After our Quicken bit the dust, eventually partially restored by the Best Buy geek squad, I decided to go back to the pen and paper route as a backup. The Budget Kit came highly recommended so I'm starting to fill it out. Using bankrate.com savings goal calculator, I revised our goal for four years. It's a pretty steep goal, but it's always fun to aim high. To reach it, we would need to reduce our expenses $45 per day. So four times a day, a $11.25 choice needs to be questioned or nine times a day an extra $5 needs to be saved.
It is always fun to have a specific goal to shoot for. Having this in mind, I decided rather than Tastee Freeze small cones for the kids today, which I'd planned to ease our list of errands and donations, I popped a big bowl of popcorn and gave them each a water bottle and popcorn bag (recycled bread wrapper) and they were happy. (I didn't mention the decision to forgo the ice cream - that would NOT have gone over well). So there was about $4. Then I took half an hour and gathered a bunch of donations I'd stashed in the closet to drop off and got my receipt ($20 in tax savings). When we got home, I had $4 in my plant sale honesty box.
The majority of the savings is going to come from groceries (no more tossed guacamole), household, and leisure. And of the $45, $16 each day is toward a vacation fund for a big vacation that we could always postpone if we fail to meet our goal.
Good wishes to all on your own goals!
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This is inspiring! I'll have to see if The Budget Kit is at the library. We're back on the YMOYL bandwagon. Fell off because we were too busy and now I realize my life energy was being terribly mis-spent! I'm excited to get back on track ;).
ReplyDeleteHi Daryl, Thanks for your comment. We too were huge YMOYL fans. In fact, I've thought of starting a five or six week YMOYL group at my local library just to kick start a back to frugality mindset for myself. Like you, when we get busy, we spend a lot more thoughtlessly. Ironically I'm happier with having met the budget or saved money in most given days than having purchased some new gizmo- but of course that's hard to remember in the moemnt- especially if it's something for the garden.... Good wishes. Eileen
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