We are going on a budget. Not for a few months from now but we are starting it and we WILL succeed. So, for anyone in my real life if I am a bit crazed or keep saying no to events, activities, etc. this is why. We just NEED to do this....we need to do it to get to a better place for our future. It will be short term in the long scheme but will seem long from both the inside and outside. Ugh. I hate budgets but I'm trying hard to think of it positively...this will gain us FREEDOM!!
so, any tips? I am not a coupon cutter because most of it is crap. I will use coupons if applicable though. I am working hard on these categories: no trips to target, cutting our food budget so we are attempting to be better at cooking REAL food, cutting gas usage, cutting utility usage as much as possible. Some things are fixed so that is about all we can cut at the moment.
And then of course I am working on the office. being more disciplined to get work done. I want to hire a new secretary in the next couple months but I really need to get some things finished up at the office before this happens...so that is what I am doing. My office Can and WILL make more money. It is sooo doable. I am psyched.
I am ready for this. I am pumped. We will succeed and gain freedom. Please help anyway you can if you feel inclined...we could use the support and love.
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Briar Kelly
What's Allison doing.....
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About Me
- Allison
- Hello all...I am a 33 y.o. chiropractor/mom/wife living in Lakewood, OH with my husband Lee , 6+ y.o. Griffin, 3+ y.o Paisley, one on the way, and our dog Mazzy. Most moments these days I feel like I have it all but then there are those mommy moments and I want to cry. On this blog I'd like to share it all...hope you find it somewhat interesting.
7 comments:
I use quicken to track EVERYTHING. It show what's coming in and everything that is going out whether it is a monthly, quarterly or yearly bill. Then I have multiple accounts with savings set up as bills in quicken. Carly savings, Maren savings, emergency fund, irregular expense fund are all set up as bills to be paid in quicken. Also my irregular expense account has been a life saver. I totaled all my car insurances (due every 3 months), my life insurance (paid yearly), my cell phone (paid every 6 months) etc and then divided by 12 to get equal monthly payments. No more, oh crap xxxx is due where is that money coming from. hope that helps, email if you have any questions.
The key to saving big bucks at the grocery (and it sounds stupid and simple, but it works) is to make a list of what you NEED for your weekly meals and stick to that list. I (sadly enough) am so familiar with the grocery I go to, that I make my list according to what aisle each item is on. So if I don't need something on say, aisle 4, I don't even go down there, so I'm not tempted by something I don't need. It kind of sucks at first, but then you learn that you can, in fact, live without that weekly box of Hostess cupcakes you thought were essential and so on. This is how I cut our weekly bill from $160 to around $75. And I do clip coupons, but only for stuff I usually buy, I don't buy something just because I have a coupon for it. And it also helps to take a calculator along with you to track spending (hard to do with 2 kids with you, but it is possible!). I try to think of it as a game (let's see how low we can get our grocery bill this week! Yippee!). Yes, my life is sad and lacking in excitement. Anyways, hope my tips help with the grocery portion of the budget! Good luck:)
I like "My Yodlee", a free site on the Web, where you can consolidate, view and access all of your financial accounts, set up a budget, track your expenses, etc.
Takes a bit to set up but then it works great.
www.yodlee.com
Also, I just read about mint.com, which is another spending tracker site, which looks kind cool.
we are using mint and it is pretty good..having a small glitch but I think I figured it out.
I'm curious, btin, if you then take that monthly insurance amount and put it in a bank acct? or just "account" for it and then that money is not used for anything else? I am not good at bugeting. It's too hard to do on an irregular income like our business. I guess I'm making excuses
you are mom since Btin is in the same biz. :) I make the same excuses though and we have a steady regular income plus mine...sheesh.
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