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Is a Side Hustle Worth the Family Sacrifice?

June 20, 2022 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Side Hustle Worth the Family Sacrifice

When our kids were young, my husband and I struggled financially. My husband was getting his Ph.D. and worked as a graduate assistant. I had just quit my full-time job because the cost of daycare in Chicago for two kids under two plus after-school care for our oldest would cost me as much as I was taking home each week. We survived for three years like this until my husband graduated and started working a regular job and a side hustle. I also worked a part-time job from home. Now that we’re 10 years removed from that situation, we recently discussed if a side hustle is worth the family sacrifice.

Some Times You Have No Choice

I want to acknowledge that sometimes, you have no choice. Sometimes you have to work as much as you can to cover rent, buy groceries, and care for your family. For my husband and I, the first few years after he graduated were like this. We were in debt because we had lived off his graduate assistantship and student loans those last three years, and we needed side hustles to try to get out of the hole we were in. However, we should have set a limit for how long we would work our side hustles.

Dave Ramsey’s Influence

Fifteen years ago, I loved listening to Dave Ramsey, and I bought into the idea that we should “live like no one else so later we can live like no one else.” I accepted the sacrifice that side hustles required because I was sure that if we worked hard, we’d end up on the other side, able to check off the baby steps.

Is A Side Hustle Worth the Family Sacrifice?

We are now at the point where we’ve completed baby steps 1, 2, and are on baby step 3. However, we’re also at the point where our kids are now 18, 13.5, and 12. We lost a lot of our kids’ lives to side hustles.

Is a side hustle worth the family sacrifice? As a parent with older children, I can answer for us, it was not worth it.

What We Sacrificed for the Side Hustle

Side hustles have a dark side that most people don’t talk about. For us, these were the major drawbacks:

We Were Exhausted

Is a Side Hustle Worth the Family Sacrifice?

After my husband got home from his regular job and side hustle, I would start my work after being with the kids all day. I would often work until midnight and get up at 5 or 6 a.m. That was not enough sleep.

My husband and I were both exhausted all the time.

We Were Grouchy

Because we were working so hard and exhausted, we were also grouchy. Raising young children can be challenging under the best circumstances, but when you’re exhausted and grouchy, it’s not good for anyone.

Final Thoughts

Is a side hustle worth the family sacrifice? For us, the answer was no. Rather than following Dave Ramsey’s advice to hustle until you’re completely out of debt, we should have set a limited time frame for our side hustle. We hustled for far too long, and I’m sorry we missed out on some opportunities to spend enjoyable time with our kids when they were little because of that.

Read More

How to Combat Frugal Fatigue When Being Gazelle Intense

How to Get Out of Debt and Stay Out of Debt

4 Side Hustles for Teachers

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in Arizona where she dislikes the summer heat but loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: budget, Children, Debt Reduction, Emergency Fund, Frugality, General Finance, Guru Advice, Married Money, pf books, Saving Tagged With: family, getting out of debt, marriage, side hustle

How YNAB Changed Our Finances

February 21, 2022 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

How YNAB Changed Our Finances

Years ago, when my husband and I were first married, I had a budget binder. It was simply a spiral notebook, and on each page, I put a different budget line item such as “groceries” or “electricity.” Each time we were paid, I put a certain amount in each category. When I paid a bill, I deducted the amount from that category. It was a tedious process, especially in a category that had a lot of deductions, like groceries. In desperation, I started researching budgeting software. I tried several before finally settling on You Need a Budget (YNAB). There are so many ways that YNAB changed our finances!

What Is YNAB?

You Need a Budget (YNAB) is a budgeting software based on the envelope system of budgeting.

The YNAB Principles

The YNAB system has four principles.

Give Every Dollar a Job

Using YNAB, you should budget every single dollar that you receive. Doing this helps you map out how to spend your money. If you have $40 left in your grocery category, you might need to have a small shopping trip and eat up the items in your pantry so you can keep within your budgeted amount.

Embrace Your True Expenses

Your true expenses are not just the ones that are due every month. You also have to budget for those expenses that you only pay once or twice a year like car insurance, property taxes, home insurance, and car registration. You should also budget for irregular expenses such as vet and medical bills.

Roll with the Punches

Your budget is flexible. If you only have $40 left in your grocery budget but your food costs $75, you can move $35 from another category to cover the overage. Things happen—roll with the punches.

Age Your Money

YNAB Changed Our Finances

The age your money principle refers to how long it takes you to use the money that comes in. If you have money coming in that you don’t have to use for 30 days, your money is 30 days old. The longer you use YNAB, usually, the older your age of money is. Currently, our age of money is 73 days.

