BS 0.3 - Create and Follow a Written Budget - Part 2

Good evening All!  I hope you're doing well.  How has it gone writing down all of the expenses you can think of?  Don't worry about whether or not you've written every single item down that you pay towards each month and year, we'll check those over as we create a budget in this blog.  Keep in mind that your budget doesn't necessarily have to be the same each month, so if you think of another category to include, just add it in. Simples.

We're still in Baby Step 0.  The past couple of weeks we've taken a look at committing to never borrowing money again (except maybe for a house), committing to walking this financial adventure with your spouse and the importance of creating and following a budget.  My hope is that you're convinced that a budget is the way you and you're spouse are going to make progress through the Baby Steps.

Let's dive right in. There are many ways of creating a budget: pen and paper, an Excel spreadsheet (this is the way we do it), online and apps.  None of these are wrong; use the method you are comfortable and works for you.  You may end up trying a different method after you've tried a first!

Although I haven't used it myself, others highly recommend using Dave Ramsey's FREE budgeting tool called Every Dollar. This is an easy to use web-based budget planner, but unfortunately, the app is not available in the UK. 

No matter which method you use, follow these steps to create a budget:

First - Write down all income streams.  This includes your and your spouse's (if you're married) take-home pay - the amount that gets deposited into your bank account.  Be sure to add in any second jobs, pension income and benefits.  Add it all up. 

Second - List all of your expenses.  Hopefully you've already started this last week, but if not, take the time to look at your bank accounts for deductions, credit card statements for purchases you've made over the past few months and any receipts you've saved for ideas.  Again, this doesn't have to be perfect, but needs to be as close to reality as possible.  I'll give you more ideas in a sec.

Third - Group Expenses. Once you know what your regular expenses are, group them together into categories: Home, Vehicles, Insurance, Giving, Retirement and Other. If you're using an online budget or app, these categories may be named something similar.  If you have debt to repay, you'll want to create a category with all of the company's you owe money to and list the minimum payments next to each of these.

I'd like to give you more ideas of expenses for each of the categories by giving you insight to our budget.

•  Home: 
• Mortgage (or rent)
• Utilites - gas and electricity (you'll want to divide yours if they're supplied by different companies)
• Water
• Cable TV
• Line Rental
• TV Licence
• Council Tax
• Neighbourhood maintenance
• Boiler Service
• Window Cleaner
• House Expenditures - we save each month for upkeep, small pieces of furniture, decorations, landscaping, lighting - not that we spend towards these things each month!
• Vehicles:
• Tax Disks - we have 3 paid-for vehicles (2 cars and a motorcycle)
• MOTs - for each of the vehicles 
• Breakdown service
• Vehicle servicing
• New vehicle purchase - because we're committed to not incurring debt, we save money each month for a new vehicle.  This is an important category that you may want to consider adding after becoming debt free (BS2) and having saved 3-6 months of expenses (BS3)
• Insurance:
• Car insurance - for each vehicle
• Home insurance
• Life insurance
• Travel insurance
• Giving/Tithes: I don't feel comfortable discussing publicly who we donate to, but we do on a monthly basis and this is part of our budget.
• Retirement Savings: this is in addition to pension contributions through work
• University Savings: yes, we're saving now for our daughters' education. This comes in BS5, which we'll discuss when we get there in the Baby Steps series.
• Other: 
• National Trust Membership
• Bank account fee
• Travel/Holiday
• Mobile phones 
• Gym
• Health
• Hair cuts
• Association of Project Management (Hubby's)
• Guest Bed (we're saving for a new guest bed to buy in the next year)
• Disney World 
• School - field trips, PTA fundraisers, school pictures, teachers' gifts
• Babysitting
• Girls' Commission - similar to allowance
• Clothing
• Christmas
• Birthdays
• Gifts for Others
• Fuel
• Groceries
• Restaurants
• Play
• Other - unexpected expenses, like post office and parking

For the items that are annual expenses, I divide the annual amount by 12 (months). and this the monthly amount that is budgeted. For example, MOTs - a MOT for one of our cars is £45. So each month, we budget £3.75. (£45/12 = £3.75). 

Step 4 - Assign Amounts - For each of your items, list the expense.  This may be a real eye opener!

Step 5 - Subtract Expenses from Income to Equal Zero - This is known as a "Zero-Based Budget", whereby you want every single penny allocated to each of the items.  Subtract the amounts from your income and - voila! - you know how much you either have still to allocate (if the difference is positive) or how much you need to cut back by (if the difference is negative).  Ideally you want £0 left... every single penny has a job to do.

Step 6 - Track Your Spending - Pretty much every day, I update my budget for anything we've spent that day. It only takes a minute or two and makes me feel a sense of control over my finances.

For more information on budgeting, you can visit other's websites:
Money Saving Expert: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning
Citizens Advice: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/budgeting/budgeting/work-out-your-budget/
Money Advice Service: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/categories/budgeting-and-managing-money

If you have further budgeting questions, please don't hesitate to contact me and I'll do my best to help. 

BS 0.3 - Create and Follow a Written Budget

Hi Everyone!  A special hi! to everyone who started following Finding the Pennies this week.  I am so excited you're here; I hope you are, too!

Winning with your finances isn't easy.  It takes work, determination and a money-saving mindset.  By having a plan in place, we can all take steps - no matter the size - to take control of our finances.  The plan I started to share last week is one we've - my husband and I - have been following for a few years - and it's working so well for us, that I want to share it with all of you.  The control we have over our finances can be attributed to God's grace as well as following a budget - or a written plan for money before a penny is spent.

The 3rd step under Baby Step 0 is to create and follow a written budget.  Just to recap what we've already looked at over the past week.  Baby Step 0 - to commit - is an unofficial but important step in taking control of your finances.  BS 0.1 is to commit to never borrowing money again. BS 0.2 is to commit to working with your spouse on this life-long financial "adventure".  Now we're going to take a look at creating and following a budget.

