Monthly Archives: May 2009

Thoughts on our first cash-only weekend

We made it through our first cash-only weekend! It has been quite a challenge, but it’s actually been fun! Here are some highlights:

Successes

We didn’t use our debit cards once! The only money we spent was from the $90 we withdrew on Saturday.

We also didn’t go over budget! After buying groceries and seeing a matinee, we have $20 left. This is the exact amount we budgeted for household expenses. Because we didn’t need any household items this week, we’ll hang on to that $20 for a later week when we’ll inevitably need more than $20 for necessary household expenses.

The biggest victory is that I’m not dreading our bottom line. Most weekends, I cringe when I look at Mint the following week and see how much we spent. This week, I know exactly how much we spent, and I know we didn’t blow our budget. Yay!

Challenges

This afternoon, the weather was beautiful and I felt the urge to go out to lunch someplace with patio seating. Because we didn’t have cash for it in the budget, we didn’t go. It was tough, though.

Instead, we took a drive to the beach, walked the dog around a nearby lake, and got some work done. In the end, our choice was healthier for us physically and financially, so I’d say our cash-only budget is having positive effects beyond our bank accounts.

Setbacks

We technically didn’t follow our own rules. Because we were $9 under budget for groceries, we should have ended the weekend with $29 in pocket. Part of the deal was that we would hang on to extra cash if we went under budget for later weeks or something fun at the end of the summer. Instead of hanging on to it, we spent an extra $4 over our entertainment budget because the new Pixar movie “Up” wasn’t playing at the cheap theater. We also picked up a couple extra items at the grocery store for $3 total.

After a weekend of success (with our cash-only budget and with my diet), I was seriously craving ice cream. But I couldn’t bear to break the $20 bill that had survived the weekend. I had $1 in my pocket, plus we had change scattered around the house and in the car. We scrounged together $2.50 and headed to the grocery store to pick up some ice cream sandwiches.

While it was technically cheating, it was definitely the most fun we’ve had on a cash budget. Working hard to scrounge together the money for that ice cream made it that much sweeter, and knowing that we could only spend $2.50 limited our choices.

My unwillingness to part with that $20 bill already shows a change in how I’m viewing money, particulary cash. In the past, I would have viewed that as “extra money” already removed from our account. Now I view it as “household expenses” money that we’ll most likely need in a future week. I didn’t want to spend it, because I knew we would probably need it later to avoid using our debit cards.

If we had gone to the grocery store to pick up ice cream with our debit cards, we might have spent $4 on specialty ice cream instead of the store-brand ice cream sandwiches we chose. I hate to admit it, but when it’s only $4 coming from our bank account instead of breaking a whole $20 bill, I would have been much more likely to spend it. Those little purchases add up, though, which is the reason we’re trying this experiment.

Overall, I think our first weekend was a success! And so far we’re having fun. It’s certainly changing the way we view money. I’m looking forward to more challenges and successes for the next three months. Stay tuned!

TGIF Round Up: No spend summer edition

Our no spend summer begins tomorrow, and I have to admit I’m a little nervous. Tomorrow we’ll withdraw $90 from our bank account for the first time, and that will be our only spending money for the entire week. It seems like a lot of money, and yet I already know exactly how it will be spent.

When I think about changing our lifestyle so drastically for a whole three months, I feel a little overwhelmed. But then I remind myself of the benefits, and I know it will be totally worth it. I’m excited about the challenge! I know that looking at our budget every month and knowing we’re not going over will be a huge encouragement.

And now for a round up:

That’s all I’ve got for the week. Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Our “no spend summer” starts this weekend

Last week, I wrote about the steps we’re taking to make sure we can get through the summer on my income alone. Throughout the year, Tony is paid to teach undergraduate classes at his university. Now that it’s summer, he won’t be receiving a paycheck. We knew this was coming all year, so we saved enough to cover his income through the summer without using our emergency fund. But now we want to try to hang on to that money, too.

We’ve come up with a new plan to ensure that we don’t overspend and we’re able to save. It’s something we’ve never tried before, but we’re excited about the challenge. Beginning this weekend and continuing through the months of June, July, and August, we’ll not only be limiting our spending, but we’ll be living on a cash budget.

Here’s how it works:

I added up our total income for the summer without Tony’s paychecks. Then I divided that number by three months to determine our total monthly income. I added up all of our fixed expenses — rent, utilities, and other bills — and subtracted that total from our monthly income. After paying all of our fixed expenses, we’ll have $370 left each month. That means we can only spend $90 a week on groceries, entertainment, and other expenses. This is only a little less than what we would spend anyway, but lately we’ve been more and more complacent. I really want to make sure we’re not tempted to go over.

