The Procrastinator’s Guide to Easter

26 Mar

Dyed Easter Eggs

I’m a total procrastinator. Why do something now when it can be done later? This allows me to do something right now that I want to do. Like watch something on my DVR. Don’t hate. You know you do it too. So it should come as no surprise to you that I haven’t planned a thing for Easter.

Scratch that.

I do have one thing done. Hershey was so kind as to send me an Easter Basket full of delicious candy. Which I received and put up in my closet so the kids won’t see it.

Hershey's Easter Basket

So what do us procrastinators do about yet another holiday? It seems like this one is a big one for a lot of families. We tend to downplay most holidays and just do something small. My kids will most likely wear their purple Christmas dresses (I purposely bought them in a spring-ish color so they could wear them multiple times) and we will most likely have a meal together. What else is on my procrastinator’s list? Well have a look. Here are some last minute, easy ideas to celebrate Easter with your kids. Over achievers need not apply here. This is for us simple and sweet folks.

1. Die Easter Eggs Die!

IMG_2106

Um, ok that’s meant to be dye. I love homophones. And yes I had to look that word up because I don’t actually know all that English jargon by heart, even though a good friend of mine is a high school English teacher. Sorry Kris.

Ok, dyeing Easter Eggs! Yes, I know this one may be obvious. It may sound messy. It does not have to be. I found a good tip over at Parent Hacks to use a muffin tin for the dye. It works spectacularly. We did this activity last night while my husband made dinner. And by “made dinner” I mean he followed the directions on the back of a hamburger helper box. He’s totally gourmet that way. So it took all of 15 minutes. My finger tips are still slightly green. You gotta make sacrifices folks.

2. Easy and cheap Easter Basket

Easter Basket

I’ve already admitted to you that I received a basket chock full of candy from Hershey. So you could say I’ve already cheated a little. But I have two kids. The smaller one, the 18 month old, will NOT find it humorous if the 3.5 year old gets candy and she doesn’t. She has just learned recently how to slam her hand down and say “NO!” which makes me laugh every time. I anticipate the absence of her Easter Basket candy would not only solicit a few “NO!” hand slams but also a knock down, drag-out wrestling match between the two girls over a peanut butter egg. This, you might think, would be hilarious and probably get 10,000 views on You Tube. I may do it for that purpose. However, having a second Easter Basket to introduce after the viral wrestling video shoot would probably be a good idea.

Ok, you know how I am about spending on useless crap. So here is what I plan to do… use pirate’s booty as the grass. Reuse a basket from last year. Purchase some frosted sugar cookies from the bakery section (you know the kind that have a ridiculously perfect look to them even though you’re sure they’ve been sitting out for 2 weeks?) and split a bag of the candy up between the two. Voila! They will be so excited.

I wonder if I should have a jello pool ready for the toddler wrestling match? Hmm. Probably not. Ok. I’m just joking people. Mostly.

I know a lot of people will make a huge deal about Easter Baskets. If you want some ideas from the Hershey site you can view a video here with ideas from mommy bloggers. I feel like such an a**hole mom when I hear all the work they put into it. We just find simple and small works best for us.

3. Easy Easter Egg Hunt

Those plastic eggs drive me batty. Not only do the egg halves linger around my house forever with no visible match, they also are incredibly painful to step on when you’re trying to rush to the bathroom to pee because you just sneezed. (Yes, I’m 6 months pregnant. Yes this is a problem only us preggos have. Suck it.)

The easy Easter Egg Hunt is the one that is done inside your house with wrapped chocolate eggs. You take a bag of chocolate eggs, preferably a kind that you enjoy because, let’s face it, you are going to eat most of them eventually, and you hide them around your house.

This is what my parents did for us when I was a kid and I remember it being awesome. My sister and I used to sleep in the living room with hopes of spying the Easter Bunny in the night hiding the eggs. For my sister, she’s an incredibly smart engineer by the way, this actually happened and to this day she swears she saw the Easter Bunny’s foot. Mmmm hmmm. For me, it was more about knowing where to find the eggs. I sleep like the dead so I never gained any advantage. It was still fun. And we ate the rewards! No ridiculous plastic eggs lying around.

