Introducing Uber Frugal Month

The next step towards a more minimal, no, scratch that, a more intentional life, seems obvious to me: get a handle on our finances and get out of debt.

As well, our situation is dicey. My husband is losing his job some time this fall and, I confess, it is freaking me out not a little. There are all sorts of complications with the timing of it all, his pension (and cuts to it depending on various scenarios which we are still trying to work out) and the severance package. The fact that we are thisclose to the warehouse shutting down and no one has answers for us is maddening to say the least. One thing we can pretty much count on, unfortunately, is that it is not likely he will be employed again at anywhere near the wage he is getting now.

This is the rainy day we should have been preparing for--and we haven't. So, rather than learning to be frugal proactively, which we should have done--we are going to do it reactively.

But we are going to do it!

I am not sure what to expect.

I just wanted to put this out there so you can have a chance to join up as well, if it interests you. Every day during the month of July, starting on the first, the blogger behind Frugalwoods will be sending out prompts to encourage u to be, well, uber frugal.

We had some homework to do prior to starting. Here is mine.

Step 1: Establish your goals.

1. Why are you participating in this Challenge?

 I want to get a handle on our finances. I need some help and support to spend less.

2. What do you hope to achieve?

At the end of the month, I want a clear do-able plan for living uber-frugally until our debt is gone, no matter what our income may be.  (Yes, we did Dave Ramsey. No, we were not gazelles.) Specifically, I want to see my way clearly through Steps 4 thru 10, below.

3. What are your long term life goals?

 I still want to travel. I'd love to take hiking and biking tours in Europe, Iceland and the U.K. If I dared dream big, I'd say Thailand, too, or another equally exotic location. Dreams. Dreams are nice.

4. Where do you want to be in 10 years?

I want to be in a small house by the sea.

source

5. What about your current lifestyle might prevent those goals from coming to fruition and what can you do about it?

I think I spend money mainly for convenience and to treat myself, food-wise. I also use money to indulge my love for creating, designing, and decorating.

Step 2: Review last month’s spending.

Done. I used to track our spending. I haven't in a long time. Funny, there's a direct correlation between how much we save to how much I track. I guess it really isn't funny at all. 

Step 3: Categorize your expenses.

Fixed Mandatory Expenses. Yep. Got 'em. Surprisingly, they only make up about 20% of our income. 

Discretionary Expenses (everything else.)

Step 4: What can I eliminate entirely?

Eating out and snacks

Clothing (for a while)

Entertainment

Step 5: Embrace the art of substitution.

The idea behind this frugal step is to substitute something free for something you are paying for. So, for example, I do pay the city a certain amount to use the pool for my aquafit classes. I try to go once a week. I love aquafit. 

Step 6: Reduce spending on discretionary expenses.

I could shop for groceries at a cheaper place than Safeway, I'm sure. 

Now that I've lost a bit of weight, I'm looking into paying a little less for life insurance, perhaps.

As for our utilities, I have this little project in mind for a spot in our basement:

I am hoping the challenge can help with this step.

Step 7: Empower yourself to insource!

The idea with this one is to stop paying other peopleto do things for you. Do them yourself. So, these are the things we paid other people to do this month: 

• repair the Jeep
• make two windows to replace our bedroom windows which are failing.
• prepare food in restaurants so I (or someone else) didn't have to cook.
• repair teeth (the dentist)
• align the body (the chiropractor)
• cut hair 
• teach me what to wear, and how to declutter. (two on-line courses)
• groom the dog

Hmmm, that seems like a lot all written out that way.

Step 8: Examine your habits.

Someone needs to be taking shorter showers, ahem. Again, this is an area I hope will be easier for me to see and thus do something about by the end of the challenge.

Step 9: Plan ahead.

Yes. Keeping up the meal planning and grocery shopping is de rigeur and it would be wise to add in what I plan to eat for lunch, too. I should also talk to the teenagers about this. 

We could also seriously cut down on the number of trips we make to the grocery store. We made over 25 visits to Safeway this month alone--only two were large weekly shopping trips with responsible lists. Not really sure what's going on there.

Step 10: If you do buy stuff, get it used (or cheap!)

This is an area we do not do well in, I admit. But, I have promised myself that I will go to Value Village for temporary clothes while I am losing weight. Of course, I say that, and yes, I did buy a pair of shorts there this month--but I also bought two T-shirts, a pair of capris and a dress--at a regular clothing store where people bring you alternate sizes to try on and you don't have to wait in line for a change room. sigh. Frugality is hard.

Step 11: Banish excuses.

I take it back. 

Major Lifestyle Changes

This whole section of our "homework" seems a bit premature and since this post is already too long, I'll spare you my thought processes for now. In brief:

1) Do you need to earn more?

Yes. We will.

2) Would moving help?

No. The house is paid off. We will move, eventually, and that will help substantially but that won't happen until the youngest finishes University--in about 5-6 years.

3) Should you get rid of your car (or one of your cars)? 

We would have to be pretty desperate for me to live without a car again.

