Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Take a Challenge To Start the New Year Off Right

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If you would like to start 2012 on the right financial footing and want to do something that is attainable, consider taking a challenge.  Two of my favorite challenges are spending challenges and pantry challenges.  Take either or both of these challenges, and you will find extra money to do with what you please—to save for a new vehicle or home, to bulk up your emergency fund or to snowflake on your debt to get it paid off faster.

I have already spoken about the spending challenge, otherwise referred to as the No Spend Month as an excellent way to raise money for Christmas gifts, but it is also good to
do another time of the year.  Choose one month when you limit your spending for disposable items such as groceries, entertainment and gas by as much as 50% of what you typically spend.  You will find yourself being mindful of what you spend money on because there is very little money to spend.  If you normally spend $800 a month on groceries, entertainment and gas and you vow to slash that amount by half for one month, you now have an extra $400 available to meet your financial goals.  (I often have a no spend month in February.  The psychological boost of knowing it is the shortest month of the year makes it easier to stay the course.)

Save MoneyAnother challenge I try to take at least one month a year, but ideally two months a year, is a pantry challenge.  All of us have some extra items lurking in the cabinet.  I often buy ingredients for a certain recipe, but then if I don’t get a chance to make that recipe, I often still have the non-perishable items on the shelf a few months later.  With a pantry challenge, you try to use up what you have.  A common misconception is that you are not allowed to grocery shop at all.  That is not true.  Just like a spending challenge, you set a designated amount you want to spend.  Say you spend $600 a month to feed your family of five.  During a pantry challenge, you decide you will only spend $200 for the month.  That means you must try to make meals from ingredients you already have on hand.  This is a great way to not only save money but also to use up food that may be nearing its expiration date so it doesn’t go to waste.

If you would like a little extra money for your financial goals this year but you don’t have the time or inclination to work more hours, having a spending or pantry challenge may be the perfect solution to generating more money in a limited time frame.

Have you taken part in a challenge before?  Were you successful?

photo credit: 401K

Have a Holiday Spending Plan: Don’t Dread January

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Its beginning to feel a lot like christmasHoliday shopping is in full swing now, and you may be feeling the financial pressure.  Shane recently quit his job and is working on a tight holiday budget.  My husband and I are in the midst of being gazelle intense, so we don’t have much extra money for gifts.  Yet even though we don’t have much money to spend this holiday season, I feel great about what we are giving because we are not overspending.  We can truly afford what we are giving.  Instead of overspending, we are empowering ourselves by spending exactly what we are able to spend.  Follow these tips to rein in your holiday purchases this season:

-Freeze the credit cards.

Literally.  Put them in water and freeze them.  Better yet, put them in peanut butter as we did.  Vow not to use your credit cards this month.  There is nothing worse than opening your credit card statement and staring at the large number you now owe.  The presents have been opened, the holiday is over, but you still owe for the holidays.  If, instead, you put the credit cards away, you have nothing to dread come January.

 

 

-Set a budget and fund it with cash.

Determine exactly how much you have to spend and withdraw that money from your bank account.  Pay for every purchase with cash.  Feel the pain as you part from the cash.  Acknowledge what you are spending, and feel empowered that you are sticking to your budget.
If you want to shop online, get a debit card.  Just avoid using credit cards.

-Shop the bargains

There will be plenty of deals to come this holiday season.  Stay focused on the deals and only buy items you can get on sale.  Take advantage of buy one get one free sales such as buy one toy of a certain brand, get the second toy from the same brand free.

-Buy sets

For children, especially young children, buy toys that come in sets such as a baby doll with a stroller and a high chair.  Take those out of the package and break them into three different presents for the price you paid for the bundled gift.

-Look in unconventional locations

My children get presents from Santa and from me and my husband.  Since they were little, the toys that get from us are often gently used.  I shop garage sales throughout the summer and hide gifts away.  This year my three year old will get a new in the box baby doll that I picked up at a garage sale for $3.  My son will get a wooden box with five different games in it that I found at a garage sale for $5.

Obviously you may not have time to go to (or even find) garage sales now, but you can shop children’s resale stores for quality toys at a steep discount.

They say ‘tis better to give than to receive, and that is true more so when what you give is what you can afford.  Why not enjoy watching your family open their presents this Christmas without worrying where the money will come to pay for everything in January.  It is possible.  Beating Broke and I are both proof of that.

photo credit: aussiegall

Create Your Own Layaway Plan

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The stores are already starting to advertise for the holidays, and several major retails are pushing the option of layaway as an option to finance your gift giving.  While layaway was not offered in stores for years, it is making a comeback due to the current economy.  You can choose to use layaway or not this year, though it is certainly a better option than financing gifts on credit cards, but why not also start your own layaway program?

One idea that revolutionized the way I budget is to set aside money each month for recurring expenses.  I used to be a teacher, and I could choose to teach classes in the summer or not.  Sometimes I did teach the classes, but a few summers I chose to take off, which also meant that I was choosing not to get a paycheck for three months of the year.  Considering I was the sole breadwinner at that time, summers could pack a painful punch.

Kmart - Sedalia, MO - August 2009However, I began to enjoy my summers off and not suffer financially when I began setting aside money for monthly expenses.  At the time, we required on average $2,500 a month to live, so that was $7,500 I needed during the summer months to survive without a paycheck.  I received a paycheck nine months of the year, so I automatically deducted $833 a month into a special account to live off of during the summer.

Even if you have a regular paycheck coming in all year long, you can benefit from this plan.  For instance,  I know that over the course of a year I would like to spend $500 on gifts.  Some months I may not spend anything, and other months I may spend $100 or more.  To make sure I have the money set aside, I would take $500 and divide it by 12.  Then I would put aside $42 a month for gifts.  It would be its own little gift fund, and I would draw from it when I needed to purchase gifts.

Likewise, my energy bill is very low in the winter because my landlord pays for the heat, but the electric bill is high in the summer because I have to pay to air condition or drafty apartment.  I set aside $50 a month for electricity.  During the winter months, my electric bill may only be $25.  The remainder of the $50 after I pay the monthly bill goes in savings in a special fund to help cover the high summer electric bills.

If you set your monthly budget up based not just on your exact expenses for that particular month but for the average you will spend all year long divided by 12, you essentially create your own layaway plan.  On months that may have higher expenses, you simply dip into the money you have already put aside.  This type of budget makes your monthly outflow much more stable and protects you from the highs and lows of creating a budget based on each month’s actual monthly expenses.

photo credit: robertstinnett