Each week before we head to the grocery store, we’ll withdrawal $90 in cash from our bank account. This will be our only spending money for the entire week. We’ll have to work extra hard to stay within our grocery budget, and if we go over, it’ll reduce the amount we have for entertainment and other expenses. I’m anticipating that we’ll spend $60 or less each week on groceries, $20 on household expenses, and $10 on entertainment.

Our idea for a cash budget for the summer was inspired by Small Notebook’s “no spend month.” It’s essentially the same concept, only we’re not limiting our spending quite as much as her family does so we can maintain it over three months instead of just one.

As an incentive to hang on to as much cash as we can, we’ve decided that whatever cash is left at the end of the summer will go to something fun. We’ll see how much is left before we go making any plans with it. :)

I initially decided to pause saving for the summer, but based on this budget, we’ll be able to save $250 a month (about half of what we normally save). At the end of the summer, we’ll be able to put the $2,000 we saved to supplement our summer income into our regular savings.

I’m a little nervous because I’ve struggled with cash spending in the past. But we’re really excited to take on this new challenge! I think it’ll be a good exercise to get us back on track. For the past few months, we’ve been a little too comfortable. Each month, we go a little more over budget on things like food and shopping. Hopefully this summer will get us back on track.

Our no spend summer begins this weekend. Any tips on how to make a cash budget work?

Vacationing vs. living like locals: Can we afford an extended stay in Europe?

For the past few days, Tony and I have been going over an idea that might be completely insane.

I’ve written a lot about our plan for a two-week vacation in Europe next May. Both of us always wished we’d taken the opportunity to study abroad in college, and this vacation seemed like the next best thing — one last big trip before we start our family.

One thing has continued to plague me, though. We didn’t really want a vacation. We didn’t want to stay in hotels and live like tourists for a whirlwind two-week trip. We wanted the opportunity to live like locals, absorb the culture, and experience life in another part of the world. We don’t want to move abroad permanently, though. Living 800 miles from family is hard enough; I can’t imagine living an ocean away.

While talking about this, we started considering a crazy idea.

Tony will finish student teaching in December 2010. It’ll be another 4-6 months before he can start looking for teaching jobs for the following fall. We were already wondering how to spend that time. What if we spent two or three of those months in Europe, living like locals instead of tourists?

Obviously, two or three months in Europe will cost more than 2 weeks. But after doing some research, I’m surprised to discover the difference isn’t that huge. Living like a tourist costs $200-$400 a day with restaurant meals, hotels, and excessive travel. Living like a local costs much less, and since we’d be there in the late winter/early spring, everything would cost less than we’d pay in May, the beginning of the high season.

Our biggest expense would be housing. Renting a furnished apartment in France is less expensive per night than a hotel, but still more expensive than we’d pay in normal rent. We’d likely spend about $425 a week on housing or $1700 a month (utilities included). Ouch. But we could make up for the high cost of housing by cooking our own food, avoiding expensive tourist activities, and living frugally.

Based on rough calculations, we’d need to save $7,500 – $10,000 for two months in Europe. Here’s the breakdown:

Airfare: $1200
Housing/utilities: $3400
Food: $800
Travel: $500 (Trains, bus fare, etc.)
Fun stuff: $800
Total: $6700

I added up all of our regular living expenses that we’ll have to pay while we’re away. We’d be paying these expenses whether we were traveling or not, but I’m including them since travel will delay our job search:

Debt: $400
Travel health insurance: $250? I’ve done some research, but not enough to have a solid estimate.
Cell phone: $200
Total: $850

Based on these calculations, we’d need $7,550 to pay for the trip and our living expenses. I’d be more comfortable if we could save a full $10,000, which would give us a nice cushion when we return to cover our living expenses without using our emergency fund.

That means we’d have to save an additional $1,550 -$4,000 on top of our emergency fund and the $6,000 we already planned to save for Europe. We’d have an extra 7 months to do it. If we really buckle down and put every extra penny into savings, I think we can meet that goal and then some.

Maybe it’s just a pipe dream. It’s certainly not practical at all, but I kind of like the idea of doing something a little crazy and impractical before we settle down and live like adults — as long as we don’t add to our debt or spend our emergency fund. I can think of a million more practical uses for $7,500 — debt repayment, part of a down payment on a house, paying cash for a used car, an extra plush emergency fund. None of them are as appealing to me as this once in a lifetime experience.

So what do you think? Are we completely out of our minds?

Our frugal anniversary trip

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View from the Top of Cape Hatteras

This weekend, we planned to celebrate our first anniversary with a weekend getaway to Charleston, SC. Since we’re working toward so many financial goals, we didn’t want to spend much money on this trip. However, it wasn’t quite as frugal as it could have been. With a $100 hotel room and $50 in boarding fees for our dog plus restaurant meals and entertainment, I had the nagging feeling that we were spending too much.

