One of the recommendations Dave Ramsey gives is to have a weekly meeting with your spouse regarding your financial situation and review your budget. The point of the meeting is to keep both people involved, informed and actively working together on the family finances.
This does present a challenge for a lot of people with a limited amount of time with their spouse. For us, it has been true too. With two small kids, active lives, jobs and church commitments to juggle, there is little time for money meetings! This was the first challenge that came up on my challenge post, so we'll tackle it first.
I'm familiar with this problem and honestly, we haven't had a consistent weekly meeting either. Although, we do understand the purpose and see the value in the communication between spouses, so we've done some "tweeking" of the rules that work for us. Here are some of the ways we've kept each other involved in the decision making process.
-Both of us have access to all our accounts (it's always been that way)
-Both of us have email updates from all of our accounts (for example: alerts of overdrafts, fees, changes being made, transfers taking place, etc.)
-Purchases are communicated. Since I'm the one that handles most of the budget and sorting our categories, my husband is good about letting me know if he uses the debit card for any purchase so I'm aware of the amount being withdrawn from the account. Usually, he has the cash he needs for things, but in the event he needs more gas or is buying something online, he'll use his debit card. We've also given ourselves a buffer in our account for these types of things and to allow for miscalculations and not have an overdraft. If either of us is purchasing something online, we'll forward the email on to each other. It's not about "keeping track" of each other, but because we are following something so closely, we have to make sure the other one knows what's being spent to avoid potential problems.
-Every two weeks after I figure out the budget for the two weeks, I let him know what we had to cut or what amounts are in each category for that time frame. I'll let him know how much we have extra to pay toward debt and usually allow the chance for him to make any changes he'd like to if it's needed. Occasionally when we have the time or a month that has extra 'changes' needing to be discussed we try to sit down and do it together. For example this month, we are calculating some of our Christmas expenses and also needing to save for some large purchases, so we wanted to be on the same page as far as our priorities and how much was a realistic figure for each of those added expenses. So we did our two week budget together.
-We text! We'll text each other updates on bills, accounts, etc. if we aren't able to talk about them in person or if we'd like to ask about a purchase before making it.
-We NEVER make a big purchase without talking to each other. Just this week we had a large financial decision to make regarding some of our retirement accounts. It's something we've been talking about for a while. Since it involved some large amounts of money and significant pros and cons, we weighed them carefully and didn't make a decision on the spot. We talked to a number of trusted people, financial counselors and did some research on all the information we could. Those types of decisions require space to process and for each person to really feel comfortable moving forward in order to prevent future problems of possible blaming or resentment. These talks were never a scheduled meeting time each week, but we were intentional about bringing the topics up and discussing them as long as necessary for each of us to feel our points and opinions were heard, and then we came to a mutual decision.
Hopefully that gives you some ideas of ways to have your money talks even if it's not always on a weekly basis at a scheduled time. To sum it all up, it's about making sure neither person is more in control or more informed then the other. It's about making sure everything is out on the table and both perspectives are being heard. I also think that when you both are on the same page, you're a force working together tackling the same problem and that gives you both the strength you need to move forward in our goals.
Keep on working together!!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
What's your Challenge?
I'd like to hear what your challenges are with saving money. What do you have trouble with? What holds you back from being able to save money either at the grocery store or in other areas of your life? Is your complication a lack of space? or time?
Call me crazy, but I think it would be fun to tackle some of the challenges out there. So, bring it on! ;) Leave a comment with your money saving dilemmas and I'll post any solutions I can come up with to help you out. Others are welcome to come up with ideas too! :) If I can't solve it, I'll admit it, but I'd like to see if we really could come up with some great solutions to common challenges people face.
Call me crazy, but I think it would be fun to tackle some of the challenges out there. So, bring it on! ;) Leave a comment with your money saving dilemmas and I'll post any solutions I can come up with to help you out. Others are welcome to come up with ideas too! :) If I can't solve it, I'll admit it, but I'd like to see if we really could come up with some great solutions to common challenges people face.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Stuffed Shells
Like I mentioned in the previous post, I was making lasagna to freeze and decided since stuffed shells have such a similar list of ingredients, I'd might as well make a pan or two of them too.
