Our First "Oops"

Last Sunday when Irv and I were finishing up our grocery shopping and headed to the checkout....I looked in our carts and thought, "Oh man, this is going to be the best week yet. The carts are very empty. We are going to have so much money left out of our $150!! I even had $4.75 in coupons! Chee Hoo!!"

Imagine my shock and dismay, when the checker finished tallying up our groceries and the bill was $146.06 PLUS we had already spent a little over $5.00 for bagels at the bagel shop!!! WE WENT OVER OUR BUDGET!!!!

For those of you who are new to my blog....we are trying to stay on a budget. We are allowed $150 a week for all food and household items. IF we have any money left of the $150, we get to use that for carry out on Friday night.

I kept looking at the receipt on the way home, because I was so sure there was a mistake. I even added everything up in my head and unfortunately, it was right. We didn't really buy a lot, but some of the things we did buy were a bit more money. Irv was out of meat so he purchased quite a few things, and I was trying a couple new recipes this week and needed some things I wouldn't ordinarily buy. It wasn't that we bought lots of junk, we didn't, we just spent more than normal.

Now, I could cheat and take money out of our "surplus" envelope and get carry out tonight, but I'm not going to do that. What we are going to do is cook dinner at home tonight, and then use one of our restaurant gift cards that we have been hoarding and go out to dinner Saturday night.

No harm done....but in all honesty, I'm still a bit upset that we spent that much.

Who You Gonna Call? Fur Buster!!

My Saturday started with the Andrew, the Dish Network dude at our house at 8:00 a.m. Wow! What an awesome picture we have now. We've never had digital so it is quite an improvement and for $30 less per month than we were paying for cable I might add!

We went to run some errands after the Dish dude left. I needed a few little things at the fabric store so I can finish up more of my Itsy Bitsy Tote Bags. I get into the store with my list in hand and realize that I left all of my fabric scraps that I needed to match at home. UGH!

Can you tell me how a dog's hair gets IN the bathtub when the shower curtain is closed and so is the bathroom door??? Is it waiting in the hallway like a little army of hair, so when you open the bathroom door it can ride the air currents up and into the tub? Irv brushes Maggie regularly, so we decided he isn't using the right kind of brush. The girl where we buy our dog food told us that the Fur Buster is the best, so of course we went and bought a Fur Buster. For $22 this thing better work really, really well! I do NOT like the hairy bathtub!

Our envelope system is working well so far. We added envelopes for some things we had not thought of, and we are also being very careful with what we spend. We are going to get the newspaper today and check for other coupons we might be able to use too. I'm actually finding this to be kind of fun, and Irv is playing along nicely.

Today is my mom's birthday. She passed away in May of 1998. I still miss her a lot. There are times even 11 years later when something awesome will happen and I will think, "I have to call mom!" I just think it will always be that way. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. She really didn't like her picture taken, but this is so "her". Cigarette in hand, those lovely fingernails, everything she wore matched, hair the easiest style she could get away with...and I can almost hear her saying, "Oh, Katrina do you have to take my picture?" I love you mom....Happy Birthday!

What's on your agenda for this wonderful January Sunday? Anything exciting? For me it's grocery shopping and then everything I didn't do yesterday! :)

Week One of the Makeover

Happy Monday everyone! I just wanted to give you an update today on how my working out and our grocery shopping on a budget went. It went REALLY, REALLY WELL!!!! Chee Hoo!

I did make a change in my workout schedule and decided to make Friday my day off. Friday is my eat whatever I want day....so if I'm eating high calorie, high fat foods....why work out? It's easier to find the time on the weekend anyway, so I think that will be better.

So including Sunday I did Pilates three times, Yoga three times, walked four times, stretched twice and worked my arms twice! I have passed on the walking for three days because the wind chill has been brutal. It's suppose to warm up this week, so hopefully I will get lots of walking in. Yesterday it was 4 degrees with a -15 below wind chill. I won't walk in that. It hurts. :(

I have a couple of other little changes I plan to make to my program because I want to do some specific leg work, so I'll need to figure that out as well. If I'm consistent with the yoga, I won't need the extra stretching either.

I ate pretty good all week and really didn't have much junk and that is a positive for me as well. I am also trying to increase my iron since it was too low to donate blood again, and that really bothers me. Irv and I donate regularly and it's important to me to be able to do that.

