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Archive through June 15, 2008

Reality TVClubHouse Discussions: General Discussions ARCHIVES: Jan ~ Apr 2009: Savings for a Purpose Thread (ARCHIVES): Archive through June 15, 2008 users admin

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Lumbele
Moderator

07-12-2002

Friday, March 28, 2008 - 3:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Lumbele a private message Print Post    
landi, my cousin is in the process of clearing his mil's household. So far, they have found over € 10,000 tucked into professional magazines, books and other papers she has been saving for the last few decades. They don't dare chuck anything without going through it carefully.

Kitt
Member

09-06-2000

Friday, March 28, 2008 - 3:12 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Kitt a private message Print Post    
You could make one of those thermometer type things they do for kids, where every time you deposit some money you colour in another section. Then you'll have the visual reminder of how well you're doing without the cash lying around.

What a good job you didn't just dump everything, Lumbele! I hid my car keys before going on vacation last year, as we were leaving the car in the garage. Came back and couldn't find them anywhere. Had to have a new set recut! I don't hide money either!

Wargod
Moderator

07-16-2001

Friday, March 28, 2008 - 5:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Wargod a private message Print Post    
Lum, that's my fear with my aunt. The last time we went through her paperwork to clear stuff out we found enough hidden money to know we can't just chuck stuff out!

Ack Kitt! My nephew loves keys, the remotes and the telephone so every morning he comes I put that stuff up where he can't get them (he lost Darren's car keys for oh close to a week once) and never fails I have to search for this stuff when he leaves.

Wargod
Moderator

07-16-2001

Monday, April 14, 2008 - 12:32 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Wargod a private message Print Post    
Today I got bored and decided to count the change in my change jar. Mostly pennies, nickles and dimes because I save the quarters for the kids lunches. When they were out on spring break, I tossed in whatever quarters I got, but there weren't that many.

So I poured it all into a pile on the floor and sat looking at it and guessed it was maybe $35...then I laughed at myself cuz there was no way that pile had that much money in it. When I first started back in January, I guessed I had around $20 in change and I think that was fairly accurate. Today I had $44 in mostly pennies, nickels and dimes! I had to count it three times to make sure that was right. While I had thought $35, I really didn't think it'd be even that much, but yep, I've more than doubled just the change since January!

Seeing that certainly firmed my committment to throwing all my loose change (no matter how much or how little) into the jar. It really does add up!

I've decided that for April we'll put more money into our two funds because next month is a sucky money month. Both the registrations on our cars is due, plus Caleb's birthday (and party) and my nephews birthday are next month. That was one rule I set for us, that we wouldn't save on months it'd be hard and since we'll be seeing most of our extra cash go flying away next month I'm not gonna make it hard on us. I will still try to put some money away but most likely it'll be a buck here, a five there.

Wargod
Moderator

07-16-2001

Monday, May 12, 2008 - 12:47 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Wargod a private message Print Post    
As I thought last month, we haven't put as much in this month to save, but have been dropping loose change and such in the jar. I've dropped some bills into, though only 1's and 5's.

We had a woo hoo moment last week that partly was unexpected and partly wasn't. Darren's work covers 90% of his college tuition and books, but we have to buy the books then they reimburse for those. Up until this class that he's in now, all of his books have been online so it hasn't been a problem. Then he started this one and he had to buy the book...cost $195. I expected it'd take at least a month or two to get reimbursed for that, but it was only a couple weeks. They gave him the check last week. Since we'd already worked our budget so we didn't miss that money, we agreed to stick to our original savings plan we made back in Jan, and put it straight into the home improvement account.

Then totally unexpected, he came home the next day and said they were getting a $300 performance bonus (they get those sometimes when they come in under budget.) It's taxable, so he brought home a check for $160 something. And again, sticking to our plan, I took it to the bank and put it in our home improvement account. We now have 35% of what we'd hoped to have by the end of this year.

I'd hoped to have closer to 50% by now in that account, but we're still doing pretty good with it I think. Our biggest problem is that sometimes it's hard to put away $100 a month (which was part of our original savings plan.) Months like this where car tags are due and birthdays (or months where Darren gets speeding tickets..sigh) it's hard to save up for that along with the fun fund and regular savins. I either need to reevaluate how much we are trying to put away each month for that or tighten up a bit more somewhere!

One of the things I really, really need to do (cuz Darren is griping up a storm) is take my alumunum cans to recycle them. I've got I don't know how many big black bags stacked in the garage. That money goes to the fun fund.

Hows everyone else doing?

