Budget Archives - Page 7 of 21

Category: Budget

Creating Your Sinking Funds

Posted on March 5, 2018March 3, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Today’s post is all about some budgeting basics – creating your sinking funds.

If you’re new to sinking funds, then just know they are the tool to help you afford anything you want. The gist of sinking funds is that you have a budget category that is usually more expensive than your normal month-to-month ones, and is used only a few times each year. To be successful with sinking funds, you need to create a section in your budget to break these annual (or quarterly) expenses into monthly ones.

Let’s get to an example:

For instance if you have to pay your personal and real property tax every December of about $1200, then you know each month you should be setting aside $100 into a savings account. That way when your tax bill is due, you have the money already saved.

In today’s video I’m going to talk all about creating your sinking funds, how to know which categories you should be saving for, and tips on finding the money in your monthly budget to save. You can watch the video online or down below:

To grab your sinking funds spreadsheet just like the one our family uses, check out the shop.

For more budgeting help, check out these posts:

Creating your budget has never been easier when you use this budget template

Why you should have an emergency fund

The budget checklist

Favorite Budget Dog Products and Tools

Posted on March 2, 2018March 2, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Affiliate Disclosure: I am grateful to be of service and bring you content free of charge. In order to do this, please note that when you click links and purchase items, in most (not all) cases I will receive a referral commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff. Thank you!

If you’ve been around for more than 30 seconds you probably realize just how crazy we are over here. Not only do we have a toddler, but we also have three rescue pups. These dogs are some of the best, most sincere and funniest beings I see on a daily basis. I really couldn’t imagine my life without them. Sure, some days are hard when the dogs are needy and our son is extra grumpy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I take finding a good deal and staying within out budget very seriously, which also means staying in budget for our dogs. Over the past few years we’ve found a few products and tools that have really helped being the crazy-dog family a little more manageable. I thought I would share with you what we can’t live without and what you can probably save your money on.

Here are our favorite budget dog products and tools:

Self-watering water bowl – this is genius! We bought this one a few weeks ago and love it. We had a bigger one that held about twice as much water, which was nice until we had to fill it. It was too heavy for me to lift without spilling water everywhere. So we opted for a smaller one, which is just fine with us. I would much rather fill it twice a week then have to clean water from the kitchen floor every time.

Dog bowls – this tool is an obvious one. We used to have a slow-feeder like this one when Tiny was a pup because she would eat so fast and end up choking. Now that she’s older, she’s slowed down on eating and has realized that she will always have food. We opted for simple metal bowls since we can easily clean them and pack them to travel. Each dog gets their own bowl and they know which bowl is their’s, too.

Food container – we have two containers, a small one for traveling and then a bigger one for home. It works great because we can keep the food out of the bag, which always seemed to tip over. Plus, we can snap the lids closed to keep the dog food out of the hands of our toddler who likes to explore.

De-shedding brush – I bought this one from Furminator when Maggie was just a pup (she just turned 8!) and it’s still holding on to life. It works great with Maggie and her thick hair, but also on Bud who sheds like mad-man!

Dog grooming kit – I’ve mentioned this before on my Instagram, but it’s been a minute. I invested in a home dog grooming kit about two years ago. We’re lucky that only one dog needs to get groomed, but she needs it every 8 weeks…. and that was adding up at almost $45 each trip. So I bought the kit, which cost less than one trip to the groomer. Now we can shave her, trim her face and get her looking less homeless in about 30 minutes. Yes, it creates a mess and we prefer to do it outside, but it’s worth saving the money.

Nail trimmer – This is another tool we bought to save us some money in the long run. With three dogs, nail trimming was getting expensive at over $5 per dog each time. So we bought these trimmers online and use them every few weeks. We usually wait until evening time when the dogs are relaxed and I just sit next to them and trim away.

To be honest, I am so happy to have our son growing up with dogs, it was something I knew I wanted before having him. I was raised around dogs and my husband always had a dog growing up, so it was something we knew was important. I see our son with our dogs and it just blows my mind the compassion and love these three have for him. Every day they are the first to greet him in the morning and they are the last to walk out of his room at bedtime. Our son even has a few chores that he’s responsible for and most of them involve the dogs. They are so good to him and so patient. Plus, I’m pretty sure they would follow him just about anywhere trying to protect him.

If you have a dog, two dogs, or five dogs then you need to make sure you have an emergency kit for those just in case moments.

Our Budget Planner and Setup

Posted on February 28, 2018February 28, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Want a peek into our budget planner and how we keep our bills organized?

