Last night was my first attempt at making my own baby wipes. We were waiting until the wipes we had previously bought ran out. We went out and bought Viva paper towels because they are so soft (they really do feel like cloth!). I took my recipe from my Dining on a Dime Cookbook.
Roll of paper towels cut in half
2 T. baby shampoo or wash
1 T. baby oil
1 1/2 cups of boiling water
I saved an old ice cream container (a big plastic one) to use as my baby wipe holder and put all the ingredients in there. I actually boiled closer to 3 cups of water and I ended up using all of it because you are supposed to soak the paper towels through. I think that may have been too much though because today the paper towels were almost soggy and they tore easily.
The recipe said to pull out the cardboard paper towel holder in the middle, cut an 'x' in the middle of your lid and then just pull them out of the middle. I did this, but like I said, the paper towels were tearing before I could even get them out. I ended up taking our old baby wipe container (rectangular-shaped), tearing all the papertowels off the roll, and storing them in there. It only took me a few minutes and it filled the entire box. Next time, I will tearing them up and putting them in the box first and using less water.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
We Switched to Progressive Car Insurance
In one of our attempts at saving money, we decided to go out and get some quotes for car insurance. We checked out Progressive and it is significantly less than our current car insurance, which is ANPAC. We ended up switching for a savings of $400 per year.
This was kind of a hard decision because ANPAC currently refunds a percentage of our premium for every year we do not have any accidents. But that's if we don't have any accidents and we don't get it until the following year. This year the refund is about $500. We still get it even though we canceled our insurance with them (they had already mailed the check). But I figure that this is similar to lending them $100 interest-free. I would rather have the $400 savings now and put it on our credit cards. Whether this was the right decision, only time will tell.
This was kind of a hard decision because ANPAC currently refunds a percentage of our premium for every year we do not have any accidents. But that's if we don't have any accidents and we don't get it until the following year. This year the refund is about $500. We still get it even though we canceled our insurance with them (they had already mailed the check). But I figure that this is similar to lending them $100 interest-free. I would rather have the $400 savings now and put it on our credit cards. Whether this was the right decision, only time will tell.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
August 2009 - Success!!
So it looks like we are back on track with decreasing our credit card debt! Down almost $900 from the month before. I wish we hadn't lost our momentum of decreasing the total debt, but it's a good thing since it forced me to sit down and actually write out a budget for the month. I am doing the same thing for September, but since my husband is having a job change, I'm not real sure of the expected income. I was able to at least get the bare minimum down for expenses and we'll just go from there. Once I get an estimated amount, I will lock in the numbers for September.
Some things I did notice in my attempts at following a budget was that I need to give us a little room in the entertainment department, I need to work on anticipating things in the upcoming month, and I really need to work on sticking to what I've come up with. Last month, we did not budget any money for eating out or for entertainment. So what did we do? We spent $167.21 in dining out/entertainment. We did the same thing the month before. So this month, I am allotting money for dining out and some events happening this month that I'm sure I will want to go to. Instead of telling myself I can't go and then going over budget, I am going to set aside a small amount of money and try staying within my limits.
On a positive note, we were under in our gasoline budget ($150 for both cars) and just $9.50 over in our grocery budget ($250 for the month). Another thing we did this month was switch completely over to cash. So while we did go over budget in some areas, it was all with our own cash so nothing went on the credit cards. We also managed to pay off three of our credit cards!! Yes, they were for small amounts, but I'll take it! Now we only have two left. Technically, it's three, but the third one is used for business expenses and will be paid off once we receive the expense check. Luckily, the majority of our credit card debt is on one card that has a 3.68% APR for the life of the balance. So we are paying about $4.00 in interest per month on that card. Once we get the other one paid off, we will start really knocking the money down!!
Once we are done with the credit card debt, we will start working on the student loans ($29K). We are also building up our emergency fund savings account and we are hoping to buy a new used car and pay cash for it! And we are doing all of this on one income so that I can stay home with the kids! I am so proud of us!!
Some things I did notice in my attempts at following a budget was that I need to give us a little room in the entertainment department, I need to work on anticipating things in the upcoming month, and I really need to work on sticking to what I've come up with. Last month, we did not budget any money for eating out or for entertainment. So what did we do? We spent $167.21 in dining out/entertainment. We did the same thing the month before. So this month, I am allotting money for dining out and some events happening this month that I'm sure I will want to go to. Instead of telling myself I can't go and then going over budget, I am going to set aside a small amount of money and try staying within my limits.
