With my January Goals with Grace, I am spending each day focusing on “investing”. Investing in my future. With my relationship with the Lord. With my health and body. With my money. With my job.
Investing with my money a lot of time takes work for most people. I was lucky enough to grow up with financial sensible and stable parents that taught me to expand our buying, and saving up "points" with companies. They always taught us why not to build up debt and why you should only buy what you can actually afford. But I know that for some, the thought process is that if you work, you should be able to buy regardless of the lack of money.
In today’s world, it is super hard regardless of how you grow up and what you have been taught about money. Stuff is thrown at us all the time, even in the blogging world, that says if you have this coffee mug or this gold, sparkly planner, you will be happier. You will feel complete. There is a status associated with it as well. I am not saying that wanting some of these things are bad — and yes, there is an Anthroplogie mug, Target serving bowl, and shiny new planner that are on my list of loves right now. But here is how we save money, so we can do more, explore more, and enjoy our finances in our marriage, instead of arguing over them.
Become a Homebody
I am a homebody by nature, but my husband is not. Not even close. However, I have learned that it is the relationships and being social that he loves the most. By having people over for a Redbox or a game night, it is so much cheaper than a night out with friends. Always. The other thing we do is limit the number of times we go out through the week. If we are caught eating out more than once during a weekend — and maybe, maybe, once during the week — we acknowledge it and take a step back. We remind ourselves of what we want to do with our money, and Curbside To-Go at Chili’s typically doesn’t make the cut, even if it is easier.
Meal Plan
I have always been one of those people that felt like I ate everything I bought at the grocery store every week and I was not wasteful, until I started meal planning. I started on EMeals, and then moved onto my own plans. Rule of thumb, don’t buy something because it is on sale unless it is meat (and your freezer isn’t full) and don’t buy something you won’t eat that week. I am surprised of how much food I actually ate before meal planning and how much we wasted monetarily on food as those veggies and fruits made it into the trash. We now take a mental inventory before heading to the grocery store. Since we do not have a pantry that is busting at the seams, this is easy. There is less to inventory...And we eat what we buy...until we are out. Then back to the grocery store again. Typically this is easy as well because we are such creatures of habit. Yogurt for breakfast = ten yogurts a week (5 workdays, 2 people). Five to six nights of eating in = five to six veggies and five to six packages of meat. We buy the meat on sale as well. If we are craving chicken, and pork is on sale that week...we are probably having more pork instead.
Don't Spend Money You Don't Have
My husband and I go back and forth on this. If it something that we want, we still have trouble wanting it now. But we just can’t. We will never get ahead in life if that is how we behave. With waiting and saving for what we want, we also do not end up with as much unnecessary items that we “wanted” on a whim. Plus, if it takes us enough time...sometime it is already out of style or trend and we did just fine without it anyways.
Set Savings Goals
Every year we tackle something else. Typically this is the thing that has the biggest interest rate. Vacation home loan. Car loan. Student loans (well, several years on this...). But the idea is that we are putting our extra money in the pot on one thing. The number goes down so much quicker and it makes paying things off so much easier. We know that we cannot wait to pay off all debt prior to saving money. So we simultaneously invest. In 401k, when bonuses come in, etc. 401k is maxed out for both of us. We don’t see the money, so we don’t miss it. We live off of what we have...and we will probably also behave like this. Knowing this, when bonuses come in or taxes returns or any big sum of money, we act like we didn’t get it. We use it to pay some debt down or put it back. We also buy us a small gift to “reward” ourselves. Regardless if it is a $50 gift or $500, typically the internal satisfaction wears off in the same timeframe. So try to reward yourself with smaller priced items!
Thrift Shop
I know a lot of people say this, but buying second hand is where it is at. It sometimes is not easy, and sometimes you have to be patient. But why spend thousands of dollars on something when if you wait, your neighbor may have one in a yard sale. Repurposing, repainting, and thinking outside of the box is key as well. With Pinterest these days, it is so easy to find ideas about how to do these things!
What are some of your saving tips?
