ATTENTION FELLOW FINANCIAL QUEST-ERS

Ok ya'll - have you ever heard of Quicken?  It's basically a program for your computer that you can keep track of all your bank accounts, etc.  Well - a coworker of mine told me about QUICKEN ONLINE (follow this link to sign up!) and it allows you to keep track of your checking accounts, savings accounts, all credit cards/loans, etc .. it's AMAZING!!! PLUS - it's TOTALLY FREE!

I just opened an account for Shelby and I yesterday afternoon, but I'm already in love with it and I'm SO excited about being able to keep track of all our accounts and expenses from ONE place.  This is going to be so helpful in our journey to financial freedom!

I just wanted to share this find with you.  Check it out and see if it's something your family could use!!  GOOD LUCK!

To fellow iPhone users - if you sign up for Quicken Online, there is also an app for your phone to keep track of your account & expenses.  Even MORE reason to sign up!  ;)

Financial Quest

So you know that free trial I was telling you about? The one I signed up for through the Total Money Makeover Website? Well, guess what – I forgot to cancel after my free trial was up. Sooo, now I’m a member of the website for a whole year. I received a book and money organizer in the mail yesterday. At first I was so angry with myself for forgetting about it and then being charged for it (when we really didn’t want to spend the money right now), but now I’m trying to look at it as a blessing in disguise. I wanted to do this money makeover, right? So why not have all the tools available to help me with this quest.

I’ve been going over our budget (and over it, and over it, and over it) and I keep making a few little changes here and there. Mainly because I remember things that I forgot to account for. I’m already finding out how cool it is to SEE how much money we really have and where it’s all going. It makes me feel like I’m not as broke as I thought I was. Don’t get me wrong – we are definitely poorer than we’d like to be – but there is no reason why we need to live paycheck to paycheck like we’ve been doing for almost 3 years now.

November 1st is the day we (mainly I) have chosen to turn our lives around financially. I really need to get with Shelby and make sure he’s fully on board with this. We’ve tried different things soooo many times in the past, but we’ve never been on the same page. No wonder it’s never worked! It’s hard for him to stay disciplined – I’m really starting to see that now. I’m honestly kind of nervous about everything – I know for myself I can do this and I can stay disciplined. But, I worry that I’m going to give into things because Shelby usually has a way of making me feel guilty – and it’s not because he means to, he just does. It’s time for me to put my foot down and be serious about it. I just hope that he’s willing to step up to the plate as well, because it’s gonna be really hard trying to do this all by myself.

We have a lot of sacrifices to make – financially. We have to tell our money where to go, not the other way around. We have to realize that right now things aren’t going to be as much “FUN” since we can’t spend money like we’d like to.. but as David Ramsey says “If you will live like no one else, later you can LIVE like no one else”.

Because Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

I've gotten some inquiries about what I've found out about SAVING MONEY .. so here's what I've got - so far :-)

Saving Money on Electricity

When you start trying to save money on electricity, you're actually killing two birds with one stone.  Saving electricity is good for the environment! Who knew we'd all turn into environmentalists?!

1. Unplug things when they aren't in use.  Some people recommend using a surge protector with a switch so that you aren't constantly plugging and unplugging things.  I wasn't aware that when you keep things plugged in they still draw energy.  I ALWAYS leave my hair dryer plugged in and in a basket beside my sink.  I always leave the microwave and coffee pot plugged in, even though I don't use them every day.  Unplugging your things when they aren't in use actually SAVES electricity - therefore SAVING MONEY! 

2. Turn off the lights!  SO many people keep the lights on when the leave a room - I know in our house we do! I hate being in the dark, even during the day I'll turn the lights on because I like it to be BRIGHT.  This is something we HAVE to change.  I saw a quote that said "IF IT'S STILL BRIGHT - TURN OFF THE LIGHT" - meaning you don't need to turn your lights on during the day.  Makes sense!!  It's also recommended that you use energy efficient light bulbs.  These bulbs are more expensive and it would cost us a lot to replace ALL our lights at once.  We're just waiting on our "old" lights to burn out then we are replacing them with the energy efficient ones. 

3. Dimmer Switches.  We are lucky enough to have these in our house.  When it gets dark outside, we can take advantage of having a dimmer switch when turning on our lights.  We can turn them on, but keep the light low - saving energy (and money) in the process.  We also use lamps in our house - instead of turning on the overhead lights.  I'm going to have to get used to living in lower light!

