My husband switched to ting four months ago. We were on a family plan with Verizon paying $55-60/month together, and had previously talked about switching but had planned to wait till January when both our contracts were up. But then his phone up and died on us. We switched him to TING using a flip phone we got off freecycle. We used a referral code so he started with a $25 credit so no matter what we would be ahead of the game. Two weeks later he said, I'm buying a smartphone, ting is fine but not having a keyboard is not. Up until then, both DH and I had dumb phones with a qwerty keyboard but that was it.
Since then, my dumb phone's speaker has stopped working for private calls, so all I can use it for is speaker calls and texting. Therefore, I have been using google talk much, much more and since the person I text the most is my husband I have gotten used to using google chat for texting. DH still has not paid a penny for ting because someone used our referral link and the first time one gives a referral one gets $50. Every other referral is $25. So, so far all DH has spent on ting was the phone, which he bought used for $120, and a case for $20. I have still been spending $35/month and the savings of $20 has been going to pay off the phone and case. We have budgeted $10/month for the phone costs but the case cost went into our miscellaneous spending.
This weekend I too bought a phone and case for the same amount of money (total $120). Our bill now is $26 plus tax and since we set aside $10/month for phone costs, we will upgrade every other year, just like the big plans with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, but for much, much cheaper. $36 compared to $55-60 and to even get that low on Verizon we had dumb phones, another person on family plan and often we had to spend some amount for the phone (often less than $50). I am not sure we could even find a similar phone to what I have without paying about $50 which adds an additional $4 expense per month.
Since Ting is on sprint's network I have not seen much difference and am loving the money savings. This does require some preplanning and money upfront but for us it has been a win. What do you do though, if you don't have the money up front? Well, you don't have to buy the phone from ting, you can buy it from amazon and you can earn gift cards from swagbucks so no cash required.
It will take bit to earn the swagbucks needed, so start now with an extra 150 swagbucks. You will start a third of the way to your first gift card. If you are unmotivated like I am, you'll only get about $5/month but if you are like some of my friends who are always running swag videos in the background and playing video games on their site, you can get about $25/month. So it is up to you, can you afford a new phone and a cheaper plan by the end of the school year? Let me know if you are up for the challenge. If you are up for it, start off with a free $25 by using my referral code.
1 Million Dollars
Showing posts with label choices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label choices. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Joining Moneystepper’s 2015 Savings Challenge
I found two amazing new bloggers last week, Simple Cheap Mom And Money Stepper. I have been having a blast reading both blogs and highly recommend both of them. Money Stepper has a great challenge for 2015 that both Simple Cheap Mom I have joined. He has challenged people to make two goals, 1) increasing your net worth and 2)saving a portion of your income. Given that I joined the blogger group trying to save 50% of your income, yet I am not saving 50%, I am always up for trying to improve.
In 2014, the highest savings rate I had was 30%, but I just got a COLA raise and in 2015 my employer is putting $600 in my daycare FSA, which given that I spend $9,900 annually on daycare counts as a raise too! So I think I can improve even more in 2015. My budget says I should be able to save 37% but I don't think that is good enough. I am going to aim for saving 40% of my gross income which will require some pretty decent side hustles but also should increase my net worth by 50%. It is a lofty goal, but I think I can do it.
So, what is your 2015 goal? Will you join Money Stepper's challenge with me?
In 2014, the highest savings rate I had was 30%, but I just got a COLA raise and in 2015 my employer is putting $600 in my daycare FSA, which given that I spend $9,900 annually on daycare counts as a raise too! So I think I can improve even more in 2015. My budget says I should be able to save 37% but I don't think that is good enough. I am going to aim for saving 40% of my gross income which will require some pretty decent side hustles but also should increase my net worth by 50%. It is a lofty goal, but I think I can do it.
So, what is your 2015 goal? Will you join Money Stepper's challenge with me?
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Three week grocery round up, with a Serious Fail!
Single week shopping does not work for us! We averaged 68.97 every week and were careful, so very careful. We did fine at the main store, but not good and we still spent at the "deal" stores because of course, we found deals.