Ah....the grocery store. I spent time during the week planning my meals and then I made my shopping list. Next, I went online and found some coupons I could use for a few things. I'm going to spend a little more time on that this week to see if I can find more. With our $3.50 in coupons we ended up spending $116.96 for the week! I paid very close attention to the prices of things to see if I could find cheaper items than what I usually buy...sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't. It was kind of a pain, but the end result was worth it. Now we have money left for our carry out on Friday night.

We have a couple of things to tweak in our budget....like why do I have to use my spending money on Starbucks if I want it, and Irv used grocery money on a 6 pack of O'Doules? That doesn't seem quite fair to me. I think we are going to have to work on that one! Isn't that right Irvie? ;-}

I gave Irv all of his money for the week and I have mine. We will see how we do. No using the debit card at all! I really am psyched about this. Hope we see a difference in our bank account and can use the extra money to start really paying down our debt.

I hope your Monday is just as awesome as it can possibly be! Don't forget to do something really nice for yourself today.

Stupendous Saturday!

I started out the day Saturday with another trip over to the blood center. I couldn't donate last week because my iron level was too low. That's the second time that's happened. Well, it was lower this week! Trying to find more iron rich foods to consume!

Next, we headed over to the bank to take out the cash we needed for our new envelope budget system. I am excited and ready to go. We did have a couple of little glitches though. Irv mentioned that we needed salt for the softener......he wanted to rent a movie for tonight....and he needed to get our Lotto tickets. Hmmmmm...I hadn't figured those things in. I made more envelopes and next time we will take out money for entertainment and salt and Lotto. Irv said we could give up on the Lotto, but we have been playing the same stupid numbers since it started and wouldn't that just suck that the first time we don't buy them....our numbers are picked? I know it wouldn't happen, but just in case....I'm still buying!

I managed to list my first Itsy Bitsy Tote Bag in my shop, FourDogDay. The tote is perfect if you don't like to drag a huge bag with you when you go shopping. If you don't read Lanyard Lady's blog...check out this post of hers. Lanyard has a bad shoulder because of what she was carrying in her purse. Too funny....not the bad shoulder, but the stuff that was in her purse!

This blue bird fabric was left over when I made Angela of Pickles on Pizza a vendor apron. It's so darn cute I decided to make a little desk clock out of it. I just love it!

Then I went all out and made two other big clocks. One of these will get listed today and one tomorrow. The first one is leaves on a light gray background. Very outdoorsy.

The second one is my absolute favorites! It's birds in black and white with a little tan thrown in. I think I am going to have to make myself one of these to hang somewhere in my house. It's so ME!

After that it was time to see if I could find some coupons for grocery shopping today. We will be heading out soon and I was hoping to save a little money using coupons. I didn't find too many, but I did get a couple of good ones. We eat very specific foods and brands and are not very flexible, so coupons might be a difficult thing for us.

I have my Week #1 Food Envelope and I put my coupons right in it. I will let you know how we do and if we are able to stay well under the $150 limit so we can get carry out next weekend. Wish us luck!

After that, I still had to hit the floor and do my Pilates. I opted not to walk because the wind chill made it painful to even be outside.

Then I collapsed! Not really. It was an awesome day. Hope you have a good one today. Don't forget to do something nice for yourself today.

Starbucks Costs A Latte Money

Okay, so get this. On Monday I used the last of my Starbucks Gift Card and enjoyed a tall (small) Chai Latte. That meant on Tuesday I would not be stopping at Starbucks. I am not going to be spending $3.28 for a tall (small) or $4.05 for a grande (medium) Chai Latte five days a week anymore.

For those of you that don't indulge....a Chai Latte is tea that is full of awesome spices, some sweeteners and then mixed with steamed milk. It is beyond yummy!

So, knowing that I couldn't get a Chai on Tuesday, I decided to get creative in the kitchen. I took a chai tea bag, plunked it in some hot water, warmed up some rice milk (I don't drink cow's milk very often), added a touch of honey, poured it into my cup and left for work.

First sip.....weak and a bit watery...not sweet enough....but out of desperation...I drank it all.

Yesterday I tried again. This time I took two tea bags and plunked them in less hot water, I added a little more honey and the warmed rice milk, put it in my cup and left for work.

