In most cases, I wouldn’t take the time to write a post that toots my own horn, but the news I’m about to share — which I’m sure you’ve already surmised by reading the title — is pretty awesome and worth spreading!

My book, How to Make a Budget, has rocketed up Amazon and as of this morning, is the number two best selling book in the “Personal Finance” category!  And, it’s not like I’m shilling garbage, either.  Of the eight reviews posted thus far, seven have been five-star and the other is a four-star review!

So, long story short, thank you to everyone who has purchased the book!

First off, if you’re expecting I’d like to say congratulations; if you’re getting ready to “start trying” (which is a term I’ve always found sort of odd) I’d like to say best of luck!

Having a baby and starting a family is certainly an amazing and exciting time in your life. Unfortunately, it can also be an incredibly expensive time, with increased insurance costs, baby food, clothes, diapers, etc.

That’s why it’s critically important for your family’s financial future that you begin making a baby budget prior to the arrival of your child/children. In fact, it’s probably pretty important that you create and stick to a budget well before you start planning to have a family.

So, to that end, I highly recommend that you check out my sample budget spreadsheet and start working on a budget today, regardless of whether or not you’ve recently had a child, are expecting, or are getting ready to start trying.  Currently, the budget is very generic, but can be easily tailored to fit any growing family’s needs!

You’re going to be stressed enough as it is, don’t let money worries become another problem.

Again, here’s a link to my sample budget, as well as a link to my popular book for the Amazon Kindle – How to Budget: Get Out of Debt and Start Saving More Money.

I’ve always taken the data reported by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) with a grain of salt, especially during the downturn in housing. They’ve always seemed to have a Pollyanna view on things, routinely telling us that the worst was behind us and better days were ahead, only to see sales and prices of homes continue to plummet.

Now, has come out and said their sales figures for the past four years need to be revised downward… by a lot. Click here to check out the actual report from NAR.

Looks like NAR was pretty far off with their original estimates.

If you don’t feel like getting into the details of the report, the graph to the left (courtesy of NAR and CNN Money) should do a good job illustrating just how far off NAR was with their original sale estimates.

Here’s a quick blurb from Les Christie’s article on CNN Money:

Existing home sales during the housing bust were actually 14.3% worse than previously reported, a revision to Realtors’ group numbers shows.

On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revised home sale counts back to 2007 due to flaws in their original data analysis.

Print CommentIn 2007, there were actually just 5.04 million existing home sales, 11% less than the 5.65 million originally reported. Even worse were 2008 and 2009, when there were 16% fewer sales than originally reported. Sales in 2010 were 15% lower.

“The errors started in 2007 and continued to accumulate over time,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

I guess the silver lining in all of this is the fact that their estimates on home prices weren’t revised downward. But, that is a much more localized concern, and is much easier to check by simply looking at recent sales in your neighborhood or community. That’s not to say sales volume isn’t somewhat localized, but considering we’re in a national housing funk, I think volume is a much better national metric than price.

Here’s a video, which is also posted on NAR’s website, of NAR’s Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, discussing the revising – or “rebenchmarking,” as they call it – of the housing data.

Editorial note – Yun is the biggest Pollyanna of them all.

Moral of the story – we thought housing was bad, turns out it was worse.

What are your thoughts?  Leave your comments below and let me know what you think!

We’ll keep this post short and sweet since you’re liking finishing up your holiday shopping, and I wouldn’t want to keep you from the endless lines at your local mall!

Since we’re heading into 2012, I’m sure plenty of you are beginning to think about your New Year’s resolutions.  If you’re like most people, chances are your resolutions will involve either or both of the following things: money management and weight loss.

Obviously, I’m not here to help you with the latter, but if you’re hear for the former, I certainly can help.  If you catch yourself saying, “In 2012, I want to make a budget and stick to it!” then you my friend have come to the right place! 

(Trust me, it’s not as bad as it seems.  I promise!)

