If you have kids and they either go to a school building other than your home or have activities they go to, then you probably have an annoying problem.
It is the endless requests for teeny, tiny amounts of money. The fifty cents for popcorn day, the seventy five cents for the vending machine at dance, or the change to spend at the school store.
I find this annoying on a couple of levels. The first is that to put this in your budget is tedious. The second is if you don't, it gets away from you fast. Any time you have a petty cash situation, you pretty much are blindly spending. When you are blind that almost aways equates to spending way more than you think you are.
The way most parents hande this is they hand over dollar bills. I don't like to do that because I don't trust my kids to get the change back to me, and I don't trust whichever fourth grader is volunteering at the cash register to make correct change.
At this point some of you are thinking, "who cares it is a dollar?"
This is when I want to reach through the internet and shake you and say "WAKE UP this is why you don't understand why you seem to be burning through money. Your kids are dropping it all over the sidewalk!" It adds up people. If you give your child a dollar a week for whatever, and they spend half and lose the other half, that is $26.00 a year. I can feed my family dinner for almost a week on that, and we all know you are giving your kids way more than that a week.
This is what we do instead. We have a change jar next to where our keys are. We have a drawer in the bathroom near the hamper. Whatever change we find, in our pockets, on the ground, in the car, dropped around the house, we put in these two locations. We take change out of the jar to pay for this stuff. We give them exact change. This teaches them how to count change and also how to be responsible for money, because if they lose it, then they won't have enough to get their stuff. If they decide they want to save it, they have to be careful, because if I find it anywhere besides their bag then I put it back in the jar. Problem solved.
By the way, this same technique works for adults who want to get stuff out of vending machines or pay for parking meters, etc.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
Bread is Crazy Expensive
Yeah.... no it is not.
"Oh then you must be baking your own bread. I don't have time for that Carey."
Yeah... no I'm not.
I mean I can, and I have. I make absolutely delicious bread. I also can make my own biscuits and tortillas. I do save money that way, but it is time consuming..
Guess what? I buy bread for only pennies more than the ingredients to make it. I can get a 20 count flour tortillas for $.79. I can get a 20 count resturant grade hamburger buns for $2.
I even get bagels for about $1 a bag.
How? It is called the wholesale bakery. They buy up bread at or only a day or so past the expiration date and sell it for a fraction of the cost. They have all sorts of stuff, including whole wheat. You just have to check carefully that it isn't way past dates or for mold (rare). It is just as good as the stuff you pay three times as much for. I promise.
Caution: you must freeze all that you will not consume within a week of purchase. Otherwise it is totally fine.
"Oh then you must be baking your own bread. I don't have time for that Carey."
Yeah... no I'm not.
I mean I can, and I have. I make absolutely delicious bread. I also can make my own biscuits and tortillas. I do save money that way, but it is time consuming..
Guess what? I buy bread for only pennies more than the ingredients to make it. I can get a 20 count flour tortillas for $.79. I can get a 20 count resturant grade hamburger buns for $2.
I even get bagels for about $1 a bag.
How? It is called the wholesale bakery. They buy up bread at or only a day or so past the expiration date and sell it for a fraction of the cost. They have all sorts of stuff, including whole wheat. You just have to check carefully that it isn't way past dates or for mold (rare). It is just as good as the stuff you pay three times as much for. I promise.
Caution: you must freeze all that you will not consume within a week of purchase. Otherwise it is totally fine.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Let's Talk About Eating Out
Seriously, this is my biggest achilles heel. Some people splurge on shoes, others handbags, but my deal is I enjoy eating in resturants. Less common, but still money down the toilet, I really enjoy the occasional Starbucks.
Today I purchased a chicken biscuit and a medium drink on my way to my one year old's well child visit. It cost me $3.98 and it tasted heavenly. It tasted heavenly not just becaue it was from Chick Fil A and I swear they must sprinke some sort of addictive controlled substance into their food, but also because I did not have to cook it. This was the first time I had purchased any food from a resturant in over a month. If you saw me with a frappuchino in hand, those don't count because my mom gave me the gift of Starbucks for Christmas.
At this point, I am sure many people are wondering what the big deal is about one stinking chicken biscuit for $3.98.
It matters because I am easily able to feed my family of 6 dinner for $4, in fact I do it all of the time. I am not talking rice and beans either. I made a turkey pot pie with leftover turkey from our Sunday meal for $4, and that thing could rival any resturant pot pie out there. It was sinfully delish.
Sure one time is not a big deal, but it is a slippery slope that adds up. I went through a stage when I was pregnant with #4 and suffering from really bad all day sickness that I was hitting Chick Fil A once a week for over $20 on days that my husband worked late. I was spending nearly $100 a month on Thursday night dinner, had not even fed my husband, and knew that I could easily buy a whole week's groceries with that $100.