First sip....not bad....not bad at all. It wasn't Starbucks, but I could almost like it. The only thing I might try is making it with skim milk, because I think the rice milk changes the taste too much. It will still cost some money....but no where near the cost of Starbucks.

Now the days I don't want to spend my hard-earned allowance on Starbucks, I can still enjoy a tasty warm drink on my way to work.

Does that not kick butt? Chee Hoo!

Budgeting Fun

Irv and I have really struggled financially during our 37 year marriage. With medical bills, raising 3 active kids, being unemployed and underemployed…we dug ourselves deep into debt. We got out a couple of times by refinancing our house but then crawled right back in again. We don’t want to refinance again at this stage of our lives and in this economy, so what option do we have? Only one…it’s time to tighten our belts and bite the bullet.

Let me say that Irv and I don’t live a luxurious life. We have a tiny house, don’t wear fancy clothes, don’t drive fancy cars, but we do live beyond our means at times, and that is a problem.

We have always had the mindset that if we need or want it and don’t have the money for it, we’ll just charge it and pay for it when the bill comes in. Well, we follow through on the first part and charge it, and then we never follow through on the second part of paying it off when the bill comes.

Doing that over the course of many years digs you into a great big debt hole and that is where we always seem to be. It isn’t that we can’t pay our bills, it’s tight, but we can pay them, it’s just that we seem to have more and more bills every year. We really haven’t charged much in this past year except for car repairs, tires and our new dryer, but it will take a long time to pay that off.

I’ve been working for a while on a budget…one where we truly set limits for our spending. We would take cash out for weekly expenses like food and gas on payday and leave the debit cards at home. Then if we need or want something and don’t have the cash for it…we will have to think about whether or not it’s something we have to have right now or not.

Debit cards are a great way to see where your money is going, but it’s also very easy to overspend…oh, it’s just a cup of coffee, or it’s just a pair of shoes, or it’s just some carryout….when you add that all up over the course of a month, you may have spent hundreds of dollars you didn’t really have.

The first thing I would like to do is to set a food/household budget. Irv and I tend to buy whatever we need/want. We have no idea what we’ve spent at the grocery store until we get to the checkout. It could be $120 or it could be $170. Then on top of that…every Friday and Saturday night we get carry out. Nothing expensive, but it’s still $25-$30 a week. Do we really need to spend that much on food and household supplies a week? I don’t think so. It's just the two of us for Pete's sake!

I think we should be able to keep it under $150 total. So, my thought is that we take $150 with us to the store, pay attention to what we are spending….then if there is anything left of the $150…that is what we have for our weekend carry out.

I love my carry out so you can be sure I will be paying close attention to what goes in that cart. I also read once that if people looked in their cabinets and freezer they could probably eat for a week or two without buying anything but perishables. Think you could do that? I think we could. What a great way to save some money. Plan your menu around what you already have on hand!

The other thing we need to look at is our personal spending…all of the little junk we spend our hard earned money on….but my head is spinning and my vision is blurred by little dollar signs right now so I think that is enough for today.

How do you keep your spending under control?

Pondering and Planning

I sat in bed last night, clipboard in hand pondering and planning my business strategy for 2010. I am so excited right now. My sales have increased this holiday season, and after 18 months in business....I think I am finally starting to understand what I need to do and NOT do to make my business the success I want it to be. Okay....so I'm a little slow...what can I say?

I have some things I am going to do immediately...like opening a separate checking account with a debit card and a savings account for the business. It's so awful at the end of the year trying to separate personal and business expenses. I also think I spend money for the business when I shouldn't be, because there is money in our checking, and I also leave money I make in our personal account where it quickly gets spent.

Besides the fact that I love creating things, and FourDogDay has filled a tremendous creative void for me...there was another reason I started my business. Irv and I don't have a nice pension sitting there waiting for us when we retire...in fact, at times we wonder if we will ever be able to retire.

My thought was that if between now and retirement, I could build a successful craft business that would eventually bring in a nice little profit....that we could one day use that profit to supplement our social security. I now see that as a very real possibility.

In order to do that though, we need to know where our money is coming from and where it is going. We need to know what works and what doesn't work when creating and marketing my products. So, like I said....I sat with the clipboard in hand and started to map out my strategy...and let me tell you...I am excited!