I’ve put together a simple budget format in Excel that has helped me — and will hopefully help you — take a lot of the “pain” out of creating and tracking a budget.  You can get the sample budget format by clicking here.

The format is pretty easy to follow and relatively self explanatory, however, if you would like some instructions to go along with the template, please check out my Sample Budget – Create a Budget in Excel with this Budget Format post.

If you have any questions related to the post or setting up a budget in general, please feel free to contact me via email or by leaving a comment on this page!

So, it looks like I’ve been bitten by the Amazon Kindle bug.  Although, it’s not buying books for the Kindle that I’m addicted to, it’s writing them!

As of last night, I’ve now published five personal finance books to the Kindle, with the two latest being 5 Money Lessons I Learned from My Blue Collar Middle Class Parents, and Save Money Without Even Noticing.  Needless to say, I think they’re pretty awesome.

For the faithful readers of Saving Without a Budget, you may recognize the blue collar title, since it was one of my more well-received posts, even getting picked up by Time.  Rest assured though, the ebook is not just a cut and paste from Saving Without a Budget; I’ve added lots of new content and insights.

As for “the other” ebook, it gives a bunch of easy ways you can start saving a bunch of money without affecting your lifestyle, or, as the title might suggest, without even really noticing.  This includes ways to save money on utilities, groceries, entertainment, etc.  You name it, you can save it.  (I’m a poet and don’t even know it.)

I’d love it if you’d check out the books and let me know what you think!

As you’ve gathered by reading many of the posts here on Saving Without a Budget, I really don’t think it’s all that complicated for anyone to become “financially successful.”  It just takes a little bit of basic knowledge regarding personal finance and a whole lot of will power.

Note: financially successful doesn’t necessarily mean rich or wealthy.  When I say “financially successful” I mean stuff like you don’t have consumer credit debt, you’ve built up your savings, you invest a little toward retirement and, generally, you are more than able to get buy on what you have.

In going back to the basic knowledge it takes to become financially successful, I think there are really only four things people need to focus on:

1) Maximize your earnings.  Obviously, it’s much easier to save more money if you’re making more money.  Long story short, get education where you can, and consider turning your current hobbies into a part-time small business.

2) Always spend less than you earn.  Here comes a non-shocking fact: it’s impossible to save money if you are consistently spending more than what you earn.  So, if you want to save, cut your expenses!

3) Live below your means. One would think this is the same thing as spending less than you earn.  It’s not.  Living below your means is fully embracing living a frugal lifestyle.  It’s an ongoing thing.  Spending less than you earn is simply the act of being frugal, and for many people, can be a one time thing or something that is practiced on a limited basis.

4) Don’t buy stuff for the sake of buying stuff.  Even people who practice the first three steps of financial success find themselves getting into trouble here, namely buying things to keep up with the Joneses.  Here’s my rule of thumb: if I don’t need it, I don’t buy it.  Sure, it sucks getting accustomed to not buying things you want, but after a while, living the minimalist lifestyle and not caring about the Joneses feels awesome.  You’re not owned by your things, your home is clutter free, and you’ve got tons of money either saved or ready to be spent on something that’s worth it like an awesome family vacation.

If you want to find out more about becoming financially successful, please check out my latest book for the Amazon Kindle, aptly titled “Four Steps to Becoming Financially Successful,” where I go into more detail regarding these four steps and  how you can implement them into your daily habits.

Without a doubt, the holidays can be one of the most stressful times of the year. It seems you’ve got one family gathering after another, you’re busy trying to get your decorations up, and you’re stressed about getting gifts for everyone without blowing your budget.

While I can’t help with the first two problems – and let’s be honest, having family gatherings is a good problem to have – I can help with helping you get gifts without blowing your budget.

I’ve written The Frugal Christmas Gift Guide: Holiday Shopping Without Busting Your Budget for the Amazon Kindle as a general guide to help you get through the most wonderful and expensive time of the year without having a horrible credit card bill waiting for you in the new year.

