Penny Pinching Family

I am SO excited!

2012-11-09T16:02:00.003-05:00

Whew. Break over. Blogging (almost) every day for 31 days kind of got the best of me. I was afraid I would run out of things to talk about! Onward and upward, I say.

I am so excited. Do you know why? Do ya? DO YA? No, of course you don't. I am SO excited because in just 14 short days, my husband and I are going on a DATE. . . . what? Not that exciting? It is if you haven't left the teeny tiny town you live in for close to three months! For real peeps, I go to work and then I drive home. Five days a week. On the weekends I sometimes drive to the library or the park. And then I drive home. We haven't gone anywhere since the first of September, with the exception of a VERY short trip to pick up our couch. We didn't even eat out.

We are going Christmas shopping, and I am so very very excited. We're using a gift card my boss gave me last year and eating somewhere super fancy. Le Olive Jardin. Yep. Ok, it's just The Olive Garden, but daaaaaaaaamn they've got some good breadsticks, eh? We might even go to the movies. I know, you're all green with envy. I have a coupon!

We're cutting our Christmas purchases way back this year. We decided to buy #1 a DSi, but only after he saved up half of it. #2 is getting a play kitchen that #1 got for his 3rd birthday and hasn't played with in two years. It's been collecting cobwebs in the shed, and it's getting a buff and shine before making its way under the tree. We're getting her a few new pots and pans, and I'm making some food to go along with it (I have this idea for a felt pizza . . . we'll see).

I'm doing homemade gifts for just about everyone else. We're doing jelly, candy, breads, and other assorted goodies for extended family members. I have numerous ideas for other gifts, and we'll see how many I actually finish. Check back later on for details!

--Katie

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 31: The End!

2012-10-31T11:02:00.001-04:00

Well, today is the last day of my first 31 Days Challenge. I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to show you all, but we accomplished a lot in our lives! And I hope I've showed you a little something along the way. I hope you'll stay with me as we continue on this journey. I've still got a lot left to learn, and hopefully you can continue to learn through our mistakes and victories. Paying our bills on time is one of the most gratifying things I have ever encountered. Losing 12 pounds also didn't suck! I'm not done, this blog isn't done, and I hope you'll keep following along!

I hope every has a fantastic Halloween, no matter how your family celebrates. We'll be taking Captain American and Ms. Kitty out on the town, so everyone keep your fingers crossed for no rain!

This 31 Days Challenge was . . . well . . . challenging. Not only do I work full time, I'm a full time mom, wife, and student, so keeping up with posting everyday just wasn't in the cards for me. I didn't want to prepare anything in advance, because I wanted you to live it right along with us. Changing our spending habits was and will remain to be not easy. It's a daily struggle to go from eating out 4 or more times a week, to eating at home. But I am thrilled with the progress we've made so far.

I hope you'll stick around!
--Kate

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 29: Percentages

2012-10-29T09:24:00.001-04:00

I was watching my usual Financial marathon yesterday, including one DVRed episode of the Suze Orman Show, and two episodes of Till Debt do us Part. The host of TDDUP was talking about her "Life Pie", and I jotted down some quick notes because I thought it was very interesting. Here's Gail's Life Pie:

According to Gail, this is where your money should be going every month. I wanted to see how our finances matched up with what Gail said we should do. I sat down this morning to go through our budgeted amounts, and was kind of at a loss of where to start. I Googled her Life Pie, and guess what I found? A website that will do it for me! Shut the front door!

http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources/interactive_budget_worksheet.html

I plugged in our information, and was slightly surprised that we were spending 165% of our income, and that our housing alone was 65% of our income. Say whhaaaaaaat? And then I figured out that was because I only put it half of our income. Doy!

I entered in all our information, and this is what the website told me:

Our total housing costs were $789, or 15.36%. It should be 35%.
Our total transportation cost was $679, or 13.22%. It should be 15%.
Our total life cost was $1,241, or 24.16%. It should be 25%.
Our total debt cost was $150, or 2.92%. It should be 15%.
Our total savings was $567, or 11.05%. It should be 10%.
We're spending 66.72% of our income.

There are a few reasons this makes me feel better. First, we're spending within our means, finally. Second, I was concerned that our house was too expensive, and that's the reason we weren't getting ahead. Seeing that we are way under our housing costs for the month is fantastic. It also lets me know that I am on the right track, and where I should focus my efforts. I have decided to make it a goal for November to pay off a majority of our debt.

Medical Bill #1: $390
Medical Bill #2: $359
Medical Bill #3: $450
Collection: $1,000
Mom: $1,000

I'll be honest, I haven't been able to make a payment on any of these bills in quite some time, with the exception of a $50 check I wrote to my mom last Friday. I've been more concerned with paying my regular bills on time. Two of those bills are already in collections, and another one is dangerously close to going there. I'm hoping to combine Medical Bills 1 and 2 together and make one monthly payment on them. Until I get #3 paid off, we can't go to the dentist. #4 has already gone to collections and "dinged" my husband's credit score, so I'm not in as much of a hurry to pay that off. I also want to prove to my mother that we're being responsible now, so that includes monthly payments to her as well. I've rearranged our November budget a bit to accommodate for more spending on debt, and I'll keep you updated on how it's going.

I hope you'll use the website above to see how you're doing!

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 26: Planning

2012-10-26T09:28:00.003-04:00

This week, I've been putting together our budget, bills, and menu plan for November. It's kind of weird how much I look forward to doing this every month! The first thing I do is put together our expected bills for November, including an estimate of how much they'll be and when they are due. I keep this as a working Microsoft Word document. When I pay one bill, I move it down on the document to the December expenses, that way I'm not having to go back through my register to figure out when bills are due. Here is our November estimated expenses:

November Bills
11/1     Mortgage         $618.54
11/1     A Paycheck     $400
11/1     A Fuel             $50
11/1     K Fuel             $30
11/2     K Paycheck     $950
11/2     Savings            $240
11/2     Daycare           $112
11/5     Student Loan $62.74
11/6     Satellite           $54.56
11/7     Groceries         $100
11/8     A Paycheck     $400
11/8     A Fuel             $50
11/8     K Fuel             $30
11/9     Daycare           $115
11/10   Internet            $54.98
11/13   Car Insurance  $94.87
11/14   Groceries         $100
11/15   A Paycheck     $400
11/15   A Fuel             $50
11/15   K Fuel             $30
11/16   Student Loan $59.76
11/16   Daycare           $115
11/16   K Paycheck     $950
11/16   Savings           $240
11/16   Car Payment   $283.61
11/21   Groceries         $100
11/22   Utilities           $180
11/22   A Paycheck     $400
11/22   A Fuel             $50
11/22   K Fuel             $30
11/22   Mom                $50
11/23   Daycare           $112
11/24   Gas                  $40
11/27   Cell phone       $103
11/28   Groceries         $100
11/29   Netflix             $17
11/29   A Paycheck     $400
11/29   A Fuel             $50
11/29   K Fuel             $30
11/30   Daycare           $115
11/30   K Paycheck     $950
11/30   Savings           $240

Also at the top of the page I keep a running balance so I know if I'll have to shift how much we spend on groceries or gas. I also keep track of how much I have to pay daycare every week on this document. It's always $100 a week for #2 (unless there's a no-pay-day), but #1's bill changes, depending on how often he gets off the bus there.

After I do our expenses, I create a new monthly budget on Microsoft Excel. Items change month-to-month, depending on how many weeks are in the month. For example, I get paid three times in November, and A gets paid five times in November, which means we'll put gas in our vehicles five times, versus the four we normally have. Make since? This makes our gas budget for the month go up from our gas budget for October.

I'm still working on our menu plan for November. We still have a little meat left, but I need to do an inventory this weekend to see what we have. Also, a friend I have at work has a freezer full of meat that she's not eating, so she's offered it to us. She bought a half a cow last year, then all her kids moved out of her house!

In almost every other aspect of my life, I have always been a planner. Finances were always a place I feel short on that planning aspect. Planning out the month in advance lets us know that we're still not completely on track, because we still can't afford to pay our car payment when it's due. It shows what weeks we'll fall short on, and where we can afford to take some wiggle room, especially for Christmas. This is the first month in a long time that I'll be able to pay our mortgage payment on the due date. That feels pretty darn good!!

So, what do you do to plan out the month in advance? Have you adopted a budget or menu planning for November? How about a Christmas spending limit?

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 25: Bourbon Chicken

2012-10-25T10:24:00.000-04:00

I had been craving bourbon chicken from the Chinese food place in the mall for a very long time, and by Monday I wanted it so bad I was coming up with excuses to go to the mall an hour away from our house. Instead of driving 120 miles for chicken, I decided to make my own. I had everything I needed in the house already with the exception of apple cider vinegar, so I decided Monday night was the night.

I fed the kiddos some grilled cheese and soup, because I wasn't going to fight with them to eat something I didn't think they would like. #1 had tried bourbon chicken before and didn't care for it, and I'm not in the habit of making things for dinner I know my kids won't enjoy.

