Author: pcmich

Meal planning helps save time in the kitchen and money in the pocket book. Meal planning makes it easy to answer the age-old question “what’s for dinner?” That’s a phrase that just drives me crazy. There are nights though where I really wish someone else would decide and fix dinner.

Healthy Eating

Meal planning is one way to ensure you eat healthy. In my article about
eating healthy “A Simple Guide to determining if healthy eating is important” I discuss many different types of diet plans. Each of these diets takes planning to implement. Without meal planning it is extremely difficult to eat healthy meals.

We tend to make poor choices when
we are hungry and don’t know what we should eat. Meal planning makes sure that the right types of foods on hand when “hangry” happens.

Meal Planning to Save Money

Another benefit, which helps the wallet too, is shopping with a purpose. When you know what meals you are planning for the week there is no need to just get take out.

I plan breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and create my grocery list from there. I do know people who only plan their dinners and then choose other items while at the store. That may work for them, but this will lead to impulse shopping and we all know what that can do to the budget.

When you know what meals you will be making ahead of time your shopping is focused on only the items you need to make the meals.

There is less food waste with meal planning. Just like budgeting to make sure every dollar has a job, shopping with a meal plan mean every food has a purpose. By using food wisely there is less waste.

Meal planning also means that you can shop seasonally. Creating meals based on which fruits and vegetables are in season provides two benefits.

1 you can try new recipes and bring variety to your diet and

2. You are getting fresh fruits and vegetables that usually cost less.

Saving Time with Meal Planning

Food prep is also easier when you know which meals you will be having for the week. You don’t waste your time deciding what to eat, defrosting what you need, or just saying “I don’t know what to fix”. This leads to let’s just eat out. I would like to food prep more and I will be doing an article about meal planning and food prep soon so come back for that.

Finally, Everyone join in with the meal planning and making process. As you meal plan ask your family what are their favorite meals. If you have little ones in the house that are picky eaters, they get to choose meals that you know they will eat.

I am sure there are many other benefits; please share your ideas below.

My husband and I totally disagree on how to budget and what way to spend our money. I am very logical and plan everything out, and he is a free spirit and feels that if there is money in the bank he can spend it how every he wants. I am also a bit of an impulse spender, but with in reason. Figuring out how to budget when we disagree is a challenge.

Recently we argued about spending money. We had a major plumbing issue that required 30K in repairs and another 17K to remodel the bathroom. On top of that we are moving into the summer month where I don’t get a paycheck. I do plan for summer months by setting aside some of my paycheck during the other months.

My husband decided that he wanted to give $3000 to his sister to help her out with bills. Normally, I would be okay with this, but with a big hit to the savings we would have to give up eating for a month or more so that she could pay her late bills. This set off a big argument.

The argument also got me thinking how do other couples budget when they disagree. I scoured the Internet for ideas and suggestions then tried them out to see how well it works.

Ideas for budgeting as a couple

1. Be on the same team agree on your money goals
2. Understand each others spending
3. Live on less than you earn
4. Be honest and upfront about budgeting
5. Don’t let separate salary get in the way
6. Don’t hide purchases
7. Compromise
8. It’s okay to disagree

Be a Teammate when Budgeting

Many of these suggestions have the same theme of being a teammate when it comes to budgeting. This doesn’t work well when your partner doesn’t want to be part of the conversation.

I think it is important to have a budget meeting. This ideally should be monthly, but can be seasonally if you can’t get them involved.

For our budget meetings I do need to take the lead, but I will ask questions to find out his ideas and goal, especially when it comes to big purchases, house repairs etc.

Be Upfront

I was not being as upfront as I thought when it came to purchases and budgeting. I made purchases that I didn’t tell him about as I paid for them with my funds and I was putting money into savings without telling him the reason.

By not telling my husband that I was making business purchases, he felt that I was hiding things. I have a separate account for business where I have money for marketing and business needs. It looks like money is only going out, because most of my business is in cash. I need to tell him how I was using this account so he knows that I was just spending and getting a return.

I will be making changes to this account so it’s more transparent.

You might be facing this same type of issues. Look at your accounts, purchases, etc. and make sure you are both on the same page.

Being upfront and honest will make it easier to reach your goals.

It’s okay to Disagree

The final suggestion that it is okay to disagree may seem counterintuitive. You need to agree so that you can reach your goals right?

Well not necessarily, you do need to understand why you disagree and have multiple discussions in order to come to a compromise. You may also need to just table the issue and come back to it later. Work on the things you do agree upon and keep having discussions.

Budgeting isn’t easy and doesn’t happen over night, If you read my initial post “Setting Up a Budget is Easy” you will see that I changed my budgeting, started and stopped many times throughout my life. Look for what works best for you and your situation and make changes as they are needed.

