- Uop past midnight. 3am feeding. 5am hurts. Back to bed? #
- Stayed up this morning and watched Terminator:Salvation. AWAKs make for bad plot advancement. #
- Last night, Inglorious Basterds was not what I was expecting. #
- @jeffrosecfp It's a fun time, huh. These few months are payment for the fun months coming, when babies become interactive. 🙂 in reply to jeffrosecfp #
- RT @BSimple: RT @bugeyedguide: When we cling to past experiences we keep giving them energy…and we do not have much energy to spare #
- RT @LivingFrugal: Jan 18, Pizza Soup (GOOOOOD Stuff) http://bit.ly/5rOTuc #budget #money #
- Free Turbotax for low income or active-duty military. http://su.pr/29y30d #
- To most ppl,you're just somebody [from casting] to play the bit part of "Other Office Worker" in the movie of their life http://su.pr/1DYMQZ #
- RT @MoneyCrashers: Money Crashers 2010 New Year Giveaway Bash – $8,300 in Cash and Amazing Prizes http://bt.io/DQHw #
- RT: @flexo: RT @wisebread: Tylenol, Motrin, Rolaids, and Benadryl RECALLED! Check your cabinets: http://bit.ly/4BVJfJ #
- New goal for Feb. 100 pushups in 1 set. Anyone care to join me? #
- RT @BSimple: Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow"— Robert Kiyosaki So take action now. #
- RT @hughdeburgh: "Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now." ~ Sophia Loren #
- Chances of finding winter boots at a thrift store in January? Why do they wear our at the worst time? #
- @LenPenzo Anyone who make something completely idiot proof underestimates the ingenuity of complete idiots. in reply to LenPenzo #
- RT @zappos: "Lots of people want to ride w/ you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus w/ you…" -Oprah Winfrey #
- RT @chrisguillebeau: "The cobra will bite you whether you call it cobra or Mr. Cobra" -Indian Proverb (via @boxofcrayons) #
- RT @SuburbanDollar: I keep track of all my blogging income and expenses using http://outright.com it is free&helps with taxes #savvyblogging #
- Reading: Your Most Frequently Asked Running Questions – Answered http://bit.ly/8panmw via @zen_habits #
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-30
- Bad. My 3yr old knows how the Nationwide commercial ends…including the agent's name. Too much TV. #
- RT @MoneyCrashers: Money Crashers 2010 New Year Giveaway Bash – $9,100 in Cash and Amazing Prizes http://bt.io/DZMa #
- Watching the horrible offspring of Rube Goldberg and the Grim Reaper: The Final Destination. #
- Here's hoping the franchise is dead: #TheFinalDestination #
- Wow. Win7 has the ability to auto-hibernate in the middle of installing updates. So much for doing that when I leave for the day. #
- This is horribly true: Spending Other People's Money by @thefinancebuff http://is.gd/75Xv2 #
- RT @hughdeburgh: "You can end half your troubles immediately by no longer permitting people to tell you what you want." ~ Vernon Howard #
- RT @BSimple: The most important thing about goals is having one. Geoffry F. Abert #
- RT @fcn: "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." — Winston Churchill #
- RT @FrugalYankee: FRUGAL TIP: Who knew? Cold water & salt will get rid of onion smell on hands. More @ http://bit.ly/WkZsm #
- Please take a moment and vote for me. (4 Ways to Flog the Inner Impulse Shopper) http://su.pr/2flOLY #
- RT @mymoneyshrugged: #SOTU 2011 budget freeze "like announcing a diet after winning a pie-eating contest" (Michael Steel). (via @LesLafave) #
- RT @FrugalBonVivant: $2 – $25 gift certificates from Restaurant.com (promo code BONUS) http://bit.ly/9mMjLR #
- A fully-skilled clone would be helpful this week. #
- @krystalatwork What do you value more, the groom's friendship or the bride's lack of it?Her feelings won't change if you stay home.His might in reply to krystalatwork #
- I ♥ RetailMeNot.com – simply retweet for the chance to win an Apple iPad from @retailmenot – http://bit.ly/retailmenot #
- Did a baseline test for February's 30 Day Project: 20 pushups in a set. Not great, but not terrible. Only need to add 80 to that nxt month #
A Budget Isn’t Enough
- Image via Wikipedia
You know exactly how much you make, to the penny. You’ve listed all of your bills in a spreadsheet, including the annual payment for your membership to Save the Combat-Wombat. You know exactly how much is coming in and how much has to go out each month. Your income is more than your expenses, yet somehow, you still have more month than money.
What’s going on?
The short answer is that a budget is not enough.