We were over a total of $8.97 which makes us owe $366.19 with a month to go till the end of 2014. Granted only being over by 8.97 with thanksgiving in there is pretty decent, but we can't go with decent, we need good. We could not shop one bit and still not be within budget. And, not shopping won't work at all. So my plan is to go back to once every three weeks shopping (though maybe I will stretch it to once a month, what do you think?) and do my best.
This has taught me that screwing up is hard to fix, and much easier to just not screw up in the first place. Now if I can just keep to that. I am going to be keeping a better eye on my accounts, one reason I got mint in the first place and trying for some more cheap meals during this winter. This is going to be a struggle for me, but one I fully intend to win. See you soon.
We were over a total of $8.97 which makes us owe $366.19 with a month to go till the end of 2014. Granted only being over by 8.97 with thanksgiving in there is pretty decent, but we can't go with decent, we need good. We could not shop one bit and still not be within budget. And, not shopping won't work at all. So my plan is to go back to once every three weeks shopping (though maybe I will stretch it to once a month, what do you think?) and do my best.
This has taught me that screwing up is hard to fix, and much easier to just not screw up in the first place. Now if I can just keep to that. I am going to be keeping a better eye on my accounts, one reason I got mint in the first place and trying for some more cheap meals during this winter. This is going to be a struggle for me, but one I fully intend to win. See you soon.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Three Weeks of Groceries, what a spendy time!
We overspent so much this last three weeks! We spent $283.93, a budget busting $85.93 more than budget! That is more than a weeks worth of food. What did we spend it on? Well we spent $48.13 on chicken because the meat store had a sale for 1.49/lb (.50 cheaper than the grocery store), but we had to buy 30lbs. And we had bought a couple splurge items when Tops Market had some major sales and then we stocked up.
So what are we going to do? We are $357.28 over our spending with seven weeks to go and Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping is in there. There is no way I can spend $14.96 a week. However, we won't have to buy chicken for the rest of the year (and probably even longer) so I am going to take this as alright. We will end up dipping into our EF to cover this which sucks but that is life.
So what is the plan? Because we know we are buying our turkey next week at Top's, we decide to not doing major shopping this week. We are hitting wegmans for some basics on Sunday (which looks to cost less than $40) and then next Saturday will buy our turkey for .48/lb but we need to spend $25 more to get that price, so we will probably do the thanksgiving spending there and spend about $30-40 that week. The week after we will see what we have left over from thanksgiving and go from there. We may not be able to make up all of this money but we can do some fixes.
One of the best things I have learned from this is to change things up when they don't work. It may work great one week but not work the next. Don't be dogmatic, and you can take on anything!
So what are we going to do? We are $357.28 over our spending with seven weeks to go and Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping is in there. There is no way I can spend $14.96 a week. However, we won't have to buy chicken for the rest of the year (and probably even longer) so I am going to take this as alright. We will end up dipping into our EF to cover this which sucks but that is life.
So what is the plan? Because we know we are buying our turkey next week at Top's, we decide to not doing major shopping this week. We are hitting wegmans for some basics on Sunday (which looks to cost less than $40) and then next Saturday will buy our turkey for .48/lb but we need to spend $25 more to get that price, so we will probably do the thanksgiving spending there and spend about $30-40 that week. The week after we will see what we have left over from thanksgiving and go from there. We may not be able to make up all of this money but we can do some fixes.
One of the best things I have learned from this is to change things up when they don't work. It may work great one week but not work the next. Don't be dogmatic, and you can take on anything!
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Get out of the dorm! Save money by moving.
The semester starting to wind down and exams, papers and craziness is starting to ramp up. But take a few minutes to see if you could move out of the dorms and save some money. Depending on where you are, living in the dorms may be cheaper than renting a room or much, much more expensive. How do you decide?
Well you need to add up all the costs associated with each. Sometimes when you rent, utilities are included, like the dorms but often if you rent directly from a landlord instead of just a room, that is not true. Ask the landlord what the average utilities costs are. Google internet in your area and get an idea of that cost. Obviously there is no reason to have a landline because you have your cell, so ignore those ads. You'll need a way to get to school, should you live near-by or farther out? That depends if you work and if you have car. If you don't have a car and can find an apartment on a bus line, that is often better than buying a car. Remember you are likely to move once you graduate. Never the less, include the cost of transportation if you did not need in, living in the dorms. Also, remember to add in food costs because you won't need a food plan once you are living on your own.