4. Easter Dinner

If you’re attending a family dinner and have to bring something, I would suggest volunteering to bring the rolls and a dessert. Rolls can be purchased pretty cheaply and dessert can be break and bake cookies! Or if you feel ambitious (why are you reading this post if you’re ambitious?  Get out of here you overachiever!) Then I suppose you could make something awesome like Dirt Pudding. It is great for crowds and I promise you people will ask you for the recipe. It’s easy to throw together last minute too. (side note: I do NOT put it in a flower pot or serve it with a shovel. 9×13 lasagna pan works great but we’ve already established that you’re a brown-noser so go ahead with the shovel just don’t do the gummy worms that some people do. That just ruins it.) Another one I’ve seen done really easily is put cans of corn in your crock pot with a stick of butter and a stick of cream cheese. It is ridonkulous.

If you’re like us, and you don’t live near family, then you’re doing Easter Dinner all by your lonesome. This still does not have to be hard. Roast Chicken is always my favorite for Sundays and looks incredibly hard but is actually ridiculously easy. Mashed potatoes and a vegetable, like green beans, are also done pretty quickly. Make a sauce with the chicken drippings and voilà! Serve with something fun like milk with a little food coloring in it or pink lemonade.

Here’s my Roast Chicken recipe for you:

Take a roasting chicken. Slather it in olive oil and rotisserie spice. Cut a lemon in half and shove into the cavity. (Remove the giblets obviously). Put in the oven at 400° for 1 hr. If you want the full tutorial there are tons out there. Everyone has an opinion on how to do this. I find it is best to just keep it simple.

There. Dinner is done. Sit back and reap the rewards in the form of back rubs and “hooray for mom!” bursts. Or, if you’re like us, do the awkward clean-up dish dance with your husband and hopefully retire to the couch while he cleans up.

Did I cover everything? Good. Now go back to the DVR.

Disclosure: I was invited by Hershey’s to create an Easter basket online and have it sent to me. I did not turn this opportunity down because, hello?, free candy. They did not ask me to post about it or compensate me in any other way. You can view their site here: CelebrateWithHersheys.com

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“I can’t afford to save.” – How to save during tight times

25 Mar

This year my biggest goal for our family is to save more. With two kids and one on the way we have a number of expenses that have creeped up over the last few years. From diapers to groceries it seems that having additional little people around really digs into our budget. Finding the money to put away into a savings account has become less and less of a priority when it should be the opposite.

So what do you do when you don’t think you can afford to save?

It takes a little extra time and effort but it is possible. With the additional laughter, tantrums and stinky diapers comes unexpected trips to the doctor and $3.99 orders of macaroni and cheese at the restaurant that the toddler will inevitably refuse to eat. How is it that my husband and I used to go out for a date night and have a $20 dinner bill and now that barely feeds my kids? I think a cheap, family-friendly restaurant that delivers food instantaneously without the threat of contracting the ebola virus in the process is like the mythical unicorn of the world.

Ok, back to how we accomplish this task of saving for these unexpected increases in our expenditures. Your biggest tool in this task will be strict budgeting. Your second biggest tool will be levelized billing options. Third, you will have to menu plan. Ok, let’s go through these one by one.

Budgeting:

Sure, we all know what this is. How much money do I have? What bills do I owe? Whatever is left is what I use for gas, food and entertainment…. right? Ok, if it was this simple we could all do it pretty quickly. The bottom line is that you are missing the most important part of budgeting. SAVING.

Many times in a financial article or class you will hear the phrase “pay yourself first”. Financial planners and advisors love this phrase. It refers to the thought or practice of taking the money out for YOU first and living off the rest. So if you were working a full-time job where you had the opportunity to put money into a 401k, that money comes out pre-tax. Meaning you never even see that money in your bank account. This is one way to pay yourself first.

Another way to pay yourself first is to set aside a set amount each month before you have the chance to spend it. This is the part most of us suck at. You see the money in your account and then it gets moved and all of a sudden it was taken from you. You want to run after it and say “wait!! I need you!!!!!” This is almost always followed by the feeling that if you need that money you can always get it back. Here is where most of us fail. We run out of money, we transfer a little back from our savings account to cover an expense promising ourselves to repay this bridge loan… you know where this is going.

Here’s where you need to modify your way of thinking about this. Saving should be a bill. It should be gone once you move it out of your checking account. Never to be recovered. Well, ok SOMEDAY you will access it. Just not today.

How do you change this mindset? First, I think the best way to save is to put the money in an account at another bank. We use Capital One 360 accounts for our primary savings. The reason for this is to prevent me from staring at the money. Honestly I forget about it most days. You can set up automatic transfers into this account on a regular basis. I would suggest starting small. $50 after each paycheck will be enough to get you going. After a few months, you up the amount slightly. Pretty soon you’ll be putting money aside without missing it.

