Earning & Managing Money

We Paid Cash: A Kitchen Aid Mixer

by Crystal on April 26, 2012

We paid cash!

A testimony from Lizzie who blogs at A Dusty Frame

I’ve wanted a Kitchen Aid mixer for more than 20 years. While I majored in Home Economics in college, I worked in the bakery and used the huge Hobart mixers. When I first saw the Kitchen Aids (Hobarts for home use!), I wanted one.

I could never justify the expense, and since they are not necessary for living, I never purchased one.

Through the years, I kept watching for sales, but we always had other things to purchase. Then we went through a very long personal trial and money was so tight that I often didn’t even have $2 to spend at the thrift store. Purchasing a Kitchen Aid was out of the question!

Recently, our lives have begun to settle back into something resembling our old “normal” and I began to think about a Kitchen Aid again. Last Thanksgiving, the Kitchen Aid sales were very attractive. My husband told me he wanted me to have one. But we truly didn’t have the extra money even though the deals were super.

So earlier this year, I began save up for “my” red Kitchen Aid.

Here’s what I did:

1. Set aside any unspent money from my personal weekly allowance of $25.

2. Avoided all temptations on Amazon and save up my Swagbucks certificates.

3. Watched for sales.

I had $65.00 saved from my weekly spending money and $68.00 in Amazon certificates when I found the Empire Red Kitchen Aid for sale on Amazon for $231.00. My husband and I decided to give each other a little bit of spending money out of the tax return, and I used mine on the rest of the money I needed to buy my mixer. I placed the order and tracked it all the way across the US!

It looks so pretty on my counter and my son and I are having fun using it. And now, if I need to make something, my son says, “If you need to use the Kitchen Aid I’ll make it!” I consider this an extra value — free child labor!

The breakdown of my purchase is:

Mixer Total: $231.00
Used $65.00 Cash
+ Used $68.00 Swagbucks/Amazon certificates
+ Used $98.00 from my tax return money

The best part is that right after I placed the order, I saw that the rebate was still active and I chose a refund instead of the free magazine. I’m still waiting for my $42.00 rebate and that money will go on the next item I’m saving up for.

Lizzie blogs at A Dusty Frame which was born during her husband’s incarceration. Lizzie desires to share how God carried her and that His grace truly is sufficient — even when life stinks! She also shares other bits of their life including books, homeschooling, and crafting — when she’s not too busy using her new Kitchen Aid.

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

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How can we save money without feeling like we’re broke all the time?

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by Crystal on April 24, 2012

My husband and I recently got amazing jobs after not working for months and now our income is something we have only ever dreamed of earning. We’ve scraped by these past months and now with this extra money we want to spend, spend, spend.

How can we save money and not feel like we are still broke all the time? I guess I am not sure how to budget spending money since I’m not even sure what percentage should go where after our main bills are taken out. We are newbies at saving and really need help. -Samantha

Congratulations on your new jobs and higher income! How exciting!

Here’s some advice I would have for you:

1. Sit Down Together and Set Goals

Before you even think of setting up a budget, I encourage you to sit down as a couple and talk about your goals. Where do you want to be financially in a year from now? What about five years from now?

Do you have debt that needs to be paid off? If so, this should be one of your top priorities when you set goals. Do you have an emergency fund of 3-6 months’ worth of expenses in place? If not, this should be your second goal.

In addition, talk about what things you need to save to pay cash for: Is your car on its last leg? Are you setting aside money for retirement? Is there something fun you’d like to do as a couple in the not-too-distant future (go on a trip, purchase something, etc.)?

Discuss all of these things and make a prioritized goal list denoting your top three goals to work toward right now. These goals will give you purpose for implementing money-saving tactics and they will also give you momentum to make wise choices financially.

2. Break Your Goals Down Into Bite-sized Pieces

After you’ve determined your goals, you need to take those big goals and break them down into manageable pieces. I recommend that you set yearly goals and then break those down into monthly goals. Then, take those monthly goals and break those down into weekly goals.

For instance, if you want to save $2500 this year, you’ll need to save a little over $208 per month. That means, you’ll need to save $52 per week — or around $10.50 each weekday.

When you break your goals down into these small pieces, they become much less daunting and much more manageable. Plus, you have a very concrete number to work toward instead of a huge, seemingly overwhelming goal.

3. Create a Written Budget

Once you have your goals in place, it’s time to set up your budget. If you’ve never had a budget before, my book, The Money Saving Mom®’s Budget, outlines how to set up a grocery budget, then a barebones budget, and then a full-fledged budget. I included spreadsheets and step-by-step help to walk you through how to do it. This process is especially beneficial for people who are brand-new to budgeting and completely stressed out over how to pull it off successfully.