Ingredients:
3 - 5 Chicken breasts
1 garlic clove, or a sprinkling of garlic powder
1/4 tsp ginger (I used ground ginger)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 c. apple juice
1/4 c. light brown sugar
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. soy sauce

I used the frozen boneless skinless flavorless chicken that comes in the bags for this particular meal. Fancy, I know. I had five breasts left, and I cut them into bite size pieces. In a bowl, I added all the ingredients. I didn't use a whole garlic clove because I was afraid it would burn, so I just used a sprinkling of garlic seasoning. I also found out that I didn't have any crushed red pepper flakes, so I just used a shake of hot sauce. I whisked the ingredients together, then marinated the chicken in it for about 30 minutes. You could also do that in the morning and marinate it all day, but the chicken wasn't thawed in the morning, and my mornings are crazy enough, thank-you-very-much.

I took the chicken out of the marinade and put it into a hot skillet with vegetable oil. I browned the chicken, then added the marinade. At first I was concerned because the chicken was an odd color and the marinade was just bubbling, but then it started to thicken and reduce, and the chicken slowly started to turn the right color! I had it on the stove top for about 20 minutes, and it looked like this:

I used too much oil in the pan as you can tell by the picture. The brown sugar caramelized on the chicken and gave it the color I associate with bourbon chicken. We cooked some white rice to go with it. I'll be honest, I was expecting to throw this out and have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner. Hence my shock when it ended up being pretty gosh darn good. Good as the mall's chicken? Is anything better than the mall's chicken? But it satisfied my craving. Plus, it gives me something else to make with the boneless chicken breasts!

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 24: Tortillas

2012-10-24T11:21:00.000-04:00

Homemade flour tortillas . . . if you are buying the stuff in a package at the grocery store, you just don't know what you're missing! It's easy. It's cheap. And it's delicious. The next Taco Tuesday, I dare you to make your own tortillas!

Ingredients:

3 and 1/2 c. AP flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
7 tbsp vegetable shortening or vegetable oil (I used shortening)
1 cup very hot water

Mix first four ingredients together into a bowl. Pour the hot water slowly over the mixture while using your hand to mix it together. Yes, this part hurt a little, but only for a second.

Knead the mixture for three minutes in the bowl once the water has been added, forming into a giant ball.

Cover the dough and let it sit for 15 minutes. Once 15 minutes are up, separate the dough into small portions. I started out using my cookie scoop, but switched to just grabbing small sections of a dough. Roll them into balls and cover until ready to use them.

At this point, I started browning the taco meat. I add water to my taco meat once it's cooked to create a sauce, and I cooked the tortillas while I was waiting for the water to cook off. See my taco recipe here!

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into the shape of an oval. The first tortilla I made was too thick. This will make between 15 and 20 tortillas, so use this opportunity to experiment with the thickness of the tortilla. For us, it was the right thickness when we could see the pattern of our counter top through the dough.

To roll it out, first roll into an oval shape, turn the dough 45 degrees, and repeat until whatever shape you want it to be.

Start rolling it into an oval . . .

Turn 45 degrees, and roll again.

Tortillas are not all supposed to be the same size and shape! I made three tortillas that were smaller for the kiddos. Husband and I developed an assembly line for this part. He would roll the tortilla, then I'd cook it while he was rolling another one. I cooked one tortilla at a time in a hot non-stick skillet.

Put your tortilla into your pan. After about 5 to 7 seconds, air bubbles will start to form.

Bubbles! Bubbles! My bubbles.

Flip the tortilla once you see the bubbles. Once flipped, the tortilla will fill with air. Use your spatula to flatten it as much as you can.

After 10 seconds or so, check the bottom of your tortilla. Are there brown marks on it? Flip it over! Cook for another couple of seconds to get brown spots on the other side, then remove it from the heat. It took me less time to cook the tortilla than it did to roll out the next one to cook!

Mmmmm . . . delicious.

This made about 17 tortillas for us. We ate seven tortillas for dinner, then my husband ate another taco that night as a midnight snack. The tortillas have flavor, so you can use them for more than just tacos! I had a wrap on one the next day, Piglet 1 had a "pizza shell" for lunch, and my husband put peanut butter and jelly on them the next day. I don't think we'll ever go back to buying tortillas in the bag. Seriously - sooooo good! Try it!

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 23: Last week in review

2012-10-23T09:09:00.004-04:00

I lied! The homemade tortilla tutorial will be tomorrow's post. In flipping through my pictures, I realized I didn't take any pictures of the actual tacos done, but since we're making them again tonight (very excited!), I'll take some more pictures so you can see the finished product.

I do this thing where I audit my spending at the end of every week. For me, a week runs from Sunday to Saturday, just for simplicity sake. This is an audit of our spending from October 14 - October 20.

Debit	-21.22	Groceries - IGA	10/14/2012	354.19
Debit	-49.11	Fuel - A	10/14/2012	305.08
Auto	-94.87	Car Insurance	10/15/2012	210.21
Debit	-1.69	Snacks	10/15/2012	208.52
Auto	-59.76	Student Loan - A	10/16/2012	148.76
Debit	-1.69	Snacks	10/15/2012	147.07
1099	-40.00	Babysitting	10/15/2012	107.07
Debit	-32.44	Fuel - Me	10/17/2012	74.63
Debit	-1.69	Snacks	10/17/2012	72.94
Deposit	331.47	Paycheck - A	10/18/2012	404.41
Debit	-33.69	Groceries - Walmart	10/18/2012	370.72
Debit	-1.79	Groceries - D&R (AP Flour)	10/18/2012	368.93
Debit	-6.82	Groceries - IGA	10/18/2012	362.11
Debit	-5.00	Groceries - Family Express (Milk)	10/18/2012	357.11
Debit	-3.21	Eating out - Pizza Hut	10/18/2012	353.90
Debit	-4.71	Eating out - McDonalds	10/18/2012	349.19
Auto	-317.61	Car Payment	10/18/2012	31.58
Deposit	973.97	Paycheck - Me	10/19/2012	1005.55
Auto	-200.00	First Federal	10/19/2012	805.55
Auto	-40.00	Account #2	10/19/2012	765.55
Debit	-16.77	Eating out - Pizza Hut	10/19/2012	748.78
Debit	-24.60	Diapers	10/20/2012	724.18
Debit	-29.28	Joann Fabrics - Halloween	10/20/2012	694.90
Debit	-11.24	Lowe's (Dryer)	10/20/2012	683.66
Debit	-191.89	Couch	10/20/2012	491.77
Debit	-0.95	Snacks	10/20/2012	490.82
Debit	-25.00	Fuel - Me	10/20/2012	465.82
Debit	-6.93	Ace (Dryer)	10/20/2012	458.89
Debit	-14.96	Halloween	10/20/2012	443.93
1100	-29.00	Chinese Food	10/20/2012	414.93
Deposit	29.00	Deposit for Chinese Food	10/20/2012	443.93

Our income for the week was $1305.44, which was under for what I had budgeted. My husband came home early from work sick on day, cutting his paycheck by about $70. Not good!

We spent $68.52 on groceries, $31.48 under budget. Woohoo!

We reached our budgeted amount for snacks this week. In total, we spent $6.02. This was mainly because of the baseball games I was watching every night. $1.69 will buy my husband and I two 32 oz. sodas. OR we could buy a 2 liter for $1. Doy!

We have also reached our budgeted amount for eating out for October. We bought pizza one night, and then ate out one other time. We also purchased Chinese food, but we were reimbursed for that in cash. Free meal!

I also forgot to pay our daycare bill that week. Duh! So two checks will be on the next week's register.

Our car payment was $34 more this month because we had previously made two late payments (after the 10 day grace period), and had to pay late fees. I love throwing money away!

Income: $1,305.44
Expenses: $1236.92

So it wasn't a super successful week, but it wasn't a fail either! Auditing our expenses really helps me to see where we're at with our money, and how we can do better. I hope you'll try it with your own spending!

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 22: Money is still tight

2012-10-22T10:34:00.001-04:00

My husband and I have been talking lately about how much we're saving. $240 of my paycheck is now direct deposited into our savings account, for a total of $480 per month. I've been looking around online, and the majority of the websites I have found encourage people to put 10% of their paycheck in the savings account, but we're closer to about 13%. So are we saving too much?

Even though we've cut eating out by a big margin, as well as other extra items, we're still coming in way under what I would like this month. Trying to save up a month's worth of expenses in our checking account is proving to be more difficult than I thought. At the end of this month we should only have $100 left over. That's less than we had leftover in September, which means we've spent all the money we made in October and then some. Not cool.

Extra expenses we've had so far this month:

Extra box of diapers - $20
Supplies to install an electric dyer - $18
Halloween - $54
Couch - $192

In looking ahead to November, I already know that we will not be able to make our car payment on time (again). I also know that Christmas is coming up, and even though we're scaling way back, there will still be extra expenses tied to that. I'm wondering if we should cut the amount of money we're saving for the time being until we have a bit more in our checking account. But then I'm scared that if it's in there, we'll spend it just like we always used to do!

I guess right now I'm feeling discouraged. It seems like we're doing everything right, but there's still not enough money left at the end of the month. My husband also told me this weekend that instead of getting overtime like we had expected, there's talk about cutting his hours at the beginning of next year. Aaarrrggghhh!!!