Happy budgeting! Share what has worked for you and your partner with your budget.

I think everyone realizes that healthy eating is important. A healthy diet prevents heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, strokes, and a slew of other health issues.

(This article is for education purposes only; I am not a nutritionist or a doctor. This article is not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding your specific medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking treatment.)

Eating a balance of proteins, carbs, fruit and vegetables can be very over whelming. There are so many diet plans to choose from and knowing where to start on a healthy eating journey can cause a lot of anxiety.

I struggle with two different health issues, that should have similar diet plans but they don’t always match up. One diet says to increase morning carbs and the other says to limit carbs or have smaller servings of carbs throughout the day. I have tried a variation of each diet, but following one diet explicitly throws my blood work off one way or another.

MyPlate

A good start to healthy dieting is reviewing the guidelines of the USDA MyPlate. There are pros and cons to their recommendations.

The guideline doesn’t break down fruits and vegetables to those that have higher carb counts to those that are lower in carbs. There isn’t a mention of choosing proteins that are lower in fat: chicken and fish as opposed to red meats.

The MyPlate is a simple view of what each meal should include and small changes can be made over time.

Another option to the MyPlate is Harvard’s Healthy Eating Plate (you can find more details about the plate here). This is the guideline that I tend to follow, I find that there is more focus on food choices that have health benefits, lean meat, whole foods as opposed to processed food, and water over sugary drinks. Also included in the Healthy Eating Plate is the recommendation of daily exercise.

Mayo Clinic

I have also followed the “real” Mayo Clinic diet. Since I wasn’t looking to lose a significant amount of weight I found the Lose It! Phase restrictive and I spent so much time meal planning to get everything correct.

What I have learned from trying and reviewing healthy diets is that you need to create meals that focus on fruits and vegetable adding proteins and grains in moderation. Most importantly you need healthy habits of exercise and portion control.

Eating Real Food

When choosing any healthy diet a key component is fruits and vegetables. This means eating real food and eliminating processed food from your diet. We know cake happens and it’s good to indulge a little here and there, but keeping to real ingredients has many health benefits.

In my journey to better health was introduced to the Food Lover’s diet that has you read labels and avoid canned or boxed foods that have more than five ingredients and should be ingredients you can pronounce.

Reading labels became a must and very enlightening to the contents of the food we normally eat, so many chemical ingredients in our food, yuck!

At this point I discovered 100 days of Real Food Lisa Leake’s website provided steps to cutting out processed foods. There are many articles and resources on her website that help make moving towards a healthier eating possible.

Wrap Up

A healthy diet has many benefits. It protects you from diseases such has diabetes, heart conditions and cancer. A healthy diet isn’t a cure for these conditions but it helps organs and tissues work effectively. There are 100s of articles on Google Scholar regarding the importance of eating healthy and the benefit to your body.

Have you had a healthy diet journey? Share what has or hasn’t worked for you.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means that I may receive commission, but you won’t pay anything more.

Grocery shopping is usually a chore that many of us don’t enjoy. Between trying to figure out what to put on the shopping list, deciding on the best time to do the shopping, and taking the time to walk the aisles of the store and standing in line to check out. Ugh who enjoys that?

Additionally, some people will do the shopping at many different stores so they can get deals on certain products. I used to clip coupons then spend even more time of the aisle trying to match the product to the coupon. I did save some money couponing and shopping around at different stores, but I used a lot of my valuable time shopping in this manner.

A few years ago we had our kitchen remodeled and our front yard landscaped at the same time. Will never do that again, but really loving the final products. Going out to the grocery store and lugging items around different construction crews made it next to impossible. On top of that I couldn’t leave the house when I had work crews. So I needed to find a different way to get my shopping done. My local grocery store had been advertising their new delivery system and I gave it a try. I talked about saving money by online shopping in my last article, but want to share my thoughts on online shopping. Below are a few of my pros and cons of grocery shopping online

PROS

1. I can shop when it is convenient for me. Often times I would shop over multiple days as I meal planned or waited for my kids or husband to get home so they could tell me what they needed
2. Comparing products was easier. It is much easier to sit on my couch read labels and compare price per unit, then block the aisles of the store.
3. Not tempted by impulse purchases. While online shopping does provide suggestions for other products you can click away and ignore. If the store offers samples you are not smelling and tasting on every aisle.
4. Stick to the shopping list. I mention in a previous article that I meal plan and shop my own kitchen first before adding an item to my list. Once I do have my list it is easy to type in the product and I’m right at the item that I want to purchase, instead of walking up and down the store.
5. Best of all the groceries are delivered right to my door. All I have to do is put the things away. Some people may want to do curbside pickup and that’s great too as the store puts the items in the car and away you go.
6. You can do shopping at more than one store without driving all over town. I have groceries delivered from the grocery store, Costco and Amazon all without leaving my home.
7. You don’t have to take the kids or your significant other to the store. Having other people in tow while shopping can add to your bill, leaving them at home can save you money.

