New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year!  

So, obviously it's the start of a new year which means the start of a new budgeting year.  So, if you tracked your spending last year, now is the time to look at some yearly comparisons. (It doesn't matter if you didn't track your spending the whole year, just use what you have.).  

Some simple comparisons that I did are that I added up the actual spending in each category and the budget in each category.  Then I subtracted the two to find out how I did on a large basis at estimating my monthly spending in each category.  Next, I divided my actual spending by the number of months I tracked my spending (in my case 8).  This gives me a monthly spending total in each category.   These are then used to make the new budget, with revisions if there was unusual spending.  For example, we had cable for 6 months in 2011 but we cancelled it so I would take that out of my monthly budget for 2012.

BUT, before you make up your budget for 2012 the most important thing to do is sit down with your family (if you have one) and come up with what you want to do this year with your money (a yearly goals type thing).  For example, do you have debt you want to pay off, do you want to make a major purchase like a house or car, do you want to go on a holiday, how much do you want to spend on birthdays, how much do you want to spend on 2012 Christmas, etc.  You see there is no reason to make a budget to just track spending.  That is a whole lot of work for nothing.  If you make a budget to reach your monetary goals that otherwise seemed out of reach without going into debt, that is a whole different story.

Then write your budget and stick to it and see your goals, hopefully, come to pass.

Next time I'll write about some of the categories I have in my budget, if you are starting a new budget.

Laundry Detergent

So, I recently read in a Consumer Reports magazine that basically the powder detergent was just as good as liquid detergent. 

Recently I ran out of my liquid detergent (which I switched to a few years ago due to white detergent spots) and since the liquid was more expensive per load, I decided to give the powdered detergent a try again.  Well, it's been going well.  I think so far I have had one load with white detergent spots and I've probably done between 5-10 loads of laundry with it.

Pregnancy Spending to Date

So, I'm pretty sure that you all know that I am pregnant.  I have just over two months to go.  So, I thought I'd go through my budget book and add up all the spending so far on the kid for you.

The first thing we bought was for $3 at a garage sale for a nursing pillow.
$1 at a garage sale for a front baby carrier
$20 for a crib from friends that came with the mattress, some blankets, and a girly bedding set we aren't going to use
$274.38 for a jogging stroller/infant car seat combo and $136 for a starter set of 6 cloth diapers, a cloth diaper bag, and a girly outfit that we received a cheque from my husbands parents for.
$7.08 for nail clippers and disposable nursing pads
$13.48 for a pair of neutral cords and 3 boys tops from a consignment store.
$75 for prenatal classes

As gifts from my husbands parents we have also received some towels, blankets, bibs, etc. and my husbands change table and dresser from when he was a kid.

As gifts from my parents we have/will recieve the bedding set, rocker, baby bath tub, various clothes, play pen, etc.

On holidays this year for fun we purchased a towel and a nursery calendar.

So, that is most of our nursery items...  I feel like we most of the items we need but that we have spent very little on them.

Truck Insurance

In a prior post I wrote about how we were thinking of cancelling the insurance on our truck for the winter.  Well, we did it last week.   We got all our firewood in and no Christmas tree yet but we got about half the money back on the insurance so I'm sure we can figure out how to get a Christmas tree home some other way.  In addition to the insurance savings, I do not have to budget for about a tank of gas a month on the truck.

If we absolutely do need to use the truck, we will put temporary insurance on it but that should not cost the amount that we got back in insurance.

Bank Accounts

Let me start with the basics to me. The first thing that I recommend is that you know what kind of main account you have, and therefore, the related fees, transaction limits, etc. Then find out the same thing on your other accounts (savings, etc.). This will help you to not spend any more than is necessary on banking fees.

The second thing for you to know is that in Canada, any savings that is linked to your chequing should be free. If you are paying something for it, well, then you are either making debit card purchases or something else to incur fees on the account.

OK, so you think those things are pretty basic. Good news! Then you are at where my husband and I are at. We have the appropriate type account for the amount of transactions, etc that we do a month, however, we can't figure out why we should have to pay fees on our bank account. So, we have two options that we see. Option one is to change to an account and reduce our transactions to an account that is cheaper/could be free. We are not sure that we want to do this. Option two is to change banks to an account that will allow us to do what we do and charge us less/not charge us anything. This does exist but we haven't made up our mind yet. I will let you know.

Hosting a Dinner Party

Hosting a Dinner Party – October 18, 11

So, a couple of Saturdays ago I hosted a dinner party at our house.   Now, I am not going to write that it is the cheapest thing to host but there are some ways to keep costs lower.  Here is what I did.

The weekend before the party was Thanksgiving and even though I did not have the menu, etc planned at that time there were certain things that I knew I would need for the party regardless and they were on sale for Thanksgiving.  This was items like sparkling grape juice, pop and juices to make punch, and fancy pickles and olives.

When I planned the party it was a fall themed party so accordingly the menu followed suit.  This helped me save costs by being able to purchase some in season menu items.   I planned a boneless skinless chicken breast main course.  Expensive, yes, but less expensive that some other cuts of meat.

Also, when I went shopping for the menu items I wrote a list of the items that I would need to buy and on certain of the specialty items I put quantities.  This helped me to buy the exact amount needed for the dish.

The best thing about a dinner party, of course, is the leftover food.  YUM. YUM.  Of course, that saves money as why would you want to eat out when you have this fancy, yummy food sitting at home that only needs to be reheated?

Wood Stove

Our house has natural gas heat as well as a wood stove.  We enjoy the wood heat very much and in the winter there are few things better than sitting in front of the nice warm heat on a cold day. 

It's not winter yet, only fall.  Let's not rush things here!  The reason for this post is that these days it is around 10'C so not to cold but definitely a chill in the air.  Now we could just turn our furnace up and have it come on occasionally but we have the wood stove.  So, we take advantage of the “free” heat and keep our house as warm as we want too!

However, there are other ways to take advantage of the wood heat.   You may tell me it's heating my house, saving me money on my heat bills; isn't that enough?  Maybe for you but I think there is at least a couple of other ways to take advantage of that heat.

The first is dry your clothes with it.  It's pretty cheap to buy a clothes rack or an indoor clothes line and put it up right next to your wood stove.  It's going to save you money in the long run and if you are like me you are used to hanging your clothes to dry on the line in the summer anyway.  The best part, no clothespins.

The second way is to cook your meals on it.  WHAT?!?!? Now I am not talking all your meals or anything like that, unless, of course, you want too.  However, in the winter with company we will often hang out in the wood stove room (downstairs in our house) as it is very warm there.  So, I bring my kettle down and heat up the tea there.  It's just as easy and we aren't in a hurry.   Also, if you are making turkey soup, chili or something else like that that has to sit on the stove for a long time on low heat and needs to be checked on every now and then.  You can do it on your wood stove.  You have to add fuel to your wood stove anyway every now and then so just check/stir your food while you are at it.