We have a not so firm plan to adopt a child. It’s been the plan for a while, but adoption is expensive and other things have kept coming up. Right now, the not so firm plan is to wait for the husband to finish school (in one to two years) and then save up the money for adoption fees. There’s a local agency that does a sliding scale fee, so we’re looking at around $14,000 forread more…
I hate saying No to my friends and family. I really hate swaying No to myself. But sometimes, that’s what has to happen. Every summer, my husband and I go to the local Renaissance Faire. It runs three weekends in August, and we try to go twice. For just the two of us, its not that expensive. This year, we have my 19y/o cousin for the summer. During August, her best friend will be visiting asread more…
Our Comcast bill has never been cheap. But 2 years ago when the hubby lost his job, we were paying $150/month. We called them and switched to a smaller package, reducing our monthly cost about around $30- not a whole lot, I know, but it gave us some breathing room. Except that, it was only down by $30 for about 3 months. Then it started climbing back up again. By 9 months after we’d lowered ourread more…
There are a lot of people out there who are anti-the current unemployment system. They were especially against the recent constant extending of unemployment benefits. I can understand the reasons why, however, I believe that there are times when the government needs to participate in deficit spending, and this was one of the cases. (Would I have preferred it if the government had been smart enough to save for a rainy day when times were good?read more…
A little over two months ago, when I started this blog, I talked about how a budget wasn’t the first thing you needed. Instead, I said the first thing you had to do was to start tracking all of your expenses. Then, in late May I talked about how a budget was not the second thing you needed. Instead, I said, you needed to know your money goals. A couple days later I talked about theread more…
The point of budgeting is not to save every single penny or even to pay off debt, though those are both options. The point of budgeting is to give yourself control- control over where you spend your money. Placing yourself on a budget does not mean that you can never buy brand name again, or even that you have to clip coupons and only shop the sales. It means that you have determined your priorities andread more…
This came up in conversation with a friend who’s very good at budgeting, is totally on top of her savings, etc – cash flow is different than a budget. And it really is pretty important that you track them both. In the sense of not getting overdrawn, cash flow is more important that a budget. A budget is simply a goal- a desired amount that you want to spend on certain activities for the week/month/year- howeverread more…
You’ve been tracking your spending now for over a month. Have you recorded all of it? Even the credit card spending? Yes, you need to pay attention to that too. After all, you’re still paying for it. In fact, if you’re carrying a balance on your card, your paying more for it that you otherwise would. Still, you’re not ready for a budget yet. Now, you need to know your goals- and not just your moneyread more…
Budgets are like diets. The concept is exactly the same. The purpose is exactly the same, to fundamentally change your relationship with food/money. There are some differences, though. I would never recommend a crash diet because of the effects it can have on your health. Crash budgets, though, can be a handy way to re-evaluate your finances and meet short term goals. A crash budget should never be in place longer than 6 months, and 3read more…
Lets start with the very basics. Everyone always says you need a budget, and you need to stick to it. Which isn’t bad advice, but not if you don’t have the tools to create a realistic budget. Without the right information, people end up creating budgets that won’t get them where they want to go or they can’t stick to. And that’s if they even create a budget in the first place. So what do youread more…