Levelized Billing:

Another big key to saving is to be able to predict your expenses each month. Levelized billing is a great tool that almost every utility company will offer if you ask. Our utility companies required us to have up to a year in history of paying our bills on time before they would allow us to set it up. Since we live in the South our electricity bills are significantly higher in the summer versus the fall and winter. It is so nice to be able to pay an amount each month and not wince every time I opened the bill.

Menu Plan:

Ok you may be doubting me on this one. I get it. Menu Planning is a pain in the financially responsible ass. I hate doing it. Each week I procrastinate doing it. It takes too much of my energy and requires too much effort. However, if I don’t menu plan, I end up spending TWICE what I would. Also, my cupboards end up being clogged with crap. And to make that all even worse, I still have no idea each night what I’m going to make so I end up ordering out.

Menu Planning while such a pain, is financially worth it. First, eating in is much cheaper. Second, I can lay out meals and utilize ingredients over and over. For example I can plan a roast chicken on Sunday and utilize the leftovers to make chicken salad for lunch later in the week, thus reducing waste. Third, menu planning keeps you on track with dietary goals, etc. Mainly this just means that my kids won’t have to eat macaroni and cheese more than twice a week.

Try this for two months. If you can’t find any extra pennies then it is probably time to revisit your expenses and look for areas where you are wasting money (ie: subscriptions you don’t use, etc.).

If you don’t want to try this you could always just start a jug. You know I love the jug.

**Capital One 360 is the savings account we use. Formerly ING Direct. I was not compensated in any way to promote them. I just really like them and have had a good experience.**

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Obligatory Gifting is Out of Control

6 Dec

pile of gifts

Holiday time means family, giving and togetherness… for some. For others it means uncomfortable dinners, inappropriately drunk uncles and awkward conversations with relatives you barely know. Regardless of your experience, I guarantee that holiday time means a hit to your wallet. You may be OK with this. You may even love it. I do. I admit it. The feeling of searching high and low for the perfect gift for my mom or my sister makes me so excited. Then seeing them open it on Christmas Day and have the delighted reaction I anticipated is so awesome. I even love putting together little gifts to show my appreciation my kids teachers and our neighbors.

But here is the problem.

IT IS OUT OF CONTROL.

Let me tell you a story. The other day I picked up the newsletter from my child’s preschool. Usually this contains pertinent dates of school closings, teacher of the month awards and reminders to wash hands when you enter the room. However, this particular newsletter also contained an entire section dedicated to giving to the teachers. Apparently the staff had all typed up lists. Oh, and there were copies available to us. Wait. What?

I’m not a Scrooge. I get it. You should show your appreciation. Don’t get ahead of me yet.

Lists? The pressure to give to every person you possibly encounter already exists. Articles pop up this time of year talking about the proper increases to your tips, suggestions for how much to give service people like doormen, house cleaners, etc. I usually scoff at these and pass them off as guides for the insanely rich people who live in penthouse apartments on Park Ave in New York City. They can afford to give their doorman $100 to say thanks. I can’t. (Forget that I don’t have a doorman… but I wish I did. Wouldn’t that be fun?) I’m lucky if I can spend that amount on my own kids.

Wait. what?

Are you feeling pity for me now? Don’t. It’s not that I can’t afford to spend money on my family. It’s that we place the importance of our own financial future ahead of this one day. We set a strict budget every year and agree on that amount. If I am able to save in one area then I can afford to spend a little more in another. It limits our exposure to the snowballing gifting pressure.

Let’s say, for example, that I were to give in to the pressure of the school newsletter and buy gifts for all it suggested…

  • 2 Teachers per child’s room x 2 kids = 4 teacher gifts
  • 2-3 Floaters that attend to the rooms = 3 additional teacher gifts
  • 1 Cook
  • 2 front office staff
  • 1 music teacher

That’s a total of 11 staff members. Each has a list. Mostly it includes restaurants and stores they enjoy. So if I were to buy them each a $25 gift card to their restaurant, I would be spending an additional $275 this Christmas.

Friends, that is a quarter of my total budget.

Instead, this year they will get a small goody bag with candy in it and a nice note. Think I’m horrible yet?