Then add up the dorm costs and remember to include that food plan! Once you have everything added up, compare them. Which is a better choice for you? If staying put is better, obviously don't move but if moving is better check if you signed the dorm contract for the semester or the year. If it is for the semester, then plan to move into a new place come spring semester. If it is a year lease, then you have to do more work. Every university has someone who oversees the dorms and if you are nice, they may be willing to allow you to break the lease without a penalty. They don't have to, so don't be a jerk about it, but the answer is always no, if you don't ask.
Come January we will go into how to find a good apartment, from both a tenant and landlord perspective. See you soon.
Well you need to add up all the costs associated with each. Sometimes when you rent, utilities are included, like the dorms but often if you rent directly from a landlord instead of just a room, that is not true. Ask the landlord what the average utilities costs are. Google internet in your area and get an idea of that cost. Obviously there is no reason to have a landline because you have your cell, so ignore those ads. You'll need a way to get to school, should you live near-by or farther out? That depends if you work and if you have car. If you don't have a car and can find an apartment on a bus line, that is often better than buying a car. Remember you are likely to move once you graduate. Never the less, include the cost of transportation if you did not need in, living in the dorms. Also, remember to add in food costs because you won't need a food plan once you are living on your own.
Then add up the dorm costs and remember to include that food plan! Once you have everything added up, compare them. Which is a better choice for you? If staying put is better, obviously don't move but if moving is better check if you signed the dorm contract for the semester or the year. If it is for the semester, then plan to move into a new place come spring semester. If it is a year lease, then you have to do more work. Every university has someone who oversees the dorms and if you are nice, they may be willing to allow you to break the lease without a penalty. They don't have to, so don't be a jerk about it, but the answer is always no, if you don't ask.
Come January we will go into how to find a good apartment, from both a tenant and landlord perspective. See you soon.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Over Your Head: living paycheck to paycheck
A friend posted on facebook about trying to save but not being able
to because every week there was new "surprise" bill. She said she has
cut every personal thing and still, she can't get above water. Sadly,
many of my friends agreed. Honestly I was flabbergasted because some of
her bills were not surprises, like car insurance. But, when you are
living on edge, I guess they can. Personal finance bloggers often say,
pay your car insurance bill every six month, but if you can't save that
little bit every month, how does that save you money? However, if you
can pay your car insurance every month, you CAN pay it every six
months. It just takes a change in attitude and planning. So, let's be
about it. shall we?
Often people are told to make monthly budgets but that sets you up for "surprise" bills that only come every six month or annually. I recommend everyone make an annual budget and go from there.
My budget looks like this:
Every bill I could think of is on there, and then under it is a list of things to add to the budget when I get more money including replacement costs of things like computers, large household items like a fridge or stove, everything. I may not be able to put money in everything but I can start. That helps me know where to put extra money if I get it or if I get a raise, if that ever happens.
Can you see something is missing though? I have no emergency fund on that list. And I have a very good reason for that, my extra money goes to my emergency fund (EF). Most of that money is from the rental but also little things like if I use amazon gift cards, that I get from swagbucks, instead of cash, I put the cash in my EF. Everyone does need an EF, though many young people don't have one. And that means putting those surprise bills on a credit card. But even if the EF starts with $5 a month, that is a start. And for young people starting is the most important thing. Once you start thing snow ball. Many of my bills are annual or semi-annual so I have a slush fund every month and except for a few months out of the year the slush fund grows (and throws a little interest into my EF). So, what are some things you can do TODAY to stop living paycheck to paycheck?
Join swagbucks
Join My Points
Find a cheaper insurance company, my choice is Geico but check EVERYWHERE
Join ebates if you shop online
For that matter, see if shopping online is cheaper
If you pay for electricity, unplug everything! Don't leave your computer plugged in or put it on a power-strip.