Let me tell you a few reasons why I like stuffed shells:
-Cheap, but looks classier then lasagna
-Can be vegetarian and no one will wonder where the meat went! :)
-Easy to make
-Great for company
Here's what I did:
-I took the left over ricotta/egg/seasonings mixture from the lasagna (about 1/2 of the container) and scooped it into the cooked shells.
-Put them in a pan that has a thin layer of marinara on the bottom
-Pour some marinara over the shells and sprinkle with cheese.
-Bake or freeze
That's it! So easy, so cheap, so yummy. It probably cost under $5 for me to make two pans worth. About $2 for the pasta, $1.50 for the ricotta mixture, less then $1 for the marinara and cheese combined.
Helpful tip: Do you ever have a random amount of leftover lasagna noodles that didn't fit in the pan? Here's a tip I learned and LOVE! Cut them into smaller strips, add the ricotta mixture in the middle, roll it up and use them the way you would a manicotti noodle or stuffed shell! I think that's a great idea, plus it's easier then stuffing manicotti! ;)
Let me tell you a few reasons why I like stuffed shells:
-Cheap, but looks classier then lasagna
-Can be vegetarian and no one will wonder where the meat went! :)
-Easy to make
-Great for company
Here's what I did:
-I took the left over ricotta/egg/seasonings mixture from the lasagna (about 1/2 of the container) and scooped it into the cooked shells.
-Put them in a pan that has a thin layer of marinara on the bottom
-Pour some marinara over the shells and sprinkle with cheese.
-Bake or freeze
That's it! So easy, so cheap, so yummy. It probably cost under $5 for me to make two pans worth. About $2 for the pasta, $1.50 for the ricotta mixture, less then $1 for the marinara and cheese combined.
Helpful tip: Do you ever have a random amount of leftover lasagna noodles that didn't fit in the pan? Here's a tip I learned and LOVE! Cut them into smaller strips, add the ricotta mixture in the middle, roll it up and use them the way you would a manicotti noodle or stuffed shell! I think that's a great idea, plus it's easier then stuffing manicotti! ;)
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Fillin' the Freezer
I read some where that a full freezer is a more efficient freezer, so I'm doing my part to be green and fillin' 'er up! ;) Our friend is going hunting this weekend and offered to get us a deer! So it's possible that in the next couple weeks we'll have a whole deer in there! Can't wait for all that meat for a seriously low price!!
Until then, I've been loading it with all sorts of "easy" meals that I can grab and make in a moment's notice and to also save us trips to the store when we are tight on our cash budget. Whenever I think 'frozen dinner' I always think- lasagna. It's a really inexpensive meal if you play it right and it's not any more effort to make 2 then it is to make one.
Lets talk price:
-A box of lasagna noodles is about $1.35 here and they usually make one large pan, so for 2 you're talking about $2.70 for noodles.
-The cheapest red sauce we've found is Hunts and it's $0.88/can, again, you'd probably want 2 if you're making large pans, $1.76
-Ricotta or cottage cheese, depends on what you buy. If you need it to be cheaper, cottage cheese is about $1.89 for the large container and ricotta is around $3.
-Cheese, I buy on sale for around $1.50-1.60/lb and shred it myself. I'd use about 1/2 lb per pan.
-Onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach and any other vegetable you may add will probably run about $1.00-$2.00 depending on the amounts and which you add.
-Meat will be the most expensive item, but it's also an item you can do with less of it your budget doesn't allow for it. I used 1 lb. of hamburger (around $1.60/lb) for 2 pans of lasagna and some stuffed shells. I also added about 1/3 ($0.83) of a link of polish sausage that I cut in really small pieces for a little extra meat and flavor.
The grand total: $13.39 (if you go with the higher price on the veggies & ricotta) for two large pans of lasagna that will likely get you at least 16 servings (8 servings per pan). Add some garlic bread, salad or veggies and you have two dinners for under $15 and that's if you go with the high end! The reality is that you can make even less expensive then that too. You can use even less meat, cut out the pricier veggies like spinach and mushrooms, use cottage cheese and you could be under $10 easily.