I'm sorry today's post is kind of a downer! Tomorrow I'll show you how to make handmade tortillas. Yum!

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 21: Cookies

2012-10-21T20:49:00.001-04:00

Hello, folks. Thanks so much for sticking with me these past few days. There has been a "sinus thing" going around the hospital where I work, and it is kicking my booty! I am so ready for this to icky-ness to be over.

Today we picked up the couch that has been sitting at the furniture store for almost a month. We were finally able to save up enough money to pay it off, but that of course means that our savings account is pretty much empty . . . again. Suck-o.

Anyway, remember the pumpkin pie I made last weekend? It was delicious! I had about a cup of pumpkin puree left, and I was scouring my recipes to try to find one that only called for 1 cup of puree. Another issue is that our grocery budget for the week has been spent, so whatever I made, I had to have all the ingredients already in our pantry.

The daycare where the kiddos attend was having a "raise the roof" party on Friday, and I had planned to make chocolate chip cookies for the volunteers, but then I came down with the plague and couldn't deliver. So what's a girl to do? Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
3 cups AP flour
2 tsps baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 bag milk chocolate chips, or between 12 and 14 ounces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat the butter until smooth, then add both kinds of sugar. Mix until fully incorporated and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time, then add vanilla and pumpkin puree. Action shot!

I stopped the mixer every so often to scrap the bottom and sides of the bowl. Use your best judgement! In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

Add to mixing bowl slowly, less ye make giant mess. Try not to eat the dough at this point. It will smell ah-mazing.

Once incorporated, stir in your chocolate chips. Scoop the cookies on your greased up cookie sheets, or cookie sheets with parchment paper on them. This will make a crap-ton of cookies. How much is a crap-ton? About 54 cookies. And I made mine pretty large.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until yummy-golden brown around the edges. Cool for a minute or two on the cookie sheet before moving to your wire rack to let cool the rest of the way. The pumpkin and additional spices does not overpower the taste of the cookies. They really are delicious! I hope you'll try them!

Thanks for hanging in there with me the past few days. Hopefully the plague has passed on! I've got plenty more stuff coming up in the next few days, including the kiddos' Halloween costumes, and some crafts I'll be working on tomorrow night if the Cardinals lose tonight and they go to Game 7. I'm off to watch the rest of the sad sad game they've been playing so far tonight.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 18: Sick Day

2012-10-18T08:06:00.001-04:00

Hello. My name is Kate. And I am taking today off. I haven't felt good the past few days, and my daughter is sick, so her and I are going to hang around in our pajamas, sleep when we want, and eat chicken noodle soup.

I just wanted to share my first name with you all. It's not actually Penny. Surprise!

Back to bed I go.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 17: Pumpkin Pie

2012-10-17T09:01:00.001-04:00

Perhaps I've told you, I love autumn. Christmas is my favorite holiday, but autumn is my favorite season. I look forward to it every year, but it's so short, crammed in between 90 degree weather and snow. It never seems to last as long as I want. It doesn't help that we decorate for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving, either.

On Sunday, I did something that I have never done before. I made a homemade pumpkin pie! It didn't turn out perfect, but who really cares? It was (mostly) delicious, and not that scary to make. Mind you, before this I had never so much as made my own pie crust. So making my own pie crust and homemade pumpkin goodness to go inside seemed like a daunting task. I'm here to tell you that it isn't. My husband purchased two pie pumpkins a few weeks ago for $.50 a piece. That's much cheaper that the pumpkin in the can, and I'm pretty sure I ended up with more pumpkin than what I would get in the can! Plus, I know there are no preservatives, and I saw the pumpkin that the puree came from.

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 and 1/4 cups AP flour
2 tsps sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup really really super duper cold butter (that's 1 stick), diced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Flour for rolling the dough

Pumpkin Filling Goodness of Epic Proportions:
2 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten (or forget to do this part, and just mess 'em up a bit when they're in the bowl)
1 and 1/4 cup half and half or whipping cream (I used whipping cream)
1 and 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp freshly found nutmeg

So, the first thing you'll need to do is cook your pumpkin. When Piglet 2 was just a wee tot, I decided to make our own baby food. It really wasn't that hard, and I enjoyed doing it. Last autumn when the pumpkins were on sale, we would use those because they were so inexpensive. I cooked the pumpkin the same way we cooked her squash and pumpkins last year. Start with a sharp knife, a cutting board, your compost bucket, and (of course) your pumpkin.

Cut the top off your pumpkin like you would for a jack-o-lanter, then cut your pumpkin in half. Next, you'll need to scrap out all the seeds and other "bits" not suitable for pie. Have a cutie pretend to help you, then abandon you because it's too "goopy". Leaving sharp knives around where you child can easily cut their fingers off is optional. I wanted to do something with the pumpkin seeds, but . . . well, I didn't. Maybe we'll grow pumpkins in our compost pile!

Once the pumpkin guts have been scooped, lay them face down in a baking dish with about half an inch of water in it.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until a knife inserted into it goes in smooth. Also, ignore the dirty stove top of the blogger and just focus on the pretty orange color of the pumpkin.

From experience: while waiting for the pumpkin to cool so you'll still have finger prints after the pie is made, take the pumpkin out of the water. It will absorb the water if you let it stay in the pan. Once it's cooled down enough for you to touch it without regretting the day you were born, peel the inside goodness away from the outside not-so-goodness, add to your food processor, and pulse until it's this consistency, about 12 - 15 times:

For this recipe, you'll need about 2 cups of pumpkin. As you can see, one whole pumpkin gives about three cups. Hmmm . . . I wonder what I'll do with the leftover cup of pumpkin puree. Oh wait, that post is coming up soon. Freeze the leftover puree into zip lock bags in one cup increments. You can keep it in the freezer for ~~years~~ three months. I swear I don't still have frozen baby food in my freezer from 2011. *Cough*

Now on to the pie crust! I've watched Ina Garten make many a pie crust in her food processor and it seems so easy. So that's how I made mine. And I called her up to tell her how great it turned out, and how excited I was that I finally did it after all those times she explained it to me. *Silence.* Am I the only one who pretends Food Network chefs are talking to me?

The first thing I did when making my pie crust was to cut my 1 stick of butter. I diced it, then put it in a bowl and into the freezer while I got everything else together for the dough. If Ina taught me anything, it's that the butter needs to be cold.

Add your flour, sugar, and salt to the food process, and pulse until combined. Add the butter and pulse until it looks something like this:

Then add your egg and pulse until combined, but not formed into a dough ball yet. I turned it out onto my floured bar and brought it together by hand. Add more water if needed, but make sure you really work it for a while. I didn't have to add anything to mine. Form it into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and REFRIGERATE at least one hour. Do not try to do it quicker by putting it into the freezer. Because then it will crack and you'll have to piece together your pie in the pan and your husband will make fun of you. I didn't have plastic wrap, so I used a zip lock bag.

After it's thoroughly chilled, start rolling it our on a floured service. You want it to be about 12 circle and 1/8 of an inch thick.

Then transfer it to your pie pan. I did not grease my pie pan, and everything worked out fine. I did freeze my pie crust, and it kind of turned into a hot mess.

See? Once your have your dough in the pan, freeze it for 30 minutes. The recipe I was following for the dough told me to "blind bake" my pie crust by putting aluminum foil over it with beans inside. I don't like beans. I don't have beans in my house. So instead I poked the H E double hockey sticks out of it with a fork and hoped for the best. Guess what? Turned out juuuuuust fine. I added aluminum foil to the top, and put it in a 400 degree preheated oven for 20 minutes, then removed the aluminum foil and cook until golden brown, about another 10 minutes. Cool the pie on a rack and lower your temperature to 350 degrees.

Once the pie crust was done, I started working on the pumpkin filling goodness. Mix together the pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, half-and-half/heavy whipping cream, spices and salt until smooth. Pour the filling into the crust and bake until the pie is set, which ended up being about 80 minutes for me.

Add homemade whipped cream if your heart so desires. Just take two cups of the heavy whipping cream and whisk it by hand or with a mixer until it forms stiff peaks. Once it's almost there, add two or three tablespoons of confectioner's sugar and a splash of vanilla. Super easy to do, and the leftovers are delicious in your coffee the next day. The crust looks darker than it actually was, but it was a little too dark for my liking.

Here's what I'll change the next time I do it:

I will not prebake the crust. A lady in my office is a great baker, and she said because the pie takes so long to cook, there's no need to preback the crust. It did get a little browner than I would have liked, but it was good nonetheless.
I will use half lard, half butter for the next pie crust. The same baking guru told me there were two reasons my dough cracked horrible - either because I froze it for half the time, or because the crust was too "rich". She says she always used half lard, half butter, and her crusts turn out amazing (I know from experience). I happen to have a large tub 'o lard in my fridge, and will do this next time.
I will not let the pumpkins sit in the water while it cools. It should have only taken about 60 minutes for the pie to bake, but because of the added water, it took a little while longer.
I will wait for the pumpkin to cool before I touch it. I will wait for the pumpkin to cool before I touch it. I WILL wait for the pumpkin to cool before I touch it. I'll probably not wait for the pumpkin to cool before I touch it, and will end up with a big blister on my index finger again.
I will find something to do with the insides of the pumpkin that does not involve roasting pumpkin seeds, because I hate roasted pumpkin seeds. Any ideas?