A budget is not…
…a checkbook register. Do you track everything you spend? Are you busting your budget on $10 lattes or DVDs every few days? Is the take-out you have for lunch every day adding up to 3 times your food budget? Are you sure? If you don’t track what you spend, how do you know what you’ve actually spent? You have to keep track of what you are spending. Luckily there are ways to do this that don’t involve complex calculation, laborious systems or even proper math. The easy options include using cash for all of your discretionary spending(no money, no spendy!), rounding your spending up so you always have more money than you think you do, or even keeping your discretionary money is a separate debit account. That will let you keep your necessary expenses covered. You’ll just have to check your discretionary account’s balance often and always remember that sometimes, things take a few days to hit your bank.
…a debt repayment plan. You may know how much you have available, but if you aren’t exercising the discipline to pay down your debt and avoid using more debt, you not only won’t make progress, but you’ll continue to dig a deeper hole. Without properly managing the money going out, watching the money coming in is pointless.
…an alternative to responsible spending. Your budget may say you have $500 to spare every month, but does that mean you should blow it on smack instead of setting up an emergency fund? I realize most heroin addicts probably aren’t reading this, but dropping $500 at the bar or racetrack is just as wasteful if you don’t have your other finances in order. Take care of your future needs before you spend all of your money on present(and fleeting) pleasures.
A budget is a starting point for keeping your financial life organized and measuring a positive cash flow. By itself, it can’t help you. You need to follow it up with responsible planning and spending.
May 30 Day Project
Before I discuss May’s 30 day project, I’m going to talk about April’s.
Last month, my goal was to declutter my entire house. Every room, every closet, every drawer.
I missed the goal.
My wife has gotten behind this project wholeheartedly. She’s had friends over helping almost every weekend. She’s kept the kids occupied while I’ve been working on it. It’s been a team effort, which has been nice. One room at a time, we’ve tackled the entire house, except for a couple of spots.
Our son’s closet isn’t finished. He hasn’t had use of his closet since we moved him into the room he’s in. It’s been the filing center for a couple of business opportunities. Most of it has been cleared out, but not all. It will be finished in the next few days.
Our storage room isn’t done. It pains me to have a “storage room”, but I don’t think its purpose will be changing. Now, however, instead of unopened appliances and boxes of clothes, it’s almost down to just seasonal stuff and things we do need occasionally. We have the Christmas decorations, the pet crates, and a few other things that get used rarely, but do get used. This room used to have a 6-foot cabinet of computer parts, leftover from the days when building/supporting computers was my main side-hustle. That has been reduce to just one box, mostly power cords. The gaming pads and old hard drives are gone. All that’s left for this room is one shelf, and the remainder of another old side-hustle that has some emotional attachment for my wife.
The remaining trouble spots will be cleaned out by this weekend. We’re having a garage sale the following weekend, and it will all be there. We’ve been pricing as we’ve been sorting, so we’re almost ready.
Decluttering an entire house that’s been filled by the horrible habits of two accumulators means we literally have thousands of things we’ll be selling in two weeks. We split our garage with our roommmate. Our stall is full. We’ve got some stuff in the driveway. We’ve got a pile of boxes in the basement, ready to go. Our dining room is full.
Let me repeat that last point: Our dining room is full.
My project for May was supposed to have been having dinner at the table at least 3 nights per week. At the moment, I’m not entirely sure we still have a table. I certainly can’t see it and there is no way to use it for dinner. This project has to be moved.
So, what’s the plan for May? I’m going to tackle June’s project.
I will not use the computer while anyone else is awake, except for household necessities. Household necessities on the computer are almost nonexistent, since I’ve automated almost everything. I balance the checkbook on a monthly basis, and may have to pay a quarterly bill later this month. I’m going to take the time to be with my family, and do something that matters more than Google Reader. That means writing happens after everyone goes to bed, or at 5AM, which will be motivation to keep that wake-up time. Internet on the blackberry counts as computer use.
Family first.
Net Worth Update
It’ s been 8 months since I’ve done a net worth update. That’s not 8 months since I’ve shared, it’s been 8 months since I’ve bothered to check for myself. Let’s see how I’ve done.
This is where I was sitting in January:
Assets
- House: $255,400. Estimated market value according to the county tax assessor.
- Cars: $23,445. Kelly Blue Book suggested retail value for both of our vehicles and my motorcycle.
- Checking accounts: $2,974. I have accounts spread across three banks.
- Savings accounts: $4,779. I have savings accounts spread across a few banks. This does not include my kids’ accounts, even though they are in my name. This includes every savings goal I have at the moment.
- CDs: $1,095. I consider this a part of my emergency fund.
- IRAs: $11,172
- Total: $298,865
Liabilities
- Mortgage: $33,978
- Car loan: $1,226. This will be paid off this month.