If you’re ready to jump in with two feet, Dave Ramsey offers a free online budgeting tool that walks you through setting up your budget and includes suggested percentages to include for each category. Remember to budget for your financial goals before budgeting for fun stuff and extras. Short-term sacrifices will always pay off in the long run!

4. Plan for Strategic Splurging

Once you’ve set up your budget and covered all your necessary bases and your financial goals, now comes the fun part: budgeting for strategic splurging! A lot of people have this idea that a budget is a straight jacket that removes all of the excitement and spontaneity from your life and instead relegates you to a miserable existence.

I heartily disagree. A budget actually gives you freedom!

When you make your money work for you, you have more to work with. In turn, this means you can budget for fun and splurging — and you can enjoy it more because you know that going out to dinner or that occasional coffee at Starbucks is something you planned for, not something that’s going to wreck your finances or keep you from being able to pay your electric bill.

Life is meant to be savored — and a budget can be a tool to help you enjoy life a lot more, without the guilt!

What advice do the rest of you have for Samantha and her husband? I’d love to hear!

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27 Ways to Make Money

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by Crystal on April 19, 2012

I’m speaking at the Midwest Homeschool Conference on Saturday about Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom Without Losing Your Sanity.

For the session handouts, I put together a list of ways to make money to help provide some ideas and inspiration if you’re looking to start a business or just find something extra to do on the side to bring in a little income. I thought some of you might find these ideas helpful as well, so I’m posting the list below.

1. Have a booth at the farmer’s market
2. Sell your clutter (or your friends’ clutter!) on eBay or Craigslist
3. Write and sell ebooks or online courses
4. Become an online coach
5. Walk dogs
6. Become a balloon artist
7. Clean houses, offices, or apartment buildings
8. Board pets
9. Proctor testing
10. Become a transcriptionist
11. Babysit
12. Sell plasma
13. Teach classes
14. Provide ebook design services
15. Become a mystery shopper
16. Sell handmade items on Etsy
17. Become a freelance ghostwriter, copywriter, editor, or proofreader
18. Become a virtual assistant
19. Develop and design websites and/or blogs
20. Provide social media consulting for other business and bloggers
21. Become a blogger
22. Set up a bookkeeping business
23. Become a graphic designer
24. Provide party or event planning services
25. Become a tutor
26. Sell books on Amazon.com, Cash4Books.net, and/or MyBookBuyer.net
27. Write for magazines, newspapers, and/or online sites

If you’re looking for freelancing work, check out ODesk.com, UrbanInterns.com, MomCorps.com, and Elance.com for possible contract positions or contract work open in your area of expertise.

What other ideas do you have for ways to make money? I’d love to add to this list!

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We Paid Cash: Washer and Dryer

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by Crystal on April 19, 2012

We paid cash! A testimony from Taylor from Stain Removal 101

I’m a work-at-home-Mom of three, so needless to say, I am on very friendly terms with our washing machine! In addition, as part of my home business, I test and review a lot of various laundry supplies and laundry detergents with that very same machine, at Stain Removal 101, so you could say my washing machine and I are a team.

That’s why I was very sad when my “team member” bit the dust during the middle of one of my stain removal product tests. Normally, I’m all for fixing broken appliances instead of just replacing them; however, it didn’t make sense financially to do that this time.

We briefly considered purchasing a lower-end model new appliance, but even the new washing machines without many bells and whistles were quite expensive. In our situation, it made more sense to buy a used washing machine that didn’t have an inflated showroom value anymore.

Plus, buying a used machine also meant that we had enough emergency savings available to pay for it with cash, without dipping too far into those reserves. Yes, we could have purchased a new washing machine with cash too, but I knew how long it would take to replace all that money from the fund if we dipped down so low.

We weren’t comfortable having such a low fund since emergencies are unpredictable — and this ended up being a wise decision, since we also got some wind damage to our roof and needed to use some emergency funds to pay our deductible.

If we’d bought a new machine we would have eaten up too much money at once.

We chose a used machine that was six years old and cost only $250. That was about how much the repair of the old machine might have cost us, and we got a machine 10 years newer!

So far, this machine works great and I hope it will last us as long as our old one did. If I can even get five or ten years out of it, instead of the 13 my previous used model gave us, I’ll have gotten a great bargain. Plus, we’ve still got money in our emergency fund for any curve balls life might throw at us!

Taylor Flanery is former lawyer turned writer, who blogs about all things domestic while working at home with her three kids and husband. You can find her at Household Management 101, Stain Removal 101, and Home Storage Solutions 101.

