MelissaB, Author at Beating Broke

About MelissaB

Melissa works as a freelance writer and virtual assistant from home while raising and homeschooling her three children, ages 15, 10, and 9. She blogs at Mom's Plans and writes about money saving tips, family, homeschooling, and cooking.

Prepare for These Expenses When Getting a Dog

August 3, 2020 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Have the kids been begging you to buy a dog? Or, are you a couple looking into getting a dog before you’re ready to tackle having kids? A dog can be a great companion and faithful member of the family, but if you’re not prepared for the expenses, you may be shocked. Before you commit yourself, make sure you prepare for these expenses (expected and unexpected) when getting a dog.

Initial Expenses

When you first get your puppy or dog, you’ll have a number of start-up costs.

Basic Living Supplies

Your dog will need some supplies immediately, from the time you pick him up, which include a dog crate, food, leash, a bed, and some toys. This immediate outlay will likely cost you several hundred dollars.

Heartworm & Flea and Tick Prevention

These medications typically cost anywhere from $25 to $50 for a three to six-month dose, so between the two, you’ll be spending a couple of hundred dollars a year.

Regular Expenses

Once you’ve paid for the initial outlay of preparing your home for a pet, you’ll then be facing regularly, recurring expenses.

Food

The price of food varies greatly depending on how large your dog is and what type of food you buy the dog. If you buy specialty food, you’ll likely be paying much more.

Nail Trimming

While you can attempt to trim your dog’s nails on your own, most people don’t, especially if your dog has black nails. In general, plan on $15 every 6 weeks for this service.

Grooming

Prepare for These Expenses When Getting a Dog — Photo by Edson Torres on Unsplash

Some dogs don’t need regular grooming, but certain breeds such as poodles, Portugese Water Dogs and Pulis, to name a few, need grooming regularly. Depending on the size of your dog and the breed, you could be looking at roughly $30 to $90 every time you take your dog in for grooming.

Extra Expenses

Many dogs require extra care beyond the basics, especially if you work out of the home or have a particularly energetic or anxious dog.

Dog Walker

A dog walker can come to your house and walk your dog during the day, allowing the animal to relieve himself and to burn off some energy, not to mention getting some human companionship while you’re gone. Depending on who provides the services and what area of the country you live in, hiring a dog walker could run $15 to $45 a day.

Doggie Daycare

Dogs are social animals and like to be around others. In addition, some dogs have special needs that are best addressed by doggie daycare. For example, our family friend had a golden retriever that was so energetic, she took him to doggie daycare just to tire him out. Doggie daycare is also a good option if you have a particularly anxious dog who doesn’t do well home alone. Expect to pay $12 to $38 for a full day of doggie day care or $240 to $550 a month.

In addition to these expenses, you may also want to pay for pet insurance, kenneling when you travel, and obedience class, if necessary.

Having a dog can be a good experience for your family and the dog; indeed, a dog can feel like a member of the family. However, before you buy one, make sure you’re aware of the full range of expenses when getting a dog and how much you’ll likely be paying every year for the privilege of dog ownership.

Do you have a dog? If so, how much do you pay per year for all that your dog needs?

How We Save Money With Ting as Our Cell Phone Provider

July 27, 2020 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

For the longest time, my husband and I had simple Tracfone flip phones in case of emergency. We mainly used them just to keep up with one another, if necessary. We didn’t even have texting. But then my husband found it necessary to have a cell phone for work. We didn’t want to be strapped to a cell phone provider who would charge us a hundred dollars a month or more, so we decided to go with Ting, which has no contract requirement. I love to share with people how we save money with Ting as our cell phone provider because it helps us maintain a modest budget.

How We Save Money with Ting as Our Cell Phone Provider

We’ve upgraded to smart phones. We can now text, call, search the internet, etc. just like most people in the United States. However, by using Ting, we’ve found several ways to cut our costs.

Basic Ting Services and Charges

Ting is a provider who charges based on your usage.

Phone Line Charge

Each line that you have on the plan costs $6 a month. So, for my husband and I, there are two lines. We pay $12 a month for these.

Talk Minutes

There are also base rates for the minutes that you use to talk on your phone.

1 to 100 minutes = $3,
101 to 500 minutes = $9,
501 to 1000 minutes = $18, etc.

Texts

And there are base rates for texts.

1 to 100 texts = $3,
101 to 1000 texts = $5,
1001 to 2000 texts = $8, etc.

In addition, you will also pay taxes and regulatory fees monthly.

Limit Our Usage

Since Ting is basically a pay as you use provider, we try to limit our usage to keep our bills low. From October 2019 to February 2020, our monthly bill averaged $63. The highest bill was $84 in October when I was traveling, and the lowest was $46.

Once the pandemic hit and we began to stay home most of the time, our monthly bill dropped to $30.

If you want to focus on keeping your bill low, you can set up usage alerts, such as an email sent to you once you use 450 megabytes, so you don’t go over the 500 megabyte limit before moving into a different charge rate.

