End of the month review

After a wonderful Thanksgiving, its time to review my goals for November.

Mostly, I just wanted to reign in my grocery budget and I did better than last month.

Last month I spent over $1500 for groceries and eating out.

This month, (even though I have 1 more day to go), I made it closer to $1000.

I say that is a great step toward my $600 goal.  

I am trying hard to stop eating out.  I have to admit that I ate out more than I should have.

But, less than before.  

Many days we would just keep driving and I would come home and cook.

Even if it was at 9 pm at night.

Another goal I had was trying to get moving and exercise some.  

Did not happen.  I need to get healthier and fit but I am too lazy and busy to do it.

I know, excuses excuses.  

I also stopped volunteering at our homeschool bookstore, because now I get paid for the day I volunteer.

That's a little bit extra income coming into the home.  I think I will use it for my miscellaneous budget.

Another goal I have is to pay off my cars in 2 1/2 years.  

The van has about 13 months left on the note and I am paying extra on each payment.

If I continue I might shave off about 4 months.  After I pay that off I am adding extra to the second car.

Looking forward to December I know that I will have some budget busters like 

Christmas

Basketball fees

I know Dave Ramsey would say that Christmas happens at the same time every year.  

But since we are just starting our financial journey I didn't quite plan for Christmas.

I will be posting my goals for December soon.

I am not going overboard.  Just a few goals in each area.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I am grateful for my hubby, who works so hard for us.

I am thankful for my children who are healthy and strong.

I am thankful for the strength that Heavenly Father gives me to care for my family.

I know I couldn't do it without His loving care.

Food Budget

My hardest goal to meet is our food budget.  I just can't seem to figure out what is normal for a family our size or what we can afford to spend.  I used to buy groceries before everything and blow our budget, now I buy after but still manage to blow our budget.
A few months ago I signed up for Mint.com.  Mint.com is a website that links to your accounts and keeps track of your spending.  Its free, so I signed up.  I linked the account I wanted to keep track of and maybe checked it a few times..then I forgot about it.
A week ago, I decided to log back in.  I then used one of the tools available that shows you in graph form where your money went.  I went back to October and checked our food expenditures.  Anything I labeled as food or was automatically labeled by the site as food purchases were added into the portion of the graph.  Wow, was I surprised when I saw the totals.  I had just commented to someone that maybe we spend $800 to $900 in food..including fast food..oh boy, was I wrong.  My total for the month of October was over $1500.

$1500!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a lot of money.  Almost double the amount I though I had spent..DOUBLE.

What a rude awakening.  No wonder our budget is so out of control.  I had no idea it was so much.  I had no clue what I was spending.  

I made our December budget yesterday.  I only budgeted $600 for the whole month.  Is that reasonable, is it realistic?  I am not sure but I know it can't be much more because our goals to pay off debt are very important to us.  Very important.  I am hoping that $300 twice a month is going to cut it.  And only eating out 2 times a month. Hmmm..we don't have much luck with limiting the eating out.  But, we have to be strict.  

I'm a little curious about November, not because I expect much difference, but because I was becoming more aware of what I was spending.  Apparently, not as aware as I thought.  

It would be interesting to see though.

doubt

I hate when I start doubting myself.  I was so excited to start my plans to become a fiscally responsible person but last night I started to doubt myself.  I know it was stupid and I shouldn't even dwell on such things.

I know doubts are the adversaries way to derail you from your intended goal.  I think all the opposition I have been dealing with is also a sure sign that I should press forward.  My plans aren't necessarily spiritual but they can lead to some real spiritual gains. 

For example, if I can trim my expenses, pay tithing and and fast offering I accomplished a spiritual goal.

If I can have a generous savings and emergency found, we can help fund our son's mission.

If we can get completely out of debt, live within our means then I can help fund many missions.  That is my dream.  To help fund many missions.  

  

Short term goals are all about the money, honey..but my long term goals are all spiritual

I need to stop doubting my ability and just press forward.  I know I have a long road ahead, but its doable and I can sacrifice now for gains later. 

Fiscal planning

My husband works 3 jobs.  One full time and two part-times.  We hardly see him, and I think its time to change that.  I named this blog Character Changes and living a responsible fiscal life is part of that change.  I have tried many, many times to make that change and I have failed.  Well, I haven't failed miserably because I have learned a few things each time I tried changing.   This time, I hope we succeed more than the last few times.
I have read Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, and I even worked for Primerica so its not like I don't know what to do.  I can tell you what to do, I can make plans to help others succeed, but it just wasn't that easy for our family.  Finally, it dawned on me that I am sick and tired of having my husband gone all day, every day and trying to fit everything in on his one and only day off.  He has two, but one day he goes to school...so we have Wednesday off.  Not all of Wednesday, mind you..only Wednesday evening.  That is not cutting it anymore.
I have now put my foot down.  I hope I have put it down hard enough.  I am ready to make a plan for us.  I am ready to slash and save and do whatever it takes.  My family is not as supportive as I had hoped.  What is my plan?  "People don't plan to fail, but they fail to plan"  I'm all about plans and I have plans coming out of my ears. Our problem is not plans but follow through.  So, yes I have a plan and yes, I will let you know.  But where I need help is following through with those plans.
First, I am not going to do all or nothing.  That's one sure way to fail.
Second, I am not cutting everything all at once.
Third, I need accountability, so I will blog about it.

