Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

The Scales of Finance

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IMG_2394Not to be confused with the scales that our friend Lady Justice carries around with her everywhere, the scales of finance are a bit different in function.  To truly weigh something, using a scale, you load up one side of the scale with that which you want to weigh and then put weights of a known mass on the other side.  When the scale is balanced, you count up the known mass weights and you’ve got the weight of the item(s) on the other side.  Lady Justice, as the story goes, does this by weighing a persons crimes and adding the appropriate amount of punishment to the other side so that the Scales of Justice balance.

When we think about personal finance, there are those that are die-hard frugalers.  There is no other way to save money, retire comfortably, or live, than by being frugal.  The more frugal you are, the more you save, and the less you spend.  Coupons are their best friends, as are black friday deals and places like farmers markets and flea markets.

There are also those that are the die-hard incomers.  Skipping a latte isn’t for them.  The only way to get ahead is to make more money while not spending any more.  They’ll work three jobs to achieve levels of income that were previously unheard of and use that added income to pay off debt and save for retirement.

But, much like justice, the scale can pretty easily be tipped into unbalance.  Frugaling, while a good idea, can only take you so far.  Income increasing can only take you so far.  Eventually, you’ll need to make a bit more money, or work less.  The right way to do it is to strike a balance between the two.  Cut your costs as much as you can, without going to extremes.  Increase your income as much as you can, without going to extremes.  Find a place where you can balance your financial life while still getting to live life and not be classified as a cheapskate work-a-holic.

 

 

 

 

Balancing the Scales of Finance

  • Create a budget. Know where your money is going (even if it’s going down the drain), and plan where you want it to go.
  • Cut costs. A little bit of frugal living isn’t going to hurt you.  Drop cable T.V.  You can replace it with Netflix, or books.  Find other things that you can do without completely or cut usage of.
  • Analyze your finances. Use your budget to determine the inflow/outflow of your finances.  How long to payoff your debts?  Could it be accelerated greatly by taking on a second job?  Maybe you only need a second job for 6 months to pay off a credit card.
  • Increase your income. There are other ways, besides taking on extra jobs, to increase your income.  Prepare for, and then ask for a raise.  Sell off stuff you no longer use.  Find a way to get paid for hobbies you already do.
  • Don’t over-do it. Maintain focus on your end goal, but keep your sacrifices to a bearable level.  All that extra income won’t do you any good if you burn out in 3 months because you’ve been working 80 hour weeks.  And all the frugal in the world won’t do you any good if you burn out in 3 months because you’ve been manually separating the plys on your TP.

Don’t think that just because you do all of this once, that you’ll remain in balance forever either.  At first, you will probably benefit from regular weekly or bi-weekly check-ups.  As you get more comfortable with it all, you might be able to do it once a month.  Much more infrequent than that and you’ll lose your focus and begin letting things slip.  If that happens, pick up where you left off and continue on.

As you continue on, the Scales of Finance will become easier to balance.  You’ll become better at it, and the scales will gain a little extra margin for error.  It may seem hard now, but it does get easier.  And, believe it or not, it can be fun.

Photo credit: Thatedeguy on Flickr

Four Strategies To Get Dinner on the Table If You Are Single

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When I was a graduate student, I rarely cooked for myself.  I lived alone, and while I don’t mind leftovers, if I cooked a meal, I would have 4 to 6 servings for leftovers, and I would bore of them before I finished them.  Likewise, my mom currently lives alone, and she almost never cooks.  She always says, “What is the point of cooking for just one person?”  Instead, she goes out to eat frequently and splits a meal with her dining companion to save money.

If you live alone, you might also dislike cooking for one.  However, there are strategies you can implement to still be able to eat delicious, cost-effective meals at home, avoiding the need to rely on frozen dinners from the supermarket or restaurant food.

