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I share five must read blog posts about saving money every Friday.
Understanding your credit – What is good credit? Learn what your credit ratings and ranges mean. (MoneyCrashers)
Hilarious tax stories – CPA’s reveal tax writeoffs that didn’t work. Yup, someone actually tried them. (Bargaineering)
Budgeting solution – Hate planning? Here’s how to budget for those who don’t like to prepare in advance. (Wisebread)
Surviving a layoff – Find out what to do after losing your job. (The Digerati Life)
Nonfans win big – Here are 4 Super Bowl deals for non-football fans. (MainStreet)
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This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
What is the best program or website to organize and track personal finances? And are they safe?
Below I compare three big names in financial organization: MyJibe, Mint, and Quicken. The following programs meet or surpass the encryption levels that banks are required to use, which are considered sufficient to protect your personal financial data. Perhaps one of these options works for you. Disclosure: I am a Mint user.
MyJibe
MyJibe.com is a web-based budgeting system that uses virtual envelopes to separate money for $8/month (try it first with a 10-day free trial). After you deposit your income, fixed expenses like rent and utilities are separated to keep you from spending that money and to allow you to see how much you have for other things. You can add other accounts and import info from your bank, Quicken, and Microsoft Money (which has been discontinued). MyJibe tracks your income, fixed, and flexible expenses, and savings goals.
What is different about MyJibe is that you can (more…)
Do you have a budget? Do you like it? I explain my 15-minute budget in this 1-minute video. The first time I tried this budget I saved $2,000. Let me know if it works for you!
ir0cko/Flickr
Do you remember Cori’s comment about saving $5,000 on a salary of $22,000 that she left on Yazmin’s book review two weeks ago?
Um, more details please! Cori emailed me on how one little sticky note saved her big time. Here is her story.
So my little post-it note that I carted around with me while living on $22k/year just laid out the details of exactly how much I could spend each day on certain things (not including the rent/bills), just the stuff where you have choices. So if I wanted to get a shirt dry-cleaned, I had to save up a weeks worth of daily dry-cleaning $.I didn’t allow myself to go over budget and I kept all the leftover money in a savings account.
It took a lot of discipline, a lot of bus rides (over cab rides), and a lot of saying “no” to things like mani/pedis/sushi/drinks out, etc. But I managed to make it happen. A little cheesy, but to my 23-year old mind, it worked for me at the time. San Francisco is an expensive place to live, but I was happy living on less there. And you just get creative with your entertainment options.
And with my $5k I saved I took a month off work and went to Costa Rica and took a yoga teacher training course. Thankfully now, I own my own event planning company and no longer have to survive on $22k/year, but the lessons I learned were invaluable.
I had my original post-it stashed in my desk, but one of my kids got off with it. But here’s my best relocation of what it said…
Cori’s Daily Spending
Food: $10
Dry Cleaning: $2
Transportation: $3
Entertainment: $2
Drugstore Stuff(shampoo, makeup): $1
House Stuff (cleaning supplies): $1
Cori, the simplicity of your system and your dedication to it is inspiring!!! Thank you for sharing how you saved money. I hope it helps someone else. Got an interesting success or failure story? Email me at julia@bargainbabe.com and the best will appear on the blog.
spiderpop/Flickr
At least one reader was shocked by my disclosure that my monthly budget is $1,200. In a comment about whether a $533 mattress purchase should come out of my budget or my savings, Cindy said, “If you easily have $1200 free cash to spend in a month…wow! That’s not being very frugal.”
Let me explain my budgeting system and why I give myself so much leeway.
I have tried many, many budgeting systems, from tracking every penny to estimating monthly costs by category. None of them worked because they all relied on past purchases to predict future ones. What I spend my money on varies widely. One month a plane ticket may eat up a good chunk of my dollars. During another month a wedding or home project may account for much of my spending.
What does not change is my total spending, certain fixed bills, and my income.
I decided to use this information to create a forward-looking budget (the pdf is safe to download). I start with my income, subtract my fixed bills, and am left with a monthly spending amount (my budget).
My fixed bills include basic necessities and any bills that must be paid including my rent, savings contribution, 1-tank of gas, student loan payment, cell phone bill, and regular prescriptions. Everything else comes out of my monthly budget.
- groceries
- second and third tanks of gas
- gifts
- travel
- clothes
- coffee
- movie rentals
- toiletries
- meals out
- drinks with friends
- hair cuts
- yoga classes
- gardening supplies
- car washes
- vacations
- anything else
Still think $1,200 sounds like a lot?
I gave up credit and debit cards this month to try to reduce my monthly budget. Previously, I went on a spending moratorium to learn new habits. My 15-minute budget may or may not work for you. The first month I used it I reduced my credit card bill by $2,000. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