We will start at the bank this weekend by opening those accounts. I will close up MyOtherShop as soon as I can, so that all of my attention and energy can be devoted to FourDogDay. I will clear out things I don't plan to make anymore to make room for the new things that I can't wait to start on....and we will carefully select some craft shows for spring and fall.

We are taking control of our business rather than allowing our business to take control of us!

How about you? Do you have business or personal plan in place for 2010? Have you ever done a personal or business financial makeover? If you own your own business, did it take you a while to really figure things out? Please share.....

Minimalism

.....a style or technique (as in music, literature or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity.... so says Webster.

Now that is definitely not me, but it is what I am hoping to start practicing...not in a business context, but from a personal standpoint. I don't think this is exactly how the word is meant to be used, but I like the sound of it.

I tend to be a keeper, a saver, a collector, a pack rat....whatever you want to call it. I hate to throw things away or give things away if there is even the slightest chance that I might regret it even ten years down the road. "Darn it! Why did I give that fondue pot away? We could have used that!"This photo is from a website that is all about getting rid of clutter. I might check it out to get some helpful hints.

This fall and winter, my goal is to start unloading. I've done dejunking before, but never to the extent that I want to and need to. When you have lived in the same house for 37 years....you tend to have a lot of stuff. I said once that we needed to pretend that we were moving, because that was the only way we would ever dig ourselves out from under all of the crap we have amassed over the years.

My new feeling is this....cluttered house.....cluttered head. I know I don't want a cluttered head, therefore, I can't have a cluttered house. When you live in a 1000 square foot house, almost anything you set down becomes clutter. It's just the way it is.

My son and his wife hate clutter and their house looks so awesome. They only have what they need. Now, don't get me wrong, they have darn nice things...but they don't have "stuff" anywhere....just their nice things. I will never get to where they are, because I will always like "stuff" and I am me and I like me.....but I would like to "lean" toward that concept a bit more.

This will be one of those overwhelming tasks where I have to tackle it one room at a time, but eventually it will get done. I made some good progress this past year in my workshop. So, wish me luck as I start my project next week. I figure while we are painting and decorating, this would be a great time for it. I'll let you know occasionally how it's going.

So.....are you the pack rat?

Flying Without A Flight Plan....

That's how my personal life feels right now. I know where I want to go, but I have no clue how I am going to get there. That's really how Irv and I have done things our entire married lives. We just went with the flow and what happened...happened. Not always a bad way to live, except where finances are concerned.

So, now we find ourselves utterly tired of working....yearning for a glimpse at retirement....with no chance in hell of that happening any time soon.

Irv has had some nice jobs over the years, but none of them offered a decent pension plan. I was a SAHM (stay at home mom) until Matt was in high school except for selling Avon and cleaning houses. No pension plans there.

Most of our married lives we barely made enough money to pay the bills, so saving and investing weren't even in our vocabulary. Don't get me wrong, we had some great times living on what we made until things like birthdays, Christmas, medical emergencies, house disasters or any unexpected expense popped up, and then our survival mechanism was plastic and even today at times, it still is. We have a very large amount of credit card debt that we are trying to pay down.

Unless we sit down and take a serious look at where we are and where we eventually would like to be and figure out a way to get there...we will continue to flounder and retirement will forever be out of reach.

Getting out of debt is difficult when every penny you earn goes to pay bills. I know that we have two options...we either make more money, or we spend less money....or a combination of the two.

My plan is for us to write down how we spend our money...every penny of it. Once we see where our money is going, we will need to decide where we can cut our spending. Making more money will come through my etsy business down the road....neither of us would have the energy to work a second job right now, so etsy is our best option. It's something I love and I can see it being a big help at some point.

We don't spend a lot of money on clothes, jewelry, fancy dinners, movies, cars and "toys" so our cutting will mean sacrificing the little things that we enjoy and that isn't easy. You feel like you are working so hard, but yet you can't afford to spend $15 a week on Starbucks and that sucks...but it is what it is, and if giving that up will get a bill paid faster....I know I can do it.

It's all about accountability and responsibility and sacrifice AND how badly we want to reach that ultimate goal, which is a debt free retirement before we are too darn old to enjoy it! I am not upset about it so don't feel bad. We made choices along that way that made sense at the time. It doesn't matter now if they were the right choices or not. What matters is the present and how what we do today can help us in the future.

So, if you have any little money saving or expense cutting secrets.....I am all ears!!