And if you are buy your own groceries check out money saving mom and cut your groceries spending at least for the one month.
By the end of the year you will have enough to change your car insurance to every six month which will save you an additional dollar. And all of that will add up to a small emergency fund that will keep growing. Just don't stop, keep the snowball growing and in no time you will not be living paycheck to paycheck.
If you have an idea that will help people stop living paycheck to paycheck, let us know in comments!
Often people are told to make monthly budgets but that sets you up for "surprise" bills that only come every six month or annually. I recommend everyone make an annual budget and go from there.
My budget looks like this:
| Grocery |
| mortgage |
| house insurance |
| car insurance |
| taxes of house |
| car |
| gas |
| utilities |
| internet/phone |
| house repair |
| fun money |
| medical |
| misc. |
| school cost |
| cat |
| life/disability |
| daycare |
| baby expenses |
| Gifts/xmas |
| hockey |
| travel |
Every bill I could think of is on there, and then under it is a list of things to add to the budget when I get more money including replacement costs of things like computers, large household items like a fridge or stove, everything. I may not be able to put money in everything but I can start. That helps me know where to put extra money if I get it or if I get a raise, if that ever happens.
Can you see something is missing though? I have no emergency fund on that list. And I have a very good reason for that, my extra money goes to my emergency fund (EF). Most of that money is from the rental but also little things like if I use amazon gift cards, that I get from swagbucks, instead of cash, I put the cash in my EF. Everyone does need an EF, though many young people don't have one. And that means putting those surprise bills on a credit card. But even if the EF starts with $5 a month, that is a start. And for young people starting is the most important thing. Once you start thing snow ball. Many of my bills are annual or semi-annual so I have a slush fund every month and except for a few months out of the year the slush fund grows (and throws a little interest into my EF). So, what are some things you can do TODAY to stop living paycheck to paycheck?
Join swagbucks
Join My Points
Find a cheaper insurance company, my choice is Geico but check EVERYWHERE
Join ebates if you shop online
For that matter, see if shopping online is cheaper
If you pay for electricity, unplug everything! Don't leave your computer plugged in or put it on a power-strip.
And if you are buy your own groceries check out money saving mom and cut your groceries spending at least for the one month.
By the end of the year you will have enough to change your car insurance to every six month which will save you an additional dollar. And all of that will add up to a small emergency fund that will keep growing. Just don't stop, keep the snowball growing and in no time you will not be living paycheck to paycheck.
If you have an idea that will help people stop living paycheck to paycheck, let us know in comments!
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Grocery plan updates for a month and half!
We spent 107.44 wegmans, $31.53 for the warehouse club, $31.27 for tops and $7 meat store for a total for three weeks 177.24 which averaged out to 57.88 for each week from Sept 13-27th. This is a savings of $20.76 from our "debt to the grocery gods" given that we went over during the first half of the year. However, that was not enough. Our goal was $48/week, with a reach goal of $45/week. I am not surprised we went over because we needed to purchase both ground beef and chicken during those weeks. Hopefully we can stretch the meat so we don't have to buy more in the near future. But still our "debt" to the grocery budget was down to $270.24 at that point. But, life got in the way of posting so that was three weeks ago, so where are we now?
Well we spent $179.55 at wegmans, $7.89 at tops, $7.67 at the warehouse, and only $4 at the meat store because I was out of town last weekend. This means we spent $199.11 over the three weeks, which is $66.36/week. We went over our weekly max of $66/week from the grocery annual budget and now are in more "debt" to the grocery gods. We now owe $271.35. And the year end is getting closer and closer. Do you think we might be able to make it? Obviously we won't be spending anything this weekend.
We have ten weeks to go, and in there is Christmas and Thanksgiving in there. Maybe we will get lucky, but we are cutting down the wire and we have eaten much of the food in the house that allowed us to cut down earlier this year. Our normal budget allows for $66, so cutting $27 off would be $38. We can't get below $50 so I doubt we can get to $38. But this experiment has taught us how low we can go and how easy it is to go over.