Perhaps you're thinking, "Lauren, I don't have time to create a budget, let alone to actually track every penny I spend." Admittedly, creating a budget takes a small commitment of time - like maybe an hour or two - but by visiting your budget on a daily or even weekly basis, it doesn't take too much time at all.  Be honest with yourself... what do you spend your "down time" doing?  Watching telly?  Facebooking?  Surfing the internet?  Staying on track with your budget is worth every second of your time.

"Ok, Lauren.  Why is it worth my time?"  You work hard for your money!  *Sing it with me!* You work hard for your money so you better treat it right! (I've slightly changed the lyrics.)  I can't understand why we would work hard and then just spend money irresponsibly and not save for the future.  It's important to know what money you have coming in and how much money is going out.  Without a budget how do you know this?  How do you know that you'll have enough money to last you until the next time you're paid?  Isn't it worth a few minutes of your time a few times a week to give yourself peace of mind?
 
My hope is that you and your spouse (or your accountability partner if you're single) have discussed your (plural) goals.  By intentionally putting aside (saving) money by including your goals in your budget every single time you're paid, you will be able to:

• Get out and stay out of debt (Baby Step 2)
• Fund a fully-funded emergency fund (Baby Step 3)
• Pay for a holiday in advance (Baby Step 3b)
• Put a down payment on a house (Baby Step 3b)
• Purchase a new piece of furniture (Baby Step 3b)
• Purchase a new-to-you (aka "used") car (Baby Step 3b)
• Save for retirement (Baby Step 4)

There's no better way to get control of your finances than by creating a budget and following it.  I get VERY excited talking about budgeting and VERY excited talking about ways of saving money. That's what this blog is all about.  I want to help you to achieve your goals. I want to help you to be able to make it to the end of the month with money left in the bank.  I want to help you to learn ways of cutting back, good 'ol fashioned "living within your means", and stretching every penny.  Let's get excited about our finances, Friends!

If you have tried to follow a budget, but you lose motivation after a few days or weeks, let's pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and get back to it!   You may pretty successfully follow a budget, but admit that something isn't quite right or that some expense creeps up on you that you forgot about it.  Let's improve your budget!  Perhaps you've never followed a budget, but are satisfied with the fact that there's money left in the bank... that's alright, but you could be doing much better!

Tomorrow evening I'm going to share with you ways of creating a budget - yes, there are plenty of ways - and you can choose which way best suits you.  I will also give you loads of ideas for categories to include.  Your budget won't be the exact same month to month nor does it have to be perfect from the get go!  You will learn where to adjust your budget for different times of the year and think ahead to recurring annual expenses.

A year ago I wrote a similar blog to this one: The Importance of Budgeting.  I encourage you to find a few extra minutes to read it for more insight on budgeting and to look at the categories to include in a budget, which I'll discuss tomorrow evening.

Until then, get out a sheet of paper and write down every expense you can think of that you pay on a monthly and annual basis and the approximate or exact amount you pay.  Just make a list. Don't worry about categorizing it, just write it down.  Until tomorrow, take care. xo

How We "Spent" Our Weekend

I have to admit - it's been a challenging week.  First thing Monday morning at the gym, my weak side got the better of me which, in the end, has caused me to realise, once and for all, that I need to work hard to overcome this.  This weakness is affecting my loved ones, but with the Lord's strength, this "mountain" shall be moved.  I know this is completely vague, but please know that I've been struggling with this for as long as I can remember, but I have faith that the Lord can take this affliction away from me.  

Later Monday morning my sister-in-law said good-bye to her fiance, who she has been with for over 20 years.  His somewhat unexpected passing caused Jeff and me to think about "what if...?"  Though we have a will, is it up to date? We still need to get the appropriate amount of life insurance; though we have some, it's not enough to sustain us should something happen to one of us. Also our "Important Documents" folder hasn't been updated in at least 2 years.

Monday evening a bad cold came on suddenly leaving me feeling achy and having a deep cough on Tuesday.  Thankfully the achiness only lasted a day, but the tiredness and coughing continues.

Thankfully our weekend brightened despite the draining week we've had.  After taking 3 days off from the gym, I returned on Friday but only really had the strength and stamina to walk on the treadmill for half an hour.  I did the same on Saturday morning plus shoulder exercises while listening to The School of Greatness Podcast by Lewis Howes, who interviewed Tererai Trent.  I have never heard of her before, but she is an inspiration to achieve the impossible.  I'm so glad I got to the gym both mornings; each morning I asked myself what I CAN do, which was the treadmill, and better than having stayed in bed and not done anything. I'll be back to my usual spinning and abs classes tomorrow morning thankfully.

Oh, I did squeal silently with delight when I found £1 at the gym - just to add to the other two 5p coins I found earlier in the week! Ka-ching!

Saturday morning we headed to Enginuity, a science-based museum near Ironbridge.  Of course, I wouldn't pay the £32 entrance fee - no way!  Thankfully we were able to use the annual passes from Jeff's work which they ask a £5 contribution for.  Gladly!  Of course, there's the £3 parking fee to pay as well, but for an indoor family activity on a cold, rainy morning, £8 isn't too bad.  We went home after a couple of hours for lunch, but of course, driving into Ironbridge to one of the nice cafes or restaurants along the River Severn did cross my mind!   

Before I forget, we added £49 this week to the girls' university savings fund by selling our once-beloved Little People castle and princesses to our dear friends, a pair of boots and a large bundle of 2-year-old clothes.  There's still so much left to sell!  I'm still contemplating whether to spend the time and effort to tag items for the next NCT Nearly New Sale in March; I've done so many, many times before, but just not sure it's worth the time and effort.  The day I spend volunteering at the sale is always fun though!

Last night, Jeff and I hunkered down to watch a WONDERFUL movie called "Lion".  The DVD was kindly lent to me by my coworker, so cost me nothing.  It was another reminder of all the blessings in my life.  Have your tissue box ready for this one, but I HIGHLY recommend watching it.

This morning we went to church, came home for lunch, Skyped with my mom and step-dad, then took the girls to a fun birthday party at the school.  You may be wondering what we spend on presents for kids from school.  It varies, but somewhere in the region of £5 per gift, which may also include a bag of sweets.  We have a "gifts for others" section of our budget that we contribute a bit to each month.  

