 I honestly don’t remember what all I got. I do remember getting Yoplus yogurt for $.50, sandwich meat and bread.

Total for the week $50.80

I am linking this to Super Saver Saturday!

“What’s the big deal about budgets?” “Budgets are so restricting.” “I don’t like feeling like I’m poor.”

     These are common responses to the mention of creating a budget. A big misconception is that budgets are for poor people when in fact it is quite the opposite. Ask any wealthy person if they have a budget and you will get a resounding yes, because budgets are for people who like their money. Poor people don’t budget. It’s all about stewardship. Do you know where your money is going? If not, then do you really have control of your money or is it aimlessly flying out of your checking account going wherever it feels like. Even the very wealthy, who seem to throw money around, have a budgeted amount to spend on whatever they want. Every penny has a place. This is just common sense. And I’ll let you in on a little secret- having a budget and sticking to it is quite freeing. There are no worries about whether or not there is enough money in the account to cover the gas you just put in your car or juggling when to pay what bill so you don’t overdraw you account. In the next few weeks I will be sharing with you basics and tips for a successful budget.

     Joel and I started budgeting (and sticking to it) about four years ago. Let me tell you it has been life changing. In the first three years we paid $10,000 on $25,000 worth in school and credit card debt. You better believe that felt good. We saved $1,000 for an emergency fund and we quit paying overdraft charges which had become a regular occurrence. Then we found out I was pregnant-Surprise! At first there was some stress in the house because, well, as far as we knew Joel was not bringing in enough to cover all of our bills and minimum payments. Finally we sat down to widdle down the budget and lo and behold we could make it happen. I could stay home with our new bundle of joy without any stress or worry about how to make ends meet. If we had not started budgeting and paying down debt three years previously there would have been no way we could have fulfilled our desire for me to stay home with our children.

     Budgets have other benefits too. Like less stress at Christmas, a sigh of relief knowing there is money set aside to replace the tire you just blew, the little happy dance you do when you came in under budget and you get to pay extra on debt or stash it in savings towards whatever you are planning for. If you didn’t have a budget you wouldn’t know you had extra at the end of the month.

     Joel and I started using the debt snowball method by Dave Ramsey. You can check out https://www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com/for inspiration and/or signing up for his extensive online budget program or you can search to see if a church in your area is offering Financial Peace University classes. Joel and I used Dave’s online budgeting program for a year and it was a great jump start to our debt reduction. It was encouraging to see our debt get smaller and smaller. Dave has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to money and personal finances and he has made it his business to help people get on track and become wise stewards of the money and assets God has given them.

      If you are in debt like we were/are the key is baby steps or crawl if you have to. Look at what you can do without, what you can sell, what you can do to bring in extra money. You have to get fierce on your debt. You are now the master and your money is slave to you not the other way around. You can do it. It does get better. The more you pay down the faster it becomes. Just four years later Joel and I have less than $9,000 left in debt except for our house! And you better believe that I sleep better at night. No more laying in bed awake at night trying to figure out how to make it all fit into what little money was coming in. God is faithful to get us out of the financial messes we get ourselves into if we are willing to sacrifice and be diligent to climb back out of the debt hole. Living within a budget is not about going without; it’s about knowing where your money is going. Often we don’t realize how much money we are spending and a budget is a great reality check. Next week I’ll share the basics of building a budget.

Are you on a budget? What has been your experience thus far?