Pro and con

This one needed it’s own category.

1. You can use Apps that give cash back such as Rakuten when shopping online. I get a rebate for purchases made online. You can join using my friend referral. The con is that using Apps that require scans in store or walk-in you will not earn points. I use Shopkick while I’m in stores to earn points towards gift cards.

Cons

1. You may find items in the store are less expensive then on-line. Stores even have in store only coupons. My store actually has a rewards card that gets me discounts on items online too, but not every store has this. Check your store to see if they have an App that provides coupons or discounts
2. You are not selecting your own fruits and vegetables. You are at the mercy of the pickers. I have had produce with the sell by day as the day the order was delivered. This isn’t a problem if you are using the items right away, but if you expect the fruit to last until the end of the week it may not work.
3. Items sell out. Something you ordered may be gone when the picker fills the order. When you are in the store you can make a choice on a comparable item. The store I shop at does have an option to let them know if it is okay to substitute an item. I have food allergies and this one has backfired on me as the substitution had an ingredient I cannot eat.
4. There maybe additional fees for online orders. Some stores charge fees for delivery and surcharges, these fees can cut into any savings.
5. If you don’t like meal planning and enjoy shopping for whatever looks good. Shopping online requires planning.

What do you think about grocery shopping online, share your pros and cons.

Most of us want to save money when we grocery shop and we have probably read many articles on how to save money. Don’t shop hungry, shop around, meal plan, buy in bulk, etc. Some of these tricks may work but most don’t or are just unrealistic. I have found the following 15 helpful tips work best for me to spend less money on grocery shopping.

this post may contain affiliate links

Meal Plan:

Before I even think about going shopping I decide if I am shopping for 1 or 2 weeks worth of meals. Then I plan every meal and snack for myself (I have special diet requirements then the rest of my family). After I meal plan I write down every ingredient I need for my meals.

Once I have my list, I shop my pantry and kitchen first so I don’t over buy anything.

Budget/use cash:

I shop online for my groceries (I’ll talk about this more later), so I budget my groceries for the month and when the money is gone it’s gone. You really have to focus on the best buys and using all resources available. I have never run out of food so it works.

Sign-Up for cash back or Shopping Apps:

There are many apps available for earning rebates. I use Rakuten, follow my refer a friend link to set up your own account. Other apps include Ibotta, Checkout51, Fetch rewards, and Shopkicks to name a few. Your local store may also have a reward system. Rebates aren’t like coupons you don’t save up front on items, but the savings can add up.

I signed up for Rakuten in 2016 and have earned over $600, I could earn more if I pay attention to their hot deals, but for now I just earn on things I already buy.

Buy in Bulk:

This one is a little tricky, as you have to be able to use the products. Not every bulk item will save you money.  You need to compare the unit prices to determine if there is a true savings. Buying perishables in bulk only works if you can use the product before the spoil.

Shop farmer’s markets or subscription services:

Farmer’s markets are my favorite place for fresh fruits and vegetables that I can’t necessarily find at the grocery stores. I am also lucky to have a family run farmer’s stand right down the street. The family grows their own, so I know it is good quality. Additionally, I subscribe to fruit and vegetable box service that delivers to my door every other week. This isn’t always the least expensive option, but again I know the food is coming directly from the farm to my home. Check out what you have available in your area.

Shop online:

This was a game changer for me. I have always shopped at stores directly, until I was having my front yard landscaped and my kitchen remodeled at the same time. It was impossible to leave the house to spend hours shopping then unloading while avoiding workers. Our local Safeway offered grocery delivery and many discount codes for delivery (I never paid delivery fees and often times saved money on purchases too). I now have a subscription so I don’t pay any fees and only a small up front cost. Shopping on line has saved me money, as I am not tempted by impulse purchases. There are drawbacks though. I am at the mercy of the picker for meats and vegetables and if an item becomes unavailable I can’t readjust. Overall though I have been pleased with the service.

Additionally I shop through Amazon and Costco. Costco is a big one as my husband shops there on his way home from work and he buys whatever catches his eye and doesn’t keep to any budget, which drives me crazy. Now that I have him shopping online I can watch what he is purchasing and have a say in what he buys. He is a junk food junkie and never really buys anything that is healthy. I indulge him a bit though.

