Category: Uncategorized

Christmas is just over 8 months away, which may seem like a long time, but it can come up quickly. By starting to save now, you give yourself plenty of time to build up a nest egg for the holiday season without having to dip into your regular budget. Plus, starting early allows you to take advantage of sales and promotions throughout the year, which can help you stretch your dollars further.

One way to achieve this goal is by setting up an automatic savings plan. With automatic savings, a fixed amount of money will automatically be transferred from your paycheck or bank account to your savings account. This system helps you save money effortlessly, and you won’t have to think about it actively.

There are 31 weeks between now and Black Friday, to reach a savings goal of $1000 by then you would need to save around $32 biweekly. However, this calculation does not take into account any interest that your savings might earn, so you may want to increase the amount you save each pay period slightly to account for that.

Remember, the earlier you start, the more time you have to save, and the more financial security you’ll have when it comes time to enjoy the holiday season.

Inflation, what is it and how does it affect me?

If you’re like me I am sure you have noticed the increase in just about everything. Homes, used vehicles, food, and everything else in between. For most Americans including myself the cost of everything has gone up, except my salary. Inflation is a general price-rise in the economy over a certain period of time. From 2020 to 2021 inflation in the United States has risen 5.3%.

With the rising cost of inflation my family has had to make a few drastic changes. We were determined to lower our debt to income ratio and kick it up a notch with our savings. Even with so many things happening in the economy we were still able to figure out what the best choices for our family were financially and were able to adjust accordingly.

At the beginning of this year my biggest personal financial goal was to save at least half of my income. Even though we still have three months left in this year I have already exceeded my goal. Another goal that I had was to increase my credit score. I cannot count how many times I’ve heard people say “Credit does not matter” I am here to tell you, it does. Not only is credit important but having access to cash while having good credit is just as important. According to the experts inflation will only go down about 2% over the course of the next two years.

In 1990 when I was born the average teacher salary in the United States was $33,000. In 2021 the average teacher salary in the United States is $63,000. in 1990 the average price of the home in the United States was $79,000. Can you guess what the average price of a home in the United States is in 2021? Around $269,000. Yes, you read that right. How can over the course of 31 years salary only increase $30,000 while the cost of an average home increased $189,000. Inflation affects everyone. Save what you can, invest what you can, and make smart money choices daily.

Families who spent the $79,000 in 1990 with 30 year mortgages For now finished paying for their homes and many are now selling those same homes for four times what they paid.

Every new year that rolls around many of us start new goals. It can be weight loss goals, money goals or even bucket list goals. The thing is after the “new” of the new year, wears off. Many people, Including myself somehow lose sight of the goals that they set. This year for me, I knew would have to be different, my goals were different my income was changing, and my mindset was determined to accomplish every goal that was set out for me this year!

It has been a while since we talked but it is not because I haven’t been crushing those 2021 finance goals my husband and I set. Surprisingly, we have not only accomplished but also EXCEEDED our money goals. I can not wait to share with you all exactly how we did this.

Don’t let anyone tell you that budgeting doesn’t work. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need more this or more that. Live within your means, set goals and accomplish them!

I know we have talked about creating a budget and sticking to the budget. What we haven’t talked about is how all that advice goes right out the window when you are struggling to make ends meet. First thing first, be honest with YOURSELF. Most people use cards instead of cash (especially myself) so this made it extremely easy for me to track my purchases for the previous month. What I found out was that I was spending almost $600 dollars a month MORE than what I made. How? I was “saving” money in theory because I have always used the “pay yourself first” method. I was also using my credit cards throughout the month but instead of paying them off in full at the end of each month I was only making the minimum payment which was hurting me more because of the interest and balance building every month. Basically, I was just digging myself in debt without even realizing it. I know this is a budgeting a saving blog BUT I am ALWAYS honest. The first thing I did was gathered every single bill, subscription, need, want that I had and built a real budget. Once I had my budget complete instead of me paying the minimum on all my cards so that I wouldn’t get behind I started with the card that had the smallest balance and paid it off, and then I slowly moved up the ladder, the most important thing here though is I did not use my credit cards anymore. As of March 2021 I have been able to pay of four of my six credit cards while NOT adding anything to the balances of those cards. My goal for the end of 2021 is to have no credit card debt by December of 2021. I am not financially free YET, but I’m getting there!

• The Moment of Truth: List your Assets and Liabilities
• Budget for Saving: Record your expenses (paying into your savings will be an expense)
• Write down your financial goals both short term (1-3 years) & long term (4+ years)

ASSETS- This is everything you own that have monetary value.

LIABILITIES- Debt or financial obligation that you owe someone else.

The point of me starting this blog was to teach the steps that helped me save over $10,000 in 15 months. The difference is I now make $40,000 less a year than when I was able to accomplish that. Now I feel like I am making cents while trying to turn them into dollars. Today I want to be really transparent with you, after I completed my budget I realized there was NOTHING left to save. When I say nothing I mean I my bills were $66 over my income. When I decided that I was going to get my act together to start saving I knew that it would be difficult and that it would be more difficult than the last time. I refuse to not save though. I have completely stopped with my hobby of “clearance shopping” where I buy things simply because they are cheap. Knowing that my budget is in place and that I am over budget the first thing that I will be doing is called the debt snowball. I will start with my smallest bills and use all my extra income to eliminate them. As of now the smallest bill I have is a credit card with $428 dollars on it. To help me get this paid down I decided to go through clothes that my children and myself no longer wear or can fit and sold them to local consignment shops, to my amazement I was able to get $125 dollars between the two. After applying that to the credit card it not only eliminated my monthly payment but also lowered my interest. Making less makes saving difficult but not impossible. You can do this. I can do this. We can do this.

-Budgeting Cents