Biscottiii
Member

05-29-2004

Monday, May 12, 2008 - 2:13 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Biscottiii a private message Print Post    
Weeeellll, ol' Harry Potter account is whimpering and whispering spells from the bookcase, frankly. Got my income tax refund day before yesterday on Friday (had mailed in late Apr-14th) direct deposit a bit sooner than expected (still waiting for the $600 rebate). Got all my credit cards paid off and still figuring out the rest of the budget.

Should yank out some extra bills to shush Harry's hollering, ($Hush Money$), when I stop by the bank tomorrow now that you mention it. Thanks for the reminder.

Wargod
Moderator

07-16-2001

Monday, May 12, 2008 - 2:49 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Wargod a private message Print Post    
Oh, awesome Bisc, that you got the cc's paid off! That in itself is a big deal.

We paid some bills with taxes and the rebate, left some in checking, and put the rest in our regular checking account. We waited til the 15th of April to file electronically and had them direct deposited. It did leave us with a little money to decide what to do with, do we put it into the fun and home improvement funds or consider what this month is gonna be like. Other than Christmas shopping, May is our biggest month for spending money so, the funds are waiting.

I will say we did invest a little in the way of home improvement the last couple weekends. Darren installed some new sprinklers, got the swamp cooler up and running (ok that's not really home improvement!,) and we bought some backyard patio lightening and flowers (and the kids got me some lanterns that I love for out there) which is beautiful. During the summer we spend as much time out there as we do inside. I can either consider that our splurge from taxes or adding to the home improvement fund in a backwards way, lol.

I'm looking forward to the kids going on summer break for a few reasons, but one of the biggies is that I decided I'd continue to pull $20 every week like I do for their lunch money and split it between the two funds. The hard thing will be remembering to stop by the bank ever so often and deposit it into one of the accounts. I'll never remember to transfer it and I usually pull that cash during the grocery trip every week, so the big thing for me will be holding onto it and not splurging on something!

Lumbele
Moderator

07-12-2002

Monday, May 12, 2008 - 5:48 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Lumbele a private message Print Post    
Not gonna count the coins in the big pickle jar until the sucker's full-full-full, which at the present rate may be 2010.LOL

Forgot to announce another percent for the garden fund. That makes a whoppin' 5% now.LOL

The next few months are gonna be a bit tight around here, too. A funeral down east, property taxes, house and car insurances, ds's wedding. We'll have to become right mean old skin flints for a while, I guess.

War, could you stick those 20s into an envelope, away from the slippery wallet, and then deposit them on your next bank trip?

Wargod
Moderator

07-16-2001

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 11:22 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Wargod a private message Print Post    
I've been making a trip or two to the bank a month. The last few weeks have been hard to motivate myself, with nephew not coming over I'm not getting paid to watch him so don't have that (usually the biggest portion of savings) to deposit.

I'm still not back up to saving as much as I was this month like last. Couple things came up that we had to shell money out for..sigh. I have been saving lose change and most 1's though and yesterday I put away what I'd have spent on the kids lunches.

With the cost of everything going up these days, we may have to readjust how much we're saving, which is just killing me. Gas is $4.50 a gallon, our electric/gas/water bills have gone up, and groceries are getting worse. This weekend, I went shopping for my house and aunts, nothing unusual, followed the lists. I bought everything I could on sale or Vons club prices, saved $108, normally I'd be jumping up and down seeing that. But, I still paid $209. 6-7 months ago, my total bill was anywhere from $150-$200 before the savings came off the bill! Now it's over $300!

Darren and I sat down and had a long finance talk yesterday (those are always fun, lol.) We can't cut our water bill down any, we're already watering the lawn only 3 days a week (just enough to keep it green) and aren't letting the kids use their water slide or even the sprinklers. Gas bill won't be a prob this summer. Electric we are seriously working on cutting down...I already don't run the cooler during the day, but now instead of running it late afternoon into the evening, we'll be shutting it off much earlier. Yesterday we turned it off at 6, and it was still 90 degrees outside. I'm not going anywhere except my aunts this summer, so cutting down on gas for driving. No more going out to eat or ordering pizza once a week (though we went out last night for a this is the last time we'll be doign this for a while, lol!) No more spending on things we absolutely don't need. We're both pretty committed to saving money and we're gonna do what we have to do right now.

My goal right now is how to cut that grocery bill down. I keep trying to shop and Wal Mart and Winco but I can't stand either of those places. Unfortunately, their prices, if not their produce, are better than Vons....sigh.

Happymom
Member

01-20-2003

Saturday, June 14, 2008 - 11:34 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Happymom a private message Print Post    
I am trying to cut down on everything too. One thing I am going to start doing is making my own bread. I have a breadmaker that I haven't used for years. It probably uses less energy than the oven.

