Frugal Wife

The Never-ending Goal

frugalwife — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:46:06 +0000

It seems like ever since my husband and I have been married, we’ve had a goal of getting $15,000 in what I like to call the “Oh crap, I lost my job” fund. Every year I think we’re going to hit it and then every year we miss. This past year we barely managed to have any net gain at all in the account. It basically started out the same as it finished. I decided that we need a change in perspectives.

Sometimes when you have a hard time hitting your financial goals, you need to change you rather than try to do things the “traditional” way. For us, it’s realizing that we need a place where the money is 100% hands off, no touching, EVER. To that end, I’m starting a second Savings fund. I’m calling this one our “Emergency” fund. This one can be touched. This one is for when the car breaks and it’s more than $500 or the furnace goes or the water heater. Big stuff. Emergency stuff. I’m hoping that knowing I have money I can touch versus money that absolutely shouldn’t be touched will help us hit our goal by the end of the year.

Wish us luck!

New Year; New Start

frugalwife — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:45:58 +0000

Every year at the first of the year, I like to take some time to evaluate what happened financially the year before. I use my finance software and make a spreadsheet of how much money we spent in each category each month.

It’s quite enlightening. I was able to see that we’re much more likely to go out to eat during summer months than winter. Knowing that, I can now plan my budget accordingly. The spreadsheet also tells me the average of what we actually spent each month. It helps me to be able to validate that what I budgeted for the year was correct. It also will help me tweak for this year. If there’s any extra money to be wrung out for loans or saving, I’m gonna find it.

Overcoming Black Friday Temptations

frugalwife — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:54:07 +0000

O how I hate Black Friday. I’m not sure if I’m paying more attention or something this year, but it seems like retailers are trying extra hard to get you in the stores before Friday. I’ve already succumbed twice to deals online. If I were to step into an actual store, it’s over. It’s one of those times of year that I struggle the worst to keep on track with my goals.

I’ve got this list, you see. It’s got all the things I’d like to buy written down on it. Those items are then ranked. #1 for the things that I’m going to buy next, #2 for the next, on down to #100 which is my catchall for someday/maybe. But being the bargain-hunter I am, I find it extremely hard to pass up a good deal.

So how am I dealing? I’m trying really hard not to lose sight of those goals on my list. When I feel myself tempted by an ad that I’m reading, I take a look at my list and remind myself of what my #1 goals are. It’s worked okay so far, but there’s still that feeling of loss and worry that there’ll never be a deal as good again. Then I remember that Christmas is coming up and the retailers will be trying just as hard to get people in the stores…

List of Debts

frugalwife — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:01:33 +0000

If you’re currently in debt (and who isn’t these days), the best thing you can do for yourself is to make yourself aware of debts you have out there. In my last post, I recommended getting your credit report. This can be useful for what we’re about to do.

I’d like you to make a spreadsheet of all of your outstanding debts. I’m a sucker for a spreadsheet! These debts will be any loans to a company or to a person. Using your last statement or by logging into the online account, make a list that has the following items:

Name of Loan
Original Loan Amount
Interest Rate
Payoff Amount (Amount of Loan left till it’s paid off)
Minimum Monthly Payment
Monthly Payment Typically Made

I then recommend adding up the payoff amount so that you can see exactly how much money you owe. Adding up the columns for the minimum amount due and what you typically pay will give you an idea of how much of your money is actually going to debts.

Once you’ve got your list, you can look into “Snowball” payments and such as recommended by Dave Ramsey.

Annual Credit Report

frugalwife — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:42:15 +0000

If you haven’t already, I recommend getting your free credit report. By law, you’re allowed to view your credit statement one time per 12 months. The website is: http://www.annualcreditreport.com.

This is not your credit score, but instead gives you a list off all the accounts that are open in your name. For an extra $5 to $10 each, you can get your actual credit score from one (or all) of the credit bureaus.

The Value of Online Accounts

frugalwife — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:41:45 +0000

I’m kind of astounded by how many companies these days give you the ability to view your account online. It’s not just banks and financial institutions that have online presences. I’ve even got an online account with my electric company and they allow me to input my exact usage on the months that they do an average of usage. My amount due is there and I can even pay my bill online.

I highly recommend that if pay a bill to a company, look to see if you can check out your account online. My student loans are a great example as well. It allows me to make an extra payment and choose to have it all go to Principle. I may not make that extra payment if I’ve got to cut a check for it and then *hope* it gets credited to the principle balance.

All Better!

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:00:16 +0000

Well the site’s back up after some long term domain issues. Meaning the email to renew got ignored and I didn’t realize until this week. I thought it was a 2 year renewal. Turns out I was wrong.

We’ve also moved hosting once again. I apparently like to leapfrog around. Now we’re off of Wordpress.com and on to my husband’s Dreamhost account. Perhaps I’ll work on a series of articles now that cold weather and school have started again.

Project Get It Done: All Done

frugalwife — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:35:47 +0000

I have to say that I’ve pretty much given up on actively working on my Project List. I got about a quarter of the stuff finished so far. Obviously the stuff still needs to be done, but it’s no longer a major focus of my time. I think that especially now that it’s starting to be nice out, I won’t need the motivation of the list to do stuff around the house. In fact, it’s supposed to be 70 this weekend and I have plans to wash as many windows as I can. I don’t think the windows on the second floor have been washed in 5 or more years. It’s rather sad.

I must say was extremely difficult for me to write a post once a week. I’m not that great a writer and it takes a LOT of thought for me to come up with something I’m happy with. I’m thinking in the future, I’ll try to post a few times a month but it probably still won’t be all that regular. Until then…

A note on Warehouse Stores

frugalwife — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:01:04 +0000

Trent at the Simple Dollar is always writing stuff that I just nod and think “Yeah! That’s what I do/did too!”

Here’s one such article about having a membership at Sam’s Club or Costco.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/04/21/is-your-local-warehouse-store-worth-your-while-heres-how-to-find-out/

Project Get It Done: Days 13 to 19

frugalwife — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:28:06 +0000

We’ve got another week of failure on our hands. I managed to do only 2 small projects in an entire week and one of them my husband did for me!

I definitely need something to keep me motivated. I just happened to come across a post that Leo at Zen Habits wrote last week. It’s called “Form the Action Habit”. It happens to be exactly what I need right now. I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed with all there is to do now that the initial excitement about the project has worn off.

Tonight, I vow to Scooba the kitchen!