On the walk home from the party, Subway tempted us to come inside, but thankfully we didn't have any money on us and I knew we had leftover bolognese waiting for us at home.  (BOR-ING!)  Not really, but Subway sure sounded good! 

This evening I baked 6 chicken breasts to use for lunches and dinner on Tuesday evening, as well as a meatloaf to have with sweet potatoes tomorrow evening.  I wanted to not only get ahead with meal prep but also save electricity by baking them at the same time.  While these baked, Jeff and I compared our February budgets to make sure we're "on the same page" with our finances - it's sooo important to be working together!

One more frugally bit to leave you with this evening.  When I have tea left over in the tea pot from making cups of tea, I let it cool slightly and pour the remainder into a glass, top it up with a bit of water and chill it in the fridge for a cool iced tea the next day.  Delish!   

Our Month in Review: January

Hi Friends, I'm not feeling very well this evening, but I wanted to touch base with you before I hit the hay (I sound like my grandma!).  I want you to take the time to reflect on your January, and I want to let you in on some of the things that have gone well this month.

How has the first month of 2018 gone for you?  What has gone well for you?  Where is there room for improvement?  There's always room for improvement! 

Before I go any further, you're probably wondering what this protein bar has to do with our January review.  Answer: nothing.  It was a freebie worth £2 that was delivered with our meat order from UKFreshMeats this evening, which, by the way, I used a voucher code and got 10% off my order.  Score! 

Where did things go well for the Boltons (that's us) this month? 

I set myself a goal of spending at least £50 less on food from the shop this month, and I not only achieved this goal, I saved an additional £83 on top of this!  Yeah! How did I do this?  The usual meal planning, stretching meals by having slightly smaller portions at supper to have enough for either or both of our lunches the next day, and adding in an extra meat-free meal each week (usually breakfast for dinner).  I also used about £50 worth of Nectar points over a few shops at Sainsbury's.  I could do better by planning our meals slightly better so that I make fewer trips to our local Morrison's.  I have probably shopped more at Morrison's this past month, because of the convenience of it being so close to home, than ever before. 

My US passport was due for renewal next month, so I had to factor in that pretty big cost into the budget along with the delivery charges this month.  I should have budgeted for this monthly since I realised in the summer that it would expire, but I was in denial and had to fork out the money for it all in one month.  Ouch.  But hey, we cut back in a few areas in order to pay up front for my new passport.  I will also probably have to pay for a new "Indefinite Leave to Remain" put in my new passport, so my goal is to figure out what I need to do for this in the next week.

Eating out/Restaurants.  I enjoy eating out... sometimes.  Honestly, I struggle to get over the cost of mediocre food often served by miserable waitstaff.  However, our girls enjoy going out... kids meals are usually great value, because they often include a drink, a starter, a main meal and a dessert.  I seriously wish I could order from the kids meal!  This month our restaurant budget had to be reduced £10 to be put toward my passport, which meant one meal out.  Since my husband's meals at the canteen go into our restaurant budget as well as coffees out - neither are often - it didn't leave much for our meal out.  I let the girls choose between McDonalds and a pizza restaurant - no surprise, they chose McDs.  We were still under budget by £2.03 in our restaurant budget this month... yippee!

We were slightly over budget (by £1.05) this month in our "play" budget due to treating our friends' children to soft play a couple of weeks ago... but it was TOTALLY worth it.  The £1.05 I'll carry over into February's budget so that it balances out over the two months. 

Not everything went according to plan... hey, that's life, right?!  We decided to book our flights "home" to Ohio.  I had been carefully watching for price drops for a few months, but there wasn't much change. However, I know that prices tend to increase, due to basic economics, in the winter months because people long for their summer holidays.  I was having difficulty using my credit card to book the flights, so I asked my husband to.  I won't go into detail, but one tiny error on our reservation resulted in a correction fee of £50.   All in all though we saved about £400 over last year's flights due to a new route on Iceland Air between Reykjavik and Cleveland.  So, we'll fly a different way from Manchester into a different airport, Cleveland, but £400 is definitely worth it!  (At least I hope so.)

Other than those things, nothing was too different in January.  We were even given the opportunity to bless an almost stranger with a small financial gift, which I feel absolutely blessed by! 

I planned ahead for February yesterday and this evening by preparing our budget for the next month.  Honestly, I LOVE to update my budget.  *Weirdo alert!*  It allows me to have a sense of control over our finances, which is completely freeing!  I do, however, know that everything is in the Lord's control, not mine.

WWLD? Budgeting for Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Bolton household  Yours, too? Our Christmas tree is glowing in the lounge and most of the decorations are up, but I just need to put a few finishing touches here and there.  The girls even got to proudly don their new apparel at school on Friday.  Hiding away in various closets and boxes around the house are presents patiently waiting their unveiling Christmas morning.

"Lauren", you may be wondering, "how do you find pennies at Christmas? Do you really follow a budget at Christmas?  But it's Christmas! It's the time of year for giving and abundance!"  Well, yes it is a time for being generous and perhaps abundance, but I definitely believe this can be attained by following a budget and making the most of your precious pennies.

"But how Lauren, HOW?" *she imagines this being questioned in a dramatic tone* I'll tell you how.

1. Set realistic expectations: There are so many pressures to have a "perfect" Christmas, but let's face it, your house is mostly like not on the cover of House Beautiful, nor are your children the models for a beautiful children's clothing brand or all of your gifts going to be purchased from Harrods. *sigh* Be honest with yourself and ask what the most important thing about Christmas Day is: is it the presentation of gifts under the Christmas tree?  Giving that perfect gift to a loved-one? Perhaps it's the all-day-long buffet of beautifully tasting food and drink. Maybe it's that atmosphere of a decorated house, lovely scents of cinnamon, cloves and orange, Christmassy music and fantastic company.  Maybe you want to choose one or two things that really matter and set your attention on those things and not the others.  Believe me, I want to make sure my family has a wonderful Christmas, but I also want to do this in line with my Christmas budget.