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

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Is it possible to survive on a $30 per week grocery budget?

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by Crystal on April 17, 2012

I am single and have about $30 per week for groceries which I find hard to do and get a balanced diet. I do go to multiple stores to get the best prices and use coupons the best I can. The thing that bothers me, is when a staple item I use is on sale, I normally don’t have an extra $5 (let alone more) to spend to purchase it. How can I stock-up on sale items when I have such a little bit to get by with anyways? -Renee

Contrary to what many people may tell you, I think you can definitely eat well on $30 per week — and you can find a little wiggle room to buy ahead, too.

My husband and I both lived on a $30 per week grocery budget when we were first married. This included all the ingredients to make 21 meals for both of us each week, plus all household products.

A Can-Do Attitude Is a Must

Don’t let yourself think, “There’s no way I can eat on this small of a budget.” Instead, decide that you’re going to do the best you can with the resources you have.

Make it a game, of sorts, to see how well you can do on a little. By challenging yourself to exercise creativity and think outside the box, you’ll enjoy it a lot more. And when you’re enjoying something, it no longer seems so difficult.

Make Short-Term Sacrifices

In order to be able to scrape together enough money to start buying ahead and building up your stockpile, I’d encourage you to commit to eating really simply for a few weeks. Cut your grocery budget back to $25, and save the extra $5 to invest in those rock-bottom, can’t miss deals — or to purchase almost-free toiletries and household products.

If you’re thinking there’s no way you can eat on $25 per week, here’s a grocery list and menu plan I came up with:

Sample $25 Grocery List and Menu

Prices are approximate and will likely vary a little by area. You may be able to beat these prices with great sales and/or coupons.

Regular Grocery Store, Aldi, or Walmart

1 canister of oatmeal –$2
1 gallon milk — $2.50
1 bag of apples — $3
1 bag of carrots — $1.50
4 bags of frozen vegetables — $4
1 bag of frozen chicken breasts — $7

Dollar Store

1 loaf of bread — $1
1 jar of peanut butter — $1
1 jar of jelly or honey — $1
1 bag of dried beans — $1
1 bag of rice — $1

Breakfasts:

Oatmeal with milk (add in some chopped apples, honey, or peanut butter to change things up a little)

Lunches:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, carrots

Dinners:

Beans and rice with steamed veggies on the side
Chicken, rice, and carrot soup
Baked chicken breast on a bed of rice, steamed veggies
Rice, chopped chicken, and steamed veggies mixed together and sprinkled with salt
Homemade refried beans, baked chicken, steamed veggies
Chicken and veggie stirfry served over rice
Leftovers

Yes, this isn’t a very exciting menu. But if you’re willing to scrimp for a few weeks and eat very simply, it will free up that extra $5 or so each week to start buying a few extra things that are on a great sale (like a bag of flour, like that incredible deal on strawberries — some to eat now, some to freeze for later, or that fantastic special on beef).

As you invest some of your grocery money in the rock-bottom specials and deals, this helps you to build up more of a stockpile so that, over time, you’ll be able to have more and more variety without increasing your budget.

For more grocery saving ideas, be sure to check out my 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget series.

Do you think you can eat well on $30 per week? What advice or suggestions do you have for Renee?

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We Paid Cash: A New Roof

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by Crystal on April 12, 2012

We paid cash!

A testimony from Scott who blogs at In Due Sea$on

As followers of Dave Ramsey, my wife and I live, eat, and breathe avoiding debt. We have been following the Total Money Makeover plan for over four years, and always pay with money we have, versus money we plan to have.

Early in the program, with the threat of a possible job loss, we began to save as much cash as possible, for what Dave Ramsey referred to as the “rainy day fund”. With storm clouds looming, we temporarily halted our debt snowball and socked away as much money as we could for several months. After a job change and a more stable income, we were prepared to put that money back towards paying down our debt.

However, our 27-year-old roof saw to it that our savings would go elsewhere. We tried to hold off as long as possible on the repair. However, once it began to rain in our kitchen, we knew we couldn’t hold off anymore!

After pricing quality roofers in our area, we found a great contractor to do the job for $20,000. For the extensive amount of work we needed, that was actually a good price.

But we wanted better. It’s hard to part with your emergency fund money, even for an emergency.

So, when drawing up the contract, I broached the question, “What will you take for the job if we pay in cash?” A surprisingly quick “$17,000.” was the response. Still painful, but it was encouraging to realize we could have bought a decent used car with the money we saved by “going green”!

That expense set us back close to a year on our Total Money Makeover progress, but I can tell you that it’s a good feeling to pull into our driveway everyday and look at that roof, knowing that it’s paid in full. Had we financed the roof, it would probably have to be replaced again by the time we finished paying off the interest and payments!