Now that let me suggest that these teachers were simply filling out a form that was given to them. I don’t believe any of them expect anything. In fact, I am quite sure some of them found the exercise of filling out the form to be silly. However, I do believe that the school was responding to some requests by other parents for lists, etc. I think they made the choice to do the lists.

Someone needs to just say no.

So here is what I do. I try to focus on the purpose of the gift. I want to express my sincere gratitude for all the hard work that the staff puts in throughout the year. Yes, it is their job. Yes, they are paid. However, I believe the love behind their efforts is invaluable and for that, I am grateful.

Here are my suggestions to help you beat the out of control gift giving fever:

  • Set a total budget first.
  • Make the list of the people you’d like to buy gifts for.
  • Set individual budgets being careful to stay within the total number you’ve set.
  • Research sales and coupons to help you save on those gifts.
  • If possible, ask others to pitch in on a group gift. This allows you to still purchase the large item without blowing up your budget.
  • Evaluate every gift and make sure you’re not giving out of obligation but it is really coming from a place of gratitude.

Have fun shopping!!

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Finding extra $$ for the holidays: Tip 1

5 Dec

The holidays present an unusual challenge for those of us who budget. Gifting is usually a reality for most of us and finding that extra money without dipping into savings can be challenging. I thought I’d post a few areas where you can save small amounts to make a big impact. The first area that I’ve found will probably surprise you.

save money on water

Water.

The folks over at PUR sent me a faucet filter to try and express my opinion about it. I do have opinions but first, let me give you some info.

Did you know:

  • Carbonated Soft Drinks outsell Bottled Water by over 5 to 1 in North America. reference
  • In California, nearly half of children ages 2 to 11 drink at least one soda or sugar-sweetened drink daily. reference
  • Filtered water can cost 93% less than bottled water. reference
  • Even if you recycle plastic bottles, most of the environmental impact comes from the manufacturing and transportation of bottled water. reference
  • A family of 4 ideally consumes 200+ oz of water per day. If you were to switch from soda and bottled water to a filter like a PUR faucet filter, then your annual savings would be $670.22.
  • Drinking unfiltered water can expose you to heavy metals, trace levels of pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, and other awful stuff. reference

My experience:

We typically do not purchase bottled water or soda. Every now and then a few sports drinks enter the door and occasionally a fountain soda, but generally we are a water household. Our kids do not drink much juice, and I even requested that they only be given water or milk at school. The result of this environment is that I have kids who like water and even ask for it. We drink strictly out of the filter from our refrigerator. However, if you have one of these, then you know the filters are TERRIBLY expensive. So when the folks at PUR suggested a different filter solution I was very open to it. Here are the things that I like:

  1. It is easy to use. Even my kids understand the concept of turning on the faucet and since we wash hands in the kitchen they already have a stool to stand on. The refrigerator dispenser is harder for them to reach. 
  2. I can control the temperature. The refrigerator filter water comes out cold. I generally like this except when making formula bottles. For that instance I need room temperature and previously I just used unfiltered water. (now that I’ve done the research on unfiltered water this kind of makes me feel icky and sad that I exposed my babies to all those contaminants.)
  3. The replacement filters are cheap. Right now you can get a full year of filters for $50 on the PUR site. I generally have to replace my refrigerator filter 2-3 times per year which each cost at least $50 each filter. You know how I love to save money.
  4. It removes mercury. If you do your research on your water supply and what is in your water (even your bottled or filtered water) then you will probably be as shocked as I was to find that mercury can get into the water supply and this can cause kidney damage. Other brand name filters do not take it out. PUR does.  reference

Bottom line. I try hard to walk the line between saving money and still being healthy. Some things are not the absolute cheapest option. But I firmly believe that drinking filtered water is an area where the reward outweighs the small cost. So do us all a favor and stop buying bottled soda and water. Start drinking from your faucet. Put the money you save into the jug or your holiday spending budget. I don’t know about you, I could use an extra $670/year.

I mean really, saving some moola around the holidays is always nice. Right?

What do you think?

Disclosure: The kind folks at PUR sent me a faucet filter to review, free of charge. I was not compensated in any way and all my opinions, if you couldn’t already tell, are my own. 

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Knocked up: Cutting the cost of maternity clothes

18 Jul

Once upon a time there was a pregnant woman. She soon realized she couldn’t wear her “fat” jeans for long and had to buy real maternity clothes. She went to the store and bought an entire new wardrobe and spent a ridiculous amount of money. She then went home, poor. Sound familiar?