YNAB Trainings

YNAB has many free training videos, so you can watch those to learn more about the principles in YNAB and budgeting. In addition, the creator of YNAB, Jessie Mecham, wrote a book, You Need a Budget: The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle, Getting Out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want, that you can also read to learn about the YNAB system in-depth.

How YNAB Changed Our Finances

I started using YNAB over six years ago, and the program has revolutionized how I handle our finances.

Electronic Version of My Budget Binder

How YNAB Changed Our Finances

At its core, YNAB is an electronic version of my old paper budget binder.

Easier to Use than Paper

However, using YNAB is so much easier! All of those calculations I used to do on paper? YNAB does them automatically.

More Flexibility

Plus, when I put in an expense, I have the option to split the cost into several categories. So, if I spend $70 on Amazon, I can split the expenses into separate categories such as $45 for groceries, $15 for toiletries, and $10 for spending. I love that flexibility, and the process is so much easier and quicker than doing it by hand.

YNAB Is Portable

Plus, I can always consult my YNAB budget on my cell phone. I never carried around my budget binder previously, so I would have to guess how much I had left in each category.

Create a Budget Buffer

Besides being easier to use than my clunky budget binder, YNAB taught me new budgeting principles such as creating a buffer. When you first start using YNAB, you’re encouraged to create at least a one-month buffer. That means that slowly you start covering next month’s expenses with this month’s money. Say, at the end of the month you have $150 leftover. You don’t go out to eat to celebrate. Instead, you take that money and put it in some of your categories for next month. Then, slowly, you keep adding until you have all of your categories for next month covered with this month’s money.

Having a buffer gives you an automatic one-month emergency fund and gives you a sense of security. It also makes budgeting easier. You can pay all of your bills at the beginning of the month instead of waiting until you get your paychecks during the month because the money is waiting to do its job.

Can See Your Finances in One Glance

What I love most about YNAB is that my husband and I can see our finances at a glance. Since I do all of the budgeting, YNAB allows my husband and I to sit down every one or two weeks and together look at where we stand financially. My little budget notebook never made much sense to him, especially because he’d have to flip through 20 pages to see the amount of money in each of our categories.

Easy to Track Net Worth

YNAB Improved Our Finances

The best feature is the net worth feature. Often when we feel like we’re not making much progress financially, we look at our net worth and see that we are improving our bottom line. We sit down together at the end of each month to go over our net worth.

YNAB’s Price Increase But We Kept It

Recently, YNAB had a significant price increase. I thought about searching for a cheaper budgeting software. However, my husband said no, he wanted to stick with YNAB. He feels it is a valuable tool that makes budgeting and money management easier for me. In addition, he loves how easily he can keep up to date with our finances thanks to the program. He feels that YNAB is well worth the price, even after the price increase, so we’re staying.

Final Thoughts

YNAB has changed our finances and made them so much easier to manage. If you’re looking for budgeting software, I highly recommend You Need a Budget.

Read More

Feed a Hungry Teenager Without Breaking Your Grocery Budget

6 Unexpected Baby Expenses to Budget For

How to Feed Your Family on a Low Budget

P.s. if you’re looking for a good all around quality site to review while you’re working with YNAB, consider Moneycrashers.com.  I’ve been following them for year – and their advice is generally really solid.

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in Arizona where she dislikes the summer heat but loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: budget, Emergency Fund, Saving Tagged With: budget, budgeting, budgeting software, ynab

What to Keep in Your Pantry?

October 25, 2021 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

What to Keep in Your Pantry

Since the pandemic, many of us now realize that having a full pantry is a necessity. Of course, this is different than hoarding and having so many items in your pantry that you’ll never be able to use them. Instead, your pantry should have enough to be able to feed you and your family for a month to three months. How much you need depends on a variety of variables.


Why Keep a Fully Stocked Pantry?

Keeping a fully stocked pantry is necessary for a few reasons:

You May Get Sick

If you get sick, you may not want to or be able to go to the grocery store. In such a situation, you can find items in your pantry to prepare for meals.

You May Have a Weather Event

In many parts of the country, having a fully stocked pantry is essential because weather events may prevent you from getting to the store. You may have hurricanes in the South. In the Midwest and East Coast, blizzards may keep you from the store.

You Want to Save Money

If you build your pantry slowly, you can stock up on items when they go on sale. For instance, maybe canned beans are $1.29 a can, but you buy them on sale for $0.99 a can. If you buy 20 cans, you have saved $6.