In The frugal Christmas Gift Guide, I talk about how to take advantage of awesome holiday sales – not just Black Friday – as well as other ways you can give gifts without spending a ton of money (hint: the gift of time goes a long, long way).

I’d love it if you checked out the book and then let me know what you think.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy kickoff to the holiday shopping season!

A while back, I wrote about how my wife and I spent the better part of a weekend doing a deep clean of our home. We went through every room in the house and ended up donating or trashing old clothes, dishes, cooking utensils, DVDs, useless papers, you name it.

And, as I stated before, it was an amazingly cathartic experience and, when it was all said and done, felt like we had a two-ton boulder lifted off of our shoulders. (I’m a poet and didn’t even know it!)

Since then we’ve aspired to follow a minimalist lifestyle, meaning we try to get by on no more than what we truly need. This, too, has been an awesome experience.

One would think that living in a consumer and materialistic society, the adjustment would be difficult. In fact, the opposite is true, mostly because of how great we now feel.

For example:

Being frugal is a lot easier. The enemy of being frugal is a warped sense of knowing the difference between needs and wants.

In our materialistic society, many people determine their own personal worth by how many things they can acquire, how big of a house they can buy, etc. Ultimately, you’re mostly succumbing to your wants, which, in turn, makes you want even more!

By following a minimalist path, you’re succumbing to just your needs. You’re not out every other weekend at Pottery Barn trying to buy the new trendy lamps for your home. Your basic, solid-color lamps do just fine of filling your house with light. You don’t have 800 decorative pillows on your bed because the only ones you’re not going to chuck aside as you fall asleep are the pillows you lay your head on.

In cutting out the wants, you’re able to save boatloads more money.

You feel happier. When you aspire to own a bunch of stuff and fall short, you’re left with an empty feeling. Or, even worse, when you are able to get everything you want and it’s still not enough, you’re left with an even bigger void.

By being genuinely happy with less that void simply does not exist. If you can have all of the basic stuff you need – food, shelter, companionship – along with a few small indulgences, you’re much more likely to feel whole and fulfilled; you’re not constantly chasing things.

These two points are big, but they’re just the beginning.

Seriously, please consider going the minimalist route. You’ll be incredibly happy you did.

What are your thoughts? Have you tried being a minimalist? Does the idea seem weird to you? Leave your comments below!

Well, apparently the author bug has really bitten me, because I’ve already released another book for the Amazon Kindle!

The book, “Family Money: Easy Ways to Cut Your Family’s Expenses,” is a light-hearted how-to book on ways to drastically slash your monthly expenses without correspondingly affecting your lifestyle. Through years of writing on Saving Without a Budget I’ve found that the single biggest reason people don’t adopt a frugal lifestyle is because they think they’re going to have to live a life of self-deprivation. It’s not because they’re lazy or stupid; it’s because they falsely believe they’re going to have to drastically alter the way they live day-to-day.

The book offers well over 100 simple ways individuals and families can reduce their monthly expenses without ever really noticing a change in their lives. These money saving tips are broken down into different types, like utilities, clothing, and groceries; i.e. the major expenses in people’s lives.

Considering the price of the book is only $3.97, buying Family Money is certainly a worthwhile investment, especially when you consider following just a few of the tips for less than a day will save you much more than $3.97!

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

I know things have been quiet on Saving Without a Budget lately, and I apologize. That being said, I have a legit reason – I’m now a published author!

Over the past month, I’ve been working to get my ebook How to Make a Budget: Simple Budget Techniques and Ways to Save Money up on the Amazon Kindle platform. As of this morning, it is up and running, which I’m super pumped about! In fact, I’ve already made a few sales – that I know of – and have gotten three likes. No reviews yet, but hopefully soon enough.

Anyway, I would be absolutely thrilled if you headed over to Amazon and checked out the book – at the very least, clicking the like button up by the “write a review” link.

Thank you for your patience with Saving Without a Budget. I hope you enjoy How to Make a Budget: Simple Budget Techniques and Ways to Save Money so much that you forget all about the fact Saving Without a Budget has been dormant for the past month!