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 16: Past vs. Present

2012-10-16T10:06:00.001-04:00

This marks the halfway point for this 31 Days journey, and the 46th day that our family and I changed our ways for the better. We are in such a better place today than we were on August 31st.

So, I wanted to show you exactly was has changed between August 16 and October 16. Here is our spending from August 1 - August 16, and October 1 - October 16.

Item:	August:	October:
Groceries	$383.69	$88.96
Gas	$254.39	$160
Eating Out	$207.78	$16.24
Bills	$868.95	$1216.30
Snacks	$69.25	$7.21
Shopping	$343.36	$9.92
Saving	$31.49	$200

Total	$2158.91	$1698.63

Groceries:
I have no idea how we spent that much money in groceries in the first 16 days of August, especially considering how much we also spent eating out. This is the result of not properly planning our meals, not having a budget, and not having a shopping list! We made 17 trips to the grocery store in August, meaning I was having my husband buy food that we needed for dinner that night, versus either using what we already had in the house, or having him shop once a week. We've made nine trips to the grocery store so far in October, but that's mostly trips for just milk or just bread (yes, I'm slacking on the homemade bread) because we go through those pretty quickly.
Average cost per day in August:    $23.98
Average cost per day in October:   $ 5.56

Gas:
We made one trip about 60 miles south, and another trip about 120 miles south during this time in August, which is why our gas amount was so high. That's an extra 360 miles on the mini-van and in the gas tank.
Average cost per day in August:    $15.90
Average cost per day in October:   $10.00

Eating Out:
Again, how did we spend this much eating out and groceries? On more than one occasion, we ate out for lunch and dinner!
Average cost per day in August:    $12.99
Average cost per day in October:   $ 1.02

Bills:
In August, our daycare weekly tuition was $168, and that was reduced to $115 in October due to our son starting kindergarten. August's bill amount didn't include our mortgage payment. This is how messed up our priorities were! The only bills I had paid at this time in August were one previous month of Pen's student loan, another payment on another of his student loans, the utilities payment from the previous month, out satellite bill (comes out automatically), two weeks of daycare, and our car insurance (again, comes out automatically). So far this month, I've paid our mortgage, 2 weeks of daycare, both of Pen's student loan payments, out satellite payment, and our car insurance.
Average cost per day in August:    $54.31
Average cost per day in October:   $76.02

Snacks:
*Sigh* Again, this is money spent at gas stations and convenience stores on little stuff that added up! What a complete waste of money.
Average cost per day in August:    $ 4.33
Average cost per day in October:   $   .45

Shopping:
This includes a $134 trip to Target and a $102 shopping spree at Fashion Bug, along with useless other crap. We went away for a weekend, and I forgot to pack shirts for me, which happens often. My husband says I do this subconsciously so that I have an excuse to go shopping, and I think he's right. October's shopping is for Halloween costumes.
Average cost per day in August:    $21.46
Average cost per day in October:   $    .62

Savings:
Sure, money went into our savings account, but it also came right back out. Just a reminder, we save $400 per month. $200 comes out of each of my paychecks and goes right into a separate account. Previously, we would have to withdraw all or a portion of that $200 so we wouldn't be overdrawn on our main checking account.
Average cost per day in August:   $ 1.98
Average cost per day in October:   $12.50

Total Average cost per day in August:    $134.95
Total Average cost per day in October:   $106.17

Sure, our total average cost per day wasn't all that different, but look at where the majority of our money was going! On food, we were spending an average of $41.30 per day in August! Now we've got that down to $7.03. What a difference! I am so thrilled with our progress. And by doing little stuff like this, it shows me that the changes we are making are really working. Plus, I'm 8 pounds lighter than I was on September 1st!

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 15: Everyday Ways to Save

2012-10-15T11:52:00.000-04:00

We can all do a little bit everyday to help us save money. Small amounts add up to huge amounts (like $117.14 spent on soda and candy bars at the gas station). The typical breakfast I would eat at work would cost me $1.49, five days a week.

$7.45 a week.
$34.27 a month.
$411.24 a year.
$2,056.20 for most of the time I have worked here.

See how it escalates? By changing little things we do every day (and making note of those changes), it can help us reach out goals much faster. So now, instead of buying my bagel with cream cheese and a carton of milk at work, I bring bread and a jar of peanut butter from home. I buy a half gallon of milk to keep in the refrigerator, or I just drink water (better for us anyway!).

We all know the financial benefits of eating at home versus eating out. Spending $7 per day at lunch is a waste of money. Buying a $4 cup of coffee when you can make it at home is a waste of money. These are habits that we must break. I'm not saying it's never okay to eat out for lunch or buy a cup of fancy coffee, but these are things that we should be rewarding ourselves with for a job well done, not a benefit of waking up in the morning.

Pen and I have set short term goals for ourselves. When we reach those goals, we reward ourselves with things we should have always viewed as "treats". For example, we set a short term goal of saving up $800 to pay off the coach that's sitting in the furniture store. Well, this Friday we will have done just that. And to reward ourselves? We're stopping by our favorite Chinese restaurant on the way home and picking up some take out. It generally costs us $25 for two entrees and an appetizer (my mouth is watering just thinking about it . . . ), but the point is, we reached a short-term goal and we're rewarding ourselves with something we just felt entitled to previously.

Since the $800 will clean out our savings account, our next short term goal is to replenish it, and then some. Once we have $1,000 in our savings account, we'll pick something else to treat ourselves with. It won't always be food. Other rewards may be a trip away with just Pen and I (something we haven't done in 4 years!), a trip to an amusement park, etc. It should take us about 2 1/2 months to save up $1,000 (we save $400 per month). Once that goal is met, we'll decide on something special to do.

There are everyday ways that we can save money, which will allow us to reach the $1,000 mark a little faster.

Gas:

Americans spend a ton on gas. The average American spends $2,000 a year to fill up their tank, according to a Huffington Post article I read back in March. That's $4,000 for our household. By driving less, we're saving big bucks. Last month we spent $257 on gas, $167 for Pen's car (his drive to work is about 25 minutes, so he uses more gas), and $90 for mine (mini-van). However, that was not filling up our tanks. I only budget $50 per week for Pen's car, and $30 for mine. Yes, I know during the winter our tanks should be full. So . . . driving less will help save.
Turning off the engine instead of idling.
Warming up the engine before driving (this doesn't apply to newer cars I hear though).
Opening up the windows instead of running the AC if driving in town.
Driving 55 instead of 65 on the highway.
Getting rid of unnecessary weight in your car (like the bookshelf that has been banging around in the back of my van for the past month).
Not tailgating.
Keeping tires inflated to the proper pressure.
Walk or ride bikes when you can.

Food:

Bring your breakfast and lunch instead of buying it.
Making enough dinner for leftovers for lunch the rest of the week
Ditching frozen, prepared meals in favor of not frozen, prepared meals (macaroni and cheese in the box, frozen lasagna or other frozen meals, garlic bread, etc.)
Eating what you have (how many moldy strawberries have I thrown away in my lifetime?!)

Electricity:

Turning off the flippin' lights when you leave a room
Keep your furnace down to 65 and your AC up to 75
Use a surge protector to power down your TV and gaming consoles (we don't do this for our TV and DVR because if you unplug your DVR, your shows won't record, and I don't think I can live with Dr. Phil, Ellen, and Gilmore Girls during the day).
Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (if every U.S. household replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road. On top of that, replacing one regular light bulb with an approved compact fluorescent light bulb would save consumers $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb.)

Other:

Borrow books and movies from the library instead of purchasing or renting them. Our son has borrowed How to Train your Dragon every Saturday for the past two months.
Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, doing dishes, or giving the kiddos a bath.
Don't overfill your refrigerator.
Save your clean, used aluminum foil, and or use a cookie sheet to cover casseroles in the oven.
Buy the bigger container of yogurt instead of the individual packaged kind and use a Tupperware container.
Reduce the amount of laundry detergent you use by 1/2, unless the clothes are really soiled. We've been doing this for a while, and the clothes are still clean.
Cut your dryer sheets in half or even fourths. It still gets the job done, and that box of 250 sheets will last muuuuuch longer.
Use dish towels instead of paper towels.
~~If it's yellow let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down.~~ Ew.
If your pillows are flat, cut open a portion of the seam and re fluff or add more stuffing as necessary, then sew up the seam. It won't matter how tidy your seams are, because it will be inside a pillow case! You can also launder pillows in hot water, then dry on high. This will fluff pillows as well as kill all the gross-ola stuff that lives in there. This has reminded me to wash our pillows.
I pluck my eyebrows instead of waxing them. This saves me $4 every month at the salon. I wouldn't recommend this if you wax anything else though. Ow.
SMOKING. Seriously. Who wants to light their money on fire?