On a positive note, we were under in our gasoline budget ($150 for both cars) and just $9.50 over in our grocery budget ($250 for the month). Another thing we did this month was switch completely over to cash. So while we did go over budget in some areas, it was all with our own cash so nothing went on the credit cards. We also managed to pay off three of our credit cards!! Yes, they were for small amounts, but I'll take it! Now we only have two left. Technically, it's three, but the third one is used for business expenses and will be paid off once we receive the expense check. Luckily, the majority of our credit card debt is on one card that has a 3.68% APR for the life of the balance. So we are paying about $4.00 in interest per month on that card. Once we get the other one paid off, we will start really knocking the money down!!
Once we are done with the credit card debt, we will start working on the student loans ($29K). We are also building up our emergency fund savings account and we are hoping to buy a new used car and pay cash for it! And we are doing all of this on one income so that I can stay home with the kids! I am so proud of us!!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Penny Pinchin' Mama by Jill Cooper
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4328735.Penny_Pinchin_Mama_500_ways_I_lived_on_500_a_month">Penny Pinchin' Mama 500 ways I lived on $500 a month by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/113181.Jill_Cooper">Jill CooperMy rating: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69477262">4 of 5 starsGreat money-saving ideas that people probably hadn't thought of before. Good to have in case we are ever in a financial bind. :)
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2520645-monica">View all my reviews >>
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Digging Out of Debt
Dig Out of Debt Over 1000 of the Best Ideas From LivingOnADime.com by Jill CooperMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book had some good money-saving ideas in it. Some of the situations did not apply to me personally, but overall it was a good read for some ideas on saving even more money.
View all my reviews >>
Dining on a Dime Cookbook
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194143.Dining_on_a_Dime_1000_Money_Saving_Recipes_and_Tips">Dining on a Dime: 1000 Money Saving Recipes and Tips by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/113182.Tawra_Jean_Kellam">Tawra Jean KellamMy rating: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68092409">5 of 5 starsI love all the money saving tips and simple recipes in this book. Most of the recipes have minimal ingredients that I already having in my pantry. I'm already using some of them... especially the many different ways to use those 10 lbs bags of potatoes I buy!
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2520645-monica">View all my reviews >>
July 2009 Bust - New Plan for August
So as you can see from our total credit card debt this month, we went up instead of down. Our total debt (including student loans, which is not included in the total on the sidebar) went up approximately $200 in July. Honestly, I'm not sure what happened. I'm having some trouble with my calculations. I think I'm adding some numbers twice since I am adding what was spent on credit cards along with payments made on credit cards. So putting some things on the credit cards and trying to track them along with trying to pay down the debt is getting too complicated.
So beginning in the month of August we are going totally to cash. We were putting gas, our Netflix subscription, and my son's swim class onto a credit cards, but we are making the switch to cash this month. This means that we'll be making double the payment this month (paying off last month's transactions while paying for this month as well). With this switch, I've had to get serious about a budget.
Previously, I was winging it with the budget with some general ideas in my head about what we would be spending money on. However, with the switch to cash, I've had to account for every penny in the month of August. I made up a proposed budget and now we are just in the process of just trying to stick to it. We tried to do another money-spending freeze this past week with groceries and such, but ended up using the grocery money for some unplanned things. The money-spending freeze was a flop. Now, I'm just trying to stay on budget for the rest of the month to see if that helps the total debt go down.
We are feeling a little cautious this month as well since there is a chance my husband may lose his job in the next 30 days. I'm thankful that we are already living frugally so I'm not overly concerned about what we would do if he lost his job, but it does put a dent in the goal of getting our credit card debt paid off. I have faith that everything will work out though.
So beginning in the month of August we are going totally to cash. We were putting gas, our Netflix subscription, and my son's swim class onto a credit cards, but we are making the switch to cash this month. This means that we'll be making double the payment this month (paying off last month's transactions while paying for this month as well). With this switch, I've had to get serious about a budget.
Previously, I was winging it with the budget with some general ideas in my head about what we would be spending money on. However, with the switch to cash, I've had to account for every penny in the month of August. I made up a proposed budget and now we are just in the process of just trying to stick to it. We tried to do another money-spending freeze this past week with groceries and such, but ended up using the grocery money for some unplanned things. The money-spending freeze was a flop. Now, I'm just trying to stay on budget for the rest of the month to see if that helps the total debt go down.
We are feeling a little cautious this month as well since there is a chance my husband may lose his job in the next 30 days. I'm thankful that we are already living frugally so I'm not overly concerned about what we would do if he lost his job, but it does put a dent in the goal of getting our credit card debt paid off. I have faith that everything will work out though.
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