4. Turn Down the Air.  THANK GOODNESS it's getting cooler outside.  We can all just turn OFF our air conditioners saving a TON of money!  During the summer months, or warmer ones - turning your air conditioner to a higher temperature will keep it from running as much or as hard.  When you're not home, turn it up to 80 degrees that way it doesn't run while you're gone cooling down an empty house.  I read about these programmable thermostats that you can set it to be 80 degrees during the day, then it will automatically turn down to the cooler temperature you want at a certain time.  You could set it to cool down 30 minutes before you're supposed to be home that way you're not walking into a warm house.  I think that would be really nice to have! Since it's been cooler - we've turned ours completely off and opened up the windows.  It's wonderful!

5. Going along with turning your air down - using a ceiling fan instead of your air conditioner (When you can stand it) will save you money.  With these cooler months ahead of us this will probably be more do-able.  You can switch the blades around to bring the heat down during the cooler months too!

6. During the warmer months, using shades (keeping them closed) will help keep your house cool .. causing your air conditioner to work LESS. 

7. Keeping the filters of your air conditioner clean will also help it to run more efficiently. Let your husband do this one ;-)

The next two are also a "kill two birds with one stone" deal. 

Saving WATER and ELECTRICITY.

1. Only do FULL loads of Laundry.  At my house, I catch myself doing small or medium size loads of laundry just so I can have a certain piece of clothing or because my rug gets dirty, etc.  By waiting until I have a FULL load, I can save on water and on electricity (to run my washer and dryer). If I want to go all out, I could even hang my clothes to dry skipping my dryer completely!

2. The same thing goes for the dishes.  Only do FULL loads of dishes!  At least with your washer you can choose what size load you're doing - but in your dishwasher you cannot.  It will use the same amount of water whether you do one plate or fifty.  Try to skip out on using your dishwasher all the time.  If you only have a few dirty dishes, hand wash them.  It's a lot faster and you're using a lot less water. 

Random Money Savers

Saving Money on Gasoline

This one applies to me! I'm a "speed demon" .. so I go through my tank of gas pretty quickly.  By slowing down from 70mph to 55mph I could save 15% PER GALLON of gas.  This will also be a test of my patience .. so we'll see how this one goes!

Saving Money During Bill Time

By paying your bills online you can save money on stamps!  With the price of stamps these days, just think of how much extra money you're sending out when you pay your bills.  Paying them online is FREE and it's much faster than waiting on your snail mail to reach the company. 

USE CASH

When you use your debit card, you don't really SEE the money leaving your possession.  It's so much easier to overspend - resulting in overdraft fees or just not having enough money to buy groceries at the end of the month.  The possibilities are endless!  When you use cash, you're less likely to overspend.  An added bonus of using cash is getting back the CHANGE(Cha-ching!)  Start saving that change and before you know it you'll have quite a little savings built up!  That's enough to take a little weekend trip, buy something you've been wanting, or pay something off.  It's like money you didn't even know you had ;-)  If you're tempted to use your debit card, or your "forget" - just take your debit card out of your wallet.  Easy as that!

On that note - Cut Up Your Credit Cards!

How are you going to pay something off if you keep using it?  Do you REALLY need that card? Chances are you probably don't.  CUT IT UP.  PAY IT OFF.  If it comes down to you absolutely NEED that card (like it's a total emergency) - call the credit card company and have them send you another card .. but in the mean time - don't be tempted! Shelby and I put ours in the freezer .. but we just ended up going and getting them out.  CUT THEM UP - I can't say that enough!

Your Junk could be someone else's Treasure - MAKE MONEY!

Shelby and I have a garage full of boxes that we need to go through.  Some of that stuff hasn't been touched since we were married! Basically - we don't need it! Why not sell it and make some money off of it to pay off a credit card or put away for a weekend trip? Chances are you've been holding on to some random "junk" that you don't really need anymore.  You never know - it might be exactly what someone else was looking for and they're actually going to USE it.  What good is it if it's shoved in a box collecting dust?!

Financial Quest

I was able to get on the Dave Ramsey site for a little bit last night.  I signed up for a FREE TRIAL which is a week long, so I'm trying to get as much information as I can just incase I don't want to continue with it after the trial period is up.  A friend I work with let Shelby and I borrow the CD's (She and her husband took the class at their church, so they have all the materials) and we were able to burn them to our computer.  We haven't listened to them yet, but we're planning on doing that soon.  You should visit his website and at least do the FREE TRIAL - it's worth it, it's FREE!