2. Set a Christmas budget: Perhaps I'm a little too late in posting this tip as you may have already started or even completed your Christmas present buying, but this is critical.  If you spend your money willy nilly to buy presents, Christmas cards, party food, celebratory meals out and whatever else, how much does this add up to?  More importantly, are you able to pay for this in cash or pay it off immediately with your next credit card bill... or are you paying it off for months afterward? I hope the former.  None of these things are wrong or too lavish, but by planning for Christmas before you spend anything is so important to staying on track.  I do this by having a Christmas tracker as part of my budget and planning for the usual expenditures: gifts for my children, gifts for my husband and extended family, and Christmas cards and postage (which adds up quickly for us, since we order 125 Christmas cards!).  I do not include food in my budget because I'll just fit this in with our normal food budget, and I plan to use some Nectar points at Sainsbury's to pay for extra treats.  I also don't have any special meals out in our budget, simply because we don't have any special plans.  But if we did, I would include this in our Christmas budget.  I don't plan on buying any new Christmas decorations or - my downfall - Yankee candles.  I have some from last year which hopefully see me through the season.

Our Christmas budget was actually set before 2017 even began.  When setting up our 2017 budget 31st December, I divided this number by 12 (months) and we save that amount each month for Christmas.  Yep, we save all year for Christmas.  No special savings plans that you see advertised on tv, just money set aside in our checking account.  Since I keep my budget on a spreadsheet, it's easy for me to keep track of expenditures and how much I have left to spend on Christmas.

3. Stick to your Christmas budget: Believe me, I am tempted to buy each and every time I set foot in a shop... hey, those marketing professionals know what they're doing!  If you find it difficult to walk out of a shop without buying something, limit how often you step inside one.  The more often you make trips to the shops, the more likely you're to spend extra.  Buy more online!  The advantage of doing this is, not only am I not tempted by things that I didn't intend to buy in the first place, but I usually find discount codes for anything from free shipping to 25% off the purchase.

Another trick I've been using is using discounted gift cards I've bought online to make in-store purchases.  What?! You've never heard of buying discounted gift cards?  There are a few websites you can do this through, but I've been using Zeek for the past year and have saved quite a bit!  I wrote a post on this in January but in short, with Zeek you can get gift cards for the normal places you shop at a discount, plus if you follow the link above, you'll get £3 off your first purchase.  Once you set up an account and share Zeek with others, you get a credit to spend on your next purchase as well.

I've already mentioned using my Nectar points from shopping trips to Sainsbury's - although these are becoming fewer and far between as I'm loving Aldi and a local meat delivery service (#ukfreshmeats) which offers great value for money.  In November, I took advantage of the Nectar double up promotion where by points were exchanged for vouchers worth double the usual amount. I spent these vouchers on a couple of DVDs for the girls' stockings, a silly gift for my husband and a My Little Pony costume for Brenna.  These things I don't count against my budget as the points were pretty much free to begin with - yes, I had to spend money to get these points - but I didn't need to spend anything to buy these things.

4. Stick to your list:  One thing I did slightly differently this year is I've intentionally asked my girls to look through the Smyths toy store catalog in October when it was slipped through our front door's mail slot and circle the toys they wanted.  We did this together so that I could get an idea of what they were asking for, how many things they were asking for and how much each toy costs.  Then a few weeks ago, I sat with my girls again and we made a list of the things they really wanted, which was surprisingly fewer things than they wanted the first time thumbing through the catalog.  Then I asked them if they could only have 5 gifts, what were the top, top things they absolutely wanted.  And they told me.  Unfortunately, they desperately want a slushy maker; but so far there's not one hiding away in our house. Oh, and they want a disco light so they can have a "dark party".  *sigh*

Although most, if not all, of the presents for our girls have already been purchased, the gifts for my in-laws (parents, brother and sister) haven't yet been purchased. However, I've already accounted for these costs on my budget so I don't go over.

5. Remember the true reason for the season: As a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, I keep the whole Christmas season in perspective.  He is the reason Christmas is celebrated.  Jesus - the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace - was born among animals in Bethlehem - a lowly birth for a king!  Yes, there are many, many things at Christmas that are fictional and come from pagan beginnings, but remembering that my Lord was incarnated as Jesus Christ, a perfect human, to a sinful world to later die to save His people from eternal punishment makes everything else dull in comparison to this amazing fact. No light is brighter and no gift is more precious than my salvation through Jesus Christ.

I wish you an amazing Christmas season full of joy and blessings.

How We "Spent" Our Day: Child's Play

Today was basically a kids' day - swimming, McDs and a soft play birthday party.  Yay! Right?! Earlier this week, we gave the girls the option of going swimming - which they've been asking to do for about a couple of months now - and going to the cinema.  The cinema would have been cheaper, but it was their choice this time.  I'll let you in on a bit of a Bolton budget secret - we budget £20 per month for "play".  A friend asked me recently whether this is enough.  It is for our family, for the most part, anyway. We are finding, however, that our girls are reaching the age that they are no longer free and we actually have to pay for them... bummer!  

We've been going swimming at the same pool for years now, but recently they increased the price for an adult to swim 50% - from £5 to £7.50 each.  Now that Ellen is 5 we have to pay £5 for her, too.  So what used to cost us £10 for the family to go swimming, now costs £20.  Grrr... Jeff even rang around to other pools, but there were either swimming lessons going on, the pool didn't permit non-members access or it would have been actually more expensive.  So, off to our usual pool we went.  It is a lovely place... clean.... and very few other people...plus there's a Jacuzzi that I always take advantage of.  I like to think of it as a cheap spa break... as long as I drown out the sound of the girls' voices talking to me... the... entire... time.  Never mind.  We did end up swimming for an hour and a half.

We also treated the girls to McDonald's on the way home. Of course, it wasn't spontaneous and it fit into our "Restaurants" budget.  We ordered two Happy Meals, 2 Big Macs, 2 medium fries and a "festive" coffee.  It cost us less than £10 for all of us to eat at McDs.  I must say... I was pretty impressed with myself.

The Happy Meals were the usual price £2.79 each.  Jeff and I each had a Big Mac and medium fries for £1.99 having used two receipts with codes; a thoughtful colleague of Jeff's actually gave him two receipts with the codes from the online feedback surveys that we could use today.  

And what about the large "festive" coffee?  It was free.  Imagine my excitement when I finally had six stickers to fill the coffee card above.  And no, of course, I didn't buy the six coffees to get the stickers... okay, I did buy one coffee in July... I found them... on cups... on the ground.  Eeeewww?!?! "Lauren, that's really weird."  Yep, I'm weird... so what.  I also pick up loose change... and the £5 note on the ground on a recent short stay in London... so what's the difference?  Not much.  I've actually tried to fill a card the past two years and haven't been successful, but this year I finally achieved my goal. YES!  I was even more excited that I could use this free coffee card on a fancy, whipped cream-topped coffee.  I did share it with Jeff, in case you were wondering.  I also asked for a cup of water, rather than paying for a Coke. So, there you go... McDs for a family of 4 for £10. Not bad.  

I spent a few couple of hours baking this afternoon - peanut and chocolate granola and cinnamon streusel pumpkin cake.  I added a couple of spoonfuls of this granola to natural Greek yogurt and Brenna loved it.  Mommy win!

Later this afternoon, we had a fun time at a friend's birthday party which took place at a indoor play area.  We spent £1 on a ride-on game that Brenna then abandoned halfway through.  

All-in-all we had a fun family day.  Totally worth the £20 to go swimming and the £10 for lunch at McDonalds.  Now that we've spent the allocated £20 in the play category of our budget, we may not be able to spend money on "play" until December, but that's ok. I'm sure we'll find other way to have fun for free!

Unexpected Blessings and Expenses

Right, confession time.  As much as I love to find ways to save money, live somewhat frugally and follow a budget, things don't always go as planned.  At the beginning of the month, if not a day or two before the start of each month, I plan our spending for the upcoming month, which shows me where I can expect our money to go, allows us to save for future events and gives me freedom to spend within the limits of our budget.  However, sometimes unexpected expenses arise or I simply forget to include expenditures... and sometimes I think, "oh well, just buy it anyway". (Not good!)

The past few days all of these things happened. We planned a family morning out to a local farm for a tractor ride and pumpkin picking.  We did this last year and the girls really enjoyed it.  So we forked out the £21.50 again to do this, but it was will probably be our last time because it's simply not worth the money.  I LOVE pumpkins, though, so this is somewhat meaningful to me.  So the cost of the tractor ride and pumpkins fit in our budget, as this is the only family "fun" we have planned for the rest of the month.  However, the £8 spent on the picture above, taken by a photographer running around the pumpkin patch, was not budgeted for... but aren't my pumpkins so darn cute?!  Then there was the "snack" that I swore up and down before we left the house that morning that we wouldn't be buying any snacks or taking any snacks with us because my kids didn't eat much for breakfast that I went ahead and bought.  My kids were hungry and smell of the sausages being grilled at the farm shop were seriously luring... and then I uncharacteristically said "yes" to a coffee when the lady asked if I wanted a cup with the sausages.  Ka-ching!  There went another £9.50 for a snack we could have avoided and didn't really need.  I added these extra costs to my budget, but it leaves very little wiggle room for the second half of the month.

Saturday evening, my husband and I got dolled up for an evening wedding reception.  In case anyone couldn't tell... I didn't buy anything new to wear.  I am not gifted with any sort of fashion sense! I am blessed by super friends who babysit the girls for a few hours every once in a while for nothing but a hug in exchange, one of whom babysat the girls for us that evening.  Of course I'd happily babysit their children when the need arises, too.  Unfortunately, though, just as we started the car... thankfully it started just fine... we immediately noticed the dash didn't light up and the speedometer didn't work.  Oh boy.  Again, we are super blessed to have a fantastic mechanic (although he's about 25 minutes away) who was able to fit in our car today.  Thankfully, the cause of the panel not working was due to a fault in the software which he was able to fix and no expensive parts were required. Yay!  This £35 fix was unexpected, though, and put us "in the red" for the time being in the "Vehicle Servicing" category of our budget.  Grrr... and with a MOT (saved for on a monthly basis) and a major service expected in December, we will have to save more than we usually do in November and December to pay for this. 

I also forgot to account for a wedding gift for the bride and groom whose reception we attended. It was a small financial gift, because the groom is my husband's colleague and we have never met his wife, but still it put our budget "in the red" in the "Gifts for Others" category on our budget. Again, we can re-coop this cost in November, but I really don't like overspending then having to play catch up.

On Sunday a dear friend at church gave me a surprise bag of goodies of surplus goodies she had in her kitchen, as seen in the picture above.  I was absolutely delighted - think two school girls giggling in class - with a jar of raspberry jam, whole nutmeg (I think I'll pass on a few of these to my friends) and a jar of good-quality cocoa powder.  This friend also brought in two boxes of Bramley apples from her garden to share with the church, so I also gratefully helped myself to 4 of those (after others helped themselves first, of course).  My husband would like me to make an apple pie with these apples and I'd like to try to make homemade apple cider vinegar from the apple peels following the recipe the same friend told me about last week. 

I wish I had taken a picture of the large pot of chicken "noodle" soup I whipped up on Sunday, but I didn't think it would turn out as delicious as it had.  I bought two medium-sized whole chickens from the farm shop on Saturday for £7.  Wow, £3.50 each for great-quality chickens.  After our roast chicken dinner on Sunday, there was just enough chicken leftover to add to a pot of soup.  I have never made chicken noodle soup before, but, hey, how hard could it be, right?  I sauteed some onion and celery in a bit of the chicken fat and the burnt bits on the bottom of the Dutch oven from the roast chicken.  Since Aldi didn't have a bag of carrots (can you believe it?!) I used some mixed vegetables in the soup instead.  I also was able to use up a jar of homemade vegetable stock another friend gifted me a few months ago (she was a recipient of some of my homemade vanilla extract).  A bag of giant couscous has been sitting in my cupboard for months now, so I decided to finally put them to use in this soup - hence why it's not really chicken noodle soup.  I was delighted when my kids ate up this soup this evening for supper - they have never had chicken noodle soup before either.  There's even a couple of generous portions left over for tomorrow's lunch. 

Last but not least, we decided to go ahead and buy our 3-year-old's new big girl bed about a year and a half before we originally planned.  Just before our older daughter turned 5 in March, we bought her a big girl bed, but since then, our younger daughter has also been wanting her big girl bed, claiming that her toddler bed is uncomfortable.  We have waited a few months to buy her bed but went ahead and made the move last week.  We did our research and my husband found out that we could save almost 50% on beds through his company's discount website.  Maybe we should have waited another month or two to bulk up the "Home Expenditures" section of our budget because now we're slightly overspent in this category, too.  Any other plans we have for the house will have to be put on hold another 6 or so months until we can save up for the next big purchase.

The reason I'm sharing this is to prove that in no way am I anywhere near perfect in my spending or money-saving mindset.  I'm still learning from mistakes and struggle with needs versus wants.  But there are also so many ways to find pennies in everyday life and to focus on contentment and the many blessings in our lives. 

My New Job and Our Near-Future Goals

This morning at playgroup a friend and I were chatting.  She asked me about my new job and then asked, "Why don't you write a blog on your new job?"  I started jabbering away about how it's now really money-related, and I don't want to boast about my increased income. She then responded with such encouragement about how after reading my blog about eating out at Zizzi, she doesn't hesitate just to ask for tap water to drink with her meal rather than spending extra on over-priced drinks.  She said has really made a difference to her mindset!  I'm thrilled that sharing my frugal tip has had such an impact on someone and her family! I hope that by sharing about my new job and what we're planning to do with the extra income, I'll be an encouragement to you.  I'm honestly NOT telling you this to boast in any way, shape or form.

Until about 2 weeks ago I had been working for Sainsbury's, first at Gloucester Quays, then at Shrewsbury, then finally in Telford for 7 years.  Working for Sainsbury's gave me the opportunity to keep working while my girls were babies and the flexibility to work around my family's schedule - as in, I worked in the evenings after my husband got home from work.  I enjoyed meeting the public and working with some really lovely people.  However, since sometime last summer, I started to itch for something different, something a bit more challenging.  I started praying for the Lord to open a door for me, but I didn't know what and I didn't know how.  I wondered who would hire someone who hadn't worked in a professional environment in almost 8 years and would still be willing to allow me to work part-time.

Then in mid-April, while I was working on a Saturday morning at Sainsbury's, out of the blue, a lady customer I had just served at the checkout, came back and handed me a piece of paper.  I thought it was rubbish and almost threw it away, but she kindly gestured for me to open it.  Inside was the opportunity I had been waiting for - she pretty much offered me a job at her company on the spot!  Just like that, my prayers were answered.  Fast-forwarding a bit, I began my new job a few weeks later, served the 4-week notice period at Sainsbury's and ventured out of the "safety" of a comfortable job to a challenging, fast-paced job. 

I took this photo as I was leaving my last shift at Sainsbury's

Now, onto the money part.  Again, I'm sharing this to encourage you, not to boast.  I am still working part-time, but double the hours and at a slightly better rate than at Sainsbury's.  So you may be wondering what we'll do with the extra income.  We will not be "rolling in it" by any stretch of the imagination, but I am very grateful for the ability to save some money.  What Lauren?  Save??  Yep, my husband and I are challenging ourselves not to change our lifestyle - not to eat out more, not to go on fancy holidays, not to "treat" ourselves on unnecessary things - but to continue to save.  That's weird, Lauren. Yep. I know, I'm weird...

You may be wondering what exactly we're saving for.  I shared with you last month about the importance of a budget. With our budget we've been saving for a couple of big, near-future things (as opposed to distant-future things such as university and retirement, which we're saving for too, but I'm talking about a couple of goals that are in the relative near-future) which are to buy a "pre-loved" 7-seater/mini-van and a family trip to Disney World! With cash... not finaning... I know, it's weird. It's not what the majority of people do.

We started saving for both a couple of years ago but now we'll be able to contribute more towards those "funds" and reach our goals quicker, Lord willing.  We have decided it is more important to our family to save for bigger ticket items than on things that our family will soon forget.  I want to encourage you to set goals and incorporate them into your budget.  Start saving for your near- and distant goals today, otherwise they may never happen.

Sure, I would enjoy splurging on more expensive groceries or trips to the theatre or over-night stays in hotels, but to be honest, I'll get MUCH more pleasure driving my girls around in a mini van that we saved hard for and seeing their excited faces when they experience the wonder of Disney World for the first time. I am not saying that if you decide to spend more on groceries or go to the theatre or stay in hotels you aren't spending your money wisely, you may just have different priorities than we do.  It's also not to say that we won't ever splurge on something at the supermarket or go to the theatre or stay in a hotel overnight, I'm just saying that we are intentionally saving our money for future goals and there's not much wiggle room in our budget for "extras" because of these goals.

I challenge you to look at your spending and set goals for yourself and your family, if you haven't already. Are there areas in your spending that you could spend less on and contribute more towards your goals?  Be weird. Save. Set goals. And believe it can happen.

The Importance of Budgeting

(photo credit)

Hello Friend.  Please accept my apology for not having written in almost a month. Life doled out other priorities which required my attention.  But I haven't forgotten you!  I promise. In fact, I have so much I want to share with you and have the chance to do that again.  

I had a really nice conversation with a new acquaintance a couple of evenings ago.  While our husbands were rounding up their conversation... in the car park of a Micky D's... Finding the Pennies somehow came up.  Something she said stuck with me. She said, "Yeah, we (she and her husband) get to the end of the month, and we really don't know what we spent our money on!"  This comment had me wondering how many of my friends, perhaps even you, wonder the same thing, month after month after month.  

This conversation came just a couple of days after the husband of a friend I was speaking with told me that he is down to their last pennies in their bank account, "but I haven't told her that yet."  My heart goes out to this family.

Friends, please be honest with yourself.  Do you know where each and every penny you spend goes every month?  Would you like to begin each month with a greater feeling of control over your finances? 

You most likely know where I'm going with this.  The only way you can have greater control of your spending is by keeping track of each and every penny you spend.  "Come on, Lauren, who has time for that?" you may be asking.  "You do!" I reply.  "But that takes a lot of effort," you may then be thinking.  Not really, and the effort you do put into a creating and following a budget is more than worth it.  

By following a budget, you can tell your money where to go.  By allocating your income at the beginning of the month, you have the ability to control how you will spend your money before you make a single purchase.  This is so important so you know how much you have to spend in particular areas of your life.  Some may see this as being quite restrictive; however, I see this as opportunities to spend my money in a way that optimizes each penny spent.  

But why do I even follow a budget?  My main reason for following a budget is peace of mind.  I know that a) we will have enough money to cover all areas of our life, b) if there is an unexpected expense one month, we already have some or enough money saved to cover that expense.  In addition, it allows my husband and I to have the ability to better communicate about upcoming expenses and be able to plan for them. 

I want to share with you how we allocate our money each month to help you identify where your money may be going.  There are basic areas we allocate money to: groceries, mortgage, utilities, fuel, and insurances.  There's regular monthly bills that aren't fun, but are necessary: council tax, health expenditures (prescriptions, dental examines, etc.), and bank account fees.  Then there's some monthly bills at are fun or optional: cable television, tv licence, mobile phone contracts, window cleaner (house cleaner, if you have one), entertainment/play, restaurants, gym membership, and clothing (I know clothes are necessary, but perhaps this one can go between the necessary and fun/optional category depending on what is considered a "need" or a "want"), hair cuts (again, a need vs. a want), and professional membership fees. We even have an "other" category, that we can't really plan for because they don't always happen but do come up most months, like car parking and posting letters and packages.

Not only are there monthly expenses to take into account, but also annual payments that we save for each month so that when the bill comes, we're prepared. These include: neighbourhood maintenance fee, boiler service, vehicle tax, MOTs, vehicle breakdown cover, vehicle servicing, and National Trust membership. There are also annual events that happen that we save for monthly: Christmas, birthdays, and holidays.  We also budget for eventualities, things that we don't know whether they'll happen, but are likely to, for instance: house expenditures, vehicle servicing, new vehicle purchase, school expenditures, and gifts for others that doesn't fall into the "birthday" category.

We save for far in the future events such as our daughters' higher education and retirement outside of work pensions.  One area I haven't mentioned yet - yes, there's still one more - and this one is very important to us, is tithing and charitable giving.  As Christians we believe that a tenth of our income should be given to our church and the work of Christians worldwide (missionaries and Christian charities).  We also allow for charitable giving in our budget when the need arises, such as when friends or family participate in sponsored fund raisers or when a friend could use "a little extra" to help them get by that month.

Please, please don't think that I am boasting about being able to cover these areas of our life. I simply want to help you to identify where you can be allocating and saving your money, so that you can gain control of your finances and live with a greater peace of mind about today and tomorrow.

Start

Ok, so you don't have a budget or perhaps have a rough outline of your budget.  I am not a qualified financial adviser, but I know that by following a budget, your finances will improve.  In my next blog, I want to help you to create a better budget.  Until then, just start by getting out a piece of paper and a pen.  Write down how much money comes in each month from your and your spouse's salaries, child benefit, and other places.  Then make a list of as many expenses you can think of or follow my lists above to outline where you spend your money.  This in no way has to be perfect.  If you want, put an exact amount or a rough estimate of what you think the expense is next to each item.  That's it. 

Friend, I know this is a sensitive subject, but I care about you, your family and your future. 

Take care xoxo

We Made Money with Baby Oleg!

 

Ssshhh!!! Don't tell my girls... but the Baby Oleg dressed as Olaf they've been cooing over on TV... we've just sold it on eBaby for £24!  Yep.  Sorry, girls, what you don't know can't hurt you... and as if you need another cuddly toy!

We comparison shopped and purchased this year's car insurance through comparethemarket.com.  I am not necessarily endorsing this website, but it is very smart to use comparison website when it's time to purchase new insurance.  For a limited time comparethemarket.com is giving customers who purchase insurance through their site the choice of either a Baby Ayana dressed as Elsa or a Baby Oleg dressed as Olaf.

We chose the Baby Oleg because at the time, Baby Olegs dressed as Olaf were selling for more on eBay than Baby Ayanas.  Baby Oleg did take a few weeks to arrive, but when he did, my husband immediately listed him on eBay without the girls ever knowing.  A week later someone out there bought Baby Oleg for £24!  That £24 is going directly into our "Home Expenditures" category on our budget, since that really needs a boost at the moment after we bought our older daughter her new bed.

Not only did we get the best-priced car insurance saving £94.09 over last year's and Baby Oleg that made us £24, we also get the Meerkat Movies app that gives us a voucher code for 2 for 1 cinema tickets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Hey, if you don't mind going mid-week to the cinema, it's a cheaper way of going out to the movies!  We used this twice in the last couple of months (we bought insurance through comparethemarket.com sometime last year, too) saving about £10 per visit to the cinema.

I actually didn't start out this blog post with the intention of talking so much about comparethemarket.com.  My intention was to show you that sometimes there are ways to think outside the box when it comes to making and saving money.  Twenty-four pounds isn't a huge amount of money, but it has helped to boost our "House Expenditure" category on our budget and hasn't added to the stuffed animal/cuddly toy mountain in our girls' rooms.  Another way we thought about selling Baby Oleg is by asking ourselves how much we would pay for Baby Oleg at the toy shop... if at all.  I definitely wouldn't buy him for £24, but if we had kept him, that would have been £24 lost. 

I'd love to challenge you to think about the money-making items in your house.  Is there anything collecting dust, something that you don't love or your children no longer love that could make a few "bucks"/"quid" by selling?  We are currently in the process of slowly de-cluttering our house... and it feels soooo good!  Please leave a comment if you've sold something in a similar unconventional way as we sold Baby Oleg.  

A Money-Saving Mindset

I'd like to thank everyone who has "liked" and "followed" the "Finding the Pennies" FB page the last 24-hours.  Your joining my page has given me a little push to get on with sharing all of my money-saving ideas with you.  Whether you joined because you need help with managing your finances, are simply curious about what this money-saving mindset is all about or have already adopted a money-saving mindset and just want to add ideas and tips to your knowledge base, welcome.

