Budgeting 101 for Beginners

 Run the race and then go the extra mile.

If all of your commitment bills are $2,000/month and your household brings home $2,300 then allow yourself a little cash, maybe $50 to $100 for eating out or some entertainment and then make that extra $200 per month a bill. Have your bank transfer it automatically from your checking to your savings so you can’t fail to do so. 

Now, keep in mind this is after, hopefully, things like health insurance and retirement savings is already taken out of your check. If not, you need to save a little for retirement. Again start small but start. Compounding interest at a young age is a beautiful thing but if you never start, even if you’re older, you will never get to witness those benefits. 

Each raise you get add a little to retirement and a little to your emergency savings account. Eventually, you’ll be able to start a fun account. 

And don’t rule out side gigs. We did them for years.  Extra jobs doing anything we were capable or doing. It really helped to pay for those emergency things like a broke down car or appliance while we were trying to get our emergency savings started. 

Don’t forget to coupon clip. Even Amazon items have coupons. Try coupons.com.  Great for everyday items, in store.  Use Rakuten to get money back on things you need. Always Google for discount codes when buying online. 

Don’t set a goal so big it makes you feel like you’ll never get there and then you quit. DON’T QUIT!

I promise you all of this hard work, sacrifice and being careful with your money will pay off and then you’ll be in such a habit you’ll continue and really get ahead. 

Almost 30 years of marriage, 5 kids, multiple medical emergencies and we are finally starting to see these benefits. We started with  nothing and refused to give up. 

Follow me in Instagram and here for how to save on things in life, how to budget and share.  I promise I’ll cheer you on!

 #makesavingsapriority #moneysavingtips #payyourselffirst #gettoretire #savingisabill #saveeffortlessly #moveforward #startnow #retirementplanning #moneygoals

Great kitchen drawer organization

 These inexpensive freezer bins are actually perfect for storing hot pads and dish rags.  I took two drawers and got all of the items into one.  This gave me more uncluttered space in my kitchen making things easier, more efficient and me a happy girl. 

Check out my Pinterest saves  and other affiliate faves  or click on Fridge organizer bins

Put yourself in your budget

 👀SERIOUSLY!!👀

💰💸Do you want to save some money or not?

You have to start somewhere, so why not start today?  

You have 11 months to get this started. 

If you’re struggling at all to pull any amount together by June, August, December for insurance, taxes, Christmas etc then this is for you.  I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years and it’s a great start to budgeting if you don’t already budget. 

You just have to have the bank set up a separate account (my credit union does this for free) and have them automatically deposit the amount you need by the end of the year divided by 12. So if you needed $10,500 to pay these bills then you would have them transfer $875/month to that savings on what we date you select.  This becomes a monthly bill. 

Can you pay insurance monthly?  Of course you can. But they charge you more. Did you know you can get a pretty steep discount to pay semi annually or annually?  This is HOW you do it!

You’re paying YOU first AND earning a little interest on the money AND not accidentally spending it and then accumulating credit card debt because you don’t have all this cash by these dates. 

Try it today. Call the bank today. You will never look back once you start. 

Lid drawer madness

 Our lid drawer is always a mess.  I think most people have one if you have leftovers. I, so often, have to toss every single lid out onto the floor to find one single, smaller, lid.  So when I saw this item on Amazon I had to try it. It’s now been a bit of time and our drawer still looks neat. The larger kids in the back and the smaller ones in the organizer where we can FIND them!  Success.  You can find this awesome, inexpensive, product here

#affiliate

Cleaning is your peace

 

Cleaning gives me a sense of control and peace. 

Cleaning and reorganizing is a FREE way to make you feel better. It always makes me feel better. And you can do little bits at a time. One cabinet at a time. 

I found one container I had leftover after cleaning out another zone and used it to help organize the small things in this one. 

Let’s face it. Everyone’s cabinet above the fridge is where things go to hide and you to forget. 

Cleaning it out gave me the opportunity to throw things away, sell things and make it look neat again. And now I know exactly what’s up there again. And, well, it gave me a reason to wipe the top of the fridge off. 

Try it. Just one zone at a time

🔥declutter

🔥sell

🔥clean 

🔥repurpose

On sale now…pantry organization

 These are an awesome deal right now. Click here for vertical pantry storage containers  Check these contained out at the link or via my Pinterest saves. I have had these for several months and really love them and I paid $10 more than the sale price right now. Grab things when they go down in price for once!!

#affiliate

Real deal in tax filing

 I officially dumped TaxAct. I switched all of us over to FreeTaxUSA. My daughters both filed for free, my middle son filed for free and we paid $14.99 total to file our state and federal taxes with all of the education credit documentation etc. The free version even allowed for my daughter to file a 1099B and my son filed his federal and two different states for nothing.  All because their incomes are under $41,000.  

Remember to use the link in last nights post to the MO Department of Revenue and then link from there. It will not be totally free without that link.