Ok, here is the plan:

Our budget is out of control and my husbands solution is to work more.  That is not working for us.  I looked through my budget and found things to cut.  The main one is our cell phone plan.  It's eating us up alive.  I have tried calling and asking for some help in trimming it, but even though they were very helpful it just not enough.  We do have a contract and we still have a few months left on that contract.  So, my plan is to cancel the plan, buy a month to month and save the rest.  At least $200.  Yes, I know that I will have a fee to worry about and I have a plan for that.
The second part of this plan is to work toward Baby Step 1.  Dave Ramsey has 7 baby steps toward financial freedom and baby step 1 is to save $1000 asap.  So, I gave myself about 6 weeks to 3 months to come up with that.  After baby step 1, we can start on baby step 2, which is to pay off debt and the first on that list will be our cell phone plan.  After that we will snowball our cell phone saving toward the next largest bill, then the next and so on.

That's my plan, and we are sticking to it.

Another part of the plan is to limit eating out and include that in our over all budget.  I wanted to try the envelope system, but I am not ready for that I think.  It's not that I haven't gone cash only, I have.  But, I think it would be too much at one time.  So, I am going to stick to working on our budget, keeping receipts and try to figure out where our money goes.  Groceries and eating out are a major drain and gas used to be too.
We are a family of 9 with 6 kids still at home.  We need to work on this area of our budget pronto.  I have started working on a monthly menu (which I have done before) and will try monthly shopping.   I don't think I will be able to go a month between shopping but if I can limit my trips and buy the staples I know I can save some time and money.  As for eating out, its a must but not every day.  We don't have time for fun activities, so eating out has become our family outing.  I am going to try to limit it to only 2-3 times a month instead of 2-3 times a week.

One other problem I face with menu planning is trying to figure out lunches that are healthy, cheap, and gluten free.  Every time I make a menu lunches tend to be sandwiches, sandwiches, pasta, and hot dogs.  All full of gluten and no, we don't want to use gluten free bread or pasta.  My son, uses some gluten free pasta but the rest of the family will not eat them.    Lunch menus are a work in progress.

Above all, I had been working on one major part of our budget and that is paying tithing.  We are doing a lot better in that area, but still need more consistence.  I have a testimony about tithing and feel extremely guilty when we don't do what is right.  I didn't want to deal with it and felt it was my husband responsibility and not mine.  I know now, that its OUR responsibility and if my husband is too busy with work and school than I must step up and make sure that we do what is right.  We are a team.

So, Tithing, Baby Step 1 and 2, and the grocery budget are the major changes I need to make.  It won't happen right away but as long as I feel like we are working on our goals, things will be ok!

My "To Be" list?

I love creating lists.  To do lists, grocery lists, chore lists, book lists, budget lists..you name it, and I have probably tried to list it.  But, I have never thought of making a "To Be" list.  What in the world is a To Be list?  I had never heard of one until this weekend, during a Time Out for Women conference, just in passing.  The speaker said "When you make your to do list, or even your To Be lists remember blah blah blah."  I can't remember what she finished up with because I was suddenly thrilled to know that there was another list I could start using.  A To Be list.

What will go into my To Be list?  What do I want to become?  Well, I have been thinking of this for a couple of days and I have no earthly idea what I want to be.  Fortunately for me, this morning on NPR, there was a show on TED Talks about Success!!!  Yes!!  Now I know what I can do to become successful.  Except, I didn't understand from those talks, what I needed to do to become successful.  Tony Robbins said "Follow your passion"..But then Mike Rowe said "Don't follow your passion, are you crazy"  I'm paraphrasing of course.  The next speaker said "Smile!!!"  Another said if you don't have grit, forget it.  The final talk was on a kinder way to frame success..pretty much..stop envying.  Listen to them, you might not get what I got, but they are interesting.

I am still wondering, about my to be list.  It finally dawned on me to figure out what my Father in Heaven considers success.  Hmm?  Follow the commandments, love your family, return to Me, be of service to others, spread My Gospel and be like Me. I also have been thinking of my spiritual success.  I am sorely lacking in that arena.  Usually, because I want to do it all, and I want to do it all RIGHT NOW.  Not possible, believe me, I have tried.

I was still pondering my To Be list, when I realized: I know who I am already.  I am a Daughter of our Heavenly Father, who loves me and I love Him.

I found my To Be list.  All those traits are what I want to be.