So, what is this money-saving mindset all about?  It is about going through every-day life looking for opportunities to keep hold of the money you have, stretch the money you're about to spend and look for smart ways to save in order to have more - more control and more freedom... I know, they seem like opposites, right?  Let me explain with an example: perhaps you can relate. When I make the right decisions to workout and eat healthy foods, I feel better and fitter.  If I do this for a day, I feel good.  If I do this for a week, I feel great.  But what if I did this every day for the rest of my life?  I'D FEEL AMAZING!!!  So, by taking control of your finances - creating and adhering to a budget or spending plan - and finding ways to save money, you'll eventually feel amazing... free from the burden of stress and worry over your finances.

Let me just say that, like most things, it takes practice.  Although I've never been much of a "spender", I've also made A MILLION (at least!) unwise decisions and mistakes when it comes to money.  When I first created my budget years ago, I only paid attention to it some of the time; I only set it up some months and follow it for a few days.  Fast forward many years and I now set up my budget for the next month a day or two in advance and it's the first thing that gets my attention pretty much every day once my kids are in bed.  It takes less than 5 minutes every single evening to enter in the amounts from receipts from the day's shopping and ask my husband, Jeff, whether he's spent anything today, and if so, where and how much.  Simples.

It's also become quite the hobby of mine and my husband to find the cheapest way of completing a task and not wasting. I CANNOT WAIT to share more of these, so I will post at least one tonight or tomorrow.  I just find the more I find ways to save, the more we can dream and make progress towards fulfilling those dreams.

So, where did the idea for "Finding the Pennies" come from?  From years of talking with friends and realising there's a lot of misconceptions about what money is really about. Yeah, but Lauren, finances are really personal... so is sex and yet we talk about it!  Sex is everywhere!  Yeah, but Lauren, you can't tell me how to spend MY money.  I'm not.  I'm simply giving you ideas. Take it or leave it.  Yeah, but Lauren, a "money-saving mindset" isn't really positive.  It isn't?!  It is to me!  It's about winning with money and living the life you want to live without debt, stress and worry.

Oh, and let me please point out that I am still learning, I am not perfect, nor a trained professional and would love ideas and suggestions, even corrections! Please share them with me, too.

"Finding the Pennies" is simply small ideas that I'd love for you to incorporate into your life, that, overtime, will add up to a huge gain.  I am POSITIVE that once you begin to realise the money-saving potential in these ideas, you will share in my money-saving mindset.

Budget 2017

Very little gets me more excited than talking "budget". Sad, I know, but it's true.  There are about 30 minutes left of 2016. While many, many are out drinking and partying, I am sitting here on my couch proud as a pickle (whatever that means, it just came to mind) that my budget for 2017 is all set before the stroke of midnight.  Take that, Fairy God Mother!

This evening, I've created a "Budget 2017" spreadsheet, and Jeff and I have compared numbers against each other's spreadsheets, which we do monthly, and our finances are ready to go for a new year.  I feel in control.  This control, however, goes only so far as my recognizing that I'm ultimately in control of nothing. Our Lord is. Our Lord is in control of everything.

Just as Jeff and I were about to finish comparing figures against each other's spreadsheets, I jokingly asked him, "How much do we have left over (unaccounted for)? Nothing?!"  I quickly corrected my sarcastic question and answered myself, "More than we deserve".  It's true. We deserve nothing.  The Lord has blessed us with everything.  Everything comes from Him, including the money that's in our bank account.

As we start a new year, let's begin with a grateful heart for our blessings. Whether you have millions sitting in your bank account or are struggling until the next paycheck, you are blessed.  He will provide as He as has provided.  Many blessings in 2017.

P.S. If you would like to take "control" of your finances once and for all, I am happy to send you my Budget Template using an Excel spreadsheet. Please PM me to request it.  I hope to go into detail about my spreadsheet over the next few weeks, so you, too, can go into 2017 with a fresh confidence towards your finances.

A Budget: Your Road Map

Imagine you're about to start the engine of your car for a 4-hour journey to a place you're somewhat unfamiliar.  The car is packed, fuel tank full and your kids are excitedly strapped into their car seats in the back.  You're not entirely sure of every turn you're about to make, so you're a bit nervous that you'll miss that important exit/slip road off the motorway and that landmark that is "so obvious", let alone make it to your destination with before dark and with enough fuel to make it the whole journey. To your relief, you look up and see your new GPS is already programmed with your current location and final destination. Not only can you rely on this new piece of equipment to get you to your final destination, but you were super organised and have a map of the country in the glove compartment (just in case) and the phone numbers of the AA and that of your final destination already programmed into your mobile and written down (again, just in case).  You turn the key and start the engine confident you'll make it smoothly, with perhaps only a few minor "bumps in the road", to your destination before nightfall.

At the beginning of each month or just after your monthly salary is credited to your bank account how do you feel?  Are you excited to start the month (the journey) with a full tank but not sure whether it will last you the next 4 weeks (4 hours)?  What happens if you put the pedal to the metal and burn through your fuel in the beginning of the month rather than drive cautiously and carefully through the month to arrive on the 31st with a little still left in the tank?

What I am eluding to here is creating and following a monthly budget.  Before the month, your journey, begins, having a plan for where your hard-earned money will be going in the coming month is critical for confidently and successfully making it to your next payday and for saving for future expenses.  A budget provides you with guidelines to follow so you know where every penny is being spent.  It puts you in control of your finances rather than letting your money control you.  A budget helps you to spend confidently today so you can plan and save for tomorrow.

The idea of setting up and sticking to a budget may be daunting, but start simple. You may want to start by simply keeping track of what you spend on a daily basis for a month so you have a good idea of one month of expenses. Then at the end of the first month you can prepare a budget using this list of the expenses.  Or you may already have a good idea of your expenses and can either create your own budget using pen and paper or a programme like Excel, which I use.  Please feel free to contact me to request a file of a budget template to use.

Budgeting is the key to "finding the pennies".  Knowing where every penny is spent gives you better control on the road for the journey ahead.