Scott Kerzner blogs at In Due Sea$on, a site based on the life of a Dave Ramsey follower. He and his family just finished Baby Step 2 of the Dave Ramsey plan and have paid off $100,000 of debt… even after many setbacks along the way!

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

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Punching Debt in the Face

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by Crystal on April 6, 2012

Guest post from Rebecca of Change Your Life in 100 Days

I can’t believe how naive I have always been about money my whole life. That just goes to show how much parents need to be teaching their kids about spending, saving, and earning money. I didn’t have any education at all about finances and I am definitely paying for it now.

I also strongly believe every student who starts their freshmen year of college should be required to sit down with a financial adviser provided by the campus. College students need to be taught about school loans, interest, planning for their financial future and paying loans back later when they graduate.

I, again, didn’t have this knowledge presented to me so I was the typical college student who took out more than necessary because it seemed great at the time. Now this, too, is a tremendous issue in my financial life.

Fact: I paid $240.91 last month for just one of my student loans.

Fact: Only $27.78 went to principal.

This makes me want to punch my debt in the face.

The positive is that I am still in my late 20′s and I am finally figuring out how to face this debt head on and trample it out as fast as I can. All my thanks goes to Dave Ramsey for being such an amazing educator on financial freedom. My hope is to be able to say I have financial “freedom” as well in the coming years.

Here is my family’s plan for getting out of debt:

Use our tax return this year to pay off a consolidation loan (and tax returns in the future to pay off student loans).

Use my husband’s bonus this year to pay off our last credit card (and bonus in the future to pay off student loans).

Use all of this year’s extra summer income (tutoring, nannying, part-time side job) to pay off one of three student loans.

Take money out of savings to pay off our car and start putting money aside to pay cash for a car in the future.

Lower our cable bill by $30 a month by switching to satellite TV (I wish we could only purchase ESPN…if it wasn’t for that for my husband we wouldn’t need cable at all).

Stop going out to eat unless it is a very special celebration. We’ve learned to love cooking at home together so this eliminates the desire to want to go out for dinner.

Stop shopping. We buy all our son’s toddler clothes either on sale or at consignment sales. Why would we pay full price for something he’ll grow out of in two months?

Stop traveling on the weekends. We have saved so much money every month by staying home. If we are home we don’t spend the necessary money on gas, food, and shopping.

Learn to say no. If your friends are really your friends they will understand when you say you can’t go to dinner, get your nails done, or on a weekend trip because you’re trying to get out of debt.

The one thing we will not stop paying is our monthly 10% tithe. God has shown us in the past two years just how much he blesses us when we tithe. We will continue to tithe diligently and honor Him with our firsts because He deserves all the glory.

One day I will be debt-free and be able to scream from the mountain tops “I am free!”

Rebecca is a wife, new mother, full time teacher, mentor, and runner. Her goal is to be more intentional with every aspect of her life – her relationship with God, her family and friends, her job, her time, her finances, her workouts, her eating habits, her relaxing time, etc. She wants to live an intentional, purposeful life that follows God’s plan. Follow her blog at Change Your Life in 100 Days.

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We Paid Cash: Our Nursery

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by Crystal on April 5, 2012

We paid cash!

A testimony from Jaime who blogs at Busy Mom on the Go

When my husband and I found out we were expecting our first baby (a girl!) I decided that this would be a great opportunity to use the cash system. I tend to use the cash system for purchases that have a likely chance of going over the budget and preparing for a baby girl easily fit into that category!

I just sat in the “would-be nursery” room and started imagining all of the ways I could dress it up. My imagination was running wild with ideas of a small chandelier with crystals hanging down, a Princess style crib with the matching changing table, a plush glider in the corner with a little end table adorned with light purple handles… and as you can see I needed to reel myself back in with a cash-based budget approach.

Set Limits

I needed a way to set limits. The cash system lends itself so easily to situations like this one. I could see myself buying a cluster of small items spread out over about seven months and not keeping an accurate track of each item and before too long we’re over the budget.

My husband and I sat down and discussed what we wanted for our baby’s nursery, researched the costs, and then set our cash budget.

Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize

After we’d set limits, we had to prioritize our nursery room by creating two categories: needs and wants. As the months passed, we started out with our “necessary” remodel of the room itself. This included re-painting, installing new carpet, and replacing the old hollow wooden doors with new ones.

Afterward, we knew exactly how much we could spend to start the fun shopping by dressing up the room!

