Life on a Budget

As if I needed another reason to love Upromise, I was informed of the following contest in which you can win $10,000 for college! Here’s how…

The Tuition Tales video contest (http://www.tuition-tales.com) runs through May 3^rd and encourages people to upload a 30-second video entry to the site. The videos will be judged on creativity, quality, and a demonstrated need for college aid in three categories: Saving for College, In College Now and Paying it Back. Upromise will grant three grand prize winners – one from each category – $10,000 each to use for college.

So check out the site, get out your video camera, choose your category and start filming! Remember you have until May 3^rd.

Good luck!

With summer creeping up on us, now is a great time to think about starting your own vegetable garden. Whether you decide to plant a small or a large sized garden, it can provide some fun and is a great money saver for the summer.

You will have to choose an area that gets plenty of sunshine. If you don’t want to take away from your yard, you can get extra large planters and grow herbs and certain veggies on your deck. I don’t get a ton of sun in my yard so I plant a very small area that gets adequate sun with a couple of zucchini and summer squash plants and put cherry tomatoes and all my herbs in planters. It works great.

Seeds are generally very inexpensive (usually $1 - $2 a packet) and can usually last a summer producing vegetables if taken care of properly. If you do plant a large garden and produce more than you and your family can consume then consider freezing and/or canning your veggies for the winter months.

A couple of good articles on getting a garden started:
How to: Start a Garden
Sunset.com - Short on space? Grow veggies anyway!

Share a Garden

I’ve also heard of, but have never tried, community or shared gardening. Each member pays a low fee and/or helps tend to a “public” garden. It’s a great way to get fresh veggies if you don’t have the time or space for one of your own.

How much money can you save?

Depending on the size of your garden you can save anywhere from the cost of a few tomatoes and zucchini to the cost of all or most of your veggies for the summer and even possibly the entire year.

Saving money isn’t always fun and it means not always making popular choices. I was catching up on my Oprah shows this morning and there was a story that particularly peaked my interest. The episode had to do with families that only last year were living middle class lifestyles and today are homeless living on the street. They highlighted a mother and her 3 teen/pre-teenage kids going from one shelter to the next while carrying all they own in a black garbage bag. At one point the soon-to-be 11 year boy was asked what would make his birthday great. He simply responded “Maybe a cake and lots of love.” A great answer from an 11 year old boy. My heart just went out to him and I couldn’t help but wonder if he could have learned to appreciate less without being homeless. It was mentioned that a year earlier he received a Nintendo Wii system for his birthday and the family drove around in a Lincoln Navigator.

I’m not judging the parents in this situation as we have all made bad decision in our lives. I just believe that this situation could have been avoided or at least postponed. It just takes the adults in the home to make some responsible and sometimes difficult decisions, especially when it comes to buying “stuff”. It may even require parents to say “NO” to their children when they ask for something they cannot afford. Some might argue that when they bought all the “stuff” they could afford it - both parents were working and everything was good. In my opinion, if you are living paycheck to paycheck and not putting any money in savings “for a rainy day” then you cannot afford the “extras” in life - the video games, the lattes, the expensive cars, etc.

Are you prepared for the worst?

Nobody thinks that they will lose their job, or a spouse, or their house or everything that they own. But you must plan as though you might. I learned in 2001 when I was laid off from my high paying tech job that nothing in this world is guaranteed, especially your job. The whole situation taught me that I need to be prepared financially if things take a turn for the worst. Are you prepared? Not sure? How would you answer the following questions?

1. Do you have at least 6 months (or more) of your monthly expenses saved?
2. Do you have adequate life insurance in addition to what your employer might provide?
3. Do you have a retirement account that you are actively contributing to?
4. Do you know how much money you have and how your money is spent each month?
5. Do you have health insurance for every member in your family?

If you’ve answered “no” to any of the above questions then you may want to think about living on a budget. It doesn’t mean you have to give up everything good in life - it just means that you need to be knowledgeable and responsible with where you are spending your money. I’ve heard parents say that “the children shouldn’t have to suffer because of bad decisions that they made” and continue to give their kids an expensive Christmas or birthday. This logic never made any sense to me. I’m sure if these same kids where given the choice of a home or a Wii system almost every single child would pick a home. And those that don’t, well, their parents should choose it for them.

As I sit here on a snowy Sunday morning, I look at the Sunday paper sprawled out on my coffee table and wonder if it is really worth the $78 I pay per year? This is really a very loaded question and the answer will vary for each person. Of course, many people get the paper for its informative articles on what’s going on around their town and nation. For this reason alone, the paper might be worth the price to you. Personally I get my local information online so I get the Sunday paper for the store fliers and manufacturer’s coupons. So for this reason, is it really worth it?

Store Fliers

Each week most of the major retail stores publish a colorful flier of all their sale items for the week. It’s a nice, convenient way to find out if something that you need is on sale and allows you to shop around without having to go to the stores. But these days, most of the major stores publish these fliers on their website. Plus, if you really want to shop around, using just the fliers excludes all the online retailers that offer great deals.

So is the paper worth it for the fliers? For convenience, yes but overall, in my opinion, no.

Manufacturer’s Coupons

The gem of the Sunday paper is the manufacturer coupons that come inside. Yes, I use coupons and love them. To me, it’s as good as having dollar bills in my wallet. It’s free money. On average I save about $4 a week on my grocery shopping by using coupons. I save another $2-$5 on average a month on detergents, paper products, soaps, personal items etc. So, for any given month I save about $18-$21- just with coupons. Keep in mind this is just for me and my husband. If you have a larger family you could probably double or triple that amount. So let’s break it down on a yearly basis:

We’ll say, on average, I save about $20 a month x 12 months = $240 - $78 for the paper = $162 a year

How much money can you save?

$162+ a year (depending on the size of your family)

So is the Sunday paper worth it? For me, yes. The coupon savings, plus the convenience of the fliers and the news it provides makes the Sunday paper worth the cost for me.