Grow your own:

If you have the space and a green thumb you can start your own vegetable garden. Watch for my series coming soon on starting my garden. Gardening may have more upfront cost purchasing planters, soil and plants, but you will reap the rewards when the crops come in.

Don’t waste food:

You have planned your meals, purchased just what you needed, and then you let it spoil that doesn’t save any money. If you buy more than you need because it is on sale then it is not a deal. I have done this way too many times and I am working on no waste kitchen.

Monitor the over spender:

My husband is a binge shopper, but you may have kids that you shop with and a few of their I want this or that purchases can really add up. Leave the husband and kids at home when you go to the store. Make sure to get some input from them on what they want and need, but you can control the purchases.

Go Meatless:

Plan a few meatless meals. You don’t need to become a vegetarian unless you want to, but there are some very good recipes that don’t involve meat. My favorite is zucchini lasagna.

Don’t want to go vegetarian, but meat is expensive watch for sales. If you have a freezer stock up during sales (just make sure to use it before it expires) and store it away.

Avoid convenience and processed foods:

Pre-packaged fruit slices and cracker and meat packages cost more then whole fruit and deli meat and cheeses. Yes it may take a little bit of time to put it together, but you will save in the long run.

For me avoiding processed foods is a must, very rarely do I select a frozen meal, boxed or canned foods. Of course there are some exceptions, but for the most part I avoid the center aisles and opt for frozen fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and rice. I also have select canned food items that I purchase.

Store, can and preserve:

With an overabundance in your garden you will want to save the food for later. Learning how to can and preserve will save you money on jams, preserves and sauces. Yes you maybe spending time in the kitchen preparing sauces, but you will have homemade sauces all year long. I love making strawberry jam with strawberries from the farmer’s market or my garden. I will be trying pickles very soon.

Organize your kitchen:

I talked about stocking your pantry during a crisis, but being organized all the time makes it easier to tell what is in your kitchen and needs to be used.

Purchase non-food item at other stores:

Toilet paper, paper towels and toiletries are usually more expensive at the grocery stores. Check around to make sure you are getting the best deals. Discount stores usually have a wide variety of items at reduced prices. Consider buying toilet paper, paper towels and soaps in bulk.

Do you have any other tips for saving at the grocery store? Share them below.

I have this wonderful cookbook that was my grandmother’s. The Lily Wallace New American Cook Book dated 1949. This is a book my grandmother used all the time and I continue to use today. Not sure when the last time this book was printed I found very limited information about the author Lily Haxworth Wallace. I like the mystery behind this.

One of the reasons I enjoy the cookbook so much is the simplicity of the recipes. These are true homemade recipes. The best part though is at the back of the book where there are meal plans based on income for example a plan for a “Minimum-Cost Adequate Diet ($1000 to $2000 annual Income)”.

Can you image feeding a family of four for only $9.15 a week (based on 1941 average city prices)? I thought it would be fun to take a menu for a day and compare the prices.

For this comparison I did my shopping at my local Safeway store.

Shopping today

Breakfast

Sliced oranges (adults) $.68

Orange or tomato juice (young children) $.32 for 1 cup

Hot Whole-Wheat cereal (Rolled oats and water) I used Quaker Oats Whole grain oats for this comparison $4.99 per ounce

Toast (cookbook calls for day old bread from a bakery) Bakery loaf Whole grain $4.99

Marmalade $.28 per ounce

Milk (Children) $.24 per cup

Coffee (adults) $2.64 per cup

My book has been well loved. It’s a little worst for wear

Lunch

Boiled beans (black, kidney, lima, pea, soy, and yellow eye can be used) I priced Kidney beans $.17 per ounce

Poached egg (young children) $2.39 per dozen ($.20 per egg)

Bread and butter (using remaining bread from breakfast) Butter $.24 per ounce

Stewed Prunes I couldn’t find plums so opted for prepared prunes $.22 per ounce

Milk (Children) $.24 per cup

Coffee (Adults) $2.64

Dinner

Meat Loaf

3lbs ground beef $11.97

Eggs $.40       

Salt $.06 per ounce

Pepper $1.33 per ounce

Onion $1.87

Bread crumbs $2.99

Milk $.24

Tomato catchup (love how this is spelled in the book) $1.99

Worcestershire sauce $.60 per ounce

Scalloped Potatoes (yellow potato and butter) $1.19 and $.24 per ounce

Buttered beets with beet tops $3.49 for 3, butter $.24 per ounce

Bread and butter – finish bread loaf from breakfast and $.24 per ounce

Hot gingerbread

            Cake flour $4.49

Baking powder $1.89

Baking soda $1.49

Ginger $3.12 per ounce

Cinnamon $1.68 per ounce

Salt $.06 per ounce

Shortening $.16 per ounce

Sugar $.06 per ounce

Egg $.20

Molasses $.37 per ounce

Buttermilk $.06 per ounce

Milk (children) $.24 per cup

Coffee $2.64

I’m not sure I could eat this amount of food in a day or even want to spend this much time in the kitchen cooking all this food, and I love to cook.

