Living Below Your Means

I know everyone has heard, 'Live within your means'. We all know it means not to
spend more than you make. But is that the key to debt free freedom?
When you start talking to people with real freedom financially they will almost
always say it was not how much they made, but how much they did NOT spend.
We can always find ways to earn more money. It is not until we learn how to not spend
money unnecessarily that we will experience true freedom.
First hand experience (mine and others) will
tell us, when we earn more we also spend more. We elevate our lifestyle.
Maybe we do it in small ways ("I can spend more on groceries") or maybe we do it in large ways
("We earn twice now, I can get a new car!"), but chances are almost all of us do it
when we see an increase in money. The question becomes....how do we change that?
Discipline. 
And the desire to be truly free.
Neither of those are easy but the good news is if have more of the latter then
the first thing will be easier to come by. For us we lacked discipline but we are filled
with a burning desire to be debt free and to have more freedom in our life. 
So, here is how we are putting in place living below our means :

1. Cut our entertainment expenses. 
We have no cable/dish, pay as you go internet, no netflix or subscriptions to things we once had. Though
it would be easy to for someone to feel deprived doing this, we welcome it. Our ultimate desire is
to live off-grid. So the sooner we unhooked from these things, the easier it will be for us to make that
transition to the off grid life down the road.

2. Lower our housing cost. 
I know this is not possible for everyone, especially if you have a mortgage. But we are renters and in less than a year we will be relocating. We are purposely looking for cheaper rent in our new state so we can maximize our savings. Our goal is to buy a home mortgage free so we can really be FREE!

3. Spend less on transportation.
In the last year we have sold our 2nd vehicle when my hubby decided to take his bike to work. We have saved thousands of dollars in gas, repairs and insurance. We also moved our deductible up for our insurance on our van. We just made sure whatever the deductible is that we had savings to match it. We also cut our driving to conserve gas money and repairs from wear and tear. We plan to continue this type of transportation in the future. Maybe even employing our bikes more.

4. Cut food costs.
This was a hard thing for us because we do not want to compromise on healthy, whole foods as organically as possible. But thankfully we got a Trader Joe's recently so it was easier. We spend on average $400 to $500 a month to feed our family of 5. This is 3 meals a day at home almost every day of the week. When we are home owners again then we plan to reduce our costs by growing and producing as much as our own food as possible.

5. Reduce our clothing costs.
This was easy for us. We buy 95% all of our clothing used. We have really good thrift stores and consignment shops so it made it a breeze. We made this change awhile back when we heard an alarming stat, it takes 1/3rd of a pound of pesticides for enough cotton for one t-shirt. Since our family can afford organic clothing we choose to buy used instead.

These are just simple thing we do to under consume our means. There are many other things we can do to reduce even further. Our goal isn't to under consume in order to amass other things. Our goal is a more simple life that makes us free from conventional systems. It will also allow us to give more than we do now with this debt over our head. The more we have, the more we can give.
What could you do if you had more freedom?

