Organizing your finances

The best thing we have ever done is establish a budget. Most people think that having a budget means you are cheap or don’t spend any money. This is not true! Having a budget just means you know where your money goes each month! Ours is very detailed. We have line items for the kids allowances, food, household supplies (hygiene, cleaning), mortgage, entertainment, utilities, everything! When we did it originally, it was a pain to do, because I set it up in Excel with all the formulas to subtract what we spent as we went through the month so we knew how much was left. We also had expenses subtracted from income so we knew each month how much cash was left over. We also had line items for savings and taxes, so we could move it each month to somewhere safe so that when the time came, we would have it.

It is not about being frugal, although once you know where everything is going and how much is actually going there, that might be a byproduct… Each month, for example, we know that we spend about $400 on food, so that is our monthly food budget. The way we have it set up, we can go over by a little or under by a little, but we would expect that over a three-month period, the budget would be pretty close or even under. (Another thing I did was do quarterly formulas so that every three months it takes the budgeted amount minus the three months of actual so we know this. I am anal retentive that way!)

So how do you handle things that are once or twice a year and not each month? We just take what we would pay a year and divide it by12 for the budget. So, for example, with car insurance, which we pay twice a year, we know that those monthly budget amounts should be $0 for most of the year and go way over budget when they are actually due, but we know that and the other budget amounts can either make up for it that month, or we know that we will still be under budget for the year. You can also put aside the amounts on the monthly budget so that when the payment is due, the money is saved and available. Some people swear by cash in envelopes for this. We have not gone that far, but have thought about it for a few things!
There are a ton of websites that have articles on budgeting. I recommend geezeo.com (which has great articles) and wisebread.com (which has a blog and forums too!)

We did not do it for years and I know it is hard to set up and keep up, but it is SO worth it! In the time since we have had it set up, we were able to switch responsibility for finances from me to DH with minimal work because it was all right there. We also had job changes and all we had to do was change the income line. From there, it was easy to see what expenses had to be eliminated or reduced when the income went down or when the income goes up, which expenses stay the same (utilities, mortgage) and which you can increase (savings, allowances).

In this economy, it is even more critical to get a handle on where the money goes. Studies have shown that most people severely underestimate what they spend. It is like estimating your calories. You don’t count a bite here and a bite there, but they all add up. Similarly, a dollar here and a dollar there is no big deal, but they add up!

One of the things that DH and I had trouble with was telling each other EVERYTHING we bought. So we agreed on a certain amount (less when we had less money) and it is our “monthly allowance.” Each month, we get to spend that much on whatever we want to spend it on. So for DH it is video games or magic tricks. For me, it is pampering or knitting supplies. But that little amount goes a long way in making me feel like I have some control over my own money and even though we have budgets for most of it, this is unbudgeted MY money!

Go read me elsewhere

I feel so validated! My profile is on Gina Chen's blog today, which is part of the Syracuse Post Standard. You should go check it out as I am sure you all want to know much more about me! :-)

http://blog.syracuse.com/family/2009/02/blogger_writes_about_motherhoo.html

Magazine subscriptions

Most people, myself included, have way too many magazine subscriptions. I know that reading a magazine is a lot easier than reading a book, but if you must read a magazine, there are a lot of better ways to go about doing it.

First of all, I cannot give up all my magazine subscriptions, so I did keep a few, but made sure that they are the magazines that I LOVE!

Secondly, you can read the content of almost anything you really like on the web now, so it will not clutter up the tables next to your couch or bed and heck, it is green too!

If you absolutely must read the paper magazines, then see if your library gets them. If not, is there a process for requesting them to get it? Do they need it to be requested by a certain number of people before they get it? Do you know that many people and can you enlist others that you know to make the same request?

And if you do not need to read it every month, would you be better served by getting the magazines one at a time at the checkout? I know that does not seem to be cost-effective, but it is like getting a huge container of something. If it goes bad or you do not use it all, is it really a good deal? Similarly, if you do not really enjoy a magazine but just read it because it is there, is it really worth getting it in the mail?

I am a Meat Grinder

I grind meat. There. I said it. I don't do it to everything, although I guess I could. I do still buy ground beef and have had ground chicken and turkey so seldom, it is embarrassing...

Sometimes, though, pork loin goes on sale at a nearby store (and I am in a small town and there really are only 2) and when that happens, I buy a couple and cut up the pork myself, although I could probably ask the butcher to do it... Anyway, I digress.

When I get a pork loin, I usually cut it up into a couple of roasts (Yipee! Less cutting!) pork chops, and some ground pork. I have a great meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer that has more than paid for itself over the years. Last week, I made sliders with the ground pork and the kids thought they were amazing! I used dinner rolls as the little buns and made mini-burgers. Then I grilled them on my new toy – the Cuisinart Griddler Gourmet. They were amazing. I also got a good recipe I am going to try tonight for a nacho casserole. It calls for ground beef, but since it is mixed in with all that other stuff and seasoned with taco seasoning, I am going to substitute pork and I am sure the kids will never know the difference. I had a pound left over from last week, but this recipe calls for 2 pounds, so I ground up another roast and now I have 3 pounds. So after this recipe, I think we are having those sliders again for lunches soon!!

Board Games

I am loving the show "Mission: Organization" on HGTV and have recently taken an idea from that show and done it at home.

The kids are always losing all the parts from board games or just taking them all out of the box and using them as toys. It drives me nuts! But one thing I saw on there was that if the box did not have any information on it (like directions or something like that) then throw away the whole box and put everything in a zippered container. It also said that if you do keep the box, take all the pieces and put them in a zippered container so that if they drop it, only the zippered container and the lid fall out. So inspired!

Of course, she had super-cute zippered containers, but it works just as well, and I did it with, plastic storage bags!

Saturday's Deep Thoughts

Why is it that the minute I clean up, the kids are right behind me making a huge mess? I feel like Mr.Incredible when he says "No matter how many times you save the world, it keeps getting in jeopardy. Sometimes you just want it to stay...saved..." I always compare it to shoveling snow in a blizzard.

I can't live without my digital camera!

I know that not all of you may have converted to the world of digital photography yet, but if you have not, WHY NOT?? I love that it is instant gratification for me. I take a ton more pictures than I would have with a traditional camera and I do not worry about “wasting” film, because I have not. If I do not like a picture, I keep it on the camera (although you would not even have to do that) and download it, look at it on my screen, pretty big, and if I still don’t like it, just delete it there. Done and done!

I take pictures of the regular stuff: my kids, my family, family events, etc. but I also take pictures of things I would never have before, like recipes, the recipes in process, things around my house ,etc. When I take them, I can download them NOW or wait until the next time I am downloading pictures.

I even got a spare little camera to keep in my purse. I never wanted to be without my camera again, so I have the pretty nice one at home, but a decent one in my purse, and honestly, I use the one in my purse even around the house now! Learning all the bells and whistles of two cameras is a huge pain, but I know how to use the little one great now and I feel more ownership for it than the “family” camera, so I tend to use it more.

If you have not yet taken the dive into the world of digital photography, I challenge you to do so soon. It does not have to be more complicated and actually, it is easier for me! Taking the film someplace else to be developed and getting nothing back but the actual pictures meant that it didn’t happen nearly as often as it should and I did not have copies of pictures I loved!

If you have taken the plunge into the world of digital photography, take a few pictures this week of something you would not normally photograph. If you hate them, you can delete them. But you just might find that they are some of your best pictures ever!