The $$$ Diet has begun. So far so good. We will reach our savings goal by:
1. Avoiding unnecessary or unplanned spending entirely for 3 months
2. Shopping frugally and spending as little as possible on the things we do need to buy or do.
3. Cutting back on regular monthly expenses (ie: utilities, insurance) any way possible.
4. Exploring creative avenues to bring in more money.
Today, I will write a menu for the week based on food we already have and what is on sale this week at the grocery stores near my house. Albertsons has double coupons again, so I will look for things I can stock up for the next 3 months. I’m also going to clean and organize my house (the never ending project). I’ll try to find some things I can sell on craigslist or ebay while I’m at it. At the very least, I can donate items to Value Village and get a 10% off coupon.
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Family Meeting
Thursday night we gathered for the family meeting. For anyone who doesn’t know us, our family currently consists of my husband (whom we will call $Dad) and our 14 year old son (hereby referred to as Small Change). We have three adult daughters and a three year old grandson, who all live on their own.
To start off, I just want to say how cool it is that my husband and son are totally on board with the plan. My husband is pretty frugal (except when his fingers do the ordering online; more on that in future blogs). Our son likes to spend money, but tends not to be a kid who begs or demands lots of new or name brand things. So I am blessed to have the support of my family as we embark on the adventure.
We accomplished quite a bit during the meeting. First, we went over our current spending. I had printed out the report from Quicken showing our total and monthly average spending in each category we track. The amount of money we have been spending on food, both in groceries and eating out borders on obscene to me. We were all pretty shocked to see the numbers. Because my husband and I are both physically active and compete in some sporting events, our fitness category was surprisingly high as well. The category “household” serves as a catch all for lots of stuff that doesn’t really have a home (toilet paper, pillows, makeup, mysterious things $Dad orders online, etc). This category is seriously bloated and needs to shape up quickly!
We are already pretty frugal in a lot of ways. We share one paid-off car ($Dad has a motorcycle too). We don’t have cable television, we use coupons (sporadically), and shop almost exclusively at thrift and discount stores for clothing, shoes, etc. It’s embarrassing though to admit how much we could cut out of the “fat” spending categories, so we’ll target those intensely.
After looking at the numbers, we agreed on how much we will try to cut from each category. I won’t post numbers because that’s a bit personal (and quite frankly I’m ashamed of some of our waste). I will post percentages saved and a total saved at the end, though. Overall, we are attempting to cut our monthly expenses by at least 30% with our new sleek budget. We did try to think ahead over the next three months to plan expenses. Things like birthdays, tools, auto services, etc were included in our plan.
Next, we determined what we will do with the money we save. This is where the meeting got fun. We decided that we are in agreement on a trip to Southern California, hopefully in early December. $Dad is trying to qualify to run the Boston Marathon next spring. He was ready to go, but an injury stopped him from qualifying in June. He is still recovering and if he heals on schedule, he plans to run a marathon in Sacramento, CA on Dec. 6th. Then we’ll drive down toward the Big Mouse and spend a week having fun in the sun. Neither $Dad or Small Change have been to Disneyland, so I’m excited for their first trip to the “Happiest Place on Earth.” Hopefully, we will be able to save more than the money we need for the trip. That money will go into our savings account to pay for the trip to Boston and for some other things we’ll need to spend money on in 2010.
We also agreed to one last splurge Sunday night. We went out to dinner at Red Robin and enjoyed every bite of our last dinner out for three months.
This blog has run a bit long. If you are following the diet along with us, I highly recommend the family meeting to get everyone on the same page. Please post and let us all know how it goes!
To start off, I just want to say how cool it is that my husband and son are totally on board with the plan. My husband is pretty frugal (except when his fingers do the ordering online; more on that in future blogs). Our son likes to spend money, but tends not to be a kid who begs or demands lots of new or name brand things. So I am blessed to have the support of my family as we embark on the adventure.
We accomplished quite a bit during the meeting. First, we went over our current spending. I had printed out the report from Quicken showing our total and monthly average spending in each category we track. The amount of money we have been spending on food, both in groceries and eating out borders on obscene to me. We were all pretty shocked to see the numbers. Because my husband and I are both physically active and compete in some sporting events, our fitness category was surprisingly high as well. The category “household” serves as a catch all for lots of stuff that doesn’t really have a home (toilet paper, pillows, makeup, mysterious things $Dad orders online, etc). This category is seriously bloated and needs to shape up quickly!
We are already pretty frugal in a lot of ways. We share one paid-off car ($Dad has a motorcycle too). We don’t have cable television, we use coupons (sporadically), and shop almost exclusively at thrift and discount stores for clothing, shoes, etc. It’s embarrassing though to admit how much we could cut out of the “fat” spending categories, so we’ll target those intensely.