When I became pregnant with our first child I was pretty excited about having the belly. I wanted to wear cute maternity clothes and I hoped like crazy that I would be one of those cute pregnant women who only carried in her belly and not in her a$$. (I was neither… face and arms, bleh). Here’s a shot of me a few days before I gave birth to baby number two.

Notice the shirt barely covers me. Sigh.

I went from a Medium size to an Extra Large and almost a Double Extra Large within 6 months. What I didn’t realize was how many clothes I would go through over that 9 months. I know you all know where this is going so I will get there, fast.

It is nice to buy something for yourself to celebrate this moment in your life, but it shouldn’t be a strain on your household finances. Kids already add enough to the household budget, plus all the expenses of preparing for the child and paying for the medical bills associated. Maternity clothes is one thing for which I can offer a solution.

My sister was pregnant before me, and before her so were many of her friends. They simply saved their maternity clothes, put them into a trash bag and every time someone was pregnant, the trash bag migrated to their house. I would always purchase a few things of my own during my pregnancies and at the end, I would deposit those into the trash bag for someone else to enjoy. For at least 6 women I am aware of, the burden of purchasing everything new was relieved. With my second child I only purchased 5 new items! (most of those were late in the pregnancy when nothing would fit because I was having “giganta-baby”.)

Here are a few ideas to help reduce the cost of maternity clothes during one of the most exciting and expensive times in your life: Continue reading →

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Analyze your spending and stop nickel and dime-ing yourself

27 Jun

It is most difficult to start saving if you feel like you have no money at the end of the month to save. Every penny is accounted for… well, I beg to differ. I PROMISE you anyone can find places to cut back. Here are a few steps to take to analyze your spending and stop nickel & dime-ing yourself to hell.

  1. Stop carrying cash. There are varying takes on this. Mine is to use your debit card for EVERYTHING. This will allow you to truly track your spending down to every dollar. If you implemented the jug after my previous post then you don’t have much cash at the end of each day anyway. Use the debit card for all purchases for at least a month so you have something to analyze. (If you really MUST use cash, then take a little notebook and write down everything you spend money on during the month)
  2. Download your statement. Most banks allow you to download your previous months statement into Excel. Do that.
  3. Categorize each transaction. Take a look at every single little thing and put it in a bucket. Some of my buckets are: Dining, Entertainment, Shopping, Memberships, Utility, Gas, etc. Naturally this allows you to sort the list and see how much you’re spending in each category. If you have several months to download, it is worth the extra effort for the ability to see averages.
  4. Examine $10 and under. This is where most of us get into trouble. How much money did you spend on transactions under $10? These are unlikely NEEDS and most likely WANTS. Be honest, do you NEED to buy lunch at the local fast food joint 5 days per week?
  5. Cut deep but be realistic. Now be honest with yourself. If you commit to stop eating lunch out every day and bringing your lunch, then honestly you probably won’t sustain that. However if you commit to bringing lunch twice per week and cutting that cost down by 40% then you’ve made sustainable progress. The idea isn’t to cut every single unnecessary purchase but to give yourself a reasonable chance at making sustainable changes.
  6. Examine memberships and monthly subscriptions. These items are often things that are under utilized. Take a look at these and examine them on a PER USE basis. For example, if you pay $40/month for a gym membership and you actually went 10 times last month, great job, you only paid $4 per visit. More likely, you went 3 times and paid $13 per visit. Many places will allow you to pay per use, look at if that is a better option for you.
  7. Get Creative. Did you know if you subscribe to Netflix you can watch it on your TV with a $99 device like an Apple TV? My brother does this now and eliminated his TV Cable bill. He simply watches shows online for free or through his $8/month Netflix subscription. He is utilizing a subscription he already had and was able to cut over $1000/year in cable costs. He also watches less TV now and exercises more. My other brother (not Daryl) decided to drop his internet and keep his cable TV. His wife’s mobile phone can get access to the internet for small things and they go online on the laptop when they are out and about.
  8. Add it all up. Ok so you’ve now found some extra cash. What will you do with it? Will this be allocated to saving up that emergency fund? Or will you deposit into your kids’ college savings accounts? You could also increase your 401k contribution if you haven’t maxed it out.
  9. Pay Yourself FIRST! This concept is one of the most important things to grasp when becoming more financially sound. Once you’ve added this up and determined where you are going to put your extra money, schedule a regular transfer of these funds the day after you get your paychecks. That means if you found an extra $200 per month and you get paid on the 1st and 15th of each month, you are scheduling a regular transfer of $100 on the 2nd and 16th. Paying yourself first means you take it out BEFORE you spend it on Taco Bell or Starbucks. If it is just lying around in your account you will find a home for it, I promise. 401k contributions are the best example of this. The money doesn’t even make it to your bank account. If it is not there, out of sight, out of mind.