Ok, I'm going to go wash my pillows now.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 14: Jelly

2012-10-14T17:37:00.002-04:00

We've had a crazy busy weekend here, and we haven't even left our house, except for a quick library trip yesterday morning. This weekend, I have made pumpkin pie, cheesy potatoes, ham, whipped cream, biscuits, and jelly.

Oh, and last night I made "mystery dinner". Funny story. The plan for Saturday night's dinner was to make biscuits and gravy. I made the biscuits (recipe to come in a few days), and I started to work on the gravy. I opened the package of defrosted sausage and realized it was spicy Italian sausage! That wouldn't work for biscuits and gravy! So I improvised, and made biscuit pizza. I browned the sausage and added almost an entire can of crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, and garlic and onion powder. I added it to a baking dish, covered it in cheese, and added the biscuits on top (at this time, the biscuits had been cooking for about 5 minutes, so they were still pretty doughy). I cooked it for about 15 minutes until the biscuits were done, and it tasted pretty good! But . . . biscuits and gravy would have been better.

Today I'm going to share the way we make jelly. This recipe will yield three jars of jelly, which lasts our family around a month and a half or two months. It can be a bit of an expense to get it started if you don't already have the jars, but I considered that an investment because we've reused them over and over since we've purchased them.

Jelly:

1 and 1/2 container of strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 package pectin
3/4 cup of water

That's it! Start by cutting up the strawberries.

Then use a potato masher to mash them all up.

Six-year-old in Iron Man mask is optional. Also, don't depend on the six-year-old in the Iron Man mask to stick with this. Approximately 4 seconds after I took this picture, he scampered away. Measure out 2 and 1/2 cups of the mixture into another bowl. I actually had to mash up a few more strawberries to get to 2 and 1/2 cups. It's better to have to mash more than mashing too many, right? Add the sugar, and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes. This will be the consistency after the sugar as been incorporated:

It will look a little wet, but the pectin will make it set. Speaking of the pectin, add it to the water in a small sauce pan on the stove. Stir constantly until it's a rolling boil, and allow it to boil for one entire minute, then add the pectine to the strawberry mixture and stir constantly for three minutes.

Then using a funnel, add to the jelly to the full line of the ball jars (I use a ladle - about two ladles fills up the jar).

That funnel is awesome. I found it in the same place I bought my ball jars. It fits perfectly! This recipe will fill three jars. Once the jars are filled, screw on the lid and let it sit for 24 hours.

However, for best results, I recommend hiding them in some way from your husband and children, like under a towel!

It takes 24 hours for this to turn into jelly. Right now it's just soupy sugary strawberry juice. Once the 24 hours is up, you can freeze or refrigerate the jelly, or give it away to a friend! Come back later for homemade pumpkin pie, biscuits, and some more crafts. And to hear me talk about the St. Louis Cardinals' post season some more.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 13: Rag Wreath

2012-10-13T14:40:00.000-04:00

It's really starting to look and smell and feel like autumn around here! The leaves are changing on the trees and beginning to make their descent to the ground, resulting in the intoxicating aroma of burning leaves. I love that smell!

We usually start decorating for holidays and seasons stupid early, but for whatever reason we just really haven't this year. Mind you, I've had the tubs of Halloween and fall decorations up from the basement for weeks, but actually putting out the decorations hasn't happened. I'll blame it on Piglet 1's birthday party . . . three weeks ago.

Anyway, I'm jumped on the burlap wreath bandwagon and made my own! Last night was Game Five of the National League Division Series, St. Louis Cardinals vs. the Washington Nationals. I am a crazy crazy crazy St. Louis fan, and I knew I would need something to occupy my time, so I decided ~~right before the game started~~ to make this wreath! I had bought the material to make it months ago. In March to be exact. And it has sat on top of the shelving unit in our office/craft room, untouched.

I started off with a yard of natural burlap and a yard of white burlap, a wire wreath form, and a rotary cutter (although I deserted the rotary cutter about a minute into the project). The burlap and the wreath form cost $8.07 (the receipt was still in the bag). Seven months ago. Not too bad!

First, I decided how wide I wanted the rags, and I chose roughly 1 inch. I started cutting the white burlap, and for the first long row of cutting, I tried really hard to make a straight cut. That only lasted the first cut. After that I just eyeballed it.

Then I decided how l long I wanted the rags. I cut a couple different lengths and tied them to the form to decide what looked best. Once I had the length I wanted, I used a sharpie and the bottom of a box to draw the length so it would make it easier to cut. It ended up being about seven inches.

Then I started cutting. And cutting. And cutting.

Once I had a decent pile of the white, I start tying the burlap rags onto the form in random places. I knew I was going to have too much burlap, and I wanted to keep as much of it intact as I could to use it for future projects. So I cut a decent amount, and figured I could always cut more. Once I had a good portion of the wreath form covered in white, I repeated the process with the natural burlap.

By this time I was completely covered in burlap. The floor by my chair was completely covered in burlap. And Descalso on the Cardinals had just hit a beautiful hit that brought in two runners. My heart was racing, and my fingers hurt.

I really like the look of the two colors of burlap together. I tried to go every other, but I was paying more attention to the baseball game than the wreath to be honest.

By this time my husband had finally started to see what it was supposed to look like. I wanted this to be a wreath that I could use all throughout the year, but I wanted to put a fall spin on it for this season. I dug through the tubs of decorations and found these three little guys that I got at the dollar store years ago.

I used jute to tie the scarecrows to the wreath so I could remove them after fall was over (and add some sort of winter or Christmas decoration!). This is the back of the scarecrow.

For this one, I used the jute in between the body and the stick to secure it to the wreath and make sure it would stay put.

For this one, I used the jute to make a belt.

Once I was done attaching the scarecrows, I fluffed the wreath and used Command utility hooks to attach it to our front door. I'm not sure how long it's going to last out there, because it's just so cute I want it in the house so I can see it all the time!

Here's the back:

Here's the front:

I. Love. It. Sorry for the picture quality - I had to use my iPhone and it's raining like crazy out there! I love the rustic look of the wreath, and I also love that I can use it year round. It looks great without any accessories, too.

So, have you jumped on the burlap wreath band wagon? What's your favorite look? Also, the Cardinals won, after bringing in four runs during the 9th inning. During the 8th inning, I abandoned the wreath and instead nervously paced my living room, so I actually finished it today.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 12: Talking to your kids

2012-10-12T09:04:00.003-04:00

My parents divorced when I was two. Then my parents got married when I was 11. Confused? I have two dads. I have one dad who wasn't there a whole lot when I was a kid, but is trying a hell of a lot harder now, and I have another dad who didn't have to be there and still was/is, 100%. Anyway, my point was that my mom was a single mom for nine years. And we were poooooor.

I never knew how poor we were until I was much older. It never dawned on my brother and I that we didn't have any money. I remember I always had a new book bag for school. I found out years later that the way I always had a new book bag for school was that my mom would have a huge garage sale right before school started to pay for our books and school supplies. One year, people walked into our house and were buying paintings off the walls and books off the shelves. Another time, we sold all our kitchen stuff leaving only three plates, three bowls, three knives, three forks, and three spoons. But I always had a new book bag for school. We had breakfast for dinner a lot (my brother's favorite was egg holes), and my mom invented Poor Man Pizza.

When I was five, my mom found a job that would allow her to work overtime. She would get us up in the morning, eat breakfast with us, then take us to our grandma's house to wait for the bus while she went to work. We would get off the bus at grandma's, and Mom would pick us up and take us home for dinner and to spend some time together. Years later I found out that when we went to bed at 8:00, my mom would go back to work for another five or six hours. We never wanted for anything, but back then our wants were much more minimal. She saved up enough money to take us on a train right to Pennsylvania when I was in 3rd grade. A year later, we moved from the tiny two bedroom house we had lived in since I was born to a new manufactured house down the road. She saved up enough money to pay for half of the house in cash.

My mother is amazing. I learned how to be a strong, confident woman from her. She taught me to be opinionated and to always question, which caused us some issues in my teenage years (as you can imagine). But the one thing she didn't do for me was really teach me about finances. When her and my dad got married, things got much easier. He's a computer guy and makes very good money, and we didn't really ever have to worry about money. It was nothing for Mom and I to go shopping and spend $300 on clothes. I got a car for my 16th birthday. I didn't pay to fill up my gas tank until I was in college. I didn't pay for my cell phone until after Piglet 1 was born. We never discussed money, so I had no real concept of how much things cost.

So I kind of had to figure it out on my own. And we got into trouble for it. So I want to talk to my kids about how much things cost. I want them to have to pay for some of the things that they want. That DSi I mentioned that we're getting my son for Christmas? He had to save up half. He asked why we don't get Pizza Hut pizza anymore, and I told him that it cost us $120 per month to eat pizza, and it was just too expensive. He's only six, but I plan on sharing more with him as he gets older.

We were making freezer jelly the other day, and he asked why we just didn't buy jelly anymore. I explained to him how much cheaper it is to do it homemade, but also that it's better for our bodies because there's not a bunch of unknown items in it. I've explained the same thing about bread, pizza, and marinara sauce, and also why we don't eat out anymore. Explaining things to your children is simple terms can be difficult. I'm also not interested in my son going to school and telling his teacher that his parents can't afford to buy pizza, so it's a delicate balance. The point is, I'm trying to talk to my kids about finances.