I also haven't bought things the family puts on the grocery list just because they want them or we're out of them. I keep them on the list until I find them on sale or until I go to Costco again. (Bread is a lot less at Costco, but we don't all like the same kind of bread or it isn't vegan (2 kids are vegan).)

We aren't going on vacation this summer. I am trying to save as much as I can in any way that I can. The fund is our get out of debt fund. For years we didn't have any credit card debt. Then my daughter got very sick last fall. Found out the hard way that we didn't have great insurance. So, there were lots of medical bills barely covered by insurance. The hospital bill is still unpaid. (There were some mistakes made, but not enough for a lawsuit.) So, I hope we won't have to pay all of it, but someday they are going to start billing us for it (I think it is still tied up in insuance.) There are many other things too ... long stories...anyway, we had to put some things on credit cards. Things are really tight. Our oldest is starting college this fall. I hope we don't have to put any of that on credit cards. Anyway, I am just trying to save anthing I can. (Unfortunately, my husband is not helping out as much in that department! But he isn't as bad as he used to be. That's for the gripe thread though, probably.)

I'm not buying anything that isn't necessary...although, I've been doing that for a long time really, mostly. I guess my definition of necessary has changed!

Two things I won't do though are go back to dial up internet or get rid of cable tv. Both those things do cost a lot less than going to the movies or going on trips or other recreational things I figure.

Wargod
Moderator

07-16-2001

Saturday, June 14, 2008 - 11:28 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Wargod a private message Print Post    
Happymom, we should share tips for saving too. Well, except for the baking bread thing, I'd be a disaster at that!

My thing is I look around and see how much more I'm paying for damn near everything. We're on a budget, we can't afford for stuff to go up too much without feeling it.

Yesterday I got my water bill...it doubled since the last one. And we've cut back on watering the lawn and no kids playing in it (they went up something like 35% or so they said they were raising prices.) On the other hand, our car insurance went down $20 a month.

I spent several hours in urgent care with my daughter today and forgot to take something out for dinner. Darren didn't think about it either so we went to the store to get something. Couldn't believe the price of meat, I'll be sticking with Costco for that and also cereal and lunch foods.

I'm trying to figure out where else to cut back but I'm really not sure. We're homebodies, we don't go out a lot with or without the kids. We do eat out or get fast food/pizza once a week and that's stopping. I've been fighting Darren for years on the cooler, he wants it on as soon as it gets hot and leaves it on all day...all I had to do was show him the electric bill. Cooler's been on for about 3 hours a day and thats it.

Oh, LOL! I did consider what we're paying for dsl and maybe we should cut that out for a minute. LOL, much as I want to cut back, that's something I don't want to give up. However, I rationalized, Darren's going to college and he does half his homework online, we can't get rid of DSL! Cable tv....well, you got to have something.

Biscottiii
Member

05-29-2004

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 2:33 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Biscottiii a private message Print Post    
Hey, I can hear ya all! ITA the DSL is needed for the schooling & will pay out in the long run.

Re: the cable, are you talking basic cable (I pay $14.95/mo but otherwise have no reception because of the spot I live in)? My sis was paying about $95/mo for lots of fancy channels (think she has some better package deal now). I just could never do that. Up here the public libraries check out movies/VCR tapes for free just like books. Perhaps renting out a few movies a month even would be cheaper than fancy cable. Surprisingly, even though I'm not supposed to get some channels (perhaps because I'm closer to Canada) I get Discovery channel on odd channels that Sis discovered by running thru the numbers via the remote, plus there's other channels she found that I'm not supposed to get.

As far as the A/C goes, do you have ceiling fans? Down in Phx, I personally can't handle A/C it's just too cold & dry. My Mom's old swamp cooler was never a problem, but I always ended up with pneumonia after spending 2 wks of A/C at my Sis' place. Funny, after nearly 40 yrs living up here, I'm still more comfortable with the higher heat & my family could never figure that out - I had to ask my Mom to stop running her swamp cooler at night, which she was running for fear that I would be uncomfortable, while I was piling on blankets. Once we sorted that out, I'm sure it saved her some money during my visits. lol

Ceiling fans help a lot to make it more comfortable though, just moving the air. But Sis said the ceiling fans don't require as much electricity.

Up here in Seattle, I don't have any cooling or fans because there's not enough days that it's that hot to justify. Just got my electric bill (Average Paymt Plan which seriously helps!) and found I spent a bit more this month vs. one year ago, not due to price increases in my area. But it's been colder up here and at times I'm still running the electric heat - can you believe that? Wonder when summer will get here in my neck of the woods?

