How are you prepping your budget ?

[heatherlynnky]

With all these changes going around. Apparently even if they avert the cliff we still will feel a bit of pinch and then there are tax penalties with the health care thing. Of course everything getting more expensive. So what are you doing to prep your budget to cope with all this?

 

[Marianne]

Budget? What budget?
Since we are paid on commission, we never know from one month to the next what our paychecks are going to be. So we'll continue to live the frugal and SS lifestyle. I doubt that much of anything will change for us. I'm also not worried about it.

They can't get blood from a turnip, ya know?

 

[FarmerChick]

Marianne I hear ya




for me I save money. constantly putting money in the bank as often as I can. it doesn't matter if it is even a little. I save it

someone might say, eh, why bank $10?. I do

I have cut out all unnecessary spending to save money for my vacations. I get the LOOK all the time from hubby and kiddo saying, 'come on open up the purse strings a bit'...but I say back---do you want a vacation? Is that piece of plastic crappola toy worth giving up a trip to the beach? I always win

Banking $600 per year right now for kiddo's car. Will give me $6K in 10 years to put toward her car and I might have to boot in a bit for a good used car, but at least that $6K insures her getting something. (that is only $11 per week)

I check and change any services I use like cable tv, phone, insurances, etc. I check it all about every 6-8 months to be sure my costs are low.

I am super frugal on electricity. I have power strips everywhere. If it doesn't need to be on, it is not. Wash in cold water mostly (unless hot is required)
Use coupons constantly and save alot of money.

buy things on sale...never full price.


little things get me thru to still enjoy life.


I watch the pennies literally and the dollars take care of themselves. No fooling money is tight, prices are climbing constantly but I will adapt, change my ways to survive.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

FC, that's all great advice. I'm a lot like that. I hate to spend money. My DH came to me as a spendaholic and after many, many years we have absolutely NO debt. Saving becomes an obsession for me. We spend if it is something we absolutely can't get any other way. If we can build it ourselves, make do with what we've got or do without - we do. However, there are things that we consider worth spending on - and like you - vacations are something we enjoy.

So, we will continue to save. I will be taking a hard look at any animal that's not pulling their weight and making decisions about them sooner than later. Feed prices are ridiculous. I'll be trying to grow more of our feed this year. Still thinking about getting a breeding pair of pigs and selling off the extras for a little more farm income.

We'll just do our best to use common sense and frugality to get through...

 

[Mattemma]

We are paying extra on the home and car.Going to pay the car off in 2 instead of 5 years,and the house in 7 instead of 15 if we focus. I buy only on sale and never out of season items. Downsizing on the pets and livestock. I plan to shop only at Aldi's for food starting in the new year.Will be interesting to see how well we do.Since it is cash only there I can avoid using the credit card for food!

 

[Hinotori]

We've been putting extra on the house principal from payment one. The trucks are paid off. There is a little on Visa only because we'd bought some big items on it. That will be paid off quickly.

I've taken to only eating in season foods, with the exception of some of the frozen veggies. We get our beef from a local butcher shop that raises their own herd. Cheapest place around to buy meat and it's really good quality. I've been marking out where to put in my posts for fencing, and we'll be getting a couple goats this year, so next year we should be getting our own milk.

I found my bread machine the other day. I think I'll start using it again. I used to make a couple loaves a week with it. I don't eat much bread anymore, but DH takes sandwiches to work, and the stale bread goes to the chickens. It won't be a ton of money saved, but it does add up.

 

[Wannabefree]

I quit my job to save money Seriously...the truth is funny like that sometimes Going back to my old SAHM/entrepreneur status. Gas and crap was costing way too much and the boss decided to stop paying me so....here I am. I made more money from home anyway by saving more in the first place! I have a few things lined up for the Spring/Summer and will continue to do just what I have been doing all along, save save save, and then save some more. I'm like most others, not worried a bit, can't get blood from a turnip, etc. etc. Dunno how else to be about it really.

 

[Denim Deb]

For a lot of families, it's actually cheaper for mom to be a SAHM. When my kids were little, I sat down and figured out about how much I could make working, then what I'd have to pay extra for child care, food, gas, etc and realized I'd be lucky to make an extra $40.00 per week. I figured it wasn't worth that.

 

[Joel_BC]

Budget? What budget?
Since we are paid on commission, we never know from one month to the next what our paychecks are going to be. So we'll continue to live the frugal and SS lifestyle. I doubt that much of anything will change for us. I'm also not worried about it.

Marianne... I don't want to push this thread out of its intended course, but I'm curious. What sort of work do you do on a commission basis? (If you don't mind my asking.) I do commission-based work, too. You've probably mentioned this before on some thread(s) here, but since I've just been here a year I may have come in too late to have seen it. There's a lot to read hear, and a lot gets past me.:/

 

[ninny]

Well I decided a goal for me is shop out of my basement. So I am going to be spending a bit more this year to save lots later on. Also I really really really want this!!!

So I took the plunge and am now using cloth diapers to save for it. After that is a pressure canner. We also are trying to raise as much of our food as we can. We are tried of living paycheck to paycheck. I need to figure out what else to cut so I can start getting stuff for dairy goats. I want to have a budget.