You can also enable settings that don’t allow you to make any more texts after a certain number, etc. This is very helpful if you have teens on your plan. This allows you to keep their usage within the confines of your budget.

Basic Phones

Ting also sells phones. My husband and I try to go with the most basic model available. The current phones we use cost less than $200 apiece. (We bought them during a sale Ting was having.)

We also use a cell phone case to keep our phones in good shape. My husband and I have both dropped our phones, but they were not damaged thanks to the cases.

Final Thoughts

While we wanted more modern cell phones, we didn’t want to pay a lot for them every month. The strategies given above are how we save money with Ting as our cell phone provider. Ting is not in every area, but you can see if they’re in your area by entering your area code on their website.

How to Survive Being Broke

July 20, 2020 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Many of us have been broke. It’s not a fun place to be. You may feel depressed and desperate, but recognizing that you won’t always be in this position is imperative. There are steps you can take to live a more comfortable life financially. Until then, here’s a primer on how to survive being broke.

How to Survive Being Broke

If you’re broke, you must take care of your immediate needs first.

Short Term Action to Take

Maintain a Positive Attitude

Many people who are broke become depressed. They don’t see any way out of their situation and can’t imagine a future where they’ll be in a better position.

To successfully beat being broke, you need a positive attitude. Research stories of people who were broke and went on to become successful and much more comfortable financially such as Erin Brockovich (played by Julia Roberts in the movie Erin Brockovich) or Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness).

Remember that life can change quickly. You may be broke now, but you likely won’t be in the same position in five years or even two years.

Live on Beans & Rice

How to Survive Being Broke — Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash

The next step is to trim your expenses as much as possible. Since food is often the largest monthly expense behind rent, that’s the best place to start. You may love to eat salmon and steak, but now is not the time to do so. Now is the time to eat the proverbial beans and rice. For instance, when my mom and dad were first married and broke, my mom would buy one pork chop, pound it flat, and then split it between the two of them. Once they had two kids, she would buy two pork chops and pound them flat to make four servings. Now is the time to stretch your food as much as possible and buy the least expensive food you can.

Choose Your Friends Carefully

What financial position are your friends in? You’ll want to find friends who are mindful of their money and not spendthrifts. When my husband and I were first married, we were broke.

Some of my coworkers invited us to go with them out to eat. The other two couples were both financially comfortable, and they chose a Mexican restaurant. To my dismay, there were no prices on the menu. We ended up spending too much that night, even though we tried to make frugal choices. It was just an expensive restaurant. We couldn’t go out with my coworkers again because we couldn’t afford their lifestyle.

If you try to maintain friends who are in a better financial position than you, you may never become financially comfortable.

Entertain at Home

Just because you’re broke, you don’t have to give up your social life. Instead, change the way that you socialize. Instead of going to a bar or restaurant and spending a lot of money, invite friends to your home. Have a potluck at your house or have a game night. Once a month my parents used to have their friends over in the summer for a volleyball night. Be creative. You’ll find there are plenty of ways to socialize without spending a lot of money.

Find a Hobby That Pays

Sometimes when people are broke, they have a lot of time, but not much money. If that’s your circumstance, find a hobby that pays. For instance, my uncle started a small side business for athletes at his former high school. He would comb through micro fiche to find all of the articles for a particular year about the high school football team. He’d print these out and bind them all together and sell them to the athletes. He made some money on the side, and the former athletes had a scrap book of all the old newspaper clippings from their glory days.

Other ideas might include gardening, crafting and selling the product on Etsy, doing genealogy research for someone, building web sites for others, etc. You’re only limited by your imagination in what you can do.

Long Term

When you’re broke, you may immediately think just of the short-term, but you must also think of the long-term. How will you get out of this situation so you’re not broke your entire life?

There are several important steps you should take.

Earn a Degree

If a degree would help you secure a better job, than look into taking college classes. When you’re already broke, you may feel like you have you have no time or money to do so. However, if you don’t take steps to improve your situation, you’ll remain broke for much of your life.

I had a friend, Becca, who was raising her niece and nephew. Money was tight, but she prioritized her education. She took one or two classes a semester, putting in much of her study time early in the morning or at night when the kids were asleep. It took her many years to get her degree, but she did. Now, she lives a comfortable, middle class life and has a professional job.

Learn about Finance

If you don’t already have a solid background on personal finance, now is the time to learn. This doesn’t have to cost any money. You can borrow books from the library, take free finance classes online, and read blogs. Learn all you can about managing money. I’m not just talking about ways to save money, but ways to build your emergency fund and invest so you don’t end up broke again once you get out of your current situation.

Final Thoughts

How to survive being broke is a challenge for many people. However, the first step is a mental one. Realize that you’re currently broke, but you won’t be broke for the rest of your life. You can make both short-term and long-term changes to improve your life and vastly improve your financial situation. Many, many other people have done so. Learn about those people and take concrete action to improve your current situation.