After looking at the numbers, we agreed on how much we will try to cut from each category. I won’t post numbers because that’s a bit personal (and quite frankly I’m ashamed of some of our waste). I will post percentages saved and a total saved at the end, though. Overall, we are attempting to cut our monthly expenses by at least 30% with our new sleek budget. We did try to think ahead over the next three months to plan expenses. Things like birthdays, tools, auto services, etc were included in our plan.
Next, we determined what we will do with the money we save. This is where the meeting got fun. We decided that we are in agreement on a trip to Southern California, hopefully in early December. $Dad is trying to qualify to run the Boston Marathon next spring. He was ready to go, but an injury stopped him from qualifying in June. He is still recovering and if he heals on schedule, he plans to run a marathon in Sacramento, CA on Dec. 6th. Then we’ll drive down toward the Big Mouse and spend a week having fun in the sun. Neither $Dad or Small Change have been to Disneyland, so I’m excited for their first trip to the “Happiest Place on Earth.” 10% of the money we save beyond our normal spending will be given to charity. We decided to use the money to buy animals for families in the Developing World through World Vision. They have an awesome online catalogue that shows how many chickens, goats, cows or ?? your donation will purchase. Small Change wants to buy at least two goats and a pen full of chickens. If your family is doing the $Diet with us and would like to pool money for this, that would be awesome!
We also agreed to one last splurge Sunday night. We went out to dinner at Red Robin and enjoyed every bite of our last dinner out for three months. This blog has run a bit long. If you are following the diet along with us, I highly recommend the family meeting to get everyone on the same page. Please post and let us all know how it goes!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Countdown to the Diet
Only 5 days to go until our family starts our $$ Diet. There are some things we are doing to get ready. I thought I would share these with you all and maybe you can add comments about what you are doing to get ready if you are starting the diet with us.
1. Analyze current spending. We keep track of all of our spending in Quicken, which downloads transactions from our bank. This system has worked really well for us. I know others use different methods and I'd welcome comments sharing what you use and recommend. If you don't currently track spending, this will be a VITAL first step. You won't know how much you save unless you track your current spending. To analyze our spending, I will print a report of our average spending by category for the past year. I like to back at least 12 months to give myself an accurate view of things that might come up in the next few months and how to save for upcoming expenses.
2. Family Meeting. We are planning the meeting for tomorrow night. We are helping some friends get ready for a wedding so we'll have to keep it short (the boys will appreciate this). At the meeting we will all go over the expense reports and see which areas we think could be cut. We'll set a family goal and decide on our incentives if we reach it. We will also choose a charity to give 10% of our savings. Maybe more than one charity. Won't know until the meeting.
3. Since the diet starts on Monday, we will probably go out to eat Sunday night for a last fling with unnecessary spending before the crack down begins. This meal will probably involve many tears for me, as I truly hate cooking so much that the thought of cooking almost every meal for 3 months makes me question this whole idea (even though it was mine). I'll need lots of support from my friends who like to cook.
So that's our plan for the weekend leading up to the diet. What will your family be doing to get ready?
1. Analyze current spending. We keep track of all of our spending in Quicken, which downloads transactions from our bank. This system has worked really well for us. I know others use different methods and I'd welcome comments sharing what you use and recommend. If you don't currently track spending, this will be a VITAL first step. You won't know how much you save unless you track your current spending. To analyze our spending, I will print a report of our average spending by category for the past year. I like to back at least 12 months to give myself an accurate view of things that might come up in the next few months and how to save for upcoming expenses.
2. Family Meeting. We are planning the meeting for tomorrow night. We are helping some friends get ready for a wedding so we'll have to keep it short (the boys will appreciate this). At the meeting we will all go over the expense reports and see which areas we think could be cut. We'll set a family goal and decide on our incentives if we reach it. We will also choose a charity to give 10% of our savings. Maybe more than one charity. Won't know until the meeting.
3. Since the diet starts on Monday, we will probably go out to eat Sunday night for a last fling with unnecessary spending before the crack down begins. This meal will probably involve many tears for me, as I truly hate cooking so much that the thought of cooking almost every meal for 3 months makes me question this whole idea (even though it was mine). I'll need lots of support from my friends who like to cook.
So that's our plan for the weekend leading up to the diet. What will your family be doing to get ready?
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
How It Works!
Here is how our family is doing the experiment. Feel free to change whatever works for you.
From September 1 - November 30, 2009, we will live as frugally as possible. We will analyze every aspect of our current spending to see what we can cut, at least temporarily. I will chronicle the adventure here on the blog and in the Facebook Group, Dollar Diet. I'll share our ups and downs, tips we learn, what we save and how we're all feeling about it as we go.
We have a family goal to reach as we slash our spending. We will increase our savings and save for a trip to Disneyland. I'll post a blog after our family meeting in the next few days, sharing more specific goals.
We will give 10% of what we save over our normal spending to a charitable cause. Our family will determine what organization(s) we will give to at our meeting. I'll post the details in a few days.
I would love to have others join in the experiment and share tips and strategies as we all go along.
Happy SAVING!!
-$ Diva
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