I want to teach my kids from an early age how to deal with their finances, pay bills, and live within their means. In order to do that, we have to deal with our finances, pay our bills, and live within our means. Also, when they're older and struggling, I want to be able to open up our freezer for them and give them a month's worth of meat. I want them to come home from work and find their refrigerators mysteriously full of eggs, milk, butter, and cheese with a loaf of bread on their counter and a jar of peanut butter in their cabinet. Because that's what my mom did for me. And years later, I found out that's what my grandma did for my mom. Because that's what moms do. But the first step in that is teaching my children by example.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 11: Wants vs. Needs

2012-10-10T22:02:00.000-04:00

We've probably all had conversations with our children regarding "wants" versus "needs". I always find that those conversations happen at the grocery store. "Mommy, I neeeeeeeed cookies!" "No, you want cookies, there's a difference."

Have we had that conversation with ourselves?

I know Pen and I never did. Wants and needs were always one-in-the-same. And, for the most part, my children's wants and needs (except really when it comes to junk food) were one-in-the-same, too. My son is not spoiled rotten, but he is spoiled. I present to you, Piglet 1's (and Piglet 2, but mostly Piglet 1) toy room:

Also, just yesterday I added a second bookshelf between the shelf of tubs and the other book case which is already filled up with toys.

My closet isn't any better. Neither is my husband's "man cave". Or my craft table. Or our bookshelves. Or my daughter's dresser. I could go on and on really. We are a family of no wants, only needs. My son doesn't need another Lego set. My daughter does not need another pair of tight pants to wear with her cutie patootie boots. My husband does not need another RPG book or set of dice. I do not need . . . anything really.

Separating our "wants" from our "needs" is a complicated, difficult task. This isn't just something we're applying to our spending now, but also the items already in our house. This journey we're on isn't just about our spending, it's about simplifying our lives overall.

We're not talking out all "wants" from our lives. We still have a decent satellite program with DVR, I have an iPhone, and we're buying my son a DSi for Christmas. But my children are still playing with the blown up balloons from Piglet 1's birthday party two weeks ago. My husband looks at the majority of his books online. I wear the same outfits to work every week because I have five favorites. What do we really need?

So we're making conscious decisions about what we bring into the house, and conscious decisions of what we keep in our house. By saving money on useless crap-ola, we can make memories with our children (and make more babies!), and provide them security and comfort in ways that we haven't been able to previously.

I want to teach my children that less is more. I want them to see the beauty in everyday things. I want them to drive down Riverside Drive in our town and notice the trees in full bloom during the spring, and leaves changing colors during the fall. I want them to see the awesome-ness in making a truly epic snow man, or a really yummy dinner. I want my children to be surrounded by love and light; happiness and laughter. How can I do that if their vision is clouded with "stuff"?

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 10: Tax Return

2012-10-10T08:45:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure if this will be the best advice for everyone, but I can only tell you what works best for our family. What works best for us is getting a larger sum of money back from our tax return instead of having that money every week.

I know this because I got a very large raise last year. I went from making $10.00 per hour to making $18.00 per hour. That's an extra $16,640 per year. And I have no idea where that money has gone. We live in the same house and I actually drive a car with a cheaper monthly payment than I did before I got the promotion! The only thing I can say for certain is that we went up a package on our dish network and now have DVR. That's the only expense that I can say with certainty has increased since I received my raise. That's why I don't think we would do better having more money throughout the week, versus a bigger paycheck.

Pen and I each only take one exemption so that we will get a bigger tax return at the end of the year. That's not what everyone should do mind you. I don't mind giving the government a short term loan that they pay me back for every February. I obviously can't be trusted to put that money into an account and leave it somewhere, and this is just what works for our family. Some of the money from our tax return for 2012 is already spoken for. We've always handled our tax returns pretty well. After we were both working full-time (after the birth of Piglet 1), we used the first two tax returns to pay off medical bills and credit cards.

We always make a wish list of things we want to do with our tax return, then once we know how much money is coming, we can figure out if we'll have enough to do it all, or wait another year.

Last year, we got $18,000 back on our tax return. You're looking at that number correctly. $18,000! We received credits because Pen and I were both in school, both our children were in daycare, and we bought our first house. $6,000 paid off our car (which we promptly sold . . . piece of crap), and $8,000 put a new roof on the house. We spent about $600 on a family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells (loved it there!). There were a few more expenses here and there, but that was the majority of what we spent it on. In past years, we have recarpeted my parents' rental house we were living in, bought a couch, filled up our freezer with meat, and bought bicycles. That's not to say that every penny of our tax returns have been well spent! We've wasted quite a bit just because we've had the money in the bank.

This year, we'd like to drywall and carpet two rooms in our house. We have awful, lumpy texture in four of our rooms downstairs (two living rooms, office, and the toy room), and I haven't been able to hang any pictures or decorate because it's so awful! We also want to buy a portion of a cow and a pig, have enough money to go on vacation next summer (we vacation for cheap! No Disney World vacations for us (yet!)), and add to our savings account. After I file the return and I know how much money we'll be getting back, we'll see what is doable this year.

Having a bigger chunk of change given to us every year is what works for our family. I never want to owe anything in taxes, so I'd rather be safe than sorry! I always look forward to tax time, and file our taxes as soon as we get everything we need to do it. I normally use HR Block's At Home program, and I always find it easy to use. Once year I filled out all the information for block HR Block and Turbo Tax, and I got about $500 more with HR Block. I'll take that $500!

So - what do you guys do? Do you get a bigger chunk of change, have to pay taxes, or break even?

This is not a paid advertisement for HR block. I wish!! These are my own opinions and I have not been compensated in any way.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 9: Budgeting

2012-10-09T09:11:00.002-04:00

Along with keeping track of your spending, having a budget is the most important aspect of getting your finances under control. If you're spending willy nilly and not keeping track, how will you know if your budget is truly balanced?

There are millions of budget templates on the Internet. I randomly chose a budget template I found doing an image search, and I honestly have no idea where I got it from. I modified it to fit our needs (for now), making sure there was space to include all our expenses. I made sure the template I picked had space for "projected" costs and "actual" costs, because I had no idea how much our expenses were in the first month. We ate out constantly, so I had no idea how much it cost to feed a family of four. We were always going on trips (both near and far), so I had no idea how much it cost to fuel our cars for the week. Budgeting allowed me to guess how much we needed, then be pleasantly surprised at how much we spent! We were under budget for both groceries and fuel in the month of September! I'm currently working on creating a budget specifically for our needs, and I will gladly share that once it's done.

Once we have money built up in our checking account, we will take the budgeting process one step further, by putting money into separate categories for things like car repairs, home improvement, vacations (yes - vacations are in our future . . . eventually!), etc., similar to the General Ledger we have at the hospital where I work. Money comes in and is deposited under different GL numbers, even though it's all in the same account. Make sense? You could also take that money out as cash and add it to envelopes or jars, but if there's cash in our house, we spend it! I haven't decided on the exact method we will use, but I imagine it will be awhile before we're able to do this. Besides our long-term goal of a $30,000 Emergency Fund, we also want to have at least one month of expenses built up in our checking account. Once we have accomplished that, we will move on to this next goal.

The first thing I did in creating a budget was figure out how much everything cost! Here are our monthly bills in order of their due date with the estimated amount of how much they will be:

10/1: House Payment: $619 (includes PMI, insurance)
10/5: Daycare: $115
10/6: Dish Network: $55
10/6: Internet: $55
10/6: Penn's Student Loan #1: $63
10/8: Car Payment: $284
10/12: Daycare: $83
10/13: Car Insurance: $95
10/16: Penn's Student Loan #2: $59.76
10/19: Daycare: $92
10/24: Gas: $20 (more expensive in the winter)
10/25: Utilities: $180 (includes electric, sewage, water, trash pick-up, reduces in the winter)
10/26: Daycare: $115
10/27: Cell Phone: $103
10/29: Netflix: $17
10/29: Medical: $100

These are our fixed expenses. I budgeted each of our paychecks to be sure we would have enough money to pay for all our bills the day they're due. Based on this information, I know that we essentially have no money the first two weeks of the month, with an estimated $40 left over after our expenses (including fuel and groceries). We've cut our grocery allowance that week from $100 to $40, and we'll actually have to pay our car payment a week late (know your grace periods! We have a 10 day grace period before we're charged a late fee. Not ideal, but helpful this month).

I can't stress how important budgeting is if you're struggling financially (or not struggling for that matter). It has helped us in ways that I cannot express, and I can only see good things coming from it. If you are not budgeting, I truly believe that you aren't handling your finances wisely.

If you're not budgeting - start today! Finish off the month strong. Keeping track of future expenses and future income has helped us stay above that overdrawn line for the past 39 days, and it's helped us to pay our bills on time (for the most part). Have I stressed the importance of budgeting enough for you all to know how important it is? Budget. BUDGET. B-U-D-G-E-T!!!!

