A Little Money Talk...

Anybody out there love Dave Ramsey?? *raises hand wildly...* Seriously, aside from the Bible, this is the most read book in the house. Hands down. It has completely changed our way of financial thinking.

 We were so "normal' - we thought it was "normal" to always live with with car payments, credit card payments, etc. We didn't realize that "normal" really meant BROKE! We decided we didn't want to live the rest of our lives being normal, we want to be weird. We want to live debt free. That's SO weird by today's standards. I'll be the first one to tell you, it ain't always easy. It's hard to give up those luxuries. I'd rather eat out than cook a meal any day. I get a kick out of going shopping, too. But I want freedom more than I want those things. I want to "live like no one else, so someday I can live like no one else"! And there are plenty of things I can do to keep me motivated to stick to it - I listen to Dave's radio show as often as I can. So many people call in that have gotten into such pathetic messes, it inspires me to cinch it up even tighter. (I love that he's on I Heart Radio, now - I can listen on my phone!) It also helps me to think about how great it will feel to have ZERO debt. Awesome.

The key is to tell every penny where to go instead of wandering where they all went.

 Translation - make a budget. Don't faint, stay with me.

Making the budget is easy, sticking to it is the tricky part ;) It's as easy as jotting down 3 columns - put your income and expenses on the left, what you plan to earn or spend in the middle, and then on the right you'll put what you *actually* earned or spent once the month is finished. Then you'll get a better idea of how to adjust things for the next month. After you figure up what you'll earn for the month, give every one of those dollars a name. Tell 'em exactly where to go! 

Dave Ramsey recommends using baby steps. Baby step one is to build an emergency fund of $1000 as quick as you possibly can. I highly recommend doing that - this little fund has kept us from breaking out the plastic when "life" happens. The car breaks down, you can cover it without derailing your budget. 

Then baby step 2 is the debt snowball. You live as cheap as you can, and put every extra penny towards your smallest debt, paying minimums on the rest of your debts. Once the smallest one is paid off, you apply all of that money towards the next smallest debt. Before you know it that snowball will pick up some speed and you'll see some exciting results. 

So now let's talk about some ways to cut the expenses so that we can put even more money every month on our debt snowball - we want to make it go faster! I'll share some things that we do to cut costs...

1. Unsubscribe to those tempting emails. You know the ones. The emails that beg you to come to their site and spend money on things you don't need because it's on Sale! TODAY ONLY!! For me, it's Old Navy, Coldwater Creek, Gymboree, etc, etc. For Dave it's Newegg, Best Buy, etc etc. Good grief, I could last 3 years with out buying another single piece of clothes. My closet is stuffed already. So stop the madness!

2. Limit eating out to a set dollar amount. We usually budget for $30 per week. Sometimes we don't even use that much. We go to the places that have the best coupons ;) Order water to save even more off your tab. Once the budgeted amount is gone, stay home and break out the cookware.

3. Take lunches to work. Dave has been super sweet to switch to sack lunches, sometimes it would be so much more fun to "go out with the guys", but we've saved a TON by making lunches. 

4. Use fuel cautiously. Plan your shopping trips so you don't waste extra gas. Stay home when you don't have to go anywhere. We are blessed to live in a small town where everything is close by. School is a few miles away and church is next door. I usually get by with one fill-up per month. 

5. Cut cable. We don't have cable TV in our house. We do have a Netflix account, which is only 7.99 per month, and there is plenty of good things on there to entertain everybody. 

6. Cut the gym membership. This year my hubby has lost over 40 pounds with NO gym membership. It can be done. Go running. Plug in a workout DVD. Take a walk. Get creative. 

7. Cut the landline. We all have cell phones these days. Why pay for a home phone too? 

8. Trade services with friends. Recently I did some virtual decorating for a friend who in turn did some embroidery work for me. There are lots of possibilities, you could trade babysitting with friends.