Well get ready because that’s what today’s post is all about.

Recently I’ve been sharing a closer look into our actual finances with some budget check-ins. I think taking a peek into how other families are managing their money is super helpful. Especially those months where unexpected expenses come up – like needing brakes or medicine for your dog. I started getting a lot of questions on how our money looks – not the actual flow, although I did share how we setup our bank accounts awhile back. But what I do each week to make sure bills are paid, budgets are updated and everything is tracked.

I put together a quick video of what my weekly budget check-in looks like, which is also our money date. In this video I show off how we update our budget each week, track our spending on our online check register (thank you Google Drive) and make sure our bills are getting paid.

Each week I spend about 5-10 minutes just going over our family’s finances. I like to have J around so we can talk about any big bills, trips or expenses that are coming up; however, if he’s not around I still do our weekly check-in (just by myself). It helps a lot to have our time planned out, we do 3 months at a time so I know of any trips, birthdays, or events that we might need a little extra money for. That way when I’m taking a look at our budget for next week, next month, or whenever then I can plan accordingly.

I put together a simple budget planner with a printed budget template, a bill tracker and other notes to make sure we keep our finances in order.

You can watch the video online or down below to see exactly what I do each week:

Here’s the gist of my routine:

I log onto our Google Sheets page that we use as a check register and then log into our online banking. From there I reconcile our bank statement with our register. This takes about 2 minutes since I do it on a weekly basis there isn’t a lot of activity.

Next I open up our budget spreadsheet (I’m working on a new one that will combine your check register with your budget on one screen – I’ll keep you updated!). I also pull out my envelopes for tracking while on the go – make sure I didn’t miss any spending that I need to account for and check the receipts for right amounts. I add in any spending from our online banking, cash, credit cards, etc. to our budget. This takes about 5 minutes if we had a lot of activity, if not then it takes a lot less.

I also compare what bills have posted with our bill tracker to make sure we’re on pace to get everything paid.

I then spend less than a minute seeing where were at for the month – are we over, under, how much money do we have left in groceries, eating out, etc.

Finally I spend about 2 minutes comparing our calendar to our budget – should we be saving some of our eating out money for an upcoming trip, do I need to plan on buying snacks for a road trip, or what does our meal plan need to look like to keep us in our budget.

You can learn more about how we use Google as our check register in this post.

I love using a clamp binder instead of a typical three-ring binder. It takes up less space and I can easily store it in a filing cabinet. Mine is super old, but you can find a similar one on Amazon for less than $4.00. I also use dividers so it makes organization a lot easier, but you could always use post-it notes to separate your different sections. I have a section for: monthly bill tracker, debt payoff, account tracker, paid in full (all of our paid off letters and trackers go here), and goals.

Focus on Finances Check In | A New Financial Challenge

Posted on February 19, 2018February 16, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

We’ve made it! Half-way through February. Can you believe it? I really don’t know where 2018 is going. I swear it was just New Year’s Eve and I was crashing before 1:00 am even with people at our house. This momma needs her sleep!

Not too long ago (about 2 weeks, if we’re counting) I introduced you to our this year’s Focus on Finances challenge. Basically I pick the shortest month to set some hard financial goals for our family. It’s never easy, but it’s always worth it.

The bottom line is, this year is rough. We set a pretty big goal for ourselves of saving an additional $500 this month. So far, we’re not even half-way there. But that’s okay.

I am not in panic mode.

Here’s the deal – I get paid at the end of the month (31st) and the middle of the month (16th). The end of the month paycheck goes towards all of our bills and expenses between the 1st and 16th. Then the second paycheck covers the remaining part of the month.

The first half of the month is always a bit tight. That’s when we’re replenishing a lot we’ve ran out of, most of our bills hit during that time and this month we ended up needing to get a few things around the house and for our dogs. Luckily I created sinking funds for those areas, but I really hate pulling from a savings account when we have the money sitting there.

The next part of the month should be a lot smoother. I don’t see any big purchases we’ll need to make coming up. knock on wood. The only expense I am anticipating is our Amazon subscribe and save order, but this month it’s a smaller order.

I am pretty positive that next part of the month will be good at us reaching our goal or at least coming pretty darn close.

How are you doing on your big goal for this month? Are you half-way there yet? What setbacks have you faced?

Let me know in the comments!

Just remember – do not get discouraged if you’re not close to reaching your goal. This month isn’t about successes and failures. It’s about pushing ourselves and our budgets to see what small sacrifices we can make every day to help our financial situations.

