Money 101 – Where to start?

by IdaDavidson

If you’re like most of us, you are reading this site (and other personal finance sites) because you’re trying to get a handle on your household finances. Maybe you’re in debt. Maybe there has been a change in your financial situation and you’re just trying to learn how to keep from going into debt. There are any of a hundred reasons you’re visiting here today, but one thing that is constant is that each of us has (had) to learn our starting point.

You may have heard this before… maybe even a hundred times before, but you can’t get “there” unless you know where “here” is. The prospect is indeed very scary. When I introduced my sister to Mint, and she saw where her money was actually going instead of where she thought it was going, she said she felt exposed in a way she wasn’t expecting. I heartlessly told her to get a fig leaf and keep on trucking!

So what if you learn you spent $15,000 eating out last year (like I found out in 2007!) or you spend $50 a month at iTunes? Doing a status check and finding out what your financial standing is and where your money really is going isn’t about recrimination. It’s about educating yourself on your real situation, instead of what you guess your situation is, and making small and sustainable changes to improve things for yourself and your family.

Where to start?

  • With the paper trail (electronic or hard copy… makes no difference how you access it).
    • Gather all of your bank and credit card information
    • Gather all of your bill information
    • Make a list of all of your obligations (yes, that $30 a month gym membership you don’t use does count)
  • Figure out what your balances are.
    • Bank account balances (and make sure you factor in outstanding transactions!)
    • Credit card balances
    • Overdue on any bills? Need to figure that out too
  • Categorize your expenses for the last 30 days
    • This is as easy as setting up a Mint account and adding in your account information. You may have to re-categorize a few things, but chances are it’ll be pretty darned accurate.
    • OR input everything in a spreadsheet, if that’s your thing.

Once you know what your status is, you’ll be in a better position to make any needed adjustments to your spending… or perhaps to boost your earnings. Maybe you’re even doing just fine! You won’t know until you get your status check done though. **NOTE** There is a “No beating yourself up” rule that comes along with this status check. You can resolve to do better. You can resolve to make adjustments. You can’t, however, waste time and energy on “coulda, woulda, shoulda, but didn’t”.

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Family Friday – Fast and Easy Cooking

by IdaDavidson · 0 comments

If you’re like most of us, you find yourself heading out to eat more often than you really want to. Your afternoons are packed, you’re run down, tired, and just not up to spending an hour in the kitchen! What if I told you that for the amount of time you spend driving to your favorite restaurant, picking up take-out or waiting to be seated, you could be having a home cooked meal, at your dinner table, with your family, and eating FAR less calories, sodium, fat, and sugar … for about the cost of one adult meal purchased at a restaurant.

There are a lot of choices, so you can choose one or all of them to suit your family’s needs.

  1. Crock Pot Meals – Put all of your ingredients for a pot roast, or bean soup, or chili, or barbeque chicken, or any of the other thousand variations of crock pot cooking, into your pot in the morning before work. Turn it on low. That’s it. When you get home, you’ll have a hot, home cooked meal ready and waiting for you. All for the time it takes to chop a few veggies and tossing them in the pot.
  2. Grilled meat and/or veggies and a salad – More of a meat and veggies person? Toss some frozen meat into a baggie with marinade and put it in the refrigerator to thaw before you go to bed. By the time 5:00 rolls around the next day, your meat will be thawed, marinated, and ready for 10 minutes on the grill. Wrap fresh veggies such as zucchini or carrots, or sliced potatoes along with some garlic and olive oil in aluminum foil and toss on the grill next to your chicken or pork chops.
  3. Cook Extra – make double batches of meals on the nights you do cook. Halve the food immediately and put the extra into microwave safe containers and freeze for re-heating on a night when you’re rushed.
  4. Stop at the grocery store – Kroger, Publix, Costco, and almost every other major grocery store has a deli section with roast chicken, or other hot and ready meat. If you haven’t laid anything out for dinner and you don’t have extra helpings in the freezer, stop in at one of those stores, pick up a roast chicken, bag of salad, and loaf of bread. That’s a full family meal, in under 5 minutes, for less than $10.

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Speaking Of Budgets

by IdaDavidson

Have you ever tried to have a budget discussion with your significant other(s) or family members? How often do they end well?

Money is a highly charged topic for most people. As one lovely friend of mine put it “It’s like I’m showing you my dirty underwear.” The only way around fighting over [...]

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Lower your heating bills

by IdaDavidson

Put more clothes on. Seriously.

Wear thick socks – When your feet are warm, the rest of your body tolerates cold better
Invest in footie pajamas – They cover you from neck to toes, and they’re perfect for spending time lounging around the house
Use a lap blanket
Layer your clothing
Wear a sweater inside

Install a programmable thermostat

Winter – [...]

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Where are your money leaks?

by IdaDavidson

It’s impossible to chart your monetary course without some preliminary work. After all, how do you get “There” if you don’t know where “Here” is? The first step to figuring out where your money leaks are is to keep a written record. Grab a small notebook and write down every penny that leaves your hands [...]

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