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How to save money in these times?
We just took a mid-afternoon food dash and while doing so, discussed how we will stop doing so.
From now on, it’s all about budgeting, saving and living a much more frugal life (eek) so as to fulfill dreams such as buying a house.
So, we dashed back to the office and I signed into Mint, which was meant to solve all my budgeting issues while showing me how awful I am at spending currently, so I would have the kick up the butt I needed to get serious about this whole saving thing again… For those of you who didn’t know me when I was 12 and like the MASTER saver, I used to be great, supurb even. This is because I am from a long line of savers and it came naturally to me. But then I left the family nest and it no longer came naturally to me and now I am useless.
But Mint didn’t help me. I don’t even understand how to use it and every time I go to do something it doesn’t even let me do it in the page, it pops up another page on top. I am gutted because I was super inspired about saving and now the inspiration has died.
So, now I am going to make Verity make me a budget (hi Verity can you please make me a budget?) because although she too suffers with the practical side of things, I think theoretically she has it sussed, and she has more time than me, or is better at procrastinating.
And then I WILL stick to it. Because isn’t the first rule of getting something done writing it down and measuring it? I think also that saving needs to be a competitive sport, much like eating has turned into over the past few weekends.
Does anyone else have a successful savings strategy they can pass on?
June 10th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
A way that might work for you would be to get rid of any credit you have (get a prepaid credit card - kiwibank does them) - then pay yourself what seems like a small but sensible amount and leave the rest of the money in the business accounts. That way you’ve got guaranteed savings (and don’t take the DF credit card out of the office hahaha). :)
June 10th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Here’s a really simple idea for you : don’t spend as much.
June 10th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Here’s a novel idea … give up the house dream. Having no mortgage and no debts is a wonderful thing!
June 11th, 2008 at 4:37 am
Can Verity please make me a budget too? Please?
June 11th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Brenda, hmm. yeah I suppose more and more people are doing that. I’m not really sure why I cling to it other than that I’m quite the home body these days and would love to have a little nest. That’s probably just weird.
Owld Grumbleton. Ha ha. Yup. I’m right there with you.
Ben. Yeah the credit card doesn’t really get overused anyhoo and gets paid off weekly. And actually it saves on bank fees.
Claire. I’m sure she’ll sort you out :)
June 11th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
As someone who has been below Zero a few times, I do not budget per se, but try to keep a running total spend in my head when times are tight.
No reason not to keep the house dream, but buying now is financially silly. Find somewhere to buy, then go rent somewhere else for 2/3rd the mortgage payments and live in luxury for a few years. There will not be a lot of appreciation on the house and may well be losses.
Spend less than you earn, but stay approximate- if you count every penny then it is stressful, but as you buy everything ask yourself is it worthwhile?
Watch out for repeated expensive coffees (make your own), bought lunches ever day, buying motor vehicles, buying anything on credit (especially cars, and houses right now), and unnecessary toys. All that should stop when times are tough.
Most of all, work on the other end - increase how much you earn and your capacity to earn more.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I feel like I need to clarify at this point that I’m not even close to being in dire straights… I am, in fact saving money as we speak, but I want to save MORE. (ha ha although I am now wondering how close I was to being considered a charity case, i could have put a paypal donate button on the blog)
Yes. Lunches, man oh man, it’s hard to settle for a sandwich when there is curry! Thank goodness I never caught onto the coffee craze.
Lance, I know what you mean. I think when you are constantly taking business risks, you get used to money quite literally coming and going. I lived on negative money for so long, I just got used to accepting that if you have it, you spend it. But now the quarter century is heading closer, I don’t want that life too much longer! :)
Yes the house will not be purchased for a few years yet, but when the time is right, I want a whopping deposit ready to go. :)
Thanks for the tips! It’s funny how simple, practical tips can be so helpful!
June 11th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
One good motivator is to apply current spending amounts to *actual* items in your future house. That means, instead of thinking ‘this coffee is only $4, that won’t help with a $25,000 deposit’ you think ‘this $4 is a plant in the garden’.
Build your house in your mind as you save and don’t spend. Buy it one nail and one floorboard at a time, so it’s a real thing, rather than an abstract ‘deposit’.
Cheers,
Miraz
June 12th, 2008 at 10:33 am
As to tools, we tried different ways to do our personal budget, and then finally discovered YNAB (http://www.youneedabudget.com/) and haven’t looked back since.
The pitch might be a little hokey, but once you start using it and start getting it, it just works. And they just released a Mac version. Being self-employed, it’s even better because you’re always living on last months income so you actually know ahead of time what you can budget from without guessing.
June 12th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I know what you mean about MINT. I signed up 6 months ago and never got around to using it’s overwhelming feature set.
Out of those types of frustrations a friend and I developed [figuretree.com - lists and numbers]. It is terribly featureless (which we like) and developing a personal budget as well as product costing for our business using figuretree helps to keep track of where spending occurs.
Don’t expect much more than a web calculator with memory (money in, money -out). But then again, things can get unnecessarily complicated for no good reason.
ps. stoked i finally found your blog.
June 12th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Hey Kristin!
Yay! I just looked over your sites again :) Figuretree is super awesome!
June 20th, 2008 at 10:39 am
well I’ve had a think about the personal budget thing, and have decided that the best way to do a budget is on a percentage basis, which also makes you think more seriously about what percentage of your weekly income you are spending on well, crap.
For example, at this point I am currently spending roughly 60% of MY income on rent, power, and internet expenses. Of the remaining 40% (or more, damn you overdraft!) over 3/4’s of it goes towards snacking. Yup just snacking.
So I think that the best way to do a budget is to take your income and minus your necessary expenses, and with that remaining amount, percentage it up! that way you won’t be thinking along the lines of: I’ll give myself $30 for dining out etc and then you go wait! that means I can only go out 3 times :s Instead you’ll be thinking, whoa! 40% of my spending towards dining out? I don’t think so! let’s take that down to 30%
Or something like that
It’s only in early stages
June 20th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I’m thinking the early stages thinking is going very well.
And anyway, when IWillLoookAfterYourHandbagDog.com takes off, we wont need to even budget at all!