It adds up. All of the trips through the drive through are flushing hard earned money down the toilet. I am sure that the $1200 I spent on our weekly Chick Fil A trip that year could have gone to something way more important, like cover our OOP perscription drug cost for the year, towards paying our house off, or retirement. It coud have gone into the e fund which always gets hit in the winter, or towards college.
Easy to avoid in the lean months, easy to fall off the wagon in the fat ones.
Today I purchased a chicken biscuit and a medium drink on my way to my one year old's well child visit. It cost me $3.98 and it tasted heavenly. It tasted heavenly not just becaue it was from Chick Fil A and I swear they must sprinke some sort of addictive controlled substance into their food, but also because I did not have to cook it. This was the first time I had purchased any food from a resturant in over a month. If you saw me with a frappuchino in hand, those don't count because my mom gave me the gift of Starbucks for Christmas.
At this point, I am sure many people are wondering what the big deal is about one stinking chicken biscuit for $3.98.
It matters because I am easily able to feed my family of 6 dinner for $4, in fact I do it all of the time. I am not talking rice and beans either. I made a turkey pot pie with leftover turkey from our Sunday meal for $4, and that thing could rival any resturant pot pie out there. It was sinfully delish.
Sure one time is not a big deal, but it is a slippery slope that adds up. I went through a stage when I was pregnant with #4 and suffering from really bad all day sickness that I was hitting Chick Fil A once a week for over $20 on days that my husband worked late. I was spending nearly $100 a month on Thursday night dinner, had not even fed my husband, and knew that I could easily buy a whole week's groceries with that $100.
It adds up. All of the trips through the drive through are flushing hard earned money down the toilet. I am sure that the $1200 I spent on our weekly Chick Fil A trip that year could have gone to something way more important, like cover our OOP perscription drug cost for the year, towards paying our house off, or retirement. It coud have gone into the e fund which always gets hit in the winter, or towards college.
Easy to avoid in the lean months, easy to fall off the wagon in the fat ones.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Creative Spending
My almost 8 year old daughter's birthday is in early February, which presents certain logistical issues that can be difficult if proper planning does not take place. For one thing, her birthday comes on the tails of Christmas, and it also hapens to be smack in the middle of the lean season for commissions. However, she has never actually caught onto this reality. I manage to put on quite the celebration for her.
This year she had some very specific requests, among them were new bedding for her room and earrings for her newly pierced ears. So far, starting the week after Christmas, I have managed to get her 3 sets of stearling silver earings, 2 headbands, a travel game, and the longed for bedding. Anyone want to venture a guess at my total out of pocket cost?
$20
How did I do it? There were three separate transactions. The first transaction was the earrings and the game. I purchased them with Kohls cash leftover from holiday purcases, during their after Christmas blowout sale. My total after my Kohls cash was used was just over $3.
My second transaction was at Old Navy, when I was shopping for myself with a gift card and I had a few extra dollars remaining, so I purchased the two headbands. My out of pocket was about a dollar.
My third transaction I found the bedding on clearance at a store for which I had a gift card, applied the gift card to the total and paid $16 out of pocket. Not bad considering this was a comforter, bed skirt, two shams and three throw pillows.
Just about anything can be accomplished if you take the time to plan appropriately. Yes, I realize that I used a gift card intended for myself, but in reality I made a loan to myself. Come summer, I will return to that store and spend cash on myself. For now, I accomplished what I needed to without using a credit card and I will not be paying interest on her gifts for months on end.
This year she had some very specific requests, among them were new bedding for her room and earrings for her newly pierced ears. So far, starting the week after Christmas, I have managed to get her 3 sets of stearling silver earings, 2 headbands, a travel game, and the longed for bedding. Anyone want to venture a guess at my total out of pocket cost?
$20
How did I do it? There were three separate transactions. The first transaction was the earrings and the game. I purchased them with Kohls cash leftover from holiday purcases, during their after Christmas blowout sale. My total after my Kohls cash was used was just over $3.
My second transaction was at Old Navy, when I was shopping for myself with a gift card and I had a few extra dollars remaining, so I purchased the two headbands. My out of pocket was about a dollar.
My third transaction I found the bedding on clearance at a store for which I had a gift card, applied the gift card to the total and paid $16 out of pocket. Not bad considering this was a comforter, bed skirt, two shams and three throw pillows.
Just about anything can be accomplished if you take the time to plan appropriately. Yes, I realize that I used a gift card intended for myself, but in reality I made a loan to myself. Come summer, I will return to that store and spend cash on myself. For now, I accomplished what I needed to without using a credit card and I will not be paying interest on her gifts for months on end.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Preparedness
Let's talk about then versus now.
