How To Manage The Family Budget

If you are one of the many families living paycheck to paycheck, budgeting can be a challenge.  There are so many tools available to help people come up with a budget that works for them.  Unfortunately, I have never purchased any of these tools, so I cannot say what I like or dislike about them.  However, I can share with you a tool that I have been using for years that is simple and allows me to see where the money goes. 

It’s called Microsoft Excel and basic first grade math. 

It is common to receive a paycheck twice a month (rather than weekly), making it harder to budget appropriately when predicting your expenses. I know a lot of people who pay their mortgage/rent with one paycheck, leaving them with very little for anything else until that second paycheck rolls around in two weeks.  Trust me. I’ve been there.

I’ve come up with a way to have an even bi-weekly budget, so that I am paying approximately the same amount towards bills with each paycheck, and so that at the end of both payment cycles, I have the same amount of money for other necessities.

The first step in creating any budget is figuring out your expenditures.  Be honest with yourself!  If you spend $200 a month on Starbucks, put it on the list!

Here are some other examples of what you may need to include on your expense list. 

Mortgage/rent=$1100/month

Internet/Cable=$150/month

Car Insurance=$75/month

Groceries=$500/month

Phone (landline) =$100/month

Phone (cell) =$100/month

Gas=$125/month

Home security=$30/month

Electric=$145/month

Water=$25/month

Waste management=$12/month

Pest control services=$33/month

Savings/investments=$100/month

529 savings for children=$100/month

The second step is a little tricky. Once you have the costs, you’ll need to divide them as evenly as possible between your two pay periods (sample sheet below). So, if your total monthly expense is $2600, you will want to try to split up your bills so that you pay $1300 with one paycheck and $1300 with the other.  Please also pay attention to when your bills are due.

The sample sheet I’ve come up with is based on a salary of $3000/month net (no, this is not my income; I am just using this figure to make things easier).  In the below spreadsheet, I decided to pay the 529 account, the landline phone, internet and cable, car insurance and waste management bills with the first paycheck of the month. I decided to pay the 529 account, the cell phone, the electric, the home security, the pest control and the water bills with the second paycheck of the month.

*You’ll notice that even though I do not pay my mortgage twice per month, I listed a mortgage payment for both pay cycles.  Rather than paying the large mortgage payment with one paycheck, I divided the mortgage amount and added it to both pay periods.  It’s sort of like writing a check to yourself and cashing it when your mortgage is due. I did this to distribute the expenses more evenly. Please feel free to divide your expenses as you see fit.  This is just what works for us.

As you can see, I also have a “predicted” column and an “actual” column.  The “actual” column isn’t necessary, but I like to see where my money goes.  For instance, if I decide to buy something for myself or go out to eat, I note it as an extra in the “actual” column.  This way, every month, I know exactly where every penny went.  It’s also interesting to see monthly spending trends.

I’ve found that deducting money from each paycheck every month in smaller amounts doesn’t hit the pocket as hard when it’s time to pay the bills.  Is this the very definition of paycheck to paycheck living?  Possibly, but it doesn’t ever stress me out in the way that “paycheck to paycheck living” is normally described.  When it comes down to it, you should have the same amount of money to play with regardless of how you decide to budget.  I hope you find the way that works best for your family. 

Happy budgeting!

How to Remove Deodorant Stains

I’m positive that most women reading this can relate to this scenario.  You are getting dressed up to go out.  You have on your favorite jewelry.  Your hair and makeup are perfect.  You take one final look in the mirror, and DANG IT, you have white deodorant marks on your clothes!  

What do you do?  

Most of you probably curse yourself out for not being more careful about putting your shirt or dress over your head.  Or you remind yourself that next time, you should put your deodorant on AFTER you get dressed.  You are faced with a dilemma.  You either get a wet cloth and try to wipe the deodorant off, or you go to your closet and frantically try to find something else that is just as fabulous to wear.  

If you chose option A and go with the wet cloth, you’ll find that although the stains appear to be gone, after your clothing dries (and you are already out),   those precious deodorant stains come right back.  If you chose option B, you head out in a new outfit, but you’re in a bad mood because you don’t look nearly as cute as you would have looked in the shirt that now has deodorant on it.  Darn deodorant stain!

Well, here is a tip that can hopefully relieve you of some of your stress in this situation.  Once you notice the dreaded white deodorant marks, take the shirt or dress off.  Then, rub a non-stained section of the shirt onto the stained section.  The dye from the fabric will rub against the stain, and within seconds, the marks will be gone.  I usually try to take a part of the fabric from the inside of the garment to rub the outside with.  This way, if the deodorant comes off on the clean part of the fabric, at least it’s on the inside and cannot be seen. 

I find this solution works best with black clothing, but it has been successful for me no matter what color I am wearing.  

I hope you'll give it a try! Thanks for reading!

