How We Manage On Less Money Part 1

One of our apple trees

Once again, I'd like to thank you all for the warm welcome back! I'm trying to get around to everyone and hopefully by the weekend I'll have said hello and seen what fabulousness you've all been up to. I am trying to limit my time on the computer as it actually takes quite a bit of my day to do all the things I need to do to keep our finances, house, yard, LIFE going.

So as I mentioned before, when my husband was shifted into another position in his company we lost quite a bit of income - over $600 each check. Not only that, but, we didn't find out this was going to happen until 3 days before payday! Oh yes, somehow they didn't think it important enough to let him know. I found out because I always check his paycheck at their online payroll center (toward the end there I was checking to make sure he was even getting a check). When he called HR about it they said they were planning on telling him on payday and forgot that you could look at paychecks on line 3 days before. I'm sure they wouldn't like to open their checks ON PAYDAY and find it less than what they were used to getting! Anyway......I'm not a financial expert but I can share what we've been doing to cope.

The first thing I want to point out is that we we've been doing the Dave Ramsey program for years and had no credit card debt, had $1000 in an emergency fund and were not living paycheck to paycheck. Get a copy of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. There's a link in my Amazon box and here's the link to his website http://daveramsey.com. Check out the "We Did It" section for inspiration. He often puts his books on sale and many churches offer his Financial Peace program. Also,check your library for a copy. Mary Hunt also has a similar plan.

Debt is bad! I can't encourage you or emphasize enough that if you have debt you should focus on getting out of debt. Debt is not normal. Just because lots of people have credit card debt doesn't make it o.k. Debt limits your choices. Do whatever you have to do to get out of debt.

I think it's important to have a plan. A plan for how to spend your money, how to build up your savings, a menu plan, a shopping plan, you get the idea. I'm a planner. I do think it helps to have a plan to reach a goal no matter what that goal is. You can definitely save money by planning if that's your goal!

To begin with you really need to have an idea of how much money is coming in and how much is going out. I won't use the "The Big Bad B Word" ! I'll say "spending plan". Believe me I didn't want to do it either! There's something about sitting down with your stack of bills and receipts - I guess it fear. Fear that you are living above your means, fear that you're not really doing such a good job being a good steward of your family's money, fear that you really can't tell your wants from your needs and are overspending. Fear of reality!

I'd say it took me several days to write everything down and I use Quicken! But I would sit down and then need a cup of coffee, or I decided I wanted a pen with a pretty ink color (you know so it would look purdy - sheesh!), then I needed a snack, then oh yes I should put the clothes in the washer, or make a call or....a million different things. In the end I didn't sit down and write everything in one shot. I really did it in bits and pieces. It was all I could stand! But I discovered that eliminating a few things(no more random TJ Maxx trips), cutting back on somethings (dropped health club membership for one thing), thinking about certain things in a new way would (could I make my own cleaning products, hang my laundry etc) - well if I did these things we would be alright. It would be a challenge - but it would be fun to see if I could learn some new skills along the way.

I see myself as the Manager of our home and finances and I take my job seriously. I have pride in what I do and I want to do the best job possible. But I don't have it all figured out. I'm always looking for more information! So I hope you guys will chime in with your ideas!

Next time I'll get into some of the specific things we are doing. I'll probably intersperse those kinds of post with pictures of projects I'm working on around the house, I have some books I received when I had my last blog that I never got around to reviewing so I'll do some of that, and I'm cooking more from scratch so I have recipes to share.

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read this! I'll leave you with a picture I took this morning of one of my sunflowers cause I'm just not used to a post that doesn't have lots of pictures!