For many years, people prepared for the lean times. They knew times would come where they didn't have everything on hand that they would need, specifically food and fuel. Usually the lean time was winter, so families would prepare for that time by canning and preserving food at harvest and setting aside what they knew they would need later.
Why do we not still do this?
Really think about it. Salary or not, many people live from check to check. They wait until they have money in hand and they spend it. This is not just about saving money, but also food and basic essentials.
If I shopped just whenever I had cash with no bigger plan for my family, not only would I be spending far too much, but I would be putting myself in significant financial danger. Why? Because on commission there are weeks that my husband makes lots and weeks that he makes absolutely nothing. I can't just spend his check to nothing in the fat times, I have to set aside money for the lean times. I also set aside food.
Yes food.
My husband's fatter season is summer. We set aside money for winter bills but we also buy extra food. When meats go on loss leader we work on filling our freezer and when nonperishables are on sale we stock up those items. We try to have a 2 to 3 month supply of food by winter. This allows us to buy food only when it is on sale. That alone saves us thousands of dollars a year, but it also acts as a safety net if necessary.
Real life example of how this works: I cooked a turkey this past Sunday dinner. I bought this turkey after the holidays on blow out. I got it for about $10. The turkey fed us that evening, and it will feed us for all of our other dinners for a week. It will be in turkey tacos, turkey pot pie, turkey and rice, and other manifestations. Because I am using the protein from this turkey as the main staple in our dinners, all of the remaining dinners will cost my family between $3 and $5 each. For less than the cost of a value meal for just myself at McDonald's I am feeding my entire family of 6 dinner each night.
It isn't about how big your family is, or how much you make that determines your cost of living, it is how well you plan and pay attention. If you plan accordingly, your basic needs are very inexpensive. If you do everything on impulse, then you will not be able to do nearly as much. These principles don't just get us through lean times, they allow us to save for things we enjoy like our computer, television, movies tablets etc.
For many years, people prepared for the lean times. They knew times would come where they didn't have everything on hand that they would need, specifically food and fuel. Usually the lean time was winter, so families would prepare for that time by canning and preserving food at harvest and setting aside what they knew they would need later.
Why do we not still do this?
Really think about it. Salary or not, many people live from check to check. They wait until they have money in hand and they spend it. This is not just about saving money, but also food and basic essentials.
If I shopped just whenever I had cash with no bigger plan for my family, not only would I be spending far too much, but I would be putting myself in significant financial danger. Why? Because on commission there are weeks that my husband makes lots and weeks that he makes absolutely nothing. I can't just spend his check to nothing in the fat times, I have to set aside money for the lean times. I also set aside food.
Yes food.
My husband's fatter season is summer. We set aside money for winter bills but we also buy extra food. When meats go on loss leader we work on filling our freezer and when nonperishables are on sale we stock up those items. We try to have a 2 to 3 month supply of food by winter. This allows us to buy food only when it is on sale. That alone saves us thousands of dollars a year, but it also acts as a safety net if necessary.
Real life example of how this works: I cooked a turkey this past Sunday dinner. I bought this turkey after the holidays on blow out. I got it for about $10. The turkey fed us that evening, and it will feed us for all of our other dinners for a week. It will be in turkey tacos, turkey pot pie, turkey and rice, and other manifestations. Because I am using the protein from this turkey as the main staple in our dinners, all of the remaining dinners will cost my family between $3 and $5 each. For less than the cost of a value meal for just myself at McDonald's I am feeding my entire family of 6 dinner each night.
It isn't about how big your family is, or how much you make that determines your cost of living, it is how well you plan and pay attention. If you plan accordingly, your basic needs are very inexpensive. If you do everything on impulse, then you will not be able to do nearly as much. These principles don't just get us through lean times, they allow us to save for things we enjoy like our computer, television, movies tablets etc.
My Story
Hi my name is Carey.. I am a stay at home mother to four chilldren, aging from 9 to 1. I have been married for 11 years. My husband works in sales. Our entire income is commission and dividend based. We have had no predictable salary since I resigned my position as a case worker in 2003 when our oldest was born.
The life of commission only is tremultuous. There are ups and downs, fat and thin times. Most people struggle and even fail to live this way, especially in the current economic times that we live in.
I started this blog to share some of the more creative ways that we manage to live on a sinngle income that is unpredictable. Many of these techniques will work no matter what your work situation may be.
The life of commission only is tremultuous. There are ups and downs, fat and thin times. Most people struggle and even fail to live this way, especially in the current economic times that we live in.
I started this blog to share some of the more creative ways that we manage to live on a sinngle income that is unpredictable. Many of these techniques will work no matter what your work situation may be.
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