Now if you're like our family, we don't eat a large pan each meal and by the time we get to the second half of the pan we're feeling sick of lasagna, so I went to the dollar store and bought 3 disposable pans for $1 and made half size lasagnas for the freezer, so we could thaw the portion we'd actually eat for a meal. Since that's what I did, I actually only made the equivalent of ONE large pan, in two smaller pans, so my total cost was half of the 2 pan total for two meals.
What other meals are easy to freeze? Bring on the ideas!
Until then, I've been loading it with all sorts of "easy" meals that I can grab and make in a moment's notice and to also save us trips to the store when we are tight on our cash budget. Whenever I think 'frozen dinner' I always think- lasagna. It's a really inexpensive meal if you play it right and it's not any more effort to make 2 then it is to make one.
Lets talk price:
-A box of lasagna noodles is about $1.35 here and they usually make one large pan, so for 2 you're talking about $2.70 for noodles.
-The cheapest red sauce we've found is Hunts and it's $0.88/can, again, you'd probably want 2 if you're making large pans, $1.76
-Ricotta or cottage cheese, depends on what you buy. If you need it to be cheaper, cottage cheese is about $1.89 for the large container and ricotta is around $3.
-Cheese, I buy on sale for around $1.50-1.60/lb and shred it myself. I'd use about 1/2 lb per pan.
-Onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach and any other vegetable you may add will probably run about $1.00-$2.00 depending on the amounts and which you add.
-Meat will be the most expensive item, but it's also an item you can do with less of it your budget doesn't allow for it. I used 1 lb. of hamburger (around $1.60/lb) for 2 pans of lasagna and some stuffed shells. I also added about 1/3 ($0.83) of a link of polish sausage that I cut in really small pieces for a little extra meat and flavor.
The grand total: $13.39 (if you go with the higher price on the veggies & ricotta) for two large pans of lasagna that will likely get you at least 16 servings (8 servings per pan). Add some garlic bread, salad or veggies and you have two dinners for under $15 and that's if you go with the high end! The reality is that you can make even less expensive then that too. You can use even less meat, cut out the pricier veggies like spinach and mushrooms, use cottage cheese and you could be under $10 easily.
Now if you're like our family, we don't eat a large pan each meal and by the time we get to the second half of the pan we're feeling sick of lasagna, so I went to the dollar store and bought 3 disposable pans for $1 and made half size lasagnas for the freezer, so we could thaw the portion we'd actually eat for a meal. Since that's what I did, I actually only made the equivalent of ONE large pan, in two smaller pans, so my total cost was half of the 2 pan total for two meals.
What other meals are easy to freeze? Bring on the ideas!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Slightly miscalculated...
I knew that we had to have been close to our first $1,000 mark on our debt pay off plan, but I didn't actually know the exact amount. So, when I posted about making it that far, I knew we had and was excited to reach that milestone. Well a few days later when my payment had gone through, I decided to actually do the math and get the exact number figured out. I had actually failed to keep in mind that our payments, even the ones that aren't extra, are still paying down the principal some too. So to my surprise we had not just barely paid the first thousand, we had actually paid off over $1,600! YAY! Progress-sometimes it feels slow, but either way, it's happening and that's exciting.
Leftover Makeover
Even the least picky of us get sick of eating leftovers, but you also know I'm not one to deal with waste well! I hate throwing things away when they aren't bad. I had a few things that we just weren't feeling like eating the same ol' way again, so I had to get creative. Thankfully it's soup season and that seems to be one of the easiest things to make with leftovers. It could actually be referred to as the "all-random-things-in-the fridge" dinner. :) Maybe not that extreme, but there is something to that, I think! ;)
Anyway, I had cabbage rolls from the ginormous cabbage we got at the farm and I also had a lot of chopped cabbage to still use too. The other left over I had was a pot roast and some of the potatoes and carrots. I looked online (of course!) to see if I could find some recipes that called for some of those same ingredients and found two soup recipes that would work perfectly with what I needed to use. The first was perfect for the cabbage rolls and the left over carrots in the pot roast. I had to add some broth, onions and seasonings and that was about it! :) It had a bit of a sweeter flavor to it.