9. DIY. All the way. We don't pay hairdressers. We invested in a set of barber clippers many years ago and have saved tons of money by cutting our own hair. Of course, now that there are 4 guys in the house, haircut day can be quite a production! We also wash our own cars. We mow our own lawn. I take my own pics of my kids. (Every other year or so we pay to have a professional family portrait made.) We do most of our own repair work and remodel work. We live in the day of google, people! If you don't know how to do something, just google it. There are so many skilled people out there that are willing to share their knowledge for free. Use it.

10. Don't give all your money to Walmart. Learn how to spend less on groceries. I'm still trying to figure this one out. But it was a real wake up call to me when I realized we were spending 200-250 per week on groceries. That adds up!! So I started looking for ways to cut the grocery bill. Pinterest is full of ideas and inspiration. Here's a few tips I've learned that works for us.

- Decide what things are "needs" and what things are "wants". We can make it without a lot more things than we think! Only buy the "wants" when they are on a great sale. 

-Sign up for perks at your local grocery store. Get the rewards cards! I signed up for the Baby Rewards at Winn Dixie and it is wonderful. Every month they send me a packet of coupons in the mail worth over $20.

-Sit down and plan your menus for the week. Then only buy what you need for the meals you planned.

-Clip those coupons! I'm not an extreme couponer, but I do use them a lot. Use the coupon when the item is on sale for your best bargain. Consider what items are on sale and what items you have coupons for when you're making you menu plan. 

- We don't buy paper plates anymore - it takes about 2 seconds to put real plates in the dishwasher.

 - We invested in an inexpensive water filter. Our water here is absolutely disgusting, so we were going through LOTS of bottled water. I have been amazed at the difference this little filter makes! I save plastic bottles and refill them right out of the tap now - no more buying bottled water!

- Cut the junk. My boys were turning into junk food junkies and that stuff really adds up. Now we have a rule - if you have a snack, it has to be healthy. I give them options like, applesauce, string cheese, whole grain crackers. They don't sit around munching on chips and little debbies. (I do let them have something sweet for dessert after dinner.) 

- Make as much as you can from scratch. Processed  food is more expensive and less healthy. (Don't pay $25 for a bakery birthday cake, when you can get a box of cake mix for 99 cents.) Again, I've found lots of easy recipes on pinterest. Now, I will say that not everything is cheaper homemade. I did try the homemade laundry soap idea, and while others rave about it, I didn't see where it saved us a whole lot. And I didn't really like it, either. So I do better to buy laundry soap when it's on sale, with a coupon. 

- Make your own sweet tea. This was when I knew I was serious about saving money. I gave up my Milo's tea. Seriously, I can make 24 gallons for what I was spending on one jug of Milo's. Now I hardly miss it. 

- Limit juices and sodas. This is one I can't completely cut. Diet Mt Dew is my "coffee". But I have cut it way back. The little guys get juice once a day, after that it's tea or water. They're still happy little people. 

- Don't buy the individual serving sizes. I save Weston's empty baby food containers and make my own individual sized snacks for him. They're easy to toss in the diaper bag and take anywhere. It's generally cheaper to buy a big package of something and divide it up yourself than to buy it already portioned out. It takes a little longer to make lunches without the handy convenience stuff, but it's worth it for the savings.

- Cut portion sizes. Admit it, we could all get by on eating a little less, right? Last night I tried a new enchilada recipe, and I made it in 2 dishes. I served reasonable portions, then stashed the other dish in the freezer for a quick meal later. We were plenty full without going back for seconds. Lots of recipes make enough to divide it into 2 dishes. Eat one, save one for later.

- Shop alone. I always end up spending more when the family goes with me. 

Since I've gotten serious about slashing the grocery bill, we've been saving about $100 every week!! (But we were spending way too much to start with.) 

I've also been brainstorming some ideas for budget friendly decor - ways to decorate on a dime. Maybe I can get some posts together pretty soon to share. 

These are some things that are working for us, but I'd love to hear about ways you've found to save money, too! How do you keep your grocery bill down? What are some things you all do to cut back on monthly expenses?