Bill Paying For The Clueless By Choice

Every household has a system for paying bills.
In some households the couple pay bills jointly.
Or maybe one pays them and the other stays in the loop about the particulars.
Our is neither of those.
I pay them and my husband begs to not have to look at.....
THE BLUE FOLDER.
Seriously, its not even a blue folder anymore. But the name stuck.
So I pay the bills, I juggle the expenses. I budget.
All he wants to know is when is dinner ready and when can he buy another gadget.
Nothing more, nothing less. The less he knows, the happier he is.
I am really okay with this system. It works for us for the most part.
I figure he is a great Dad and works hard, really hard, so I will let him off the hook on this one.
But lately I had a morbid feeling take over me.
What if I was sick and could not pay them?
What if I was in a coma and could not pay them?
What if I died....would the kids ever have electricity again?!
Dramatic much? Meh.
But seriously, the problem with a one sided system is if the keeper of the
system goes down, so does the system. Not good.
So, in a effort to keep a roof over my children's head and power
for their Wii should I eat shellfish accidentally and die....I made a manual. 
All of our bills are in there, current one of top of each section. I also staple
receipts, confirmations etc. to the bill once it is paid.
Neat. Organized. Informational.
But because that is not enough for my clueless by choice hubby, I went a
step further. I added paying instructions at the beginning of each bill.
I went into Word and I typed in step by step of where, how, how much, and when.
OCD much? Meh.
Seriously, if you have never paid the electric bill in like 10 years, you need to know
where to go, how much the service fee is going to be and how long it takes to
credit to your account. Or at least I would need to know this. If I was clueless. By choice.
I am working on a table of contents. Oh yes, I have issues.
And also should note I am keeping a years of bills with paid receipts in the binder.
I know organizing experts claim there is no need. Trust me, there is a need.
Ever have a company you owe claim you did not pay 4 months ago?
BAM! Shut the front door, yes I did. Here it is.
This happened to us with a rental company. The wrong amount of entered on the computer
but was entered correctly on the receipt of payment. Had I not kept the receipt we would
have paid $375 for someone else's mistake. No thanks.
I am also going to print the Excel budget I have each month and include it.
However this may or may not send him off the deep end.
Too. Much. Numbers.
The point?
Do what works for you and your family.
Experts can only suggest what may have worked for some.
Adapt systems so that they work for you, not you work for them. 

Budget Fudget

Making a budget is a new concept to me.
Even at my ripe age of early 40's.
When you have not a lot of money it is kind of depressing to see that on paper.
So,we never had a budget per say.
Just kind of a loose direction.
But I do now.
It took me years of resistance and 1 minute of Youtube to finally make a
budget in Excel.
Excuse me while I over extend my arm to pat myself on the back.
We will ignore the years of resistance for the moment.
What an eye opener.
So much is wasted.
Must. Do. Better
So much is spent on useless items.
And the up side?
We do have money.
Hot dang!
Down side?
Its usually almost all consumed in waste and late fee's.
Apparently, we are the main reason our area's Sweet Tomatoes resturant will never go under.
Sweet Mother of Pearl is more like it.

Buying Used - Why it makes cents.

A lot of people ask us the best way to save money. Hands down our biggest way to save money is trying very hard not to buy anything new. Now, of course we have buy food and such new. But most people only buy used when it comes to clothes or a car. We buy used in almost every category. Used appliances. Used furniture. Used clothing. Used tires. Used toys. Used electronics. Used auto parts. Used ,second hand, pre-loved...whatever you want to call it, it makes sense. Or cents if you think about it.

Now, let me start off by saying if you are one of those people who thinks its always better to buy new... thank you. Because of that attitude there is always a plethora of used items for me. Bless you. No sarcasm there. Because without consumers, there is nothing for those who wish to buy used.

If your one of those people who maybe on the fence, this post is for you. When you buy an item new, regardless of what it is, it loses it value the moment you purchase it. Don't believe me? Buy a new home gym, take it home, use it once or not at all and then try to sell it a month later on Craigslist. You can expect to take a 30% loss.  If your lucky. More in the range of up to 50%. In life this is called depreciation. Very little in life grows from its purchase price with the exception of real estate. And in today's market I wouldn't be so sure about that.

When I buy your used Crock-pot at your sale for $5, I am avoiding that depreciation. You have already took the hit for it. I get the item in very usable condition. And guess what? When it dies on me, even if heaven forbid its 2 years down the road, I lost less than you did. I paid $5 and it lasted me 2 years. $2.50 a year.You had it for 3 years and paid $30 for it. $10 a year. See my point?

I will no doubt get responses about how unsafe it is to buy used. In all my years of buying the items above used I have never had an issue. I am sure your friends Aunt's cousin may have. But the point is it is very slim. Buying new does not guarantee no problems. When I have a spare year I will post my saga of why I will never own anything Bissell ever again. Not even used.

Letting other people pay depreciation is how I keep more money to myself. As always, use your own comfort level. But typically I find when someone wants to save money and get out of debt, their comfort level changes. So, don't be afraid to branch out of your comfort level. Do your research and don't buy new or used blindly. Another day I will talk about what is worth buying new in our home. Also another post for another day is how buying used is a perfect way to recycle!