Well we spent $179.55 at wegmans, $7.89 at tops, $7.67 at the warehouse, and only $4 at the meat store because I was out of town last weekend. This means we spent $199.11 over the three weeks, which is $66.36/week. We went over our weekly max of $66/week from the grocery annual budget and now are in more "debt" to the grocery gods. We now owe $271.35. And the year end is getting closer and closer. Do you think we might be able to make it? Obviously we won't be spending anything this weekend.
We have ten weeks to go, and in there is Christmas and Thanksgiving in there. Maybe we will get lucky, but we are cutting down the wire and we have eaten much of the food in the house that allowed us to cut down earlier this year. Our normal budget allows for $66, so cutting $27 off would be $38. We can't get below $50 so I doubt we can get to $38. But this experiment has taught us how low we can go and how easy it is to go over.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Updated Millionaire Plan July 2014
We have broken $20K!!!! We now have $20,756 in retirement savings. Wow, we are so close to our mini-goal of six month's expenses including COBRA ($21,000). I know we will get there this month but I do wish we had broken $21K as well. In that theme, I have decided that I feel my retirement savings is too low. I am moving some of the money I have been putting towards general savings and debt repayment and putting it towards retirement moving our retirement savings to a round 20%. This means saving $787.50 per month instead of $625 towards our Roth. I know this hits my EF funding but I need to remember that in a true emergency, I could pull from the Roth IRAs because both my husband's and my Roth IRAs have been opened for over five tax years. Hey, maybe I should see if I have any extra room in April 2015 and if I do, store my EF cash in the Roth. What do people think of that?
So, since I am sure I will make our mini-goal of $21,000, I should mention that are next mini-goal after this one is $25,000, my entire gross annual salary and the amount I need to be able to move from target date funds to individual mutual funds. I can't wait because often individual mutual funds have cheaper fees and I have more control, which makes the control freak part of myself happy. :P
So, since I am sure I will make our mini-goal of $21,000, I should mention that are next mini-goal after this one is $25,000, my entire gross annual salary and the amount I need to be able to move from target date funds to individual mutual funds. I can't wait because often individual mutual funds have cheaper fees and I have more control, which makes the control freak part of myself happy. :P
Monday, February 6, 2012
Decisions to make:Debt vs Retirement
I've mentioned before that we use our rental income to save for retirement but since we have not had tenants since October there has been no retirement savings. For the 2011 year we have put aside $3600 which is $300 short of our 15% goal. However, we do also set aside $25/month of our rental income towards taxes. This year we owe no taxes (actually according to the government we have a loss of $600 on the rental) and therefore we need to decide what to do with the $225 of tax money. I originally thought to just put it in the Roth IRA because we are not making the retirement goal however, we do have a lot of student loan debt and paying extra on that would make me happy. Granted most of it is deferred and not earning any interest but about $5450 is accruing interest at 5.75%. I am still leaning towards just putting the money in the Roth IRA but I have till April 15th to decide.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Cars
Sometimes students bring their car to school or if they are living at home use it to get to school. Most students, rightly, get a beater but some prefer to get a loan to get a car they like. Normally that is a very bad idea. Often students are living on a part-time job, student loans and/or scholarships. Adding another debt on top can send you over the edge. I'm twenty-six and my husband is twenty-nine and neither of us have had new cars and that has helped us financially.
This does mean we need to be careful when we get our cars and we need to have a repair fund. We put away about a $100 in a car fund every month, we have never used it all and we save the rest for large repairs/maintenance and our next car. I was lucky, my mom bought my first car from a friend of hers and my aunt let me inherit my current grandmother died and we were moving to buffalo. Both were extremely well taken care of and allowed me not to spend a lot of money on repairs/maintenance. My husband was not as lucky and went through quite a few cars and had to do quite bit of repairs over the years. Thankfully, his father taught him quite a bit about cars and he has done some of the work and that has kept his costs down.
When we moved to Buffalo we decided to just take one car. In San Jose our university gave us free bus passes and therefore I only drove to work and for going out. My husband and I did the math and we would have to rent a car for over thirty days to equal keeping a beater around. We decided it was not worth it, and over the last two years we have only needed to rented a car at home twice.