Biscottiii
Member

05-29-2004

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 2:50 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Biscottiii a private message Print Post    
Don't get me wrong. I have no doubt you all are contending with the heat! It's strange (the reason I HAD to go to the Average Paymt Plan) is that we pay more in the winter to stay warm while folks in the south pay more in the summers to avoid heat strokes.

Colordeagua
Member

10-25-2003

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 9:15 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Colordeagua a private message Print Post    
OK to ask this here? Who provides your DSL and what do you pay for it? (I don't have, never have had, and don't want cable [or satellite].) I had dial-up until January '07. Had had Earthlink for that for a long time. Dial-up fee never went up. In fact, it went down $2. Couldn't supply me with DSL, so got it with AT&T. After about 13-14 months, it went up from $20 to $25. Grrrrrrr. I called. "We won't raise it again for about two years."

Lumbele
Moderator

07-12-2002

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 9:23 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Lumbele a private message Print Post    
Our phone company provides our DSL at $42.95/month. How does that compare?

ETA: Oh, and another percent for that garden fund. Trickle economics indeed.LOL

Also, Dad got a hair cutting kit, so the 20 bucks he would normally spend for having those few hairs clipped, will now go into the change jar. Poor guy may look a little odd until I get the hang of it, but better in our pickle jar than the barber's till.

Pamy
Member

01-02-2002

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 9:34 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Pamy a private message Print Post    
re: ceiling fans. set them to spin counterclockwise and the room will feel at least 4 degrees cooler.

Rosie
Member

11-12-2003

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 9:39 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Rosie a private message Print Post    
$21.99 a month provided by Verizon (phone company).

Color, are you using a TV antenna? Californians won't have reception with an antenna by sometime in 2009. Don't remember the exact date.

Ouch, Lumbele. That is close to what I pay for Direct TV = $70

Lumbele
Moderator

07-12-2002

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 9:57 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Lumbele a private message Print Post    
Wow, we are really getting fleeced for our DSL, aren't we? $126.40 for our cable for 2 months. Guess that makes up for it a little, eh?

Rosie
Member

11-12-2003

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 10:07 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Rosie a private message Print Post    
Yup

Kitt
Member

09-06-2000

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 10:49 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Kitt a private message Print Post    
Earthlink dsl at $39 per month. So to me your $25 sounds like a good deal!

Pamy
Member

01-02-2002

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 12:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Pamy a private message Print Post    
154.00 for our cable internet and tv cable that incls most all premiums. I could live on basic cable(and showtime when Dex/BB is on)but Bill has to have all those channels!

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 1:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mamie316 a private message Print Post    
We are the opposite, Pamy. I need the extras and my husband is always telling me that we pay too much for cable.

Nyheat
Member

08-09-2006

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 1:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Nyheat a private message Print Post    
I have Optimum Triple Play (phone, cable TV, high speed internet) for $150 a month, so basically 50 dollars for each service. It's through Cablevision.

It was a great deal for the first year, the entire package was 99 dollars. Then they started gouging about a year ago. I have a feeling if I try to change anything it will end up costing even more.

I keep all three also because I have renters and they always want the high speed internet, cable TV to a lesser extent, and don't seem to care about the phone at all. I could get rid of the land line but am always afraid I will need it in an emergency.

But yes, the entire plan could have some fat trimmed off it.

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 1:21 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mamie316 a private message Print Post    
We've talked about getting rid of the landline but like you, worry that it would be needed in an emergency.

Happymom
Member

01-20-2003

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 1:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Happymom a private message Print Post    
War, tips for saving money sounds good. I actually love when I do things to save money. I get a feeling of satisfaction instead of deprivation. (I hope your daughter is better!)

Pamy, thanks for the ceiling fan info! very helpful!

We used to have dsl a few yr. ago. Cable is so much faster. We pay $45.95 per month with comcast cable for cable internet only. We also have comcast for tv. I like the ondemand feature, so much of it is free. Ou cable for the tv is $55.99 for standard cable which includes limited basic and expanded basic. We also pay $14.95 per month for the digital package and $13.95 per month for the "dvr service with hdtv". It really adds up but like War said "you got to have something!" At least we aren't spending any money on entertainment in any other way really.

One thing I stopped doing to save money is taking our dog to have her nails clipped. Her nails are black, so, it's not easy for me to clip them. She is too old to walk all the way there and back now, so I'm saving on gas too. The groomers charged $10 and may now charge more. I bought a $10 pair of clippers and my husband now clips her nails.

I bought some Christmas presents already, $40 shirts for less than $5! Slippers for about $3 ...regularly $30. I don't even like shopping but I get a lot of satisfaction when I find deals like this! There is a store near here called Kohls. They always seem to have a lot of things on sale.