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 8: Saving

2012-10-08T09:41:00.001-04:00

We've never really had a "real" savings account the entire time we've been married. We had an account at a separate bank that was supposed to function as our savings account, but it was always just a second account to draw money from if when we were short on money that month. Most employers offer direct deposit now, and both Pen and my paychecks are directly deposited into our checking account. $200 from every paycheck of mine goes into our "savings account". Currently, $25 comes out of my paycheck for a bill I owe the hospital, but that will be paid off at the end of this month. Once that's paid off, I'm going to add that to the $200 that goes to our savings account (which will actually be a savings account at that time!).

To me, financial stability is having money in the bank. It's knowing that if my husband's car breaks down, we can afford to pay for the repairs. If one of our kids is sick, we can afford to take the day off to be with them. I feel secure when there's extra money; not because I can buy more stuff, but because I know we'll be able to get by for a while.

Our long-term goal is to have eight months of an "emergency fund" saved up, which will be about $30,000. That's quite a chunk of change, especially for a family that faced overdraft fees on a weekly basis (up until 38 days ago, that is!). It will be a slow crawl to get to that $30,000, but that doesn't mean it's unrealistic!

If I only put in $450 per month into savings, we will have $30,000 in less than six years. Of course, that's if only I stop buying couches and breaking dishwashers. If When I get a raise, I will appropriately adjust the amount that goes into savings, so we could perhaps reach that goal sooner. But realistically, I'm giving us 10 years to reach that goal. If we get there sooner, wouldn't that be an awesome accomplishment?

We're also saving for our retirement, a little bit at a time. Pen's long-term goal is to be a stay-at-home dad, so it will be my responsibility to save for our retirement. Currently, $43.85 comes out of each of my paychecks for our retirement, and the hospital where I work matches a portion of that, up to 6%. The $43.85 is not 6% of my salary, like they suggest, but I'm hoping I'll be able to increase that amount once we get our spending under control.

I'm very disappointed in that we have no savings for our children's future education. I would love for my children to come out of school debt free (without the $33,099.25 elephant in the room), and I hope someday I can make that a reality. But what's more important than that is their financial security right now, and I know that we just can't afford to start saving for that, quite yet. But we can stress the importance of academics, and hope for a scholarship, right?! I also believe that our children should pay for a portion of their education. I know from experience that when my money was paying for my college, I put forth a lot more effort!

So . . . how do you start saving? I would recommend taking a little out of your paycheck every week and just tucking it away. It can be $25 or $400, depending on where your financial situation is. We treat the money that comes out as a bill that is due the day I get paid. I know the money is there if we really need it (like paying off a couch . . .), but it's not figured into our income, because it's a bill!

The current balance in our savings account is right around $600. On October 19, we'll have $800 and enough money to pay off the couch so we don't get sued! Not getting sued rocks.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 7: Sacrifices

2012-10-07T11:07:00.001-04:00

The Penny Pinching Family has made several sacrifices in the past 37 days. If you want to get your spending under control, I think sacrifices (both big and small) are a necessity. Several small sacrifices can equal large savings.

The biggest "sacrifice" we made was eating out. In August we spent $447.14 eating out, and we spent $43 eating out in September. That's a 90% savings! The reason I have quotation marks around the word "sacrifice" was because this was not a real sacrifice at all. Making meals at home (when planned properly) has not been that big of a change for us. I hear a lot of people say to cut out one meal out a week. I challenge you to not eat out at all for an entire month!

I was invited to 2 Lia Sophia parties, 1 Pampered Chef party, and a Tastefully Simple book party in September, and I refused them all! This is peer pressure spending, and I'm trying to stay away from that.

We haven't gone shopping for anything other then groceries in 37 days. I am an impulse purchaser and I can't be trusted, so I just stay out!

We reduced our grocery budget to $100 to feed our family of four every week. We've made homemade jelly, bread, and marinara to help reduce our grocery bill. We also eat cheap and make extra for leftovers for lunch for the rest of the week. So far this week, we've only spent $40 in groceries thanks to meal planning and eating our pantry (not literally . . .)

We haven't gone to the movies, amusement parks, or anywhere else that requires us to pay for entertainment. We've used the library, the town park, and other free events. Otherwise, we just stay at home! Our children have 14 million dollars worth of toys. Why did we insist on taking them places and buying them (more) things? There are worthwhile experiences we are willing to spend money on (zoo trips, children's museum, picking pumpkins, etc.), but taking them to the toy store, book store, and out to eat has completely stopped.

Speaking of book stores, my husband and I are book junkies. The majority of our Amazon purchases are books, both for us and our kids. Pen has been borrowing his books from the library instead of purchasing them, and I've been reading all the books I've purchased in the past and have never actually read! We're also re-reading the great books we've read before.

We are already sacrificing for Christmas this year. We are focusing on homemade items for both our children and other family members. Piglet 1 and I are going to make homemade treats for his teachers, our neighbors, and extended family members. We're also reducing the amount of money we spend on things for our children.

We scaled way back on our son's birthday party and, I'll let you in on a secret . . . he didn't even notice.

What ways are you prepared to sacrifice and cut back?

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 6: Student Loans

2012-10-05T18:02:00.000-04:00

I'm publishing this post a bit early because I've got plans for tomorrow, and I'm not sure if I'll have the time to do it at a normal hour! Tomorrow is my hospital's annual Associate and Family Fall Picnic. The hospital does this every year for our associates, and yours truly plans the event (I'm the Activities Committee Chairperson . . . thank you very much). It's free lunch and free fun for the kiddos. It gets us out of the house, and . . . it's free. Did I mention that?

I think I've been completely honest with you all, 100%. I've told you how much I make an hour ($18), how much my husband makes an hour ($14.15), how much or mortgage payment is ($619), and how much I weigh (haha . . . just kidding).

I'd like to talk to you about the $33,099.25 elephant in the room. I have student loan debt. A lot of student loan debt. A whole bunch of student loan debt. I went back to school to move up in the hospital where I work. I graduated in August 2012 with a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Healthcare Administration. To date, what do I have to show for it? $33,099.25 in debt ($1,138.25 is accrued interest alone). I got a promotion back in August of 2011, and I do credit that promotion to being in school at the time, but I have yet to get a pay raise since my initial pay raise for switching jobs (I requested one two weeks ago, still waiting to hear back . . .), and I think that kind of blows. But I digress.

Wait, no I don't digress. I un-digress. Did you know that women are less likely to ask for a pay raise (even though they often deserve it) than men? And it's still common knowledge that women are paid less than men. Why is that? Drives me nuts.

I figured up how much I will have to pay for my student loans per month and it stopped me dead in my tracks. $448 per month. $448 PER MONTH. I'll be honest. I cried. I cried for a few days. $448 per month for 30 years of my life? There's no way that I could afford that, and any raise I would get would just go to paying off those loans. My solution? I'll get another degree! Deferment! Yahooooo! Except this time I applied for the hospital's tuition loan program, meaning the hospital would pay for me to get my Master's, and I would "pay them back" in hours worked. If I hadn't been accepted for the tuition loan program, I wouldn't have gone back to school. It will cost me about $41,000 to get my Master's, and the thought of graduating with $80,000 in debt sends me into an anxiety attack.

I now have another two-ish years before I have to start paying on that debt. A lot can happen in two years, including (hopefully) getting a promotion (or moving for a better job which isn't out of the question). But I'm not just going to let those student loans sit and accrue thousands of dollars in interest.

Here is my loan situation:

Loan 1 (UnSub): $6,446 principle, 6.80% interest
Loan 2 (Sub):      $5,500 principle, 4.50% interest
Loan 3 (Sub):      $5,500 principle, 3.40% interest
Loan 4 (UnSub): $4,552 principle, 6.80% interest
Loan 5 (Sub):      $4,500 principle, 4.50% interest
Loan 6 (UnSub): $4,446 principle, 6.80% interest
Loan 7 (UnSub): $554    principle, 6.80% interest
Loan 8 (UnSub): $371     principle, 6.80% interest
Loan 9 (UnSub): $72       principle, 6.80% interest

Oh, I also need to add in my husband's student loans!

Loan 10 (UnSub): $3239 principle, 6.80% interest
Loan 11 (Sub):        $2241 principle, 4.50% interest

The bottom three of my loans will be easiest to pay off, so that's what I will do first. It's dumb to pay $19 per month paying off a $554 loan for the next 30 years. I will pay off those three loans by February of next year.

I plan on tackling all nine of my loans, one at a time (mostly), during the two years that I am getting my Master's. We currently pay $62 per month on Pen's student loans.

My plan:

First, I will pay off Loans 7-9 through two full-time payments and three months of monthly payments, to be paid in full no later than February of 2013.

I receive $1,000 per year from my employer just because I go to school, so I will apply $1,000 in 2013 and $1,000 in 2014 to Loan 1. We always receive a large tax return because we each take only one exemption. I also receive a $2500 tax credit for going to school. I will apply the $2500 tax credit I get in 2013 to Loan 1. Then, I will make monthly payments on the remaining balance of Loan 1 for it to be paid off no later than October, 2014 (when I graduate from college)

I will apply the $2500 tax credit I get in 2014 and 2015 to Loan 4, along with making monthly payments.