It is best to decide what works for you, renting a car, using zip car or owning a car. Nothing works best for everyone and you need to decide in your individual case. What works best will change over time so you have to always be thinking about your situation. At some point my husband and I may need a second car, or we will have enough extra money to buy a motorcycle and live in a place where they are practical, but that is not our current situation. My husband had to sell his bike to help him get out of debt and he did not like it but he did what he had to do, as we all need to do.
What choices have you made for good or bad? What has worked and not worked for you for transportation? Why did it work or not? What made you change your current situation?
This does mean we need to be careful when we get our cars and we need to have a repair fund. We put away about a $100 in a car fund every month, we have never used it all and we save the rest for large repairs/maintenance and our next car. I was lucky, my mom bought my first car from a friend of hers and my aunt let me inherit my current grandmother died and we were moving to buffalo. Both were extremely well taken care of and allowed me not to spend a lot of money on repairs/maintenance. My husband was not as lucky and went through quite a few cars and had to do quite bit of repairs over the years. Thankfully, his father taught him quite a bit about cars and he has done some of the work and that has kept his costs down.
When we moved to Buffalo we decided to just take one car. In San Jose our university gave us free bus passes and therefore I only drove to work and for going out. My husband and I did the math and we would have to rent a car for over thirty days to equal keeping a beater around. We decided it was not worth it, and over the last two years we have only needed to rented a car at home twice.
It is best to decide what works for you, renting a car, using zip car or owning a car. Nothing works best for everyone and you need to decide in your individual case. What works best will change over time so you have to always be thinking about your situation. At some point my husband and I may need a second car, or we will have enough extra money to buy a motorcycle and live in a place where they are practical, but that is not our current situation. My husband had to sell his bike to help him get out of debt and he did not like it but he did what he had to do, as we all need to do.
What choices have you made for good or bad? What has worked and not worked for you for transportation? Why did it work or not? What made you change your current situation?
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
How to decide if you should buy or rent as a student
Depending on the area it may be cheaper to buy a place versus rent for four year while in college, or while in grad school for five. Given that my DH and I bought a duplex you might think I am very pro-buying while a student is in school but it really depends on many factors.
First can you afford it? Buying a property requires a down payment, closing costs and emergency fund plus money for all the little expenses like lawn mowers, snow plows and even a washer and dryer. Most students do not have the money for all the upfront costs, even most graduate students may not have the money. Where would you get the money? Your parents?
That brings up the second point, especially if you are an undergraduate. Will your parents go along with the idea of buying a property? If so, who owns the property? If your parents are paying all the bills obviously they own it but to get owner occupied rates the person occupying it must be on the mortgage. How will you work that? That will affect your credit score and will affect if you can get loans later in life.
Also, at eighteen do you even have a credit score? Could you even get a mortgage even with your parents co-signing? You probably could but the interest rate may be a little higher than a rate your parents could get. This also means your parents need a good credit score and not much debt. Do you think your parents would qualify?
Then you must think, will you have the time to take care of the property, find tenants/roommates if you need them etc? I know that if my DH and I were not together neither of us could have bought the rental by ourselves. It was too much work and needed many different skills.
Then you need to check if the mortgage plus repairs will be lower than renting. You cannot be sure that housing will appreciate or even that it won't depreciate by the time you are done with school. You need to look at the costs of renting out the property when you leave. This means adding up all the monthly expenses plus repair and seeing if renting the place would cause you to break even if you only got rent for ten months out the year.
Now if every point work out, then maybe, just maybe, you would financial better off buying instead of renting but if even one of these does not work, don't buy. It won't help you, it will hurt you. Renting isn't a bad thing. My DH and I plan to rent while he is working a post-doctoral fellow because the time we will be in the area is so short. What each person needs to do is see what works best for them in their own situation.
First can you afford it? Buying a property requires a down payment, closing costs and emergency fund plus money for all the little expenses like lawn mowers, snow plows and even a washer and dryer. Most students do not have the money for all the upfront costs, even most graduate students may not have the money. Where would you get the money? Your parents?