Ask for Help

As a budget conscious initiative I strongly encourage asking family and friends to go in together on baby shower gifts. If it’s appropriate, ask them to help you by buying the larger items off of your list first. My grandmother-in-law had provided us with a new crib and then my mom and sisters went in together to buy us the bedding.

Stay Realistic

Having a baby is such an amazing gift and as parents, we only want the absolute best for our kids. I thought about this when I asked myself initially why I was setting a budget in the first place because, after all, my baby is priceless.

Realistically though, everything needs a budget. It’s just a matter of determining if the situation best fits into the cash system or not.

Emily was welcomed into this world on Easter Sunday 2011. We brought her home to a beautiful nursery room all while keeping our budget in tact thanks to the discipline of the cash system.

Jaime Pyles is a full-time retirement planner during the day and co-editor of Busy Mom on the Go in the evening. She enjoys sharing her ideas and tips on personal financial management alongside her journey as a blessed mom. She says, “Emily has taught me more in 10 months than I would have learned in a lifetime without her. I love motherhood.”

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

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Q&A Tuesday: How do we set up a budget when we’re on commission?

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by Crystal on April 3, 2012

I am a stay-at-home mom and my husband works based on commission. I have been trying to work out a budget rather than living paycheck to paycheck, but am not sure how to budget when his checks can vary up to $700 per check. (He gets paid every other week.)

Some months we have a nice surplus, and other months we borrow from our savings to make sure our checking account stays out of the red. We don’t usually have a problem paying our monthly bills and usually can save a little, but are really hoping to pay off some credit card debt and our car. Any suggestions are appreciated! – Casey

Budgeting on a commission or variable income is very doable. In fact, my husband and I have never had a fixed combined income our entire married lives! Here’s what I’d recommend:

1. Create and Follow a Barebones Budget

In my book, I outline a step-by-step plan for getting on a budget. First, I encourage people to learn self-discipline through setting up a grocery budget. Once you’ve practiced the discipline of creating and sticking with a grocery budget, I encourage you to move on to developing a Barebones Budget.

If you’re already somewhat familiar with budgeting or already have a grocery budget in place, I’d encourage you to jump ahead and create a Barebones Budget. This will include all of your basic living necessities: food, basic utilities, shelter, and transportation. In your case, you’d also want to include your credit card bill(s) every month, too.

Write all of these budget categories down on paper and decide how much you need to set aside every two weeks to adequately cover all of the expenses. If there are any expenses you can lower by cutting your grocery bill, asking for a discount on your utilities, moving to a less expensive housing situation, or selling your car, I’d highly encourage you to do it temporarily in order to free up more money to save and pay off debt.

2. Build Up An Emergency Fund of 3-6 Months’ Expenses

Once you have your Barebones Budget in place, begin following it to a tee. As much as is possible, don’t pay for anything that isn’t a complete necessity right now. It’s a short season and your sacrifices will pay off. Instead, throw every extra penny you can toward building up your emergency fund to three to six months’ of barebone expenses.

Depending upon how often you are dipping into savings would be the determining factor for us as to whether to only set aside three months’ of expenses or to go ahead and set aside six months’ of expenses. This will then give you a cushion going forward on months that you come up short.

3. Pay Off Your Debt

After your emergency fund is full funded, it’s time to focus all of your energies on knocking out your debt as quickly as you possibly can. Continue to live on your Barebones Budget and put everything else that you can scrounge up toward your debt.

Be as aggressive and as creative as possible in attacking your debt and getting rid of it. The sooner it’s gone, the sooner you’ll be able to have some breathing room in your life again!

If you have some hiccups along the way — and you probably will! — don’t be discouraged. Stop and re-fund your emergency fund, if need be, and then get back to getting rid of your debt.

4. Create a Prioritized List of Additional Savings/Spending Goals

Finally, once your debt is gone, make sure you have a fully-funded emergency fund of at least 3-6 months’ expenses, and then create a prioritized list of additional savings and spending goals. Use this list as your guide for months when you have extra: put the extra toward the first thing on your prioritized and slowly start working through it.

If your debt is gone and you have a good emergency fund in place, you’ll have a lot more breathing room and will not only be able to put more into savings, you’ll probably also be able to enjoy some strategic splurging, too!

What advice and tips do the rest of you have for successfully budgeting on a variable income?

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Six Ways Moms Can Contribute To Their Family’s Finances

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by Crystal on April 3, 2012

I wrote about six ways moms can contribute to their family’s finances over on The Better Mom today.

Psst! None of these ideas involve actually getting a paycheck–but they can all save you hundreds of dollars each year!

By the way, I’ll be talking more in-depth about some of these things in my Live Webcast this Thursday evening. I’d love to have you join us for lots of great discussion and Q&A.

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