The second was great for the pot roast. It actually called for a roast and potatoes. So, I chopped it all up into bite size pieces, added the broth, onions, cabbage, a sweet potato and other ingredients it called for too. That soup had a more savory, mustardy flavor. I made both in under 30 minutes since most of the cooking had already been done! Both were good and at least added variation to our leftovers and used ingredients I was needing to use. We had our choice of soup for dinner that night and then I froze the leftover soup for future days, since we'd already been getting tired of cabbage! ;)
What leftover makeovers have you done? I'm always looking for ways to make old things new! :)
Anyway, I had cabbage rolls from the ginormous cabbage we got at the farm and I also had a lot of chopped cabbage to still use too. The other left over I had was a pot roast and some of the potatoes and carrots. I looked online (of course!) to see if I could find some recipes that called for some of those same ingredients and found two soup recipes that would work perfectly with what I needed to use. The first was perfect for the cabbage rolls and the left over carrots in the pot roast. I had to add some broth, onions and seasonings and that was about it! :) It had a bit of a sweeter flavor to it.
The second was great for the pot roast. It actually called for a roast and potatoes. So, I chopped it all up into bite size pieces, added the broth, onions, cabbage, a sweet potato and other ingredients it called for too. That soup had a more savory, mustardy flavor. I made both in under 30 minutes since most of the cooking had already been done! Both were good and at least added variation to our leftovers and used ingredients I was needing to use. We had our choice of soup for dinner that night and then I froze the leftover soup for future days, since we'd already been getting tired of cabbage! ;)
What leftover makeovers have you done? I'm always looking for ways to make old things new! :)
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Halloween for $5 or less!
This year we are doing all we can to keep Halloween within the budget, which is really small! Ever since last year I've known what I want the kids to be this year. (I only knew then, b/c I didn't pull it together in time for it to be their costumes last year, so it was postponed! ;)). Anyway, my daughter is going to be a cowgirl (super easy and cheap!) and my son is going to be a cow (because it's cute for them to "go together").
I found the cow costume on Craigslist for $5, in great shape and all I'll have to do is add the socks/shoes and maybe mittens or socks on his hands to round out the outfit. I think I'll skip the facial makeup since I know that'll just end up all over my clothes at his age!
My mom actually found my daughter's outfit at a thrift store and put all the pieces together for about $4.75! Great part is that it's a cute little skirt, jean jacket and solid colored shirt that she'll be able to wear throughout the winter too. She'll be wearing my brother's cowboy boots from when he was kid and she already had a cowgirl hat she got for free at the fair. Add some braids, a bandana (which we had), maybe a little makeup on her cheeks and she'll be set to go.
I can't wait to see them all dressed up together. Best part is that neither outfit broke the bank! :)
I found the cow costume on Craigslist for $5, in great shape and all I'll have to do is add the socks/shoes and maybe mittens or socks on his hands to round out the outfit. I think I'll skip the facial makeup since I know that'll just end up all over my clothes at his age!
My mom actually found my daughter's outfit at a thrift store and put all the pieces together for about $4.75! Great part is that it's a cute little skirt, jean jacket and solid colored shirt that she'll be able to wear throughout the winter too. She'll be wearing my brother's cowboy boots from when he was kid and she already had a cowgirl hat she got for free at the fair. Add some braids, a bandana (which we had), maybe a little makeup on her cheeks and she'll be set to go.
I can't wait to see them all dressed up together. Best part is that neither outfit broke the bank! :)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Baking Cookies
Isn't that one of the simplest pleasures in life? It was especially enjoyable yesterday as I got to spend some one-on-one time with my daughter. Having the pre-measured bags in the pantry that I had prepared on my bulk baking day was really helpful! It made for a much simpler baking time and less messy too! It was great to have things in bags that a toddler could just dump into the bowl and keep the process moving along much quicker too. So we could get to the really important part--of eating them--sooner! :)
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