That brings up the second point, especially if you are an undergraduate. Will your parents go along with the idea of buying a property? If so, who owns the property? If your parents are paying all the bills obviously they own it but to get owner occupied rates the person occupying it must be on the mortgage. How will you work that? That will affect your credit score and will affect if you can get loans later in life.
Also, at eighteen do you even have a credit score? Could you even get a mortgage even with your parents co-signing? You probably could but the interest rate may be a little higher than a rate your parents could get. This also means your parents need a good credit score and not much debt. Do you think your parents would qualify?
Then you must think, will you have the time to take care of the property, find tenants/roommates if you need them etc? I know that if my DH and I were not together neither of us could have bought the rental by ourselves. It was too much work and needed many different skills.
Then you need to check if the mortgage plus repairs will be lower than renting. You cannot be sure that housing will appreciate or even that it won't depreciate by the time you are done with school. You need to look at the costs of renting out the property when you leave. This means adding up all the monthly expenses plus repair and seeing if renting the place would cause you to break even if you only got rent for ten months out the year.
Now if every point work out, then maybe, just maybe, you would financial better off buying instead of renting but if even one of these does not work, don't buy. It won't help you, it will hurt you. Renting isn't a bad thing. My DH and I plan to rent while he is working a post-doctoral fellow because the time we will be in the area is so short. What each person needs to do is see what works best for them in their own situation.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Prices are going up
And deals are going down. As I look for deals I my grocery stores I am finding many less stockupables and higher overall prices. I am trying to get my average weekly spending at the grocery store down to $50 yet the last two weeks have both been over $65. I have been finding less coupons for what I need or want and my stockpile is shrinking. There are even fewer extra buck deals at CVS than there used to be. It is frustrating and I almost feel like I have no choice but to just spend more money. But if I did that where would the money come from? I would have to take it from my savings and I do not like that plan.
My car insurance has already been increased and even with cutting some coverage I cannot find insurance for the price I used to pay. I could cut the coverage even lower but I am not comfortable with doing that. And of course, the difference is coming out of my savings. However, the choice to not increase coverage is mine, I could choose differently. Even when we only have two bad choices we still have to make the choice.
I may feel like I have cut all my expenses to the bone but when it gets tough, the tough relook at everything. I may have to make choices I dislike but those choices are still mine. Part of what I am doing is changing my main store from wegmans to price rite. I may prefer wegmans but pricerite on average is cheaper. This should save me some money though not the amount I need it to. What else can I do to get my budget where I need it? I am going to work on increasing my coupon usage and try to check the coupon sites more than I do now. Other than that all I can think of is to cut back some of the treats we get. However those treats make food fun and keep us from eating out more than we should. It is a balancing act and can be hard. I am going to continue looking for another solution for now but may soon have to make the hard choices.
My car insurance has already been increased and even with cutting some coverage I cannot find insurance for the price I used to pay. I could cut the coverage even lower but I am not comfortable with doing that. And of course, the difference is coming out of my savings. However, the choice to not increase coverage is mine, I could choose differently. Even when we only have two bad choices we still have to make the choice.
I may feel like I have cut all my expenses to the bone but when it gets tough, the tough relook at everything. I may have to make choices I dislike but those choices are still mine. Part of what I am doing is changing my main store from wegmans to price rite. I may prefer wegmans but pricerite on average is cheaper. This should save me some money though not the amount I need it to. What else can I do to get my budget where I need it? I am going to work on increasing my coupon usage and try to check the coupon sites more than I do now. Other than that all I can think of is to cut back some of the treats we get. However those treats make food fun and keep us from eating out more than we should. It is a balancing act and can be hard. I am going to continue looking for another solution for now but may soon have to make the hard choices.
Monday, May 9, 2011
My Frugal Weakness
My biggest weakness is food. It is funny when I was young I could care less about what I ate. I would either eat or not, I did not care. Now, I want to eat well and I even want to eat healthy food. We spend almost double at the grocery store compared to last year but we do not want to go back. Back then, we had enough food for the week and that was it. If something went wrong, we had nothing. We ate badly, for example, I do not think I had a piece of fruit for six month.
Now we eat salad on average of two nights a week and eat at least a piece of fruit a day. We also eat more expensive "treat" dinners. And this is where the problem occurs. When a dinner costs ten dollars, it does not matter if it is at home or at a restaurant, it is going to kill your budget, if it is done too much. But those are the dinners we like the most. What can we do to enjoy our meals without paying the price?
We have shopped sales, used coupons and even had a small garden last year, what more can we do? I have decided eating health is more important than saving money but I would like both. If I do not buy enough food at home that I like, I normally end up going out to eat and that adds up as well. So I am still struggling with this, and may be for some time.
Now we eat salad on average of two nights a week and eat at least a piece of fruit a day. We also eat more expensive "treat" dinners. And this is where the problem occurs. When a dinner costs ten dollars, it does not matter if it is at home or at a restaurant, it is going to kill your budget, if it is done too much. But those are the dinners we like the most. What can we do to enjoy our meals without paying the price?
We have shopped sales, used coupons and even had a small garden last year, what more can we do? I have decided eating health is more important than saving money but I would like both. If I do not buy enough food at home that I like, I normally end up going out to eat and that adds up as well. So I am still struggling with this, and may be for some time.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Decisions
When it comes to money, once you have a bit, there are so many decisions to make. For example, should I pay extra on my student loans or put more towards retirement? Should I have a 3 month emergency fund or a 6 month emergency fund (EF)? If I put more of my savings in my emergency fund, what do I cut? The problem is we cannot do everything we want, spending or savings wise.
For students the choices can be do I work or take student loans? Or should I take out the minimum I need or have some breathing room? All of these choices will affect our futures but we don't know which is the best choice. So how to choose?
Personally I think it is ok to take the max amount of subsidized student loans to give yourself an EF as long as you keep that money as EF and not an excuse to spend more. Also, I would assume that a student would repay the extra amount they took within the first 6 month after graduation to avoid having a large month expense. Also check what fees you pay to get the loan (discover is 0% but direct loans can have up to a 1.5% fee).
In regard to SL vs retirement it depends, if you have having trouble with cash flow maybe paying some the student loans off may be better for you or if you have private student loans (because they are variable) it may be a good idea to pay them off before the rate goes up. For my DF and I, we will be paying off my small loan while he is graduate school while saying 14% of our income to retirement. Because he started saving late, that amount is the least amount we feel comfortable saving. This will allow us some breathing room when he is a post doctoral fellow (which does not pay much).
To determine how much of an EF you need, I would look at your expenses, how easy it would be to get a job to cover those expenses and how stable your job is. As a graduate student my DF's job is extremely stable for the next three years so I am fine with a three month EF but once he becomes a post doctoral fellow it will be moved up to six months because a post doctoral fellow is not as stable.
But all of these are our choices and everyone makes their own, as it should be. Just make sure you know why you making your decisions and why they are right for you.
For students the choices can be do I work or take student loans? Or should I take out the minimum I need or have some breathing room? All of these choices will affect our futures but we don't know which is the best choice. So how to choose?
Personally I think it is ok to take the max amount of subsidized student loans to give yourself an EF as long as you keep that money as EF and not an excuse to spend more. Also, I would assume that a student would repay the extra amount they took within the first 6 month after graduation to avoid having a large month expense. Also check what fees you pay to get the loan (discover is 0% but direct loans can have up to a 1.5% fee).
In regard to SL vs retirement it depends, if you have having trouble with cash flow maybe paying some the student loans off may be better for you or if you have private student loans (because they are variable) it may be a good idea to pay them off before the rate goes up. For my DF and I, we will be paying off my small loan while he is graduate school while saying 14% of our income to retirement. Because he started saving late, that amount is the least amount we feel comfortable saving. This will allow us some breathing room when he is a post doctoral fellow (which does not pay much).
To determine how much of an EF you need, I would look at your expenses, how easy it would be to get a job to cover those expenses and how stable your job is. As a graduate student my DF's job is extremely stable for the next three years so I am fine with a three month EF but once he becomes a post doctoral fellow it will be moved up to six months because a post doctoral fellow is not as stable.
But all of these are our choices and everyone makes their own, as it should be. Just make sure you know why you making your decisions and why they are right for you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)