Breaking down the cost

Since this meal plan feeds 4 people I am assuming 2 adults and 2 children when calculating

Breakfast costs about $20.52

Lunch costs about $14.36

Dinner costs about $36.62 (most people will already have the spices in the kitchen, but I add this cost in)

Food for the day $ 71.50

This is only one day’s meal and it far exceeds the $9.16 per week.

I may try out a meal plan in the future, let me know if you would like to see a post with the meals. This has been a fun comparison. Do you have a favorite old cookbook that you still use today? Share below

Do you have the right foods in your pantry to support your healthy lifestyle? In a prior post I discussed stocking your pantry in times of crisis read it here. Now I’m going to tell you how I stock a healthy kitchen to support clean eating.

Eating healthy isn’t always the easiest thing to do. There are so many diet options available. Each one claiming that they are the end all to be all for diets. I am not into the trend of the week diets. I need a diet that supports my blood levels for cholesterol and glucose.

If you are like me you probably have researched diets, started and stopped plans and bought many books. I did find great recipes to try though. But the plans never seemed to work fully and certain food allergies made it difficult to follow a plan as intended.

In researching all these different diet approaches the one common thread is having the right food in the house is important for healthy eating.

By having healthy choices in your house helps with preparing meals and avoiding snacking on junk food.

Depending on your dietary needs your food list may vary some. Below you will find food items I keep in my pantry.

What’s in the refrigerator?

Fruits*                                                           Vegetables

*Watch the sugar on some fruits

Your vegetable drawer may also include peppers, onions, cauliflower, eggplant, etc. I can’t eat these due to allergies

Dairy                                                             Meat

When choosing non-fat or Low-fat products make sure to look at the sugar content.

Some additional choices for meat substitute are tofu and tempeh. There are probably many more I’m missing.

Freezer

 I have many frozen fruits and vegetables in my freezer, as these are great alternatives for out of season produce

In the Pantry cabinet

I prepare most of my foods so I don’t have as many canned products in my cupboard. The cupboard full though:

*Beans: both bagged and canned. For canned beans I look for the low sodium options such as black bean, kidney, navy, cannellini, pinto, etc.

*Barley

*Reduced sodium bone broth (chicken, beef and vegetable) – I’m allergic to onions so I usually make my own if I can’t find an organic brand without onions.

*Whole grain cereals

*Cornmeal

*Flaxseed

* Flour (Whole-Wheat, Rice, almond)

*Couscous, Quinoa, oat bran,

*Rolled oats

*Low-fat or fat free tomato sauce

*Whole grain pasta – I avoid any enriched flour pasta

*Rice: Brown or wild

*Canned tomatoes and tomato paste – reduced sodium

*Non-fat or vegetarian refried beans

*Canned fruit – make sure to avoid any packed in syrup

Condiments

I avoid high sodium products and shop for low-sodium options

*Ketchup

*BBQ Sauce

*Mayonnaise

*Mustard

*Soy Sauce

*Vinegars

*Pickles

Fats and cooking oils

This is the hardest area to know what is healthy and which are not; there are so many opinions on what is healthy. Here are some that I use in my kitchen

*Trans fat-free margarine (I prefer a yogurt based spread that has no trans-fat)

*Nonfat cooking sprays

*Olive or canola oils, I also use non-GMO vegetable oils

*Applesauce or yogurt instead of using oils for baking

*Reduced fat salad dressings

Snacks

*Nuts (almond, walnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds)

*Whole grain breads (tortilla, pita, English muffins)

*Whole grain, trans-fat free crackers

*Popcorn or brown rice crackers

*Whole grain pretzels, baked tortilla chips

*Dark chocolate

Spices/Herbs

I use just about every spice but I avoid salt and of course onion based spices.

When I can I use fresh herbs

If you have a green thumb you can grow your own herbs or buy fresh herbs at the farmer’s market. I will be doing a series on growing your own herbs soon so keep an eye out.

Sweeteners

Avoiding sugars is always preferred but if you have a sweet tooth like me there are some other options. I also avoid any sugar substitutes that are mostly chemical derived.

Brown rice syrup for baking

Honey (in moderation there is a lot of natural sugar in honey)

Pure maple syrup

I avoid processed food as much as possible and read labels closely. Look for items with five or fewer ingredients. The ingredients must all be real foods.