- Credit card: $23,524. This is the next target of my debt snowball.
- Total: $58,728
Overall: $240,137
Here is my current status:
Assets
- House: $252,900 (-2500 ) Estimated market value according to the county tax assessor. If I lost $2500 in value this year, why are my property taxes up?
- Cars: $19,740 (-3705) Kelly Blue Book suggested retail value for both of our vehicles and my motorcycle.
- Checking accounts: $1,342 (-1632) I have accounts spread across three banks. I don’t keep much operating cash here, so this fluctuates based on how far away my next paycheck is.
- Savings accounts: $5,481 (+1156) I have savings accounts spread across a few banks. This does not include my kids’ accounts, even though they are in my name. This includes every savings goal I have at the moment. When I hit some of the goals, I will stop saving for them and redirect the money elsewhere.
- CDs: $1,101 (+6) I consider this a part of my emergency fund.
- IRAs: $10,838 (-334) I lost $1500 recently. I wonder how that happened? Also, my company stopped the IRA program and I have procrastinated the heck out of setting one up independently. Bad, Jason.
- Total: $291,402 (-7463)
Liabilities
- Mortgage: $31,118 (-2860)
- Car loan: $0. (-1226) Woo!
- Credit card: $20,967 (-2557) This is the current target of my debt snowball. It hasn’t gone down as much as I would have liked, due to $4000 in vision therapy bills.
- Total: $52,085 (-6643)
Overall: $239,317 (-820)
My big hits were obviously my house–whose value is subject to bureaucratic whimsy–and my rapidly depreciating cars. $4000 to a vision therapist didn’t help, either.
My debt goal is to have that credit card paid off by next August. $21k in a year on top of my mortgage isn’t crazy, is it? Since 4/15/2009, I’ve paid down $37,947.06. That is not the total of payments made, but the difference in total balances over that last 28 months. That means I’m reducing my total debt by an average of $1355 every month.
My savings goal is to boost that by at least $2500 over the next few months.
My immediate goal is to get an IRA rolling. I’m kicking myself right now for ignoring it for as long as I have.
4 Ways to Flog the Inner Impulse Shopper
Welcome to the time machine! This was originally posted on December 16, 2009.
Impulse shopping kills. Not literally, of course, but it stings. You need to stop. I need to stop. We all need to stop.
Here’s how:
1. Use a list. Everybody tells you to shop with a list. Nobody has problems shopping with a list. How, exactly, does a list prevent you from buying something on a whim? A list keeps you from forgetting things, it doesn’t stop your from putting Terminator:Salvation in your cart. Skip this one. It doesn’t count. No beatings for the inner impulse shopper means no honorable mention here.
Take 2:
3 Ways to Flog the Inner Impulse Shopper
1. Don’t Shop. I’ve found that it is almost impossible to leave Target for under $100. It’s too easy to grab a discount DVD or a small surprise for the kids. My solution is to use Alice.com. That’s right, I get my toilet paper by mail-order. With Alice, there are few opportunities for impulse purchases. I add the items I need, scan the deals for items I will need in the next few weeks, and have my wife review the cart for things I’ve either missed or don’t need. A few days later, there’s a big blue box full of deodorant, toilet paper and soap sitting on my front step. The manufacturer coupons are automatically applied and shipping is always free. I’ve easily saved $1000 in retail impulse purchases using Alice over the past few months. Alice is my favorite shopping-dom. Full disclosure: The Alice links are all referral links. If you click one and join, I will get 3% commission on your purchase for a year, and you will get a $10 credit after you spend $50 .
2. Set a goal and reward the goal – AFTER the goal is met. My wife and I have a goal to be out of debt in four years. We will enter 2014 free from debt. No car payment, credit cart, or mortgage. I have promised my wife that, in exchange for almost 5 years(we aren’t starting the process today) of frugal living, when we are done and have saved a bit at the other end of debt, I will take her on a cruise anywhere in the world. A real, debt-free vacation. AFTER we pay off all of our debt. AFTER we save enough to make the trip without sliding back into debt. This is the carrot instead of the stick. If the carrot doesn’t work, you can always try the stick. Not on your spouse, of course, but on the inner impulse shopper. Beat that little jerk ’til he cries.
3. Make yourself accountable. If you’re married, make yourself accountable to your spouse. If you’re single, go public with your frugality. “I’m a cheap bastard and I’m swearing off xxx until I’m out of debt.” Let your family and friends know what you are doing so they can be your support system. I regularly call my wife from a store, just so she can say “no” to me. When we are ready to check out at a store, we find some out of the way location and go through everything in the cart to see if we really need it or if it was simply an impulse grab.
How do you flog the masochistic little demon in your wallet?
