My Money Blog

Holiday Expenses and New Year Resolutions

Here is a link to a great article I just read:

Simplify New Year's resolutions

It started with a story that I thought was interesting, about a couple who saved a little money each month and put it into a Christmas account to pay for the holidays.  We decided this past year to pay for everything by cash, so we didn't run up our debt purchasing holiday gifts.  It is such a relief this year not worrying about how to pay for the holiday that already past.  We didn't save all year long for it though, just the last couple of months.  I think we may try putting money aside each paycheck to save for the the 2009 holidays.

The rest of the article also talks about how to meet your resolution.  It was interesting - it mentioned writing down all of your goals, which really does work.  I read a study that said people who write down their goals are 90% more likely to accomplish them.  

Cut your budget by $100

A few months ago, I read an article about cutting your monthly budget by 10%. I'd link to it, but I can't seem to remember where I read it. Anyway, it didn't give many specifics or strategies, it just talked about how it would only take little changes to make this happen. I have looking at this for months, and I think this is crazy. 10% doesn't seem like that much, but when you have already been cutting just to get by, 10% seems impossible.

So, instead, we have decided to set a short-term goal of shrinking our monthly expenses by $100. Putting that extra money towards paying off debt would sure go a long way, and $100 seems like a much more manageable goal. Here are some ideas we have bounced around:

Bundle communication costs - television, phone, internet... Everywhere you turn someone is selling those as a package now, and I am starting to think it would be a good idea. I actually have been making phone calls and I considering this. All TV options seem to bring the same channels into your house, so why not go with the cheapest?

Find ways to cut electricity costs - Every little bit counts, even if you only knock off $10 or so a month. I talked about that a few weeks ago here.

Change your cell phone plan - Again, $10 here, $10 there, might add up to $100 at the end. Cut out the text messaging. I am not into text messages anyway. My cell phone bill is already pretty low, so this might now work for me.

Get your medicine at the grocery store pharmacy - I thought these stories selling $4 generic medicines, or free antibiotics were aimed at retired folks, but we got my daughter's antibiotic for free at Publix (a grocery store) a few weeks ago! That was pretty exciting, and saved us $10 or $15 over our normal co-pay. Why pay for something when someone else has it for free?

I am determined to lower our expenses by $100 per month - which is seeming more and more like an easily-attainable goal. I'll let you know how it turns out. If you have any thoughts or ideas, please share in the comment section.

Saving Money on Entertainment

One of things we are doing to help our budget is finding ways to save money in every category. Sometimes it is hard to make changes to one aspect of your budget that will lead to significant savings. However, by making smaller to changes to several budget items could add up quickly.

The last things we allocate money for on each budget is entertainment. It is nice to use a little money for this, because we like to take our kids places, and sometimes, if we have the time and money, my wife and I like to go out and unwind after a long week of work. Here are some things we do to save money on entertainment:

Family Movie night at home - We started watching a movie as a family on Friday nights. My daughter is just turning three, so we watch little kid movies (Disney, Dora, etc...). The movie doesn't cost anything - my daughter has gotten plenty of kiddie DVD's as gifts, or we borrow one from family (who live nearby). My daughter loves popcorn, so we make some. Total cost is about a dollar.

Have "Date Night" during the day. - A lot of other married people we know plan a night each week or every couple of weeks for "date night." We used to do this too, but with two little kids, sometimes we are too tired at night. We have started going out during the day, and it turned out to be a great idea. Instead of going to dinner then a movie, we go to lunch then a movie. Lunch costs about half as much as dinner, and the movies cost much less during the day, half as much at some theaters.

Get a DVR. - I know this sounds backwards - saving money by paying for an additional monthly service. For about $5 a month, we can record anything we want, and then keep it for as long as we want, and watch it whenever we want. Whenever we see a movie we want to see on TV, we DVR it, or a TV show we like, we DVR it... We have a pretty good library of movies and shows. No need to rent anything. Money well spent.

Theme Parks - We live in Central Florida, the theme park capital of the world. While this is not cheap, some parks have special offers for Florida residents. Some people may get discounts through their employers. One of the greatest things we have discovered since moving here is that Sea World gives all teachers a free annual pass. This is great because my wife and I are both teachers. All you need is your certificate, most recent pay stub, and photo ID. Kids under three are free too, so right now, my whole family goes for free!! Soon, once my oldest daughter turns three, she will need to pay, but even then, it is less than $100 for an annual pass. She loves Sea World, which is a great place for young kids.

A couple of times a year, Universal Studios also gives free passes for teachers. Even if you don't have a discount through your employer, both Sea World and Universal have great deals on annual passes. I haven't mentioned Disney, because their passes are expensive. We love Disney, but that is something we save up for.

Plan around your meals. - Sometimes the most expensive part of going out with your family is meals. We try to plan around our meals - eating breakfast at home, and making sure we are back at lunch time. Sometime we will bring snacks with us.

Look for free events. - There are so many things to do with young kids that don't cost a dime: going to the park, story time at the library or bookstore, going to the beach, watching a parade, etc... If you live near a college or university, check their website for free concerts or performances. With so much to do for free, why spend money when you don't have to?

If you have any money-saving tips, please share by leaving a comment!

Saving Money on My Electric Bill

One of the things I noticed when working on the first budget was how much money we are spending on electricity. My electric bill for last month was about $280! That is more than double the amount we budgeted for groceries, so it is time to figure out ways to make that number a little smaller. Here are some strategies my family is going to try in an effort to reduce our electricity bill:

Adjust the thermostat.

I am guessing one of the biggest reasons the bill was so high was our use of the air conditioning. I like it cold, sometime too cold! At night, we lower the air to 70 degrees (it used to be 68), and then we raise it during the day. I am fortunate enough to have a programmable thermostat in my house. I have it set to go up to 73 about an hour before we wake up, and then 78 after we leave for the day. It goes back down to 73 about an hour before we get home, and 70 at 8:00pm.

First, we are going to raise each setting by one degree. So at night it will be set to 71, and then 79 while we are at work. I am also raising it an hour earlier in the morning, and turning it down an hour later at night. We will see how this works.

Keep the blinds closed during the day.

Keeping light out will keep the temperature down inside, and will probably make the air-conditioner work less. We aren't home during the day anyway, so we might as well keep the blinds closed. In the winter, it may be wise to do the opposite.

Replace light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs.

While it's probably not going to make the dent in my bill that the thermostat will, everything I have read leads me to believe that it will help. When we bought our house, we decided that whenever a bulb dies we will replace it with a fluorescent one. So, we have been buying them when they go on sale all along. We check the hardware store circulars each week, and every now and then their are some pretty good sales.

It's only been a few days but the one thing I have noticed is that these bulbs give off much less heat. Maybe this will help with the air conditioning as well.

Turn the lights off when leaving the room.

Duh.

Charge the cell phone in other places.

I am not sure how much of a dent this will make, I am still looking around online to see if anyone has studied this. For now though, I will charge it in my car.

Here are some other things I saw online about saving money on electricity:

http://www.howisavemoney.net/save-money/5-tips-save-money-electricity/

I'll add more as I see them...

We'll see at the end of this month how much this helps. If you have any other ideas, please share in the comments!