Share some of your pantry staples below. I always like to hear what other people find useful.

Did you know budgeting can be easy? In part one of this series I discussed why you need to budget and a little bit about my journey. Check out my prior post here.

I also introduced Dave Ramsey’s baby steps. (I am not affiliated with Dave Ramsey) As I mentioned before I do not follow his advice fully. Dave Ramsey is very opinionated (check out his YouTube channel) and feels his way is the only way to budget. There are many ways to budget, some work, some don’t. Budgeting does come down to how much self-control you have.

I’m not going to say that I’m perfect at budgeting I have had my slides, but I have been able to eliminate my debt and monitor my spending without Dave Ramsey’s methods.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional; I just have had years of experience creating and using budgets for my family. You may need to consult with a financial planner depending on your needs.

Key Ideas before creating your budget

Before you even start to budget you’ll need a plan. Dave Ramsey discusses not using any credit cards, cutting them up or destroying them. I do have credit cards, a few of them. In order to pay some of my utility bills they require credit cards for payment. I use mine more as a debit card. And I never carry a balance on the cards.

Another idea is to use cash only. This works great if you love to go out to the stores and shop. I don’t! Most of my shopping is on-line including my grocery shopping.

Shopping online saves me money, as I am not tempted to make impulse purchases. Whenever I do online shopping I have a specific purpose, I can comparison shop without wasting gas driving around to various stores. And I never make a quick purchase I put items in the shopping cart and will wait a day or two. If I still want them I make sure I have the money and then complete the transaction.

Ready to start

Once you are ready to create your budget you will want to collect bank statements, bills and any other information regarding bills or debts.

Review your bills are there any you need to get current on right now? Have you put $1000 away for an emergency fund?  Review these first.

You can start your budget even if you don’t have $1000 set aside. As you budget you will find areas that you were spending money when you really could have saved.

As I created my most recent budget I went back a year to review all my spending, go back as far as you want.

Budgeting tools

There are many ways to record and review your budget. There are many apps available. I don’t recommend any of the ones that you have to pay for; it’s really not necessary. I am currently using two tools one is an excel download and the other is Dave Ramsey’s Everydollar app. They essentially do the same thing, but there are pluses and minuses to both.

The excel sheet has you just put in information, but you need to do your own totaling and there isn’t away to monitor exactly where you are doing the spending. I actually added another page to the sheet to record individual expenses.

I like that I can see exact income and expense. This occurs when I have an extra paycheck come in, it automatically adds this in. On the Everydollar app you can put the added income in, but it doesn’t add it to the total income.

I like the Everydollar app for setting up sinking funds. There is also a chart where you can review planned expenses, Spent and Remaining.

It doesn’t really matter what app you use to budget, so choose what works best for you.

Break down of categories

A big key to budgeting is telling your money where to go and not the other way around. You need to be in control of each expense.

When I created my budget I used the following categories, you may need to add additional categories depending on your needs.

Saving: Emergency fund, retirement, house repair expenses (this could be under housing if you prefer) etc.

Housing: Rent/Mortgage and Utilities

Transportation: Gas, maintenance, and licensing

Food: Groceries and dining out

Personal: Clothing, gym membership, haircuts, entertainment, personal products, etc.

Lifestyle: You could put gym memberships here if you prefer, I included vet expenses, and fun money

Health: Insurance, doctor/dentist expenses, medication

Insurance: Car and home insurance. Again you can include these under car and housing if you prefer, I just like to quickly see where the expense is.

Debt: This could be credit cards, medical bills, car payments anything that you owe.

How much should you spend?

Again there are many thoughts on how much to spend in each category of expenses. Most suggestions are pretty close in range.

Housing 35%

Utilities: 5% (I actually count this in my housing expense)

Food: 10-20%

Transportation: 12-20%

Clothing: 3-5%

Medical: 3-5%

Entertainment/ personal: 5-10%

Savings: 5-10%

Debt 5-15%

Reviewing your expenses from the previous year you can tell if you are over spending in any of the areas.

My Breakdown

To show how every family is a little different here is a break down of my expenses:

Housing: 28% (I add my utilities in this category, home insurance is part of my mortgage and additional mortgage payment)

Food: 19%

Transportation: 3%

Personal 17% (I have clothing, gym membership, entertainment, haircuts, personal supplies and cell phones in the category)

Medical: 2%

Lifestyle: 3% (This is vet expenses for 2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 birds and 1 rabbit, and fun money)

Insurance: 4%

Debt: 2%

Savings 23%

I’m pretty much in alignment with the suggested guidelines, although the food budget is the area I personally can see could use some improvement.