4) Are you paying to work? 

No.

Conclusion

I am going to give the penultimate word to Mrs. Frugalwoods:

The crux of successful, joyful frugality is spending in service of your goals and on the things that matter most to you. By identifying what you want out of life and eliminating spending that doesn’t get you to that final destination, you will succeed.

I only wish I had started down (and stayed on!) this path long, long ago. 

We'll see what happens.

ORC Fall 2014: A Grand Makeover: Cost Breakdown

This picture, right here, cost me about $500.00. 

Once upon a time, I thought about becoming a designer. Once, back in my Graduate school days, as I contemplated stealing the cobalt blue milk crates instead of the yellow ones, all stacked neatly in the alley at the back of the store, I thought about it again.

I thought that just because someone couldn't afford pricey fabrics and furniture, that didn't mean they couldn't have a fabulous, stylish looking place. And then I realised that though that might be true, that client, so broke they used milk crates as bedroom furniture (which I totally did), that client wouldn't be able to afford me.

But, things have changed. Have they ever. It is more than possible to decorate stylishly without a lot of money--though, admittedly, it does take some. There are blogs out there which show you how it's done on the high end--and then there are blogs like mine who can show what can be done on the down low.

I always wonder how much makeovers cost. I am always curious about budgets--how far can a dollar be stretched? A lot depends upon where you live: not just the price of things in your area, but the availability of second hand stores and outlets and fabric stores, and most importantly, the variety and quality of the stuff they carry. So, while this information, in its specifics, is really only germane to me and the people who live in our area, it may be generally helpful to someone who wants to know how much a makeover done "on the cheap" can cost.

Two things helped keep the costs low: I already had the fabrics I needed for the slipcover and the drapes--and my seamstresses (my mother and me) worked free of charge.

Talking about money is always a delicate thing. Think of these prices as illustrations, as examples. One can always pay more, and sometimes, one can pay less.



Major Purchases: $191.98
Rug 7x10 (from Target): $149.00
Pouf (from Target): $41.99

Projects: $211.58
Wood trim above fireplace and window wall:
already had some.
for the 5 1/2 feet we needed to finish up: $8.87
Wood putty: $3.97
Total: 12.84

Shelf above TV:
wood, already had.
stain, already had.
Total: 0

Bookcases:
Paint for the back of the bookcase: (Marquee, Rush Hour) $26.47
Tops for bookcases: boards (Home Depot) $ 28.80
Trim pieces: $10.40
Total: $65.67

Drapes:
2 sets of Ritva back tab drapes from Ikea. Already had on hand.
Thread: $5.75
Total: $5.75


Slipcover for sofa:
We used one I'd purchased years ago for about $150.00  which my Mother sewed. (Not included in grand total)
Total: 0


Coffee table:
Vittsjo coffee table (from Ikea): $69.99
wood for the top (Home Depot): $18.18
stain: $7.97
brush: $3.49
Total: $99.63

End Table:
(Part of the Vittsjo coffee table, above.)
Wood for the top (Home Depot): $18.18
Brackets: $3.87
Screws: $2.97
Cork protectors: $2.67
(These last three items were needed to have something to put the glass on for the bottom shelf.)
Total: $27.69

Accessories: $527.95

Lamps:
Lamp base (Target): $19.99
Lamp shades (Target): $23.99 (x2)
Total: $67.97

Shelves:
TV area:
Wooden bird (Target): $7.49
Video box (Ikea): $9.99
CD box (Ikea): $7.99
Total: $25.47

Left of fireplace:
Branches (Ikea): $4.99
Vase (Bouclair Home): $9.99
Ceramic bird (Bouclair Home): $3.99
Total: $18.97

Scholarly Monk (Pier 1) $89.99

Right side:
Picture Frame (Target) $9.74
Squirrel: (Bouclair Home): $7.99
Boxed agave plant (Bouclair Home): $4.99
ZZ plant: (Ellerslie Gift and Garden): $21.95
Pot (Ellerslie Gift and Garden): $13.95
Total: $58.62

Coffee Table Accessories:
Candlesticks, (Ikea) $19.99
Planting Bowl (Target): $11.89
Cacti: (Ellerslie Gift and Garden): $23.75
Basket for remotes (Bouclair Home): $5.99
Total: $61.62

Couch:
Pillows, textured blue-green (Target): $24.99 (x2)
Pillows, plush indigo (pier 1): $29.95 (x2)
Zebra cushion. base (Pier 1): $19.98
plus fabric (Walmart): $9.27 (x2)
Throw (Walmart): $19.97
Total: $168.37

Other chairs: $36.94

Poang:
slipcover, made from fabric I already had.
Pillow: $26.95

Platform rocker:
throw (Ikea) already had
Pillow (Ikea) already had
Pillow cover (Ikea): $9.99


Grand Total: $931.51

Speeding ticket assessed while buying the rug from Target: $70.00

So, a grand. Does that surprise you? It seems about right to me.

What Matters

Part of the grocery shopping I did today.

