I really hate budgets for some reason. One we never meet them or we just blow them off and two they are just a pain in the butt. I know I need to work on one to track our spending better, but I just dread taking the time to go through everything. Anyone have any ideas or comments. I'd like an easy budget and something that we would be able to not only keep up with, but would be willing to continue using.
Here is an update on where we are with our goals and with our debt.
1) Get out of debt. We are still working on this one, but at least we have consolidated all of our credit cards.
2) We are investing for retirement.
3) I am continuing my education college and investing.
4) We've had a baby.
5) We've remodeled our kitchen.
Our five year goals are still to get out of debt, buy a new house, rent or sell the current one, fix up our yard, get fit & lose weight. So we are halfway there and it has only been a year. I guess it's time to rethink or redo our five year plan, so we can stay on track of things.
I was looking over some notes that I have and found this and thought that it would make a good post again. I don't remember what book I got it from or which seminar I heard it from, but I give props out to whoever came up with it.
1) Examine your identity.
2) Define your Values.
3) Establish goals and create sub goals.
4) Create and action plan.
5) Implement various motivations.
6) Establish Discipline.
7) Maintain Flexibility.
8) Reach an outcome.
I feel that it is good to get refocused on your goals so that you stay on track. This is one way to keep on track or to actually get on track. If I remember where I got this from I will list the author so that you can check it out.
It seems that we have gone back to our old habit of eating out a lot, which is eating up a lot of our income. We had been doing pretty well with buying groceries and cooking at home, but it all starts to become a pain in the butt. Besides junk food is so much easier to get and jacks up your fat intake and your body weight. Anyway it looks like we are going to have to get strict with ourselves and start making meals at home again. Back to the fun of home cooking.
So I have been a bad blogger lately. Part of it is the new baby, but most of it is running out of things to talk about. Now that things are getting back to normal, I will start blogging more. I've got a couple of books that I want to do reviews on and talk about the evils of credit cards again. Speaking of credit cards, have you noticed that when you stop using them, credit card companies start sending you new cards, checks to use on your credit card, and about anything else they can throw your way to get you to get yourself back in debt. Well their Jedi mind tricks won't work on me. Just say no to credit card debt. Anyway I will get back to my usual posting habits.
A.I.
Now that we have a new addition to our family, it looks like our house has shrunk a little more. I am ready for a bigger house already, but we need to wait on paying off the loan we took out to pay off our credit cards. So it looks like we will be stuck in a small house for a while longer. We should be able to manage, we might just have to get creative with the space that we currently have. Anyway just wanted to rant a little about our tiny house.
Just wanted to let everyone know that we had our baby. She's a beautiful little girl. I should be posting more again now as things start getting back to normal. Sorry it's been a while since I've had a post. I will get back on the ball.
:)
Since we have been using HSBCdirect to grow our emergency fund, our account has been growing slowly but surely. I've also been very happy with their service, seeing that I locked myself out of my account a couple of times and was always able to reach someone from customer service to help me out. We have enough in right now to cover a small emergency, but I would like to save enough to where if something came up, we wouldn't have to go back to charging on our credit cards. So knock on wood that nothing comes up. Anyway I am very happy with the service that we have been getting from HSBC and would recommend them to anyone looking for an online savings account.
Last month we noticed that we had been going out to eat too much and spending way to much on restaurants. So we decided to see what would happen if we cut out eating out and spent more time making meals at home. Well we have spent about $300 a month on groceries, but we have saved a ton of money by just eating at home. We have still gone out a couple of times, but not as much as we were before. Hopefully we can keep up with this trend because we need to be saving as much money as we can for when the baby comes. Which means we will be spending a lot of time at home and with family for a while. I am new to fatherhood so I am not sure about how soon you take your baby out and all that stuff, so it should be an interesting experience.
Today was our first payment on the loan that we got to consolidate all of our credit card debt. It felt really good just to be making one lump payment and not a bunch of small ones. The other good thing is that we can actually see the light at the other end of the tunnel. Unlike when we were just paying on the credit cards, we actually know that we will have everything paid off in 4 years. So I am pretty excited about that. I have also been slacking on my blogging duties, part of it is writer's block, and maybe a little bit of laziness. I will get back on track and try to start posting more often.
In an attept to cut our spending and save some extra cash, we took a look at our budget and bank statements and realized that we were going out to eat way too much. So this past month we hit up the grocery store and have been eating and spending more time at home. Turns out our budget looks a little better this month and our dollars are stretching a little more than they have the past couple of months. We still went out to eat once or twice, but nothing like we had before. I guess you don't actually know how much you are spending on junk or wasting money until you actually sit down and look at it. This month may actually turn out to be a good one after all.
I just read an awesome article on debt called, "Deep In Debt, Deeper In Denial" by Laura Rowley. It talks about a documentary that is coming out called "Maxed Out", my life story. Anyway it talks about how bad Americans are in debt and how much creditors and collection agencies are loving it. Pretty sick if you ask me, especially since I am in debt. I am looking forward to checking out this documentary. Definitely read the article, it has a lot of great information.