Now what?

If you have debt, see my previous article about the snowball effect for paying off these bills. This is a mental strategy for paying off debt. The key though is to pay off debt as quickly as you can.

I know some people that sold off things they weren’t using any more. Got side jobs and basically scrimped by to get out from under debt.

I can’t remember how I paid off all our debt, I just remember waking up one day deciding I wanted no more debt and worked on paying off all the bills.

Let me know how your budget journey is going?

I was planning on talking about budgeting this week. But here I sit trying to grocery shop for the week and finding myself purchasing more than usual and no meal plan. I have no idea what will be available at the stores. Because of COVID-19 people are hoarding food, leaving the supply chain struggling to keep up. These are unprecedented times most of us haven’t lived through anything similar.

This got me thinking can you be frugal in times like this?

Yes you can!

Yes, is the short answer. The long answer is it takes planning you need to make sure that you have well stocked pantry shelves. Right now the grocery stores are empty and it causes people to panic and buy more than what they need. So to be able to just go to the store or order online is becoming an impossible task.

In order to be frugal during a pandemic like this or any other emergency the key is to buy ahead of time make sure you have a pantry that is well-stocked for at least three months and you don’t do that overnight. You do it by shopping over a period of time.

How Do You Stock a Pantry

Creating a stocked pantry you want to shop when items are on sale and buying food that your family will actually eat.

First decide what type of meals your family likes.

In my family we like Chili, pastas and soups. We also enjoy fruits and vegetable and having fresh on hand is a little more difficult.

Second decide how big of pantry you want. I usually buy groceries for two weeks, planning out each meal and shopping from my pantry first. This isn’t working out to well now as even the basic food items aren’t in stores. Can you stock for a year?, go for it. If not start out with a three-month stock.

Tips for stocking up

1. Organize your pantry: You need a place in your house where you can store food that is temperature controlled and easy to get to. Using bins and baskets that are clear or labeled so you can easily tell what you have.
2. Make sure to rotate food: You will be using this food not just storing and forgetting about. Have a system to move older food to the front after each shopping trip.
3. Take inventory: You will want to keep track of items and expiration dates. If you’re a bit OCD like me you may want a chart next to your pantry listing all items (or a spreadsheet on your computer)
4. Stock the freezer with meals: If you are lucky enough to have a large freezer like I do, start creating freezer meals. These will need labels with dates so that you can rotate and use meals before they expire.
5. Consider starting a garden: If you have the space start growing your own fruits and vegetables.
6. Don’t forget the refrigerator/freezer: It is a little harder to have a three-month supply of milk (I freeze mine), but you can stock up on butter, eggs (did you know you can freeze eggs too), bacon, cheese, frozen fruits and vegetable. Again make sure to label and rotate food.
7. Consider purchasing dried bean, whole oats, flour, and yeast. Buying canned or pre-made items usually cost more.

Have any other ideas of being frugal creating a stock of foods, anything to add to the list? Tell us your ideas below.

Exploring what it means to be frugal I think back to my own journey of saving and budgeting. Check out my post on being frugal. I really didn’t know what it meant to budget or if it was even necessary to budget. What strategies should I use to get started. Here’s my easy guide to identify your need to budget.

My Journey

My idea of budgeting was tracking my income and expenses.

Move into my first apartment, set some money aside, money for medical bills, put some money away. Have kids, put a lot of money away. Buy a home put some more money away.

I was budgeting, right! No I was only monitoring money coming in and out. When I really needed to budget I wasn’t sure where to start.

Without computers and Internet (This was the early 90s), finding ways to start and maintain a budget was limited. I came across a book at the grocery store, which had pages to record monthly income and expenses so I picked it up.

The book had tips for creating a budget this was an eye opener for me. I went from just writing down our spending to analyzing every purchase we made. Since I needed to write everything down it became apparent where the money was going and most of it was to things the family didn’t need.

Finally, I was able to create a spending plan. In a few short months I had the money I needed for a down payment and we went out house hunting.

I wish I could say that I was budgeting pro, but no. I kept sliding in and out of budgeting and only doing it when I wanted a big purchase and needed more cash to do so.

Budget Guide

1. Need to know how much you earn and spend?
2. Is big purchase in your future?
3. Do the kids need to go to college?
4. Do you want to retire?
5. Have the traveling bug?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you need to budget.

Choosing a budget

There are many different thoughts on what is the best way to budget and save, but really as long as you have a plan that is all that matters.

I decided to use the Dave Ramsey Method. If you aren’t familiar with his work check out his website at www.daveramsey.com (I am not affiliated with his site, I just like his strategies). Although, I use some of the strategies I am not a die hard fan. There are a few things that I don’t use just because they don’t work for me an my family.

