budgets

Why should you budget?

Basically you either figure out how to live within your means -  you spend less than you earn - or you go into debt.


That's it.


It doesn't matter how much money you make - if you spend more than you make you are at a deficit - borrowing money. I live in San Fransisco and I know folks who make alarming amounts of money and spend more each month than they make. And yet when I made $30,000 a year - an extremely low amount here in SF, mind you - I was able to save toward my retirement, save into my savings account, and pay off my student loans. So even though I knew people making 4 times more than I made - and even more - I was actually in a better financial position than they were due to my frugal ways. That's right - I was in a better financial position than people making three or four  times what I made.

So how do you do it?

Some people are really good at living within their means.  They may not have savings goals but they may have an aversion to debt - my husband was like this when I met him.  And this is great if this is  you too! He had a big savings and no debt - a perfect place to be. If you are this way you may still want to draft a budget and get some savings goals down on paper - to buy a house, retire, pay for your kids college, etc. Just to get you excited about saving. Another sort of 'lives within their own means' person grew up poor - like me - so they developed really cheap hobbies and they think eating beans for dinner multiple times a week is totally normal. Again - this is great! Unlike my husband I tend to spend to the limit of my income, but not over, unless I have some actual savings goals. A budget really helps me see my goals and how I can get there simply by the choices I make about how to spend my money.

If you are living within your means - but only just - you are at risk. If anything happened- to you, your car, your house, your job - you wouldn't have a cushion to fall back on. You would need to borrow money. You need to have a savings in case of emergency at the very least, and to save for big items like vacations, a home, a car, etc.The general rule of thumb is to have 3 - 6 months living expenses in your savings account, in case of one of these emergencies.

So lets create our budget and start saving today!


Creating a Budget

So you are ready to budget - that's great! Yay! Let's think of something we want ot save for. Emergencies. A home. A vacation. Something because a goal helps.

First up, it does help if you have some idea about what you spend your money on right now, so try to keep track for a month. Computer savvy & do most of your spending on a debit or credit card? Hook your bank accounts and credit cards up to Mint and you can see what you spent your money on last month. Otherwise download from your bank. And add in all the ATM withdraws under miscellaneous.

Shocked?! If you are like a lot of people you just discovered you spent a car payment on coffee shop coffee last month and a mortgage payment on your debt. Never fear - knowing whats going on money wise is half the battle. If you see some spending you are not happy with, change it. I know it seems hard, but it is doable. Bring your own coffee. Get a small regular coffee instead of a big fancy coffee drink. Bring your lunch. Buy groceries and start to cook at home. Small changes add up to big bucks! But I digress!

What do you need to create a budget? A spreadsheet is great, excel or google docs are wonderful. But honestly, a piece of paper works just fine.

So, starting:

List everything you spend money on in one column
List the amount, monthly, in another column

 
Here is a good list to start with:

• Rent or Mortgage
• Renters or Homeowners Insurance
• Debt: Car payment
• Car insurance
• Electricity and Gas
• Garbage
• Water
• Groceries
• Restaurants
• Debt: Credit Cards
• Debt: Student Loans 
• Gifts
• Entertainment (movies, bands, books, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc)
• Coffee Shops 
• Miscellaneous

Total it up.

How much is it? More that you make? Less? Are you including everything?


( Expert budget maker? Add in a monthly amount for annualized costs like car registration,or other annual membership costs like AAA. )


Now, the budgeting part is figuring out how much you want to spend on each thing and then reducing your spending to get there. This is where handy tricks come into play!

Lets say you want to radically reduce spending - so go from $400 a month on lunches out at work to $0. You need to break the habit - spending, and get a new habit: making and bringing lunch.That's hard. But you can do.

First: plan ahead and buy lunch stuff. Keep it simple:

Lunch menu: PB&J, fruit, water

• Bread
• Bananas or other fruit
• Peanut Butter
• Jelly

   
Next make lunch the night before.
Bring it to work.
Repeat for the week.

Now, how to not go to lunch with your friends? How to actually DO IT? That's hard but not impossible.   

• Trick one: Have no other options. Leave your money and ATM/credit cards at home. Once you get used to the new habit you can start bringing your cash or ATM / credit cards again.

• Trick two: Remember your goal: print out a picture of what you are saving for: a house, a bicycle. a vacation. Put the picture where you can see if at your desk.

• Trick three: Enlist a buddy. Get a buddy at work to also bring lunch or have a savings contest with a friend. 