Well now that we got the loan to pay off all of our credit card debt, it's time to do our budget again to make sure that we have everything paid on time and aren't broke most of the month. I was paying all of our bills at the beginning of the month, but now I'm going to have to split it between the 1st and the 15th. I hate budgeting, but it has to be done. I am glad that we have all of our credit card bills consolidated now and only have to make one payment instead of many. I am also trying to put some money away for when the baby comes, just in case we have any extra costs. Hopefully the budget works out with out too many hassles.
Well slowly, but surely, I have been reading Suze Orman's "The Courage to be Rich". I've come across an interesting part about getting rid of the clutter in your life and getting yourself organized. This not only shows you that you have too much junk in your house, but also the amount of money that you have wasted on things that you don't really need. We have a ton of stuff we can get rid of, especially since we are losing a room to the baby. It doesn't help that my wife is a pack rat and has kept everything she owns since the dawn of time. So now it is time for us to get organized and unfortunately move some stuff into storage. The amount we are paying for storage could be going to better things, like savings or investments, but when you live in a super small house we don't have much choice. So hopefully soon we will have all of the stuff in our house either organized or stored, so we can start saving more money by not buying more junk. Anyway I thought this was pretty interesting from Suze, especially since it applies to me. Will keep you informed on anything else I find interesting in her book.
Well Valentine's Day is almost here. We have decided to go the cheap route because of our impending new arrival. A couple of cards, some small gifts, and a home cooked meal. Maybe even starting to paint the babies room pink. Nothing says romance like painting a room pink & lavender. I guess our priorities are starting to change, which is good. We need to start focusing on our baby anyway. Anyway just wanted to say that I hope everyone has a happy and enjoyable Valentine's Day.
Okay so I've been slacking on my blog lately. My reasons? I've been down with the flu and I've been spending a lot of time working on the babies room. It seems that changing out the base boards on an old house is a lot more work than I had bargained for. So because of these reasons I haven't blogged in a while, sorry. Will get back on the ball as soon as I start feeling better.
Well we got good news, we got the loan to pay off all of our evil credit cards. Now all that is left to do is to put them to their death; by shredder with no blind fold and no last requests. Even though it seems far away it feels good to know that we will have everything payed off in four years or less and as soon as that is over with I'm sure it will be time to start looking for a larger house for us and our new addition. So the fight against debt continues, hopefully at a better pace. Will keep everyone posted.
Well we are continuing to work on our credit card debt. I put in for a consolidation loan at one of our local Federal Credit Unions, so it looks like we may be able to cut down the amount of time it is going to take to pay off our debt from forever to around 4 yrs if we can get the loan and a pretty decent interest rate. So far things are looking pretty good and I would rather have one payment than a whole bunch of small and large payments. I hate credit cards. If I have learned anything from all this is that credit cards are evil. We are also continuing to put money aside into our emergency fund, so that anything that comes up unexpectedly will be paid with cash. So everyone cross your fingers, and hope that this loan goes through.
Just wanted to thank Blueprint for Financial Prosperity for including my article on Being Mature About Debt in this weeks Carnival of Personal Finance. Jim's done a great job of hosting even though it seems overwhelming with the shear number of entries. I am looking forward to reading alot of the articles and will post links to some of my favorites.
I found this article interesting on Yahoo finance called "6 ways to be a grown-up about debt" by George Mannes from Money Magazine. Since I've been down on our credit card debt I was happy to see that I was not the only one in this sinking ship. It seems that since 1990 credit card debt has more than doubled according to CardTrak.com. The reason why? Because it's so easy to charge things and have that "I want it now mentality". So what can you do to save your financial prosperity?
Money Magazine suggests this:
1) Admit that you're the problem. Almost sounds like AA, Hi my name is Mike and I have a credit card addiction. Actually this means taking responsibility for your credit dilemmas. Understand that eating out and using your credit card to pay for it makes for a very expensive meal.
2) Play Tricks on Yourself. Lock up the credit cards, shred them, burn them. Do anything to keep them out of reach and don't use them anymore. Start putting money aside for an emergency fund, so that if something comes up you aren't tempted to bust out a credit card.
Another good idea that they have is that if you need to get something big, pull the money out and put it in envelopes until you have enough for that large purchase.
3) Make success simple. Now that you've put a brake on your credit card debt, come up with a plan to start paying off your cards. Start by paying of the highest interest card and work your way down.
4) Beware of the easy out. Debt consolidation and Home equity loans can keep you in the same trouble if you don't change your spending habits and your mentality on credit card debt. Also with a home equity loan you are risking your home to get out of debt.
5) Get help if needed. Get help from a reputable credit counselor, who may be able to get you some better rates on your credit cards, just don't pay more than $75 and do your research.
6) Think outside the debt. Even though you are in debt don't forget to save some for an emergency and for retirement. Talk your expenses over with your significant other so that the future will look much brighter.
This article made me feel a little better, especially since I just figured out that we owe a ton of money on our credit cards. We didn't get in debt overnight, so I guess we aren't going to get out of debt overnight either.