Searching budgeting on the internet will result in many other strategies. Check them out and find one that fits your needs.

Dave Ramsey outlines 7 baby steps for financial freedom. If you are new to budgeting you should follow his steps to the letter, don’t skip over any (I’ll add some caveats here in a minute). Think about the baby steps before you create your budget.

Where are you in the budgeting journey? Are you in debt, have no money in your savings account, or living paycheck to paycheck.

Baby Steps explained

Step 1: Emergency Fund

Have a $1000 emergency fund. This isn’t fun money or something you should be taking from when you want a new phone.

This is for true emergencies such as a car breaking down or a leaky faucet.  Dave Ramsey recommends having this money in a separate but available account.

You don’t want this money getting lost in your other funds. I actually keep mine in cash hidden in my house, because if my husband sees the money in the account he will want to spend it.

In order to start your emergency fund try selling unused items or taking on a side job. Once you have your emergency fund money move to step 2.

Step 2: Snowball

Pay-off your debt with the snowball effect. At this time, I only have one debt and I could pay it off easily. I owe my orthodontist, but for some reason I don’t want to pay it off until my treatment is completed and the expense is less than $200 a month and will be paid off in a few more months.

There are many strategies around paying off debt such as, Avalanche, snowfall, balance transfers, etc. I prefer Dave’s way. Using the Ramsey method you list all your debt (credit cards, student loan, car payments, medical bills, etc. except mortgage payment) in order from smallest to largest.

Include the minimum payment and interest rate. You will start paying off the smallest balance first and minimum payments on the remainder. The only time you will worry about interest rates is when you have two identical balances, then pay-off the higher interest rate one first. Once you pay off the smaller debt, you will add this amount to the next bill and continue in this way until all your debts are gone.

Celebrate! Your debt is gone. Best of all the money you were using to pay these bills will be the money you use to create your step 3.

Snowball example

In the above example the medical bill is the smallest payment. First pay the $185 (and any other money you can pay by saving in other areas). Therefore the credit card and car loan will get the minimum payment.

Once the medical bill is paid off you add that amount to the credit card for a payment now of $214. Continue paying off the credit card until the balance is zero.

Then add that amount to the car payment. You are now paying $714 a month. Soon all your debts will be paid.

Step 3: Emergency Fund

Create a 3-6 month of expense emergency fund. This is for 3-6 months of living expense incase you are suddenly without an income because of loss of job or other major emergencies.

This is the step I am currently on. I do have a plenty of money set aside and we will be okay if either my husband or I lose our jobs, but I am also using this to cover any unexpected house repairs.

Step 4: Retirement

Invest 15% of household income toward retirement. My husband and I work for companies that provide matching retirement funds and we are contributing our maximum allotment. However, if your company doesn’t have a matching fund you need to seek advice on the best investment fund.

We probably do have 15% of our income going to retirement, but we decided that we will want to have a separate retirement fund, as we started contributions later then we should have and will fall short when retirement comes. Plus I would like to retire early due to health issues.

Step 5: College Fund

Save for children’s college fund. Just like in the airplane when they say take care of your oxygen mask first then assist your children, this is the same idea. Make sure you have done steps 1-4 before doing this step. In my case my children are grown and we have all completed our college careers. If you don’t have children or a need to save for college skip this step.

Step 6: Pay off Home

Pay-off your home early: I skipped some other steps to get to this one. I am already making extra payments to my mortgage even before I found Dave Ramsey and the payments were already allotted so I just see them as a part of my mortgage payment.

A home is probably the biggest purchase you will make in your life and will take anywhere between 15 and 30 years to payoff (See Dave Ramsey’s site for information regarding purchasing a home). Therefore, much of your money is tied up in paying off a home.

In our case we had circumstances that forced us into a 30 year fixed loan. This is why I wanted to make extra payments. At the schedule I have us at right now we will be paying off more to the principal then to the interest in less than two years.

I would recommend that you follow Dave Ramsey’s advice, as I’m sure he wouldn’t agree with the way we are doing things, but this works for us.

Step 7: Build Wealth

Build wealth and give. You have no debt; you own your home so now you can do whatever you want. Well not really, but that sounds so good. You still have other bills (Utility, insurance, and of course taxes); don’t forget to continue to pay those. You have developed wonderful skills by now and you know what you can and cannot due with your money.

In part two I will discuss Dave Ramsey further (this is the area where I don’t follow his recommendations) and how to set up your own budget, and ways to save on certain expenses.

Do you budget? Share some of your budgeting success or failures.