On Friday afternoon, I checked the weather for Saturday in Charleston. Thundershowers. Though it was disappointing, I just couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on a trip when there was such a high potential for rain all weekend. At the last minute, we canceled our hotel reservation.

I felt good about the decision from a financial perspective, but I still woke up feeling disappointed on Saturday morning. We had both been looking forward to getting away to celebrate our anniversary and holiday weekend. At 8:30 a.m., we made a highly uncharacteristic last minute decision to pack up the dog and our tent and head north for an anniversary camping trip in the Outer Banks.

Last month Tony won $150 in a writing contest, so we decided to use that money for our trip. Here’s the breakdown of what we spent:

Food

We spent $15 at the grocery store on the way out of town for snacks (fruit and nuts), $5 on coffee stops, $30 at the grocery store for camping provisions like hot dogs, chips and charcoal. We were not as frugal as normal at the grocery store, but we had decided to avoid restaurants as much as possible so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of snacks. We went out to lunch Sunday and spent $25, so our food total for two days was a ridiculous $75. Whoops.

Transportation

We used about two tanks of gas round trip ($50). I cashed in some MyPoints for a $25 gas card. I also cashed in a $25 rebate reward from our gas credit card (which we pay in full every month). So we didn’t spend any money out of pocket for gas! We did pay to ride a ferry to one island from another, and the two-hour ride cost $15.

Camping

We stayed at a national park, so camping was free! We were right next to the beach, so we could hear the ocean waves at night. The sky was clear so we left the rain flap off the top of our tent so we could see the stars. It wasn’t quite as comfortable as a hotel, but it certainly had its charms.

Entertainment

We spent the weekend hiking nature trails, hanging out at the campsite, and walking along the beach. In the evening, we played cards by candlelight at our campsite (campfires weren’t allowed on the beach). The only money we spent on entertainment was $14 to climb to the top of the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras. The view was worth every penny!

Dog Boarding

We would have spent $50 to board our dog if we had gone to Charleston. Instead, we brought him with us, so we didn’t pay a dime. And he had a great time outdoors, even if he was a little stressed about sleeping outside.

So instead of spending $150 plus food and entertainment, we spent about $105 for a fantastic weekend. Since we didn’t pay for a hotel, dog boarding or gas, our budget was better spent on good food and fun. Overall, I’m very happy with our decision to cancel the Charleston trip, and we plan to spend a lot more time camping this summer.

Menu plan: 5/23-5/29

We had an incredible but utterly exhausting weekend. We were only gone for two days, but it feels like we’ve been gone a week! I’ll write more about our weekend — and our change of plans that saved us a ton of money — tomorrow. For now, all I can manage is a menu plan for the week.

I’m trying out the low(er) carb thing by cutting breads, pastas, and potatoes from our diet. These are three of our main staples, so menu planning without them is a challenge.

I’ve been struggling to lose a pesky 10 pounds gained over the past year with no luck, and several people have suggested that cutting carbs might be the answer, especially since so much of our diet revolves around unhealthy carbs like bread and pasta. Last week I limited carbs and lost 2 pounds after months of working out and dieting with no results, so I have a feeling it might be working.

I don’t want to do anything too drastic, though. This has to be a lifestyle I can live with, so we’re working on planning our meals around low-fat protein and lots of veggies so we can maintain this new diet long term. And of course, our meals have to be frugal.

Here’s what we came up with this week. I’m pretty proud of how delicious it all looks!

Monday: Mini cheeseburger salad with honey mustard dressing
Tuesday: Fajita grilled chicken  with sauteed onions, peppers, and corn
Wednesday: Chicken kabobs with peanut sauce & steamed vegetables
Thursday: Taco salad
Friday: Tomato-basil baked chicken with spinach salad

Tomato-basil baked chicken

Thin cut boneless, skinless chicken breast
Mozzarella cheese
Can of diced tomatoes
Fresh basil, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sear chicken in hot pan with olive oil on both sides. Finish cooking in oven (about 20-30 minutes). Top with mozzarella in last five minutes and allow to melt. Heat diced tomatoes on stove top. Add salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. Top chicken with diced tomatoes and chopped fresh basil.

We just came up with this recipe, and we haven’t tried it yet. I’ll let you know how it turns out! For more menu plans, check out OrgJunkie.

Have a great Memorial Day everyone!

Celebrating our first (frugal) year of marriage

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He just pronounced us married!

One year ago, my husband and I were celebrating our wedding day. I can’t believe how quickly this year has flown!

I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished in just a year. Our main goal was to begin our life together on the right financial track, and I’m confident that we’ve accomplished that goal and then some!