5 Things We Don’t Spend Money On

Posted on February 7, 2018February 6, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

There are some expenses each month you probably notice that are just wasteful. I mean, let’s be honest with ourselves, shall we? We all do it and we all have those expenses that we don’t need to be spending money on and we aren’t getting the full benefits out of, right?

Once my husband, J decided to go back to school full time we took a good hard look at our budget to see what expenses we could cut. Some of these expense were hard to say goodbye to (hello! it’s more of an emotional attachment and not so much an actual need) and some of them were super easy to kiss goodbye.

In today’s video I’m sharing the 5 things we don’t spend money on each month. I also am diving into why I think these expenses are just money suckers and don’t actually provide much value to you.

You can watch the video of the 5 things we don’t spend money on online or down below:

Here’s a recap of today’s video:

These are the expenses we gave up months ago when my husband went back to school full time. To be honest, we don’t really miss them that much and they weren’t that hard to give up.

1) TV
2) Cell Phone Payments
3) Subscription Services
4) Birthday Cards
5) ATM Fees

For more budgeting help check out these posts:

How To Create A Budget

Free Monthly Bill Tracker

Why You Should Have An Emergency Fund

Need More Help?

If you’re looking for a great tool to help keep your family on budget, then check out out my budget spreadsheet. Each month is laid out right in front of you where you can keep track of what you budget and what you actually spend. Now you’ll know in real time how you’re doing each month.

How To Increase Your Credit Score

Posted on February 2, 2018January 26, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Lately I’ve received a few questions from several of you wondering about how to increase your credit score. We talk so much about paying down debt, building a savings and paying cash (or using debit cards) for most of our spending that you’re wondering how that affects your credit score. I put together a few top tips on understanding what your credit score is, how to access it and ways to improve it.

First – Check Your Score and Report

Experian, Equifax and Transunion are three places that offer one free credit report each year. What I would recommend is setting an alert on your calendar (I use Google calendar) to remind you every four months to print out a new report. That way you’re checking it multiple times a year and it’s not costing you anything.

You can also signup for a free service like Credit Karma to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity and to get an idea of your credit score.

Second – Know The Main Factors To Your Credit Score

Payment History – Make sure you’re making your payments and that they are on time

Amounts Owed – Your total balances on your accounts make a big difference for your score. The amount you have available is weighted pretty high. For instance, you have a credit card with a $10,000 limit, but carry a $9,000 balance. That will hurt you more than carrying the same card with only a $2,000 balance.

Length of Credit History – Another portion of your credit score is made up of how long your accounts have been opened and how long it has been since you last used the account.

Types of Credit Used – Are your accounts installment or revolving? This will be taken into consideration.

New Credit – The last piece to your credit score is if you’ve tried to open any new accounts – credit cards, loans, or others recently.

Third – Take Steps To Increase Your Credit Score

If you’re wanting to improve your credit score then you can do a few simple things now that can have a big impact in the future. These are just a few tips:

Pay your bills on time. You could setup auto pay for your bills to make sure payment is sent on time and to avoid any late fees.
If you’re running behind on any bills – get up-to-date. If you’ve missed a payment or two and are behind then you need to work hard to get caught up. The longer you pay your bills on time AFTER you’ve been late then the more your score will increase.
Collection debts stay on your report for seven years, so avoid having any bill go to collections. Even if you’ve paid the debt off in full, it will stay on your report for seven years.
Keep balances low and pay off each month
If you’re wanting to raise your score for the short-term then don’t close any paid off cards. If you’re looking more for long-term reasons then closing an account may not be a bad thing, but in the short term it could hurt.
Don’t open too many accounts at one time.

February’s Focus on Finances {2018}

Posted on January 31, 2018December 15, 2017 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Around this time each year, I like to declare February our Focus on Finances month. Basically, I like to bring back a simple focus to our family’s finances. It can be hard with the holidays and all of the overages to get back on track.

Motivation is hard when it comes to budgeting money and paying down debt. It’s really hard. But no one said this type of freedom was going to be easy. So now that Christmas has come and gone, and our bank accounts have had time to recover it’s time to focus on building our savings while paying down debt.

I love to call February our Focus on Finances month. I started this tradition (can I call it that?) back in 2016 with a simple desire to be more prepared for when the baby came. It really helped J and I think ahead and create a budget a few months before Dent arrived. We were so grateful we had financially prepared for our son’s arrival because he ended up coming three months early!