Were you expecting me to say dishes and laundry?

They are important.

In the Tightwad Gazette, years ago, I once read that dishes and laundry were the two most important chores to stay on top of. It makes sense. They are always needed and it's a lot of work to catch up all at once. It is much less stressful to stay caught up by doing a little at a time, a lot of the time. I have since learned, though, that dishes and laundry are always needed--and that means they do get done. You really can't ignore them for too long, even when they pile up, it is always possible to do a load and get what you need.

And, hopefully, as we go along in this process, I will get these chores done before we need clean dishes and clothes.

But, for now, while we begin again, we have to figure out what's important. What, given the limited amount of time available, really needs to be done?

For me, there are two other chores essential for running a home and they are all but invisible. They aren't even related to cleaning! These magical stress-busting chores? Meal planning and keeping track of our expenses.

Planning our meals (and then shopping for the ingredients) makes life immeasurably easier. I have gone a few weeks without meal planning in the years I have been doing it--and I always feel anxious and unsettled. After work, I am much too tired to even think of standing at the stove and cooking, never mind trying to figure out what to eat and whether we have the ingredients on hand. (And then, of course, there are all those dishes to wash before I can even start!)

When I make my menu plan, I like to take into account what's on sale, whether I am home or not and who needs to prepare it, and especially in summer, the weather (too hot and we don't use the oven). In the winter, I also take into account our evening activities so I can plan something quick if the window for preparing and eating is narrow.

As for keeping track of our expenses, it is essential for paying down our debt--for if I don't know how much I have to work with, I can't send a payment. I have tried to "wing it" in the past. I would look at the balance in the bank account, roughly figure out the expected expenses coming up before the next pay cheque and send off something. Inevitably, I would send off too much and wound up using the credit card to buy groceries or something stupid. So, a detailed plan is essential. But there's no "trigger" for this activity. We could happily ignore knowing what we spend on what and just pay the minimums on our debt--many people do. But we decided we wanted to be debt-free, so paying attention is essential.

Gretchen Rubin has written a book about habits (in the process of being published) --and even better, she has distilled it into 21 sentences.

One of the pillars of forming habits is (as she writes),

Monitoring: You manage what you monitor, so find a way to monitor whatever matters.

The power of keeping track is truly amazing. We really do spend less--all across the board--whenever I record our expenses every single week.

So, two things. These two things take priority over all else as I endeavour to pick up the running of our lives and become intentional again.

How about you? Do you have essential tasks? Are they close to invisible, too?

Day 14: Tweaking a System: Paying Bills and Keeping Track of our Spending

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Canadians!


Yesterday, I defined a "household system" as being made up of two separate and distinct parts:

1. everything in the system has a home, there is a storage solution in place, and
2. there is a procedure, or method of dealing with the items.

A few months ago, I noticed I was having trouble paying my bills on time. My procedure for collecting the bills was to let them pile up on the top shelf of this mess:

This is how my paper system looked in July.  You can see how my bills might have become a little lost.

I was supposed to put my bills in our "budget" file folder. It lived in this:

Worse, the budget file, the place where I kept not only the unpaid bills, but all the papers related to tracking out income and our spending had gotten too big and difficult to handle.

I had too many different kinds of paper to keep track of and the file wasn't letting me sort them effectively. As well, I was afraid of papers spilling out of it every time I took it out to use it.

When I saw Toni Morrison's Budget Binder series, from A Bowl Full of Lemons, I knew that a binder would be perfect for me. So, I took one off my shelf, emptied its contents and set it up anew. I kept the cover insert I created ages ago.

Inside:

This pencil case holds all the tools I need to work:

• highlighters, pen, pencil, eraser
• post-it notes
• rular
• calculator
• cheque with my own pre-printed register.

Right away you find a clear page pocket. This is where I keep unpaid bills, now. (I slipped in some class notes in order to preserve some privacy.)

Next, my five tabs:

followed by the monthly tabs:

The five major categories are:

1. accounts--a most thorough listing of all the financial accounts with which we deal. This was an excellent suggestion from Toni's series.
2. income--a place to keep track of our income, by month.
3. due dates--this is a form where I have written out when all of our bills are due. I've divvied it up into two sections: those automatically withdrawn by the bank (about 60%) and those I pay, myself.
4. credit card--this is not in Toni's series. I like to keep track of our spending by credit card and ideally, pay it off weekly.
5. budget--this is really just an introduction to the monthly tabs. Behind each one for the month, I keep our monthly cash flow plan along with the pages I print off from our bank account to track our weekly spending.

It couldn't be easier, really.

When a bill comes in the mail, I put it in the pocket. On Thursday, my "desk day", I do all that I need to do to record our spending for that week, pay our bills and then file them in the "bills paid" folder (still in that black mesh thing, above).

This system wasn't working for me for a few reasons, but mostly because that file folder was inadequate for the job. The binder is easy to pull out and use: it's like having my own little budget mini-station.

ETA: You can catch all the posts in the series here.

Linking up to the Organizing Party at Org Junkie: