What food i will not freeze again!

Cabbage! .. ok ok if you have a good way to freeze it please let me know… i tired and it failed badly. About 3 weeks ago i tired to make cold slaw and only used half the head and decided to freeze the rest for later. Well i pulled it out yesterday to make with dinner and once it started thawing out and cooking it just …smelled wrong to me, i tasted it and it was like… sauerkraut! not what i had wanted at all OMG! sooooo unless there is a tried and true way to freeze it i will not be doing that again..yuk

this is NOT frugal at all!

i looked around and there are sites saying you can.. what went wrong with my cabbage!

frugal the lazy way… a few ways i save money

Since i live in an appartment i have the privlage of NOT having a water bill THANK YOU! so this is one that i have not yet had to worry about lowering. I have on my internet surfing jurneys found some pretty neet ideas tho for those of you that do and ill share that will you.. some were in here

I thought i would share some of the small things that i do to save on my other bills.

I use a budget

i do a menu plan

i use a shopping list

i buy at the thrift store for kids clothes

watch for shoes to be on clearance to get them ( for the next pair and hide them!)

i wash ALL my clothes in cold water (AND i don’t sort anything!)

i use only the recommended amount of laundry detergent

i dry my clothes on a line in my bathroom! ( the dryer is ued maybe one out of five loads for stuff… or stuff i forgot had to be worn today!)

i use my dishwasher

i use cold water for everything! ( this is a hard one for me because i have the habbit of turning the hot water on everytime i turn the water on. for teeth, dishes, counters…. you can use the cold for all that. cold for scrubbing the bits off the plates before they go in the dishwasher.. why try and sanitize it before you put it in ? )

I use only two tablespoons of detergent for the dishwasher. ( i experimented with this one and 2 is perfect. they are clean… and more is not always better, just wasteful. less and they tend to not be so clean!  the box last for a lot longer now since i don’t just poor the box into the container until its overflowing! /sigh yes that is how i use to fill it…LOL )

I buy in bulk the stuff we use a lot. ( bulk only works if its something you will actually use before it goes bad, or if its non-perishable stuff .. toilet paper.. you’ll never not need this right?..laundry soup, dishwasher soap.. we buy flour and beans in large 25 lb bags because we use it a lot! )

I buy from the dollar store. ( items such as Colgate toothpaste, suave shampoo, razors, deodorant, sandwich bags, tin foil..ya it is a crappy quality tho but works to cover food that is cooking..about once a month i go and get about 4 of each and stock pile them. there is lots of stuff there but remember you are getting what you pay for also )

i do NOT buy paper towels. ( i have old rags and an old towel that has been cut up to make more rags and there is no trash or stuff to buy )

i save coffee grounds and mix with some backing soda for a cheep sand box ( my kids LOVE this, there  is a box outside filled with this and odd and ends for toys to play in it with. they will spend hours playing in the dirt making hills and filling cups and dumping it out .. then when they are done i give them the broom and they help me clean up the mess…OH and i use the backing soda for the coffee smell that can get strong if you have a LOT of it ! )

NOW.. some stuff that i would love to do if i had my OWN home!

water harvesting ..here...here,,, and here..

use it for your toilets! why keep flushing away your drinking water when you can use the rain water??!!

solar power! even if it was just a couple of panels and don’t think i have not been thinking about how this could be done in an apartment to save my electric bill!..here..here...and here

a garden. i would love to have the room to plant a real garden .. not just for the benefit of growing my own food but for the joy from being out in the dirt!

ok ok thats all i have time to give you, i have errons and the monster boy is begging to get on and play!

god bless!

Some Frugal link love!

Some great article from homemaking Barbi

40 uses for plastic milk jugs

http://www.homemakerbarbi.com/40-uses-for-plastic-milk-jugs/

13 free things to stop paying for now!

http://www.homemakerbarbi.com/top-13-free-things-to-stop-paying-for-now/

13 ways to save on laundry cost

http://www.homemakerbarbi.com/13-ways-to-save-on-laundry-costs/

Ok I line dry in my bathroom.. Its not really pretty but it has cut about 20 dollars off are CONTANTLY RISING electric bill.. 3 years ago when we moved in are bill on average was 80.. Now its 100 with no heater .. No ac.. Sigh so I have been on the hunt for how to cut it down!

I got some twine from the store and hooked it up between the dryer and the cupboard. I was able to put up two lines this way. Ill have to post a pic when my charger gets here ( I have no idea were it went ! I had to get a new one! )

Also I realized I was using to much laundry detergent. I was filling the cap ALLLL the way up! When I should have been only filling it to the first line. Once I did that the bottle last as long is its suppose to and the close are still very clean….. I have not tried diluting the detergent though… I may have to experiment with this idea.

spend some time exploring her site its great

god bless!

frugal..and how the lazy way….COMMENTS!

from…

Hi there! I’m Leslie… said…

You’ve convinced me to go back to the old “cash system” of shopping! The other day I had a budget of $200.00 (we were going on a camping trip too) and with coupons reduced my bill from about 190.00 to 135.00. The savings disappeared, though. Should have taken the cash and stashed it away. Thanks for the reminder!!!!

Leslie, aka Menu Maker Mom
http://menumakermom.blogspot.com

hay leslie! thanks so much for visiting and commenting, I LOVE COMMENTS! As for the savings disappearing i understand. Its seems to me that the longer your on the budgets the more some things start to slip out of it. For me some of it is the .. “urgency” of what started the need for it has passed so some of the stuff slowly gets stopped because its not really hurting anything. Im not sure if that was just me because im ultimitly lazy lol or if its a normal thing. Either way I am glad i helped you pick up a dropped step!

I have to constantly go back to old sites and articals that first modivated me to do things! good luck and god bless

frugal..and how the lazy way .. the first trip!

My wonderful sister in law did it! She sat down Saturday and made her weekly menu and a shopping list. She allowed herself $140.00 for her trip and only spent $125.00!! So proud of her for her first trip! After figuring out her normal spending on food and her many trips for milk this should help her find a great deal of her missing money each week.This is a great start M WAY TO GO!

Another way I have found to keeping that new found money is…hideing it again. All are money is direct deposited once a week and that same day auto transferred to its designated places. We end up with the food money and weekly allowances for are selfs left in the bank that we use threw out the week. NOW come the day BEFORE payday I take all that is left in the bank and move it to the savings account. We don’t have much because it’s been predetermined but it’s a really great way for you to see what money has been found in this week’s budget and make sure it doesn’t slip away! … Generally I found if I leave it there… I spend it because… well its there and free money to me /shrug because I have not told it were to go so starbucks told me were it should go! (I’m a sucker for a good looking cup of coffee!)

So my next advice guys after you have started your budget… worked out your menu… make your shopping list and saved yourself some money… your having a proud moment right now and you should enjoy it for a few. It fills good to know that you have rediscovered your paycheck and don’t fill like your being squeezed every week. Now take what you have saved and put it away so that it stays saved and make a plan for it.

Make an emergency fund, this is so important and so many people do not have one… this is HOW YOU DON’T NEED A CREDIT CARD! Save that money for emergency’s… broken house appliances… broken car… broken tooth? Ouch!

Start a savings account and tag it with a purpose. OR the envelope system from Dave Ramsey, were you name the envelopes and designate a serton amount each week to it. Even as little as 5 dollars a week.

Birthday and holiday saving…

School cloths and supplies…

… You want a new couch? Start a savings fund dedicated to this… it will modivate you even MORE to save because you know why you’re doing it…

… You want a new CAR… yes you heard me! This is how you do it without credit… open a car fund and start stashing away for it. Chances are you have one already and you want to upgrade or want a second (I cannot imagine this with the gas so high! But I’m not youJ ) stop paying their interest and just save your money…

Well so you see the idea here and I hope this helps you out with yet another saving idea!

GREAT GOING M! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

God bless

frugal… and how the lazy do it….finding all that lost money

Well if you read and did #1 learning to track down your money with a budget your ready for step two! At this point you have deducted all your house hold bills and subscriptions and realize that you SHOULD have “x” amount LEFT after you have payed off the bills. So.. were is it?

This is what my sister in law said… we have xxx left but… were is it? its just not here!

digging a bit with her i found out she dose not do a regular shopping trip but many mini trips to get ” milk ” that end up costing her $50. or so each trip… that is most likely your milk and 45.00 in just crap and impulse buys! OH YES i know all about it i use to love to shop like that!

I believe this is her big temptation area and the best way to curb it ? Well my suggestions were as following

1. for the next month or so you keep every recite for your and hubby. get an envelope or something to stash them in and at the end of each week pull it out with your budget paper and just make a list of were you sent and what you spent. after a few weeks of just normal living your going to have a documented path of your money. At that point you can decide what is out of control for your house hold.. what can stay.. what should be cut out.. cut in half.. found a new way of doing.. you see? either way you will have all your dollars tracked and no longer have that worrisome question in your mind… were DID my money go? now you know

2. start a weekly menu plan. This i have found was my number one money cutter on my food bill. i would plan dinner out for one week .. 7 days.. because i shop once a week.. if you get payed every two weeks and need to do shopping every two weeks then make up a 14 day menu.
~~ it seems a bit intimidating at first but the best way i found to approach this is to make a list of your family’s FAVORITE meals and they always seem to be happy to have it rotated in then look in your cook book for ideas or places like … menu plan Monday… were there are literally hundreds of menus to look at each week. ~~

3. make a shopping list and ….take cash? List what your family has for breakfast, lunch and what you need for your menu plan. stuff your running low on, snacks, household items and personal items. every thing you will need put on that list! now.. if this is your first time taking cash may be unrealistic because you may not have any idea what this will cost you, but cash is safer because you can set a budget and actually stick to it because that will be all the funds you have with you…as your card is sitting at home alone!
~~ OK so to start you will be paying how ever you normally do, but after a couple of months after you have mastered making your menu and your list so that you actually do ONLY BUY what is on it then you will have a very good idea of your food budget you need. if you are very bad at impulse buying this is were you will want to take only cash so that you can not indulge yourself in that area when shopping. because then you will have to make a choice…. the ground beef for Tuesdays dinner or.. this cool magazine!~~

4. go back to cash and being the master of your money. set your own spending limit for the week and withdraw it in cash and hide the cards!! if you don’t have the debit card you cant over spend.. give yours to your spouse? hide it in the freezer! the point is set a personal spending budget for your self also.. we all need some free money when it can be fit it. if just 10 dollars in the week for your daily paper and coffee.

~~NOW if your living off your credit cards you are in need of extreme budgeting and financial control. This would mean you are living out of your means.. spending more then you make! bad bad bad! If you have debt there are only a few things i can honestly think of that would be warranted… house, car, student loans.. why do you NEED a store credit card? save the money to buy what ever it is you think you NEED RIGHT NOW! keep an emergency fund for the ..omg its broken!.. moments were you NEED a replacement now. its become so now now now and me me me orientated in this world that its scary. Its scary because this is how our society has trained us to be.. with in just a generation or so.. are grandparents were savers and the ultimate in frugal living.. and now two generations later.. we are all in debt and little hope of getting back out.. well friends here is a shovel and let me help you dig! if you are this broke and this far in the hole its time to turn on dave ramsey and turn off those cell phones, cable tv and internet and GET out of your hole!! stop being a slave to your money and start being the master.~~

well since I’m lazy i don’t have a number 5 to post lol sorry! I hope that you find some of my blog useful.

god bless

Some frugal links !

surfing around like i like to do i found some great spots for you all. wow you can get lost in the blogs .. one leads to another ..to another.. and soon your some were far from were you started! … one note to the rescue! here are some of the favorite ones i wanted to share. many of them i need to go back my self and look into more because i got distracted with the next!

Carnival of personal finance….. great resources for budgeting and saving that cash

Simple mom on .. Handmade at home: keeping the skills alive.. Some great reminders of what us fugal moms “use” to do to take care of are family and and how to find it again!

The festival of frugality! One I have bookmarked and plan to revisit to read back issues and track the new ones. So many great ideas, some I knew and some I didn’t.. And some I’m just to darn lazy to do!

The frugal food series over at frugal upstate is covering beans this week and wow did I need this one! I just got a 25 lb bag of black beans and am integrating them into are meals more. Its cheap and we like them

Spend some time going to the links of other peoples websites for there ideas. Not only does this give you great cooking ideas it opens you up to the new blogs and some great people.

carnival of recipes! now who does not want to find new ones

Cash money life.. I just stumbled on to this one and am still looking threw it but they seem to have some great money ideas!

frugal.. and how the lazy way…. things to ponder for shopping

Buying bulk and stock piling can be a great way to save money . You buy the foods that you use a lot in bulk to get the lower cost per unit and you stock pile sale items that your family uses. Instead of just getting one tube of toothpaste wile its on sale get a few if you can so that you will have more for less and maybe catch a good sale again before you run out. Remember.. Do not buy things that you don’t use I don’t care HOW good a deal it is..hell even if its free.. If your family dose not use it it’s a waste!

Here is some of my learned frugal lessons and good shopping knowledge from bulk buying to coupon using!




–How long will it take me and my family to actually go threw this ? Is this something that we use enough to warrant buying so much. Even if the price is great if you don’t use it before it goes bad.. You just wasted any savings you made! Better to buy the smaller jar at the higher price then waste 1/2 of the larger jar. Exp… we use LOTS of peanut butter at are house so we get the large winco’s 64 oz jar for $6.06. ( sigh the price went up ! ) this last a few weeks but we will eat every bit of it.




–What is your cooking style. Do you cook most stuff from scratch ? Do you bake a lot? Or do you buy more prepackaged stuff. It use to be all fast fix foods for us but over the last few years I have .. /cough learned to cook! So more and more has become homemade. I like that I know what we are getting and its cheaper. So I have been moving to the bulk flour , beans and rice. A year ago this would have been a complete waste of money and I wouldn’t have had the foggiest idea what to do with it!




–What is the unit price and is this really a good deal to buy the larger jar? If you look at the price sticker it should have the price then then unit price very small under it, compare different sizes and brands.. And don’t forget.. Look up and down on the selfs, the marketers get you buy making the more appealing name brand higher costing stuff at eye level! Look on the bottom shelf see what you find.









–Shop none-name brand, 90 percent of the time there is just no difference at all between them. Not all the time and you will find some brands your not willing to go off brand on but give it ago and find out. If its something new to you try the smallest off brand you can get so that if you just don’t like it your not out much. There is only one thing I can think off off the top of my head that we buy name brand. Mayo, hubby likes best foods and that’s it. So I wait for sales and stock up beyond that we go generic. Generics is a great way to go to save money.




–coupons…to do or not to do.. they can be a great help, along with rebates and sales. From as simple as your Sunday paper to the million people out there that play the coupon game and some are damn good at finding deals and rebate offers. Google it you will be shocked. I personally don’t do much with coupons or rebates or the game… I am to lazy and it all just seems like to much work for me…




–dollar store… there are some great personal hygiene deals and kitchen supplies to have here. I go about once a month and get are toothpaste (Colgate) shampoo (suave mostly ) deodorants, body washes, razors, tin foil, sandwich bags, freezer bags.. I will get about 4 of each for my stock pile each trip, mostly we have at least one at the end of the month and it start stocking up…. Well no more shampoo for a wile I have about 12 bottles now! After getting some of the brands that my normal store carries for a buck there is no way I’m buying them outside the dollar tree again! Of course there are a lot of things I wont get from the dollar store because you DO get what you pay for with stuff. The stuff that I get now I started off with one of each the first trip to try them and see if it was worth the effort of going out of my way for 6 or 7 items… they were.




Shopping many stores compared to shopping at one?… this kind of goes along with the coupon game. Some people have 5 store they shop from, they will get the flyers and find out the sells and match the coupons and get the rebates ( and man those chicks are GOOD ) and each week they hit if all of them for 2 -10 items…. That’s a lot of work… and im damn lazy! Ok there is 5 store close enough to me to warrant checking out the weekly deals. Winco and Fredy’s are across the street from each other… Albertson’s and rite aid are across from each other, and then there is Safeway all alone and out of the way. Now my main store is winco and fredys this is were I do my shopping each week.. But I do look at the flyer’s for the other stores I mentioned. And if there is some really great deals I may go out of my way to get it but.. It will have to be good. I don’t drive I take the buss so its going to cost me about 4 dollars to get there and back so if im going for a sale to save a dollar? Not really worth it right? I DID go for the cereal when it was 10 for $10 tho! Woot that was a great sale! But its not often I actually shop them but its smart to watch them just in case.. Now the people that are shopping all those stores I just wonder… do they add the gas into the many stops? And minis it from there savings?




Ok, so this is a good place to stop, now that I have started blogging my frugal ideas its hard to space them I just want to get it all down and out of my head!!!

god bless.

frugal..and how the lazy way .. your food bill!

so now i have boggled your mind and made you cry by looking at your money in part 1. Your budget can take months to get the way you want it, and trimmed down and working for you. examine each bill that is going out and determine if you need it or do you need so much of it!

One area that we all splurge and over indulge are selfs in is are food budget ( or the before budget times ! ). you run to the store grab what looks good and what you think you can make something edabal from. When we have no need to watch are spending we general have no idea how much goes to food. this was definitely my case before we had to watch the money. before i started a food budget i had no idea what stuff was costing me. i would grab it and put it in the cart… milk? i don’t know what a gallon is! the sugar we get every week.. no idea! we would fill the cart up, spend 200-300 dollars and we did not care. ( i sorta miss those days )

NOW i know what everything that goes into my cart cost! .. ok ok it took me months to really understand the prices and what was good or not, but my first step was to watch and see what the prices were.

the best, easiest and fastiest way to get a handle on your food money…… make a menu for the week and make a shopping list!

if you are like i was and had no idea what you were getting or what you would make from it this will cut a HUGE amount off your bill.. don’t believe me? HA! you will!.

first. look in your fridge, freezer and cupboards get a mental idea of what is there

second make a list of meals you can make with what you have on hand and what you can make with a few extras.. always use what you have on hand !

third , make a menu for the week.. breakfast , lunch and dinner if you can… i personally only do dinner and keep kids stuff around for lunch and it goes on the shopping list…
i have a list of my family’s favorite foods because they like to just have the same things rotated.
here is a GREAT start if you have never sat down and make a week menu for your house, this is a blog that does her list thing blogs from all over link to her so you end up with 100’s of examples!

forth, making your shopping list. Now that you know what your going to make flip that paper over and put down everything you will need to make it that you do not already have. from breakfast foods.. lunch stuff.. dinner stuff.. snacks.. beverages.. this is what you will be walking out of that store with for the week.. or two if that is how you get payed and shop… any personal items you need that you get at your grocery store.

it will take some time the first couple of times, and you will find out like me that you may want ot find another store close to you that has better prices. i shop at winco instead of fred meyers .. unless im being lazy and we are not having to be that strict on the food that week. ( the two are across the street from each other so .. yes its very lazy lol )

i can guarantee tho that this will save you money in your food bill. even if you do not stay with this menu planning it is in my opinion the best way to start, it gives you a real fast strict way to get a real handle and idea of what you eat and how much its costing you.

—-

ok ok so this is all good and well right but you want to save that money RIGHT NOW! ok
1. no more eating out , if your cheep thats 20 dollars a meal..twice a week? 40 dollars
2. brown bag it for lunch.. 5 dollars a day at lunch? thats sitting at the low end. 25 dollars
3. no more 4 dollar cups of coffee everyday.. yes yes i know you need it.. go to the donate place or McDonald’s, there coffee is really not that bad guys and it only cost you what.. a buck? or get a thermal cup and bring your own that way its the way you like it from the get go.. but a cup a day is costing you about 15 dollars a week... so hell buy yourself some ground up starbucks at the store for 9.99 and use your thermal! coffee is a big thing for me I LOVE IT! but i get one cut a week of the special stuff when i go shopping.
4. no more movie theaters! dear lord the cost of tickets and popcorn? makes me cry. get netflix for 10.00s a month and watch your stuff at home! ok ok no its not the NEW release… and its not going OUT.. but what is a ticket now a days im not even sure.. 8 dollars and popcorn /soda will run you another 8.. this is just for ONE person and i think most ppl go in two’s 32 dollars

before the budget my husband was spending 60 dollars a week on his way to work and for lunch. ate lunch at the deli across from is work everyday and got a paper,coffee,gum and w/e on the way to work. now he take 10 dollars a week with him for w/e in the week and a packed lunch from home with 3 sodas. i think with lunches and allowance its about 30 dollars a week total for him. so just changing how he had his lunch and setting a spending limit that did not restrict him because the rest was already taken care of we saved 30 dollars a week…120 a month!

honestly i have no idea how we make it month to month before the budget.. its scary. i know before we got married i really did not. my son and i we struggled every single week. the bank was in the hole before every pay check.. i wish i had gotten this strict with my money then.

ok so that is just a few but.. wow add them up. there is a bundle to be saved RIGHT there!

well guys let me know how you do!god bless!

frugal… and how the lazy do it…. how i worked out my budget

I did my first budget sheet about 3 years ago when we ran into a really slim time. We had to cut some money ..some how.. some were and it seemed imposable! I surfed the web and its i billion frugal sites and budget sites and realized my first step had to be the work sheet. and remember guys… the first time IS REALLY the hardest time.. once you have it down the first time its a heck of a lot easier from there.

and now because of a planned emergency were hubby may be looking at being laid off in a couple of months i have rebuilt my budget to downgrade and stock more into savings. we do not know if this will happen or not but the company has been making drastic changes and we want to be ready if its needed to have a larger emergacny fund and larger stock piling of food. so this is how we worked out the new working budget for our home to prepare a little.
——
we do not have credit cards or store cards, if we do not have the cash we do not get it.. well.. ok we both blew are credit rating a long long time ago so this has saved us for sure because we are unable to get credit! its all been cleaned up in the last 4 or 5 years as far as i know but are score is HORRIBLE! and i hope it never improves. credit ..makes you a slave.. ask dave ramsey he will tell you!!
……

one week ago we got netflix.. i’m sure most of you know it, you can get movies in the mail and also steam it on your computer for a small fee. we are doing the 14.99 ( i think) option that gives us two movies out at one time and unlimited stream to the computer.. we also bought the 100 dollar box that you connect to the computer to the tv and it stream the movies or shows to YOUR tv! its great.. the newer stuff is not really on the instant watch list so you still have to use your dvd player for the new stuff. there are lots of stuff that we cant get threw it but we can still get it on the dvd and keep untill the kids get borred and demand something new!

On reseving the netfix box we suspended are cable for 6 months ( its so cool that we can do this! ) because we are still under contract with them for another… 12 months i think ? not sure but it would cost 212 or something to brake the contract soo… we just suspended it for the moment so we can save up some money. netflix bill – the cable bill we are putting 47 dollars away in saving each month from that.

—

we canceled the paper.. it was only 9 dollars a month but that too will be shipped into savings each month.

—

i canceled one of the game sub because I’m not playing it atm but hubby loves his age of canan so we are keeping his and the internet, but looking into if there is a lower cable speed we can get. and that 14.99 is going to savings now as well.

—

we don’t have cell phones but i do have a prepayed phone that i got about a month ago and it has 30 dollars on it. we don’t have cars and its basically used once a week when i go shopping IF my cab dosnt show up and i have to call or if hubby needs to get a hold of me .. but its really an emergency thing if anything used once a week but generally not. … i have to look but i think the min expire so i may have to use it.. just to use it and not lose them lol weird hu? well i will be looking and refilling it with the lowest that i can i think is 10 dollars and i believe that its 3 months on the min.

—

we get payed weekly and i found after the first year that its just easier to brake it all into payments of 4 and we opened a separate checking account that all are bills are auto payed out off and a auto deposit is transferred over the day after pay day. it makes it so much easier this way i will tell you that, each week the bill money is pulled out and put aside and I’m left with savings, food money and weekly money.

so now are working budget looks like this

we make ………………….495 a week =1980 ( im a stay at home mom so his is all we have and after this budget don’t any of you say… we cant do it on one! )

spending

rent…………………………168.75 = 675.
electric…………………….28.75 = 115.( range from 100 to 140)
phone………………………7.5 = 30.
interent…………………..13.75 = 55 ( looking into the 25 dollor plan)
game sub…………………3.75 = 15
netflix………………………3.75 = 15
food…………………………150 = 600 ( not added to weekly bill transfer)
————–
total ……………………….375.50 = 1502
………………………………………….. – 1980 ( monthly money coming in )
…………………………………………. = 478 (left after bills and food )
—–
smokes/buss tickets..36 = 128 ( hubby’s )
cab ………………………….10 = 40 (weekly grocery trip)
hubby money…………..10 = 40 (his weekly spending money, pops , chips w/e we brown bag it )
coffee snakes ……………10 = 40 ( kids and i for shopping trip )
…………………………….total………. —–
248 ( total for weekly mis spending)
…………………………………………… – 478 ( minus the total left from the bills and food )
…………………………….total…….. = 230 ( /4 = 57. a week left from budget )
…………………………….
savings……………………….32 =128 (128 a month into savings )
…………………………….total………..-230 ( what is left from bills and weekly mis)
………………………………………….. =102 ( /4 25 dollors free after everything)

in the end i have three running accounts. our personal one that the money is dumped into, the bill account and the saving account. this was just easier for me to manage it all and make it actually sepate things.
each week 495 goes in…225 goes to bills and 32 goes to saving. its all on auto transfer so there is no messing with it once you have figured it all out and set it up, its great.

ok so at the end i have 25 dollars that are not being used any where , its my just in case we need more milk or funds and if not it will go to savings… ok so usually it sits there until we have enought for delivery lol or date night or coffee out. its just are w/e money.

its all broken down and its all accounted for. you know were your money is going and you told it to go there! the food budget is high so i have room if i need it and since we have the funds to have it there that is were it stays. the money that is not used is either shipped to savings or used for mis stuff as mad money. i don’t fill bad about it because we have auto savings figured into the budget that is are emergency fund / holiday money / birthday money / school money… so the money is constantly coming and out BUT we have it there for those set reason and we know that when the kids d days come we ill have the funds to cover it, and when x mass comes there is money… not like the years gone past of.. OMG what can we not pay to get them something! no my friend we have planned it so we have a stash for just such reasons!

—- this is after a some subscription cuts and down grading but it works for us, we wanted to keep the internet because this our entertainment. hubby plays online games, so do i when interested.. i love to surf the blogs and the movies and tv now come from it! every one has a different must for there entertainment choice and this is just ours. your budget will vary depending on what you need to run your house and what you do for fun. the budget is not to tell you how to spend your money but to tell your money how to work for you. you know what you pay for your bills and then you plan for savings and your weekly needs.

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well guys i sure hope you understood my brake down and it helps you to build your own budget.. if i just did nothing then confuse and anger you.. im sorry and that my dear friends is a look into money! exciting trip ya? well go plan your own money trip now!

god bless