The next year our goal this time around was building our emergency fund. With the high costs of insurance deductibles and medical bills our emergency fund was drained. My goal was to have enough in our emergency fund to cover each of our insurance deductibles for those just-in-case moments. Boy were we glad we did that! We ended up fighting with our insurance companies (mine and J’s) until October 2017 over our son’s NICU stay back in April 2016. It was a mess and brought a lot of stress, but knowing we had some cushion made it a lot less painful (just very annoying!).

You might be wondering what our goal is this year? Well after given it a lot of thought…

We are going to work on rebuilding our emergency fund.

J went back to school last Fall and it’s a full time program. He’s unable to work because of the time commitment and commute time he has to put into his program, which is fine! I love the fact he was able to follow a passion of his, but that means our income is down to one. We’ve been able to keep our emergency fund at a decent level, but it would be nice to have a bit more in the bank for those rainy days (or the days he needs new brakes).

Here’s the breakdown of what we plan to do for this month:

We would like to put back an extra $500 into our savings during February. It’s going to be tough. February is a shorter month and since we’re down to one income it’s going to be hard to do. We plan on sticking to our grocery budget of $100 per person and stick to our eating out budget of $60 for the month. We’re also going to take a look around our home to see if there are any items we could potentially sell on Facebook Swap Shops or Craigslist to make a little extra money.

What are you going to do this month to focus on finances?

If you want to focus on building your emergency fund this time around, take a look at this savings challenge we started back in January. You might be getting a late start, but it’s totally doable and could make a huge impact by the end of this year.

If you want to set your sights on preparing for your first child (or second or fourth) then take a look at an updated version of our financially preparing for a baby. We learned a lot over the first year of our son’s life and would do things a bit differently this time around.

If you’re hoping to start paying down more debt then check out 4 secrets to help jump start your family.

You could also spend this time saving for a fun vacation and putting money aside for some summer trips you want to plan. You could create a sinking fund to help you get enough money saved for your next vacation.

Favorite Budget Books

Posted on January 29, 2018January 29, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Affiliate Disclosure: Please note that when you click links and purchase items, in most (not all) cases I will receive a referral commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff. Thank you!

Growing up we weren’t rewarded for grades or sports achievements. Instead, we were rewarded for reading money books. Strange, I know. But that’s how our Dad worked. He thought that by encouraging us at a young age to get interested in money, savings and thinking bigger picture than we would be better off. I like to think it worked and believe that’s where I got a love of numbers from such an early age. I was recently asked what money books did I read as a little girl and would I encourage our son to read them as well.

While I can’t name every book I read (and some were more business related), I wanted to go through my top four for you. If you haven’t read these then I suggest taking a look or adding them to your wish list. They are monumental in helping shift your brain into breaking that paycheck-to-paycheck so many of us are stuck in. Plus, the reading is usually pretty light, which is perfect after a long day of chasing toddlers around.

Here we go, my favorite budget books:

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Richest Man In Babylon

The Total Money Makeover

The Simple Dollar

My favorite by far is probably Richest Man In Babylon. I read that and it changed the way I think of savings. I realized why my parents had me put back 10% of my weekly allowance into a savings envelope and then once a quarter we drove to the bank to deposit into our own savings account.

I do plan on carrying on the tradition by having Dent read some money and budgeting books as well. They offer Financial Peace Junior for little ones and I think that might be a good place to start once he’s a bit older. He already has a savings account and any time he gets a little money for birthdays or Christmas, we deposit the money into his account.

What are some of your favorite money or budget books?

How We Schedule Our Money Dates, What We Talk About, and How We Make Sure Our Budget Is On AutoPilot | January Budget Q&A

Posted on January 26, 2018January 26, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

I’m popping in real quick today to answer your budgeting questions. Each month I sit down to answer any questions YOU have when it comes to money, home management, organization, being a crazed Mom, and so on. Over the past few weeks I heard from a few of you about getting the new year off on the right foot. So I’m digging deeper into how we schedule our money dates, and how we make sure our bills on auto-pay get taken care of without any hiccups.

If you’re new around here (hi!) then you should know each month I try to sit down to answer any questions you have. It’s probably my favorite post of the month, if I’m being honest. I love being able to help you make your life a little bit easier. So if you have any questions, be sure to leave a comment below or you can message me on Facebook or send me an email from my contact page.

This month I received a few questions about money dates. Specifically how to schedule a money date and what you should talking about with your spouse. I also am answering how we set our budget on autopilot, which means our money dates can be a lot shorter!

You can watch this month’s Q&A online or down below:

To cut straight to what interests you, check out the time stamps.