Grocery Lists, Meal Planning and Fun Recipe Books

I used to be one of those extreme coupon people, only not nearly as extreme as the ones on TV.  One day I realized that I was getting great bargains and that made me happy.  However, I was getting great bargains on things I didn’t really need or want.  I was coming home with lots of granola bars and paper towels, but not much that I could make a good dinner with.  Also, a lot of the bargains were for unhealthy foods like cookies and fruit gummies.  I’m not against unhealthy foods.  I generally cook with love, rather than low fat or non-fat ingredients.  But in my couponing days, in the name of a good deal, most of the things that came home with me were sugary snacks that most people would not feed their families for dinner.  So, I decided to stop the coupon craze, and I started meal planning instead.  It sounds simple, and now that I’ve been doing it for years, it is simple.  But it was harder in the beginning than I thought it would be.  Keep reading to see how my “system” came to be.

I started by pre-planning meals by the month.  So, for instance, below is an example of next month’s calendar with the meals I am planning on cooking for dinner.  Also pictured below is the food list I print out for grocery shopping (I included July’s food list because I haven’t completed August yet). I split the food shopping list in half based on when I receive my paychecks.  So, I grocery shop for the top half of the sheet with my end of the month check, and I grocery shop for the bottom half with my middle of the month check.

Calendar with meals

Food shopping list

Because I already know what I am cooking, grocery shopping becomes very simple.  I only buy what I need to make the meals that I’ve planned, as well as any necessities such as milk, toothpaste or juice.  And yes, sticking to the list in the beginning was difficult.  But my food bill literally shrunk in half (and I didn’t use coupons), so it was worth the effort that meal planning requires.

Here are some tips on meal planning:

1. It is okay to repeat meals more than once a month.  I repeat vegetables a lot because my children will only eat a few different types of veggies.  However, I challenge myself to try not to repeat too much in one month’s time because I like variety and I think it’s good for my children to eat different things.
2. If you have kids, plan the meals based on your schedules.  If your kids are into sports or clubs, time is probably crucial during the week, so I would suggest planning the quickest meals for your busiest days.
3.  Meal planning doesn’t always work out.  Some days, we have way too much food leftover, so we have spontaneous “leftover” days.  Or sometimes, we decide to go out to eat.  So, plans change and it’s okay.  When this happens, I just shuffle the meals around to the next day, week or even to the next month. 
4. Don’t stop experimenting.  Once I had enough food to fill a month without any repeats, I stopped looking for new recipes.  Big mistake!  Keep looking for foods that interest you and your family!
5. Create a recipe book with your kids (see the picture of ours below).  When I first had the meal planning idea, I was basically cooking the same things week after week.  So, I decided to go to the library and take home some cookbooks (with pictures).  My kids and I flipped through the cookbooks and tagged all of the meals that we thought looked good.  Then, we started making them, one night at a time.  We created our own recipe book with a ratings system (3 stars means we love it; 2 stars means it was decent and that we’d try it again; 1 star means we hated it).  Not only did this add new meals to our rotation, it included the kids and got them excited about dinner.  We also have a dessert recipe book.  The kids seem to like that one a little bit more than the dinner book.  J

So, that’s my meal planning system in a nutshell!  Happy planning!

Christmas Shopping Year-round

So, we recently got through the Christmas in July sales, and I believe I even saw some summer “Black Friday” marketing attempts by a retailer that rhymes with Farget.  Is this crazy?  Yes…and no.  Although I am not alone in being someone who shops for Christmas gifts all year long, I know that folks who join me in this madness are few and far between.  Most of the time, I get comments like “You’re crazy” when I tell people about my early Christmas shopping habit.  However, if you’ve read my blog about grocery shopping and dinner lists, you can probably understand a little bit more that budgeting is something I do on a regular basis.  And no, I am not a cheapskate.  I budget so that I can overindulge on things that really matter to me.  

Christmas shopping throughout the year is just another form of managing my budget.  I know most people start buying gifts in November and December.  This is considered normal.  But what I find abnormal is spending a large chunk of money in a very short period of time(unless you have a specific savings account stored away for the holidays) during a time of year when everything is bound to be more expensive, even with the “sale” pricing available during the Christmas season.  Last year, I added a specific toy to my Amazon Wish List at the beginning of the year and made a note of the price when I added it.  The toy was least expensive in the month of June (not really sure why).  As the months progressed, the price increased.  By the time the real Black Friday rolled around, that particular toy was $5 more than it was when I originally added it earlier in the year.  I know this doesn’t work with everything, but sometimes it helps to pay attention to the month to month pricing of something that grabs your eye.  

Buying a few gifts every month, starting in January or February, doesn’t leave a big dent in your wallet come Christmas time, and it also offers you a less stressful shopping experience when the official holiday shopping time arrives.  While everyone else is punching each other in the face and crawling over each other in the aisles on Black Friday, you can just sit back and relax.  

Another benefit to early Christmas shopping is keeping the people you love in mind all year, rather than just during the holiday season.  I live in Florida and most of my family members live up North, so shopping for them throughout the year keeps me connected to them without using social media. While shopping, I think about them and what they may be interested in or what they may find useful.  Sometimes, I’ll shop without any intention of buying anything, and then I’ll see something that is just the perfect gift for someone I love!  Shopping earlier in the year with thoughts of them in my mind is peaceful.  I know that if I left my shopping until the end of the year, it would be a much more nerve -wracking experience, and my family would probably wind up with gifts that aren’t nearly as heartfelt. 

I know early shopping isn’t for everyone, but I urge you to try it at least once.  I promise you that it will be worth it, both financially and mentally!