Thank you to TurboTax for sponsoring my writing about household finances.Learn more about how TurboTax can help you find every tax deduction you deserve. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
Being a grown up is hard work.
Being a single mom is even harder. I’m luckier than some I suppose because my ex takes care of a lot of the “big” expenses when it comes to our son. His income is admittedly much larger than mine and that is taken into consideration when things need to be purchased for our son. I’m grateful about that.
I’ve been working steadily after being laid off a year ago. During that time, I really had to take into consideration the money that was coming in (from unemployment) and the bills that still had to be paid. There were a lot of times when splurging on myself or my son just was not an option. Now that I am working again, I keep those practices in mind still.
I keep track of every penny that comes in and goes out as best I can. Bills get paid first and then the rest goes to gas, food, and occasionally a weekend indulgence. I have to save for everything that is upcoming. I’m putting money aside for Ant’s trip here in March. I’m planning on how to save for Blogher, even if it is in San Diego this year and travel expenses won’t be an issue. Any extra money I may get from writing or working photography jobs is taken into consideration and factored in to a whole “can I afford to do this” type of plan.
It’s hard and frustrating but it’s a part of life right now. While this year is going to bring some amazing changes, it also means that I’m going to have to create a budget and work my butt off to stick to it. If I can do that, by this time next year I’ll be in my own place. If that isn’t motivation, I don’t know what is.
While I may not have any amazing tips to saving money, I’d love to hear yours if you’ve got them. Every little bit helps.
I wish I had tips. What I have found that works for me is a) an online savings account that is a little more difficult and time consuming to transfer money from, and b) I leave myself with no money – when I get paid I pay the bills, and I use almost all of whatever is left to pay off debt or I save it. If I hold on to any of it, I WILL spend it. So I leave myself with no money to spend. It’s amazing what you don’t buy when you don’t leave yourself money to spend.
[Reply]
I’ve been using just cash. I only use my debit card for gas. I’ve found that pulling out all of the cash and using it for everything, means I pay more attention to what I’m actually buying. Grocery money included. All cash. I’ve done this since September and I’ve managed to put whatever was left at the end of a month into a separate account….for trips. For extras. For emergencies.
I’ve also managed to put more into savings each month and I have only used my credit cards once since I started this. That was for a vet bill the first month.
When I’m holding cash…I’m way more conscious of the need/want thing.
[Reply]
Wachovia (Wells Fargo’s East-Coast cousin) has a thing called “way-to-save” that we’ve been using. For every card transaction $1 is transferred into savings. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s amounted to a couple-hundred dollars over the past few months that is hardly noticed except for the monthly statement.
I know that many of the banks now have something like this, and it definately takes away a lot of the pain of saving money.
[Reply]