How We Schedule Our Money Dates – 1:08
What We Talk About On Our Money Dates – 3:08
How We Make Sure Bills Get Paid – 7:07

Also, if you need more advice or have any questions then check out the previous month’s Q&A’s.

SEPTEMBER 2017 – SPENDING $100 PER PERSON ON GROCERIES, EATING OUT BUDGET, HOW OFTEN DO WE MEAL PLAN, WHAT DO WE ORDER FROM AMAZON

OCTOBER 2017 – HOW MUCH DO WE MEAL PLAN, BUDGETING WITH INCONSISTENT INCOME, GETTING READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS

NOVEMBER 2017 – HOW WE STAY MOTIVATED, CHORES FOR OUR TODDLER, AND BUDGETING FOR CHRISTMAS

DECEMBER 2017 – PLANNING A NEW YEAR, REVISING YOUR BUDGET, AND SETTING NEW GOALS

For more posts on budgeting, check out these favorites:

How We Plan Our Time In Advance

How To Have A Money Date

Get Your Bill Tracker

Need More Help?

Tips for Buying in Bulk

Posted on January 19, 2018January 18, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Do you buy in bulk from any membership stores? We love Sam’s Club at our house (not that we have anything against Costco, but they aren’t as close to us). I’ve been a member since college thanks to my Dad’s office extending me a card. These days my purchases are much different than at 22 (which usually consisted of wine, chips, and sorority necessities for any events). Nowadays we like to buy meat when they have it on sale, bread for lunches and any other frozen meals that are a good deal. We also stock up on dog bones a few time each year.

Watch the video online or down below for some of my best tips for buying in bulk:

We’ve learned with this whole budgeting thing that it’s best to buy certain items at wholesale clubs, but you have to be careful. Some items are more costly per unit and the expiration dates make it hard to use in time. Here are a few of my favorite tips for buying in bulk:

Buy Non-Perishable Items

We love buying toilet paper, paper towels, detergent and so on in bulk. If there isn’t an expiration date then sign us up. Most food items we tend to not buy in bulk. Since our little guy doesn’t eat a lot, it’s just the two of us consuming majority of the food. Now while I love a good bag of pretzel crisps, it doesn’t mean I need 2 giant bags that size of my head in my cabinet.

In contrast, if you have a larger family and you go through 5 gallons of milk in a week then by all means buy in bulk. You need to know your family and what is best for you. If they have a really good deal on fruit, but you know your family won’t eat it before it goes bad then don’t buy it (but you can freeze it and make smoothies out of it). You just need to know what works and what won’t work.

Compare Unit Prices

Most prices on store labels will have a unit price or a price per pound on it. Make sure you compare those to the ones at your local grocery store. Just because it’s in a bigger package at Costco or Sam’s Club doesn’t mean it’s always a good deal.

Don’t Buy On Impulse

This is one of the worst mistakes you can make at a wholesale club. Just because it looks like a good deal and you get excited about it, doesn’t mean you need to buy it. Make sure you think your purchases through.

Have A Plan

This tip goes with the previous one. Before you step foot into any store have a list of what you need. If you don’t have a list it’s like you’re going in blind and with no direction. You end up putting things in your cart that you don’t need nor really want, which means you spend more money. That money could go to other parts of your budget, so make sure to stick to your list.

Shop Around and Know The Prices

Do your research. Before we go to the store I will search for the bigger, most expensive items we want to buy online. I will compare the unit prices from Sam’s Club to Amazon to Walmart. That way I know without a doubt I am getting the most inexpensive item possible.

Split With Someone

If you find an amazing deal on a case of toilet paper, but couldn’t imagine going through that much then split it. Find a family member or a friend to go in with you. I used to do this in college. I would go in with a friend on some toilet paper and paper towels every few months. We would split the cost and the items. That way we had enough to last us and didn’t have to hid extra toilet paper under our bed when it wouldn’t fit in the cabinet.

Today’s post is all about some budgeting basics – creating your sinking funds.

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Here are our favorite budget dog products and tools:

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Want a peek into our budget planner and how we keep our bills organized?

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You can watch the video of the 5 things we don’t spend money on online or down below:

Need More Help?

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First – Check Your Score and Report

Second – Know The Main Factors To Your Credit Score

Third – Take Steps To Increase Your Credit Score

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We are going to work on rebuilding our emergency fund.

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Here we go, my favorite budget books:

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You can watch this month’s Q&A online or down below:

Need More Help?

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Watch the video online or down below for some of my best tips for buying in bulk:

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