Here’s what we’ve accomplished in one short year:

It hasn’t been easy for my husband, but he has been incredibly supportive as we adapted to this new lifestyle. When we began living frugally, I was the one constantly reminding him of our goals. Now I love it when he’s the one reminding me. We’re a great team, and I’m excited about all that we’ll accomplish together in the future.

After an amazing year with an amazing partner, I’m looking forward to many frugal years to come!

TGIF Link Round Up: Long Weekend Edition

It’s finally Friday, and I’m looking forward to a long weekend!

This weekend we’re celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary in Charleston, South Carolina. It’s going to be a very frugal trip, and I’ll be sharing the details with you on the trip when we return. :)

But now a round up!

  • The Simple Dollar shares the advantages of spending less. My favorite: saving money is tax free!
  • Northern Cheapskate wrote a great series on budgeting basics. Whether you’re budgeting for the first time or just updating your system, Christina’s tips are a great place to start!
  • At Sense to Save, Kacie recommends breaking your goals into chunks to make them less overwhelming.
  • Megan at Counting my Pennies asks is it worth the time? Frugal people are often willing to go to great lengths to save just a little money. It’s helpful to put things into perspective sometimes! (I’d say most of the time, it’s worth it. Every little bit counts!)
  • Pecuniarities explored the science behind saving money with a two-part series on using thermodynamics to keep your home cool by limiting heat sources and creating a simple frugal cooling system.

I’m heading out of town, but I’m working on scheduling posts for my brief absence. Happy Friday, and enjoy the long weekend!

Earning extra money online without getting a second job

Since part-time job opportunities are slim in this town and we’re trying to get through the summer without spending our savings, I’m looking for ways to earn extra money online.

As you can imagine, most work at home jobs don’t pay much, but I’ve earned about $30 a month plus gift cards and discounts through various online methods.

Blogging

Tony and I both maintain blogs. Unfortunately, we haven’t really made any money yet. I’ve earned a little in advertising, but it just barely covers what I’ve paid in hosting fees and domain name registration. Anyone have any suggestions for ways to monetize a blog without compromising editorial value (i.e. no sponsored posts).

PineCone Research

I’m a PineCone reseach panelist, which pays anywhere from $3-$12 a month. This has been the most consistent online survey site for me. Unfortunately, they’re also very selective when choosing panelists. The only way to sign up is to stumble across a PineCone ad online, and even then they only accept those who fall under the demographics they’re seeking. I signed up several times before I was accepted. If you can get in, though, it’s an easy way to earn a few dollars a month. The surveys can be long and tedious, but the payout is consistent, and you’re paid immediately after completing the survey with no minimum for cashing out. I’ve earned about $60 in 6 months.

MyPoints

MyPoints doesn’t pay in cash, but it pays consistently in gift cards for a wide range of restaurants, gas stations, and stores. Every day I receive offer emails. Most of them just require clicking through to earn points. You can also receive additional points for registering for offers or shopping through their portal. I typically earn enough points for a $25 gift card every 3 months or so, and I seldom sign up for offers or shop online. You can earn rewards more quickly if you’re more aggressive. If you’re interested in signing up, shoot me an email and I’ll send you a referral link!

InboxDollars

InboxDollars doesn’t add up as quickly as PineCone, but requires less time. It works like MyPoints. Every day I receive several emails from them with earning opportunities. For most of the emails, I earn a few cents for clicking through. Some of them are offers that pay a little more and require signing up for something or completing a survey. I’ve earned about $20 through InboxDollars in 6 months, but I’m not very aggressive about earning. The downside — you can’t cash out until your account reaches $30, which takes some time if you’re like me and you rarely sign up for offers. Use my referral link and you’ll get a $5 sign-up bonus!

Ebates

Ebates offers cash-back for shopping done through their portal. You can often earn up to 10% cash back on purchases, and you’ll get a $5 sign-up bonus (paid only after you earn $5 in rebates through purchases). And of course, here’s a referral link that I hope you’ll use if you’re interested in signing up.

YouData

YouData pays consistently every week without a lot of work. All you have to do is fill out some demographic information and log into YouData once a week. You’re paid 10-25 cents for clicking through advertisements chosen specifically for you. I like YouData because it pays every week with no minimum for cashing out. I get anywhere from 75 cents to $1 deposited in my PayPal account each Thursday. Not a lot of money, but that little trickle adds up. I’ve earned about $40 in the past 6 months (roughly $1.50 – $2 a week). If you decide to sign up, do me a favor and use my ID (livingwellonless) as a referral code!

As you can see, you won’t get rich through any of these online earning sites. But they require just a little time every day, and it’s basically money for nothing. I look at it this way — coupon clipping only saves pennies at a time, but the savings adds up. Online money making is the same way. If you’re willing to put in a little work, your earnings will gradually add up.

So now I’m asking you — how do you earn money online?