(Unsubsidized loans accrue interest whether I am in school or not. Subsidized loans do not accrue interest while I'm enrolled at least half-time. That's why I'm focusing on the unsubsidized loans.)

A portion of our tax returns aside from the $2500 will also go the student loans, but until I know how much our returns will be for 2012, 2013, and 2014, I won't know how much will go to the loans.

I also plan on paying off the accrued interest every month, so I'm not paying interest on the interest! I'm tackling the loans with the higher interest first, saving me money in the long run.

There's also a possibility I will take some of the money the hospital gives me to pay for my Master's degree and pay down my unsubsidized loans faster. Undecided.

$33,099.25 seems daunting. Overwhelming. Breaking it down into 9 separate amounts makes it seem more manageable, even though it's the same amount. There are programs that allow us to reduce our monthly payment, but that won't change the amount we owe. Ignoring it won't solve the problem. Are any of you paying off student loans? What's your system?

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 5: Impulse Purchases

2012-10-05T09:23:00.001-04:00

I am an impulse buyer. From everything from a snack at the gas station when I only wanted to put gas in my car, to a cookie at the check-out line of the cafeteria, to a brand new couch that we can't afford, I impulse buy. I am the reason stores have shelves by the check-out line. Miniature bottle of hand sanitizer? Well, aren't you just the cutest thing! Jump on the conveyor belt! Lighter? What if my car breaks down and I have to light all the junk mail on the floor boards on fire? C'mon in! A bottle of soda for $3.00 when I could get a fountain soda 20 feet away for 1/3 the cost? You betcha.

To combat this, I just haven't gone shopping in over a month. Pen does the grocery shopping, and if it's something I really need (like Avenger decorations for a Birthday party), I order online. Sure, I have to pay $6 in shipping, but I would pay that in gas just getting there, plus I would probably spend more money at the store!

It is physically impossible for me to get out of Target without spending $200. I can't leave Sam's Club without a year's supply of coffee creamer and tampons. I have no self control. My solution of not shopping altogether might sound extreme, but extreme circumstances are a cause for extreme measures.

Three years ago I purchased a crappy couch from Ashley Furniture. We paid $600 for a microfiber couch with a pull-out bed. I hate that couch. It is uncomfortable (don't tell that to the people who might be buying it), and it's only use right now is to have a place to put the ~~folded~~ clean clothes. We used a portion of our tax return that year to buy it.

Fast forward three years, and I have just graduated with my Bachelor's degree. I received a little money from friends and family for my accomplishment, and I decide I'm going to buy a new chair, because the recliner in our living room broke. I mean, the back came completely off. It was a hot mess. I begin sitting on chairs at the furniture store, then I meet J.R. J.R. not only sells me a chair for more money than I came into the store with, but also a couch. And not just a couch, a couch with custom fabric, which increased the price by $200.

I cannot be trusted. I cannot be trusted to walk into a store and behave like a mature woman, so I'm just not going to walk into any stores. I have also unsubscribed from all the stores that send me emails so as to not be tempted by a sale that I just can't refuse. Kohls, Target, Fashion Bug, CJ Banks . . . Gah. I miss shopping.

I'm treating myself as if I'm an addict. Alcoholics should not go into liquor stores. I will not go into any stores, because I just can't be trusted. If I do decide I have to have something, I will write it down on a piece of paper on my fridge. If I still want it in three weeks, I will start saving for it. Once I save for it, I will spend that money on something else that we need more, such as an extra payment on our medical bill, or putting it away for one of the Piglet's Christmas presents. I'll begin saving again. If it's something I still want by the time I've saved for it again, I will purchase it, with the consent of my husband. This will be my new process of purchasing something not in our budget that will only benefit me. I have been selfish with our finances for far too long. I have put my children's well being, future, and home at risk with my selfish wants. When I said that stopped at the beginning of September, I meant it. Damn it.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 4: Meal Planning

2012-10-04T07:09:00.000-04:00

I've been planning my meals for about three years now. As a template, I just use the "Understated" calendar in Microsoft Publisher and write in the dinners we're going to eat throughout the month, including lunch on the weekends. I don't meal plan based on what's on sale that week because I'm lazy. Instead, as a general rule, we just eat cheap!

The secret to meal planning is to eat the meals you plan. I know, I know. REVOLUTIONARY!

For this month, we're trying to spend no more than $100 to feed our family of 4 every week. Keeping that in mind, I decided to pick cheaper meals this month to make sure we stick with that budget. My goal is to have money left over at the end of the month so we can use some of that budgeted money to fill up our deep freeze when select items are on sale.

To make it easier on me, we pretty much have the same thing for dinner every week. We eat tacos every Tuesday and homemade pizza every Friday. On Mondays we generally have spaghetti, and Thursdays we generally have breakfast for dinner, but that can vary depending on what we have meat wise in the house. My children appreciate the routine, and so do I!

I also recommend throwing in one or two cheap meals that essentially cost nothing to eat every week. I'm lucky that my husband will pretty much eat anything I put in front of him (except green beans). My mother is not that lucky! My step-father insists on meat, potatoes, and vegetables pretty much every night. I think it might be a generational thing, or maybe it's because Pen was in charge at a young age for cooking dinner for his family, so he's just happy to have someone else cook for a change!

Our weekly cheap meals are grilled cheese and soup, and breakfast. The four of us can eat for less than a dollar a piece on these things, sometimes cheaper!

Figure out what works for your family. For us, having simpler meals throughout the week work for our schedules.

From our monthly meal plan, Pen does the grocery shopping on Wednesday nights for the next week. That's my best tip of reducing the amount of money you spend on groceries - send your husband, because Pen's main goal is to get out of Walmart as soon as humanly possible, thus reducing our amount of needless spending dramatically!

We've stuck with our meal plan all of September and the entire four days of October, and we're even going to be under budget for this week's groceries. Pen spent $35 at Walmart last night, and we only need a little more meat from the other store tonight.

On a side note: our dishwasher has been broke since the first weekend in September, we have a couch on layaway that we have to pick up (and pay off), and our dryer broke last night. Yep. This is my life.

31 Days to Financial Freedom, Day 3: Audits

2012-10-02T15:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Day 3! If I've learned anything during the previous 33 days, it is that it's not enough to keep track of your finances (although that does help . . . a lot). To truly understand and know where your money is going, you have to audit your expenses and income! It's a happy accident that I decided to do this 31 Days Challenge after I had already been keeping track of our expenses for a full month.

Today, I am auditing our spending for the month of September! I'll wait until the roar of the crowd dies down before I continue . . .

. . . Moving on.

If you haven't already, pretty please take a look at our spending for the month of September here. I've messed around a bit with the Excel spreadsheet I was using so that all the dates were in order, and highlighted it from Sunday to Saturday in different colors. Like this:

Debit	-5.05	Groceries - DNR	9/7/2012	276.96
Debit	-3.25	Groceries - IGA	9/7/2012	273.71
1084	-5.00	Check cashed at hospital	9/7/2012	268.71
Debit	-20.00	Fuel - Me	9/9/2012	248.71
Debit	-5.00	Groceries - Family Express (milk)	9/9/2012	243.71
1085	-182.77	Utilities	9/10/2012	60.94

That way I can see where one week ends and the other begins. As Pen gets paid every week and I only get paid every two weeks, this will be aid us in seeing the weeks where we really do need to cut down on the spending. Examples of ways we could cut down could be Pen only putting $30 into his gas tank that week instead of $50, or we could ~~drink vodka~~ eat pancakes for dinner three nights a week. No, just kidding. We haven't done that since college. On both accounts.

I thought that the first and second week were rough for us with our car payment, mortgage, and insurance all due at the beginning of the month, but I wanted to know for sure.

The first week of September, we spent $4325.84, and brought in $4,108.71. Hellooooooo deficit! (I would like to add that spending $4325.84 in one week is not a "normal" for us. I received a check from my employer for a leftover tuition bill for $3,000). We didn't overdraw at all in September, and the money that was leftover from the previous month ~~because we didn't pay our bills~~ held us through for this week. -217.13

The second week of September, we spent $658.33, and brought in $674.37 ($127.20 was refunds from items I purchased on Amazon that I never used). Well . . . it's not a deficit, but it sure isn't looking too good. +16.04

The third week of September, we spent $807.25, and brought in $1139.09. Looking better. +331.84

And finally, the last week of September we spent $734.88, and brought in $438.33. Oh, hey there deficit. Welcome back to the party! -296.55

Again, we didn't overdraw at all during the month of September, and that's why it's important to have money in your checking account left over from the previous month!

For the entire month we

Spent: $6526.30
Made: $6360.50

That means we spent $165.80 more in the month of September than we made! See how important it is to audit your spending and income? I had no idea we spent more than we made in September until I was actually writing this post! I am currently sitting here in a state of shock . . .

I'm not sure I have the koalifications to write a blog about making good financial decisions! (HA!)

Now that all our bills are caught up, hopefully our October finances will reflect a positive number versus a negative number. If not, we'll have to seriously consider reducing some of our expenses (cable, Netflix, Internet, etc.). How else will you know unless you AUDIT?