SpoonFullofJelly

Most families' food budget is spent in two categories; Groceries and Restaurants. You MUST place a dollar amount for both. Remember that you are trying to save money all around to place on your debt. It is unrealistic for a family that ate out often to jump on a budgeting plan and automatically switch over to daily cooking. You will fail and blow your budget. Sometimes life is busy and you need to end the day with someone else standing over a hot stove. Here are 5 tips to help make room in your food budget. 1. Review your grocery budget and calculate the number of meals that it CAN create. If you filled up your grocery cart with enough food to make 10 meals and only cooked 4, you have 6 meals at home to make. Adjustments are now in order. You can either buy less food or eat at home more often. Cooking at home is cheaper and your best option for saving money. 2. Count the number of times you eat at a restaurant per week and consider why. This should include all meal times a...

Wednesday, December 3, 2014 One short phone conversation changed our future. It took Hubby and I four months to get enough courage to ask a family member to be a donor. Hubby and I had gone back and forth on this idea every other week. We kept looking at the $1200 we saved and wondered what was the best course of action to begin a family. We didn't have much but we wanted so much. All we really had in abundance was time and prayers. We trusted one friend and asked his opinion of the situation. He said, "I would ask my brothers if I needed to go that route. So yeah, do it." And we did. We spent three days explaining to the family member every single medical detail of what Azoospermia is and how that has prevented us from having children. We explained that our only choices for children would be to use a donor or adopt. We wanted to try the donor route with a family member and saved enough money to get the process going. For two month we had his undivided attention and ...

Do you know what it costs to run your household? Do you know how much money you need each month to pay your bills and living expenses? Well, we thought we did. Hubby and I knew how much our average electricity, gas, insurances and rent bills were. We knew how much gas we put into our car a week, our average grocery and toiletries bill, and even our average costs of laundry. But we didn't think about gifts, festivals, annual car oil changes and repairs, vacations, monthly hair cuts and vitamins. These feees can really throw your wallet into a loop if you don't budget correctly. But before you add these items to your budget, you need begin with the basics. Let's start with our bills. It's time to lower our bills so that we can send the extra to paying down our debt. Monthly Bills: Real Estate Taxes - Make sure that you speak to both a real estate agent and a tax accountant about the right neighborhood/city with the right taxes for your budget. This even effects ap...

Nearly six years ago I said I DO to my life partner. I spent a number of days wondering and dreaming about our future and what was ahead. I dreamt about being his wife, his friend and the mother of his children. My past, I miss you. I miss how easy those days were. How naive we were to the troubles of adulthood. We thought it was difficult balancing a Master degree and a job. We thought it was tough deciding between taking the summer off to play or take one more class. We thought it was a tough decision to cram one last study hour or get one more hour of sleep. I miss those days. I miss the days of lazy evenings spent decising what I should blow $20 on. Or rather it was a good use of money to attend a festival or buy a new dress. I miss the days where I was actually free to just daydream because the future was not near. But the future is here. Day dreams are now a reality and tomorrow is today and yesterday. I miss my past where it was easier to pretend about today. Pretend t...

Baby Step two of Dave's Ramsey plan is the debt snowball. This is the longest step. You didn't gain the debt overnight, hopefully, and you won't lose it overnight. Keep in mind that your life style must change. Your habits must change. Your mind must change. Dave's famous saying is "If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else."  So grab a huge cup of coffee, soda or whatever else keeps you calm, a pen and some paper. It's time to start totaling up your debt. Write down all credit cards, store cards, car loans, private loans, medical debt, school debt, mortgages and old forgotten debt. Don't miss an amount because you don't want a bill creeping into your life later. After you list your debt, Let's start listing what you spend your money on. These are the items that most people gladly spend money on before actually paying for bills and debt. Fell free to add to my list. Fun Spending: Groceries Restaurants ...