Pay a Friend to Cook for You.  You may have a friend who cooks for his/her family on a daily basis.  Why not ask if they would be willing to let you “buy” a serving of the meal?  I cook for my family nearly every night to keep our food costs down, and if I had a single friend, I would be more than willing to make an extra portion for her.  She could pay me $2 a meal, costing her $10 a week for 5 meals.  She would benefit because she would avoid the hassle of shopping and cooking, but she would still get a tasty home cooked meal, and I would benefit because I would just make a bit more of the meal than I was already planning to make and I would earn $40 a month for my effort (less the small cost of additional food for her portion).

Swap with Friends.  Arrange to swap meals with friends, either at work, at the gym, at your apartment complex, etc.  Get together a group of 5 friends; each night one of the five friends cooks the meal and each person gets a serving.  The only cost to you would be one evening of cooking and the groceries needed to make that meal.

Freezer Cook.   Once a month, take a day to make freezer friendly meals such as lasagna, soups, etc.  Make four meals from recipes that produce 4 to 6 servings.  You now have 16 to 24 dinners at your disposal.  Just pull them from the freezer and reheat.  If you want to increase the variety, the first month, don’t eat all of the freezer meals.  The next month, try 4 new recipes.  If you saved at least one serving from each meal you made the previous month, you now have 8 meals in your freezer rotation to choose from.  Most freezer meals are good for 3 to 6 months, so you could have quite a bit of variety by the third month.

Cook for Two.  Invest in a magazine like Cooking for Two and make meals from there.  Now, you have one serving for your meal, and one serving waiting for another meal.  Obviously, this method is a bit more time intensive than the other methods mentioned, but if you like to cook but don’t like all of the leftovers, this may be the way to go.

Even if you live alone and don’t like to cook because you get bored with the leftovers, you don’t have to rely on take out and restaurant food.  You can save a bundle by relying on one of these methods.

What are your favorite strategies when cooking for one?  Have you ever implemented any of the strategies mentioned above?

(B.B. note: Those are some terrific ideas, Melissa! As a guy, most of those ideas probably wouldn’t have ever occurred to me when I was in college.  Mostly because, as a guy, I hardly ever cooked. I know, blame me for the stereotype.  The group of guys that I hung out with, however, did do quite a bit of grilling at each others houses when we could.  When I grill now, it counts as cooking.  What we did back then?  Not nearly as much.  More of a “throw it on until it looks ready” sort of deal.)

3 Ways to Save at the Grocery Store

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Are you shocked by the recent high price of groceries?  Have you noticed a jump in your grocery bill?  I have noticed a jump of about $20 a week that I am paying now for the same groceries I used to buy for much less.  Unfortunately, I am not much of a coupon diva, and I don’t see myself suddenly becoming one.

Regardless if you use coupons or not, there are ways to put the brakes on increased spending at the grocery store:

1.)     Once a week, consider having breakfast for dinner.  Eggs average out to .10 to .15 a piece.  If you have 5 in your family as I do and serve every one 2 eggs, you are looking at $1.00 to $1.50 for the main meal component.  Round it out with some toast and fruit and you have a light, frugal dinner.  Or, consider serving French toast or pancakes.  Quiche and breakfast casseroles also will work.  My kids love getting breakfast for dinner, and lately we have been doing this once a week to try to curb our grocery costs.

2.)    Have one meatless meal a week.  Meat often is very pricey.  Omit it for one meal and save yourself that expense.  You could try beans and rice, tuna noodle casserole, vegetable fajitas, spaghetti, pasta primavera, etc.

3.)    Buy produce when it is on sale and freeze it.  We love red peppers but often can’t afford them.  When I found them on sale for $1.00 a pound, I bought 10 of them and chopped them up and froze almost all of them.  Throughout the winter I pulled them out to use in stir-fries.  We have successfully done the same with bananas for smoothies (chop up, sprinkle with lemon juice and freeze individually on a pan and then place all of them on a freezer bag), green peppers, strawberries and blueberries.

With the recent high prices of both groceries and gas, many families are feeling the pinch as more money leaves their hands.  If you use coupons, you will see increased savings, but even if you don’t coupon, try implementing some of these strategies to lessen the pain you may be feeling at the grocery store.