So FK and I have been embarking on a journey to tighten up our finances and really budget better.
We have some financial goals that we’ve set that we would like to hit, so we decided to really evaluate our spending and put together a workable budget that will help us hit those goals.
One of the tools that we used is called Pear Budget. It helped us organize our expenses, track our income and then the program reveals the surplus or the deficit. The site also lets us input our receipts so that we can see how we measure up against our budget. October is our first month using it and I am looking forward to seeing how we do!
My dear friend Jamie’s sister suggested mint.com as it is free and has similar tools to pearbudget.com. Check it out and let me know if you love it!
CNN published a tool that helps you know if you are financially healthy. It asks a bunch of questions about how you are saving money, how much debt you have, etc. Check it out – it’s very cool!
I also want to document a few money-saving tips that I use and I’d love to hear how you save cash! I am no expert at this, so any input would be appreciated. And I will write down what we learn whenever I have something new and handy to share.
Small Tips and Tricks for Saving Cash
Movie Tix – Costco (we have a membership Mom & Dad gave us for my birthday last year) has movie tix for $15.99 for two. Considering that most theaters around here charge $10 per ticket, this is a pretty good deal and saves us enough money to buy a small popcorn at the theater.
Gum/Bottled Water – Let’s be real here. I buy gum and bottled water like it’s my job. I used to spend $1.50 every day on bottled water and over $1 on gum. Instead, I started buying the bottled water and gum at Costco in large packs. Now I spend $10 for 20 bottles of water (66% savings) and about $6 for 8 packs of gum (approx). Just on the water alone I was spending $7.50 per week or $30 per month. That’s $20 in my pocket each month or $240 per year. Not bad!
Lunches – I am trying to watch my weight, so all of my efforts to save money are also good for the waistline! I am buying a can of soup (or a tub of fresh soup from the store), dividing it between two small Pyrex storage dishes (plastics are bad for reheating!!!). I also bring a couple of pieces of bread or a small salad (I cut it up and put some olive oil and balsamic in a small baggie). The cost is around $4. This is quite a deal compared to the $7-9 that it costs for a meal combo at the closest sandwich shop. And less calories! Score!
Jimmy Johns – in the same vein of the weight loss efforts, a sandwich and a bag of chips from Jimmy Johns is $7.50 (plus tip if it is delivered). But generally the sandwiches are more calories than I need at lunch time, so on nights when I have another meeting after work, I will cut the sandwich in half and save half of the chips and half of the sandwich for later. Not a bad deal! Of course, if I was smarter, I’d go to Subway and do the $5 footlong, but they don’t deliver…. soo, yeah. Hello, lazy.
You could save even more money by not buying bottled water at all, and get a nice reusable water bottle that you can keep refilling.
Also, we just switched to the real time pricing with Comed. We have a toolbar on our browser to keep track of the price. So far it’s been really cheap and even goes into the negative fairly often. Awesome!
Jamie –
Thanks for the suggestions!
RE: Reusable water bottles: Have you ever seen the movie Signs? There is a little girl in the movie who leaves glasses of “old” water all over the house.
When I have a reusable water bottle, I often worry about how many germs are in it, whether or not the last cleaning got rid of them all and sniff the stupid thing all the time to see if I can smell any soap residue in the bottle.
And I have been known to use the reusable water bottle, but then go buy a plastic bottle anyway because, well, I am too nervous to drink out of my reusable bottle.
So you are right – it would be much better if I would just drink from the reusable bottle, but my psychosis is prohibitive. 🙂 I know, I’m a nutcase.
Keep the suggestions coming!
Oh my gosh, Em. LOL This is why we love you! 🙂
Oh, and I just signed up with Pear budget! Looks like a great tool!!
I can’t wait to hear what you think of it!
I have been thinking about this a lot as I’ve transitioned into a different income.
One of the things I prepared this weekend (before this awesome sermon on Serving Two Masters) was my 2010 budget. And I have some big things to pay off. This site helped me figure out a definitive plan on how to pay off what and what kind of time frame.
http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/debtplanner/debtplanner.jsp
Awesome!!
Hey I was telling my sister about PearBudget and she mentioned a site she uses, mint.com. It’s a free site that offers many features for helping you budget, and it’s FREE. Not sure I want to get as involved as that site, but maybe I will just to do it for free. Pear budget is so simple I feel weird paying for it. But I like that it’s simple…. Hmmm.
I think this is awesome! Since I now work out of the house, I will save all the leftovers for my lunch. A small piece of chicken, pork or beef for a sammie, some soup from the other night, or even a bowl of cereal. I have some reusable containers that work great for this. McDonald’s has a wonderful breakfast parfait for $1.00 that is great for breakfast as well.
Just a couple of other ideas. Plan your meals for a week at a time. It takes some discipline but it really works. Use coupons and look up some great recipes so that there is some variety to the week. Of course, take into account that not all nights will there be time to cook a meal. On those nights a quick egg dinner is great and cheap. But if you only have to shop every six days, there won’t be much impluse shopping. Also, don’t keep a lot on your pantry shelves (inventory). In business it is important to move everything so that there isn’t a lot of investment sitting on the shelves. Do the same with home.
I know – you are so right – I need to get into the habit of planning our meals out every week. It would make things easier, at least for the staple items. But for the fresh fruit and veggies, buying organic can make that a little bit more difficult since they don’t last as long… ::sigh:: more trips to the store, eh??
Love you mom!!
Ok, here is a tip that I use and it has come in handy! Before I go grocery shopping I look at the sale papers for the store I am going to. Then whatever is on sale I plan my meals around for the week. I know it is simple, but it is something that has saved us alot of money
Nice! I like the Costco thing!
I am very late to find this post, but wanted to add something we do for savings.
Whenever we save money at the store (Buy One Get One, Coupons, Sale Price, or amount saved by buying in bulk at a Costco-type place vs. buying at the regular store), we take the amount we ‘saved’ and put it into savings. So it’s like ‘paying’ full price coming out of our pocket, except we get to keep whatever we ‘earned’ by being smart consumers.
It adds up fast. I think we’ve been doing this just under 2 years and are paying for a weeklong cruise for 2 with those funds. My mom actually did this while I was in high school and used the $$$ to take me to Paris for a week! Guilt-free vacationing, you earned it by shopping smart.