Have you done this? What are your weaknesses in spending each month? Mine is Starbucks. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the attractiveness of the drive-thru guy.

If you like these posts be sure to subscribe to future posts or follow me on twitter @SamanthaShepard. Be sure to share this post with a friend too if you’re feeling particularly inspired.

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Today Show Clip: Money rules that can save your relationship

13 Apr

The Today Show aired a segment on “Money rules that can save your relationship”. I completely agree with ALL of these but specifically the one about declaring your own independence with money. I’ve talked about it before and we live this rule every day.

Take a look at the video clip here

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5 poor money decisions I make all the time

11 Apr

No one is perfect. I make spending mistakes all the time. Here are 5 poor ones I continue to make:

  1. Fast Food: I get lazy and go pick up lunch from any number of fast food restaurants. On a good day it’s Panera or Chipotle (I’m addicted). On a bad one it’s McDonald’s. I am WELL aware of the crap that is in their food but it doesn’t stop me. Also, I’m very aware that I’m wasting my money when I should eat healthier at home… but that doesn’t stop me either.
  2. Retail Therapy: If I’m feeling particularly sad or lonely, sometimes I’ll just go wander through a store and inevitably I always end up finding something I NEED. This is my trap. About 75% of the time I figure out it’s not a NEED before I check out but there’s still that 25% of the time that I end up buying it and bringing it home. A month later I realize it was a waste. Bye Bye Money!
  3. Luxury Items: I love shiny, new things. My particular weaknesses are with beauty products, handbags and shoes. Occasionally I will get obsessed with some other type of fashion item, but it is far less often. If I have a weak moment, then I might bring said item home in hopes that it will be the miracle. The one fabulous bag I will carry for the next 10 years. The lotion I will swear I can’t live without. These realities have never come to fruition but it doesn’t stop me.
  4. Buying Quantity: Costco memberships are evil. I have one. I never get out of that place for less than $100. We will never eat 64oz of RiceChips!! It doesn’t matter. I will bring one home to verify.
  5. Buying on Sale: This is probably my biggest weakness. I’m a sucker for perceived value. I love a good deal. I can’t resist it. I will buy something that I don’t necessarily even know I’ll use, but if it is a 70% off clearance item? Fuhgeddaboutit.

Like I said, no one is perfect. I am very honest with myself and the Mr. about my weaknesses. Admitting you have the problem is the first step, right? I find that our split finance arrangement helps combat this. I’m less likely to spend my own money and most of these things can’t come from the joint account because they aren’t in the budget. However, I still make these mistakes. The only thing I can say to defend myself is that I’ve progressed from making them every day to making them rarely. I keep myself in check by reviewing my personal account statement now and then. The worst feeling is adding up all the money I’ve spent on fast food each month. But, it does remind me and then I make that mistake less the following month. Another thing that helps is setting a goal. If I set a personal goal to save up and purchase something big, like the latest gadget, then I will remind myself every time I step foot into a store.

A few tips for you:

  • Be honest with yourself
  • Figure out what your weaknesses are and share them with your partner
  • Use a debit card so you can review your purchases easily each month and see exactly where your money is going
  • Set a goal for your money
  • Buy only things you have on a list
  • Plan your splurges

Allow yourself a little slack when you slip up but remember that discipline is the key to saving.

Leave a comment with mistakes you make too so I won’t feel like such a heel.

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The Emergency Fund. 42% of you apparently don’t have one.

10 Apr

I read this in Money Magazine and was dumbfounded.

“In a recent survey for the National Endowment for Financial Education, 42% of those under 40 reported getting financial help from their parents as adults.”

I realize there are circumstances under which you would need to accept help in an emergency. However, that 42% of us have had such emergencies in our adult life means one thing.

You’re not saving enough. You’re not INDEPENDENT from your parents!