• Trick four: Replace the habit. Learn to make super gourmet lunches from scratch. Or use the lunch time to take an awesome walk and call a friend. Go knit somewhere. The key is to replace the spending habit with a new habit that you like. 

• Trick five: Spending or Savings Made Visible: keep real paper money - the amount you have decided you can spend on something - in an envelope. Only use that money for that expense. So put your grocery money in an envelope and use it to buy groceries. No ATM/credit cards allowed. Seeing the actual money as you spend it is a great motivator! Conversely see your savings by putting your average lunch costs (15$) into a jar each day you don't spend it.

What tricks do you all have for saving? For budgeting? I am always looking for new tricks!!

-daslael

staying sane as a stay at home parent with not a lot of money

OK, so you are staying home with your kid(s). Good for you! It was a little crazy making for me,  and harder to get stuff done than I expected (hey, I was going to write a book!)  but it was a fantastic experience being with my daughter for the first 3 1/2 years of her life and one I wouldn't trade for anything.

Here are some of the things I did to try to stay sane, and keep myself in budget.

I still cooked like a parent with a out of the home job - meaning I cooked  in batches. By cooking up a storm a few times a week we would have lots of things that were ready to eat all week long - like beans, rice,  prepped veggies for stir fry's, a big pot of soup, a roast chicken, a veggie casserole - and I would have free time in the week for outings.

I also tried to cook in the mornings, or at nap time, but not the evenings when everyone is cranky and hungry.


On top of chores - cooking, cleaning - each day my goals were:

• Something social for the child
• Something social for me
• Exercise for the child
• Exercise for me

I found that going to the same place at the same time on the same day of the week meant I would develop friendships with other moms, dads, or nannies. (Social!) And trust me, other adults you can talk to are a very good thing as a stay at home parent!!

A. Very. Good. Thing.

My Weekly Rotation

• YMCA gym with child watch (low cost)
• Park and Rec center toddler play time (low cost, and prior to my child being 1, free)
• Library toddler rhyme time (free)
• California Academy of Science (worth every penny)

YMCA San Francisco gave us a discounted membership and the childwatch was very low cost. Bean loved being with other kids and teachers an hour or so a day - socializing for her. This also meant I could assess her readiness for preschool when the time came, and I knew she had the skills to be able to manage school on her own. We started with just 1/2 an hour and I could check on her whenever I wanted. By the time she was 3 I knew she was ready for preschool - it was really wonderful to be able to ease her into a situation slowly. And typically the same kids were there every day at the time we were there - socializing for her! I worked out - exercise for me! I also love the YMCA pool and child swim lessons.

San Francisco Park and Rec has Toddler play times at gyms throughout the city. Cost and times vary, check their website. Our local Rec center had two weekly, drop in was 6$, if you bought a booklet or registered for the class it was less. Under 1 years old free. We went weekly to the Rec center near our house during the rainy season. You can also take lots of wonderful low cost toddler art, cooking, and movement classes through the Park and Rec - we particularly liked the Art class at the Hamilton Center.

The library is free, and in a city like San Francisco there are Rhyme Times multiple times a week. I have made some fast friends at Library Rhyme times. You know who you are! Thank you!

We went weekly to the same Rhyme Time and I biked, getting some exercise in for me, and tons of socializing for my child. We would also check out lots of books and DVDs each week - more free and wonderful entertainment!

In our city, San Francisco, I found that a membership to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gare Park totally worth it and in the winter regularly went twice a week or more. I got the individual membership as my under 4 year old child was free. With that membership I could also take a guest - which is awesome! I could bring my husband as my guest! Or a friend! One of the hard parts of being frugal for me is that I love to treat people - to lunch, to a snack, whatever - so being able to bring a friend to the Academy meant I could feel like I was treating, even if I wasn't spending any money. And treating that friend meant they saved $29.95, the cost of an adult ticket. Individual membership is $99 a year. As you can see, going twice a week and taking friends - this quickly pays for itself. Note: there is a super cool toddler room in the Academy, special member only hours an hour early twice a week, and cool members only evening events that are family friendly and stood in for date nights for my husband and I. Those events and special members only hours: no additional cost. If you don't live in San Francisco look for a similar museum near you! 

Less Frequently Than Weekly

Other places I went less frequently, so not every single week, included exploring playgrounds in San Francisco as well as all of our cool wild ares!

• Beaches (free)
• Hike in one of our cool rugged parks(free)
• Playgrounds (free) 
• Park and Rec center art class (low cost)
• Ride the Cable Car (low cost)

A lot of my friends went to the Randal Junior Museum (free!) a lot. It was a bit more difficult for us to get to as we were typically on our bicycle but I did go probably once or twice a year and really loved it. You can pet bunnies, play with trains, and build with LEGOs - all free. A solid place to keep on your list of activities. There are Junior Museums all over California, find the closest one to you!

San Francisco Park and Rec has a great tool to locate playgrounds and parks in San Francisco. We have a ton - it's pretty awesome!I would head toward the sun on foggy days and just get off at the first playground where it was sunny!

I always had a morning plan because getting out of the house was key to having a great day! So a week of mornings looked like this:

• Monday:YMCA
• Tuesday: YMCA Child Swim Lessons
• Wednesday: YMCA
• Thursday: Library Rhyme Time
• Friday: YMCA followed by Rec Center
• Saturday: Academy of Science

Afternoons were open for plans to meet folks or just adventure. Or stay home and make things. Pinterest became my toddler craft time reference library. I will say: lots of fails but it was fun to try to make play dough and oven bake pottery beads. I'd also meet friends at the beach, have people over, try to go on a hike, or go to a different library.

I feel truly blessed to have been able to spend that time with my child and actually miss being home. If I won the lottery I'd work part time or not at all and just volunteer for the causes I care about.

Have a great time at home with your child(ren)!


- daslael

community supported agriculture

Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Eatwell Farm, is pretty fantastic.

What is a CSA? You join a local farm and pay a membership fee and in return you get the bounty of the farm and you participate in the community of that farm. . From Eatwell we get a box of super fresh produce every week along with 2 dozen eggs. Some people get a box every other week, and you select how many eggs you want. How much food is it? A lot. It's two grocery bags full or organic produce each week. We do a great job of eating our box – or put something up for winter, like the wonderful basil – every week as well as easily eat our 2 dozen eggs. Getting farm fresh produce means our food is super fresh, and stuff keeps longer, so sometime we save the garlic, onions and acorn squash for a few weeks. It also really forces you to up your veggie eating, as in yikes - the box is here, lets get cooking and eating! We also try new veggies we wouldn't have normally have tried - my husband now makes a mean kale chip - and pretty much anyone who tries them ends up eating handfuls.Prior I would guess that hand;t been a vegetable he considered purchasing and eating.

The veggies and eggs are fantastic, a good deal, money wise, for organic produce and free range, bug and tomato eating, chicken eggs. Two bags of organic produce will run you 60 - 100 dollars at Whole foods or the local farmers market, and it's just 27$ a box. The eggs are a super food and a amazingly healthy source of yummy protein for our egg loving child. We pay $108 every four weeks (27$ a box) and eggs are 8$ a dozen. But by going with a CSA we eat super fresh, local, organic produce and are saving at least $160 a month, if not more, on groceries.

Apart from the giant box of super fresh organic produce being a super deal,  every year Nigel (our farmer) has multiple events at the farm where you can visit, tour the farm, camp over and can - free for members!  There are two strawberry days, two tomato days, a pumpkin day, a garlic braiding day, and a chili cook-off, to name a few. At these events you can really can a ton for winter – we have yet to be super organized about this, leaving with a dozen of so jars of organic tomato sauce, but some farm members manage to can 90 (!) jars of tomatoes for winter. The strawberries are all you can eat and then 1$ a pound - I have made some amazing jam and fruit roll ups from the Strawberry Days. And these are shockingly low prices for organics - you can spend $7 a jar for organic tomato sauce, and how much are organic strawberries a pound? So look around for a local to you CSA and check them out! And hey, if you sign up at Eatwell tell them daslael sent you - I get a jar of Nigel's homemade tomato sauce if you join!

One event that was fun last year was the chili cook-off! We met lots of other farm members, some from our town with a little girl just a bit older than our bean! Little bean bounced in tents with other kids, held baby chicks that will grow up to lay our eggs, swam in the pond with little fishes and a little snake, and slept like a rock. We stayed up late, ate chili, drank home brew, toasted marshmallows around the campfire,  and had an awesome time.

My husband’s chili – a Chicken Curry Chili – was a giant hit! And we did manage to can a few cans of tomatoes for winter too.



A great weekend was had by all, and a great deal as these are free!

What are some of your secrets for low cost high quality organic food?

- daslael