One of the first things he talks about is "Baby Steps".  The way the website is designed, you can't move on to the next step until you have completed the first one, so I see that I probably won't get a chance to dig into ALL the information in just a weeks time - but anyways, the first Baby Step is fairly simple.  It's FULL of common sense, which I LOVE. 

Baby Step 1: The Main Goal - Save $1,000 as quickly as you can! (Emergency Fund)

1. Get up to date with all your creditors (if you're behind on payments get up to date with that first - to where you only owe the minimum payment - before you really get into the first step)
2. Pay ONLY the minimum payments, putting eveything else towards your $1,000 goal, until you reach your goal.
3. In the meantime, NO NEW DEBT!

I love his envelope system!  He mentions putting your Emergency Fund money into an envelope.  When you have your $1,000 put that money into a Money Market Account. (you could probably do the BEFORE you reach your goal, and just add to it along the way)

Pretty easy, huh?  That's basically the first step! It's easy - it's very do-able. 

He also has you make up a budget, which I had already done, so I was one little step ahead. ;-) 

I honestly don't think I can come up with $1,000 in 1 month, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna try to get it done as soon as I can!  My main plan for November is to:

• Follow our Budget
• Save our Change (because we are ONLY using CASH)
• Cut our Expenses (Buy Nothing Month ????)
• TRY to have a Yard Sale

Any extra money that we can get our hands on is going to go towards our $1,000 goal.  The purpose behind this wonderful little Emergency Fund, it to keep you from creating any NEW debt while you're in the process of eliminating your old debt - in the event something happens to your car, your pet gets sick, etc. 

Starting in November I'm also going to try and cut back on our utility expenses.  I have been looking up ways to cut electricity expenses and things like that.  Every little bit helps!

***
I have just thought of something ....

November 1 we are going to a Marshall Game in Orlando.  How am I going to stick to my budget while I'm there?  It's RIGHT at the beginning too? It kinda depresses me - not that I'm going to the game - but because I'm going against my plan on the first day.  What do I do?! We still have to get our Pugs shots up to date and pay for them to be boarded while we're gone .. more added expenses.  I don't know what to do!!!!  :o(

Financial Quest

I've recently become very interested in finances and how to make them WORK better for my family.  Shelby and I are very blessed to have 2 great jobs, but we still seem to fall short in some financial situations.  I'd say that our number 1 stressor in our marriage is MONEY.  Of course we were young and stupid once and we have developed some debt, like millions of other American's .. but I'm so tired of struggling! I've been doing some research and I've found some great tips so far.  I'm just getting started in my research, so I know I have a lot more to do .. but It makes me feel like there is hope out there for those of us struggling with money!

One of the major things I'm interested in is how to SAVE money throughout the month.  I have successfully created a budget for our monthly expenses, but we have little room to breathe and most of our money is going out to things we HAVE to pay for - meaning we have little money to spend on enjoyment and entertainment.  I know there are tons of ways (small ways) to cut costs.  The ones I'm most interested in at the moment are:

1. How to save money on electricity and water
2. How to conserve gasoline
3. How to save money on groceries (COUPONS!!)

These are things that EVERYONE spends money on - whether you really want to or not.  We all need electricity and water, we all have cars that need gasoline, and we all have to eat! Why not save money in these areas?!

I would love for Shelby and myself to be completely out of debt (besides our car) in 2 years.  By that time in our lives we will be moving to another area and basically "starting over" as far as jobs go, etc.  Shelby will still be in the Navy, but I will have to find another job for myself.  We will have to find another sitter for Tristan and HOPEFULLY we will be able to think about having another child! :-)  We just need to be financially stable - as much as we can be - so that we don't have that added stress.  Things are so much easier when you don't have to worry about money - am I right?

One of the things I found online was the 50 - 30 - 20 Budget.  You take your monthly income (I just used what we actually BRING HOME) and then you calculate according to the following:

1. 50% of your monthly income goes towards NEEDS
2. 30% of your monthly income goes towards WANTS
3. 20% of your monthly income goes towards SAVINGS

I WOULD LOVE to do this! Right now we aren't able to put 20% of our monthly income towards savings, but if we could we would be saving upwards of $10,000 per year! Hopefully, if I can swing it, we can start doing that after the beginning of the year.

I won't bore you with all my rambling about MONEY - but I'm just really excited about it! LoL!  I'd love to hear some of your ideas about saving money, etc.  I will post more about this topic every once in a while and share my findings! :-)

HAVE A GREAT TUESDAY!!