So first things first… you need to start saving up. And this is NOT for a rainy day. Rainy day funds are from the jug. This is for your emergency fund and to get you into the habit of being saver. Financial responsibility isn’t an inherent talent. You learn it. You have to study it and hone your ability to know what is a want vs a need. Now you’re thinking “I’m not interested in being a financial genius.” Believe me, neither am I. What I AM interested in is feeling the confidence that unless something cataclysmic happens, I will not need to seek financial help from my parents. You know why that is so important?? Because I feel the entire weight of responsibility to save for my future. There is no fail-safe for me. Even though our parents are well-intentioned, by rescuing you every time you need help paying your car payment, they are giving you a “parents-as-the-backup mentality”. So let’s fix that. Because mom & dad aren’t always going to be around and let’s be honest, they deserve to enjoy their savings in their own retirement.

Okay so how much to you need to save?

The rule of thumb that I like to start with is 3 months of your household expenses. If you lost your job today, it would give you 3 months to find another one. Some people say a flat amount like $10,000. If that is easier for you, then by all means do that.

Once you get your 3 months of expenses, go for 6 months or $20,000. If you have that, then go for a year or $50,000. The idea is get into the habit of saving. You can choose to put it in whatever account you like, money market, high yield savings accounts but just make sure you can get access to it within a few weeks time without penalty. (aka: Liquid)

If you already have an emergency fund then take a look at your retirement savings. According to Money Magazine, you should be saving at least 12% – 15% of your yearly income for retirement. Many companies have a 401k contribution match program. This is free money. Make sure you’re taking advantage of any opportunity to save tax free and get FREE money.

“What if I live paycheck to paycheck and NEED all my money. I can’t afford to save.”

Believe me there is always a way to pare back your expenses. If this is a problem for you then look for a future post about how to cut the fat from your monthly budget. For now start with putting $5 a day in a jar. Every day. Voila! You just saved $150 in a month. Easy peasy. The key is making it a habit and committing to it. It doesn’t matter if it takes you a few years to save up your emergency fund. Just as long as you save regularly. It’s hard at first but then it gets to be so easy.

So get started. Today.

Leave a comment if you’ve already saved your emergency fund so we can congratulate you. If you haven’t, leave a comment committing to starting today. INDEPENDENCE people. It feels great.

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Play the lottery. And Win.

13 Mar

We play the lottery every day and we win… every time.

Ok, now you’re getting suspicious. (what’s the gimmick here, Sam?)

Ok, you caught me. You caught the tater. (don’t know that reference? I feel sad for you.) When I say lottery, I don’t mean that money-sucking version of gambling you can play at 7-Eleven. I mean we take that money and put it in “The Jug”.

Let me explain young skywalker.

We have a big water jug. Like the kind the culligan man brings. Every day when we come home, any $1 bills and change are deposited into the jug. When it’s full, we take that puppy to the bank and cash her in for something fun.

There are several things going on here:

  1. Respect that change! Spare change often gets wasted away on little stuff.  Give it a future beyond that ridiculous Diet Coke. Save it and buy something fun later on!
  2. Breaking a $20 isn’t something we do lightly. Because I know, once I break that $20 any change and single bills will go into the jug… and I won’t have any money in my wallet! It’s psychological more than anything. It prevents me from breaking a $20 bill for something unnecessary, like a pack of gum.
  3. It becomes a game for our kids. Often in our household you can hear a little voice saying “Daddy give me some money, Put it in the jug!”. How can you resist those little voices? (No, they are not in my head… well, most of them are not in my head)
  4. Give your lost money a home. A jug shaped home. Lost money, any denomination automatically goes into the jug. That $5 you found in your jeans after being in the washer? In the jug! You didn’t know you lost it, which means you won’t miss it now. This is also true of money you lent people you forgot about. When they pay you back, yep you guessed it… JUG!!!
  5. Actually win at the lottery. It’s become our own form of the lottery. We don’t feel compelled to buy that lottery ticket while getting gas because that $1 has a brighter future… like as a flat screen TV for your bedroom. Or a family vacation. Or, in our case, college tuition! (Ok, I admit college tuition is not as sexy as a flat screen TV. We’re not sexy. We know this.)

Consider your change to be found money. Stop buying small things (like a piece of paper with numbers on it) and start buying those fun big things you never seem to have the money for. You can even put a sign on the outside of the jug like “FAMILY BIG SCREEN” or “DISNEY”.

The jug allows you to win something with that $1 burning a hole in your pocket.

Get a jug. Put your change and $1 bills in the jug every day. Do it.

You know you want to.

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