In addition, if you have a fully stocked pantry, preparing meals is a snap because you likely have all of the ingredients you need. If you decide one night that you’d like to make chicken noodle soup, you probably have everything in the pantry, so you can easily make the meal. When everything is at your fingertips, cooking can be quicker than ordering take-out and waiting for the meal to arrive.

Supply Chains May Be Interrupted

In the United States, we are spoiled. Before the pandemic, most people never had experienced empty store shelves. If you, like me, thought that after 2020, empty store shelves were a thing of the past, you likely now know that thanks to supply chain issues, our days of items being unavailable are not over. We may be facing this situation through next year. If you keep a fully stocked pantry, you’ll be less affected by the market turmoil.

What to Keep in Your Pantry?

So, you’ve decided having a fully stocked pantry is necessary, but what does that mean exactly? What should you include in your pantry? Here are some ideas.

Baking & Cooking Supplies

You’ll want to include ingredients for basic baking and cooking recipes:

  • Baking soda,
  • Baking powder,
  • Flour,
  • Sugar,
  • Cocoa
  • Salt,
  • Pepper,
  • Onion,
  • Garlic,
  • Seasonings

Ingredients for Simple Meals

You’ll also want to include ingredients for simple meals you can make fully from the pantry. If you like spaghetti, include noodles and spaghetti sauce. If you like taco soup, make sure to have taco seasoning, beans, tomatoes, and nacho chips. You may also want to have some canned soups. Just open, heat, and eat.

Vegetables and Fruits

If you don’t mind eating canned vegetables and fruits, make sure to have those. If you’re without power due to a hurricane, for instance, you could always eat those without needing a stovetop.

Toiletries

Before 2020, I don’t think most of us realized just how much we take having toilet paper for granted! Toilet paper is just one of the toiletries you’ll want to have stocked in your pantry. You’ll also benefit from having the following:

  • Toothpaste,
  • Deodorant,
  • Dental floss,
  • Shampoo,
  • Soap,
  • Band-aids

What Should Be in the Freezer?

What to Keep in Your Pantry

If you can afford a freezer chest, I highly recommend buying one. My husband and I have had one for almost as long as we’ve been married, and it’s paid for itself over and over again. If you want to have a well-balanced diet even if you can’t get to the store, a freezer is essential. Consider stocking these items:

Meat

If you’re an omnivore, consider stocking a variety of meat. We usually have beef, pork, chicken, and a variety of fish. A deep freezer pays off if you can stock your freezer with meat you found on sale or if you can buy a quarter side of beef direct from the farmer.

Vegetables

Keep a variety of frozen vegetables. Once your fresh vegetables run out, you can turn to frozen for nutrition. You may want to include

  • Peas,
  • Corn,
  • Mixed vegetables,
  • Greens like spinach and kale,
  • Cauliflower,
  • Broccoli,
  • Lima beans

Fruit

You’ll also want to include frozen fruit for the same reason. We frequently make smoothies with our frozen fruit, but you can also eat it plain or mixed into items like yogurt. We keep the following in the freezer:

  • Blueberries,
  • Strawberries,
  • Mango,
  • Pineapple,
  • Bananas
  • Smoothie mixes (I bought a bag from Costco that has berries as well as some greens like spinach. The kids said it tasted less sweet than a regular smoothie, but they drank it down.)

How Should You Build a Pantry?

Most of us can’t afford to fully stock a pantry in one swoop. Instead, buy items little by little as they go on sale. For instance, spaghetti is a great pantry meal. Recently, there was a coupon for our preferred jars of spaghetti sauce. Instead of being $2.49 a jar, they were on sale for .99 a jar. I bought the maximum limit of 5. If you do this week after week, you’ll soon have a full pantry with items bought at a lower price than if you just went to the store weekly to pick up what you need.

How to Maintain a Pantry

Once your pantry is full, keep a running list of items that are low or that you’re out of. Then, buy those items again to refill your pantry.

Don’t forget to put the items that expire soonest at the front of the pantry so you’ll use them up first. Put the replenished items with a later expiration date in the back.

Final Thoughts

If you haven’t already, now is the time to create a fully stocked pantry. Hopefully, you now have some ideas of what to keep in your pantry and can start building it with items you find on sale each week at the grocery store. Even if you don’t have an emergency, you’ll be glad to have a fully stocked pantry because it makes meal prep so much easier!

Read More

Now Is the Perfect Time to Increase Your Pantry

Why I’ll Always Keep a Full Pantry Now

9 Ways to Get Your Child a Christmas Gift If You Can’t Afford One

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in Arizona where she dislikes the summer heat but loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: Emergency Fund, Frugality, Saving Tagged With: food costs, frugal food, pantry

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