I have been thinking about this alot recently and I've come to the conclusion that Dh and I really need to knuckle down and start to save/budget. We really want to buy a house soon and have no savings. Both of us work full time and have no kids so It's just the two of us. I know that if we had to that that we could probably just about live off my Dh's salary, we would have nothing left at the end of the month for treats of any sort but if we tightened our belts we could. Well our problem is that we never have anything left at the end of the month and we have no savings at all. Money really does burn a hole in both our pockets and I deperately want to change that. I know that we spend ALOT on food and eating out. I don't make dinner in the house very often and always buy my lunch from the canteen at work.
I'd love ideas on how to budget and tighten our belts. Dh and I just went to the supermarket tonight to get stuff to start making dinners and stuff to bring to work for lunch so thats a start. Does anyone have any other ideas on how to start saving money? I'd be most grateful
Carrie
__________________ Me(32) - DH(32)
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Wow Carrie-- I could have written this post word for word, including the part about just going to the supermarket to stock up on food. Our New Year's resolution is to stop spending so much money on eating out. We also want to buy a house/start TTC in the next few years, have no savings, and on top of that we have a ton of CC debt which we need to pay off. Obviously I don't have much advice to give you on budgeting,lol. But I would love to take part in this conversation!
__________________ Me: 30 DH: 31
Diagnosed: May 2007
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Polly, It's nice to know that someone else knows what I mean!! We have some debt that I'd love to get paid off aswell. I just hate worrying so much about it, Im going to look on Amazon to see and try and get a book about budgeting and paying off debt.
Mandy, Thankyou for the invite I'm going to join
Carrie
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I just hate worrying so much about it, Im going to look on Amazon to see and try and get a book about budgeting and
Start by going to the library
But seriously, one thing to do is not to start with the concept of "let me save what's leftover", and instead after deducting must do expenses (mortgage/rent, car insurance, etc) make the next payment to the savings account in the bank. "Leftover money" is what you use to buy your lunches. Instead of saying "I need to eat out less and cook more", if you only have x number of dollars in your pocket, you'll soon realize that can get you 4 lattes for the week, or a whole lot of cup-of-soups. Use cash to buy stuff -- psychologically it's much harder to turn over the green stuff instead of swiping a card.
Here's what I did to plan for this baby. Now granted, I was in a good financial position (no debt other than a mortgage, decent salary), but I wanted to see how daycare would affect me. I found out how much daycare cost in my area, and each paycheck I put aside that much money in a "baby" account, so I could see how much of a bite that would take out of everything else I do. Turns out not as much as I thought -- I just bought fewer shoes and clothes, wound up eating out a little less, and decided now was not the time to upgrade the bathroom. Now I have a year's worth of daycare money saved up for the baby in case he costs more than I thought, and if I don't need the money for baby-related expenses, that's the basis for his college fund. Also, if it allows me to keep other budgets -- if something pops up for him, it comes out of "his" account, rather than my "saving for a bigger house/new car" account or my "uh oh, the car needs repair/heatpump died/my insurance copay is huge" account. And under no circumstances do I ever look at the 401K as a source of funding for ANYTHING. Even if you have savings, a big mass of undesignated money is tempting fate -- it always seems to wind up being used for "immediate purchases".
You may not be able to break out the money like this immediately, but you can do this in baby steps. And pay off that credit card. I was raised with the following mantra -- "The only thing you do not buy outright is a house, a car, or an education". I understand that life happens, but if you start to think in these terms, you may get to a position where you can live that way much sooner than you think.
Good luck.
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I'm hoping to get some really good tips from the other laides.
__________________ TTC #1 (for way too many years!)
Me- 29 ~ DH- 31
We have tried clomid, ovarian diathermy and fsh injections (I over- stimulated) and 2 cycles of IVM. Fingers crossed for embryo transfer in May- third time lucky?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.
I think you are off to a good start. You start small like not going out to eat as much and packing lunches. I think you will be very surprised how much that saves you if you keep up with it. One thing that DH and I do is ask for GIft Cards to our favorite restaurants for bdays and Christmas that way when we want to eat out we can just use the gift card. GL with the budgeting!
__________________ Me(Lisa) 35 DH 34 DS#1- 11/02(no meds) DS#2- 11/04(no meds)
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born at 35weeks 4days, No NICU!
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Find a good crock pot recipe book! Start it in the morning before you leave for work and set it on low so when you get home you will have dinner ready instead of worrying about what to cook when you get home or going to pick up fast food.
start packing your own lunches.
put money into a savings account before you do anything else.
__________________ ME (Samantha) and DH (James) married 11/02/07
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I am an Independent Avon Sales Rep if any of you ladies are interested check out my site @
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Ohhh I love budgeting! It took us a couple years to finally do it, but we've been doing it now for about a year and it is so awesome. We did Dave Ramsey's course and also use Money Matters (crown.org). They have excellent resources and taught us how to manage our money. Of course, we're still learning every day, but it has made a tremendous difference!
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Go to the library and borrow the Dave Ramsey book "The Total Money Makeover". My husband and I found that wonderful book at a time in our life when we could've made some bad financial choices. But thanks to him, we are on the right path! The book goes into detail about what to do, but before that, I wanted to let you know that I think you're doing great by just starting with the cooking at home! Other things you can do are to really look at your bills and find out WHAT exactly you are paying for and using. A good example is a cell phone. MANY people have all the bells and whistles on their phones and don't use them. So, if you don't use them or rarely use them, drop'em! Same thing with cable, internet, groceries. A good grocery list is essential since many people buy useless food. You can find great (and cheap but healthy) recipes at foodnetwork.com. Make your own food at home as much as possible (the crock pot suggestion is GREAT!). When you can, try to run all of your errands in a circle during one day. It's hard, but if you plan right, you can hit all your errands in one day starting on say one side of town, working toward the farthest from your home, and then working down the other side of town going towards your home. Store brands are your friends. On-line bill pay is your friend (no envelopes or stamps). There are other things, too, but I am too tired to think of them now! LOL
I agree with everyone on here! LIke you, it is so easy for us to just drop everything and go out to dinner or go to a movie, mostly because we dont have anything to keep us at home (no kids yet). We've always just gone out and bought what we wanted - new TVs, Wiis, etc. Its hard to get out of that! I'm def heading over to that thread to check out any more tips!
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DH - 29
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I agree with everyone on here! LIke you, it is so easy for us to just drop everything and go out to dinner or go to a movie, mostly because we dont have anything to keep us at home (no kids yet). We've always just gone out and bought what we wanted - new TVs, Wiis, etc. Its hard to get out of that! I'm def heading over to that thread to check out any more tips!
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DH - 29
Not Currently TTC, but not preventing either To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Currently taking:
Metformin 2000 mg
Lexapro (anxiety)
Vitamin b12
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My husband and I are the same way. We both have good jobs, no children, and still have no money. We love to antique, shop and EAT OUT all of the time. We have a small savings and not a lot of debt. We just give freely with our money. We have nice things and enjoy them but we really don't need them. We would love to build a house and have a family. I guess then we would really buckle down. Budget is a great idea I think we will try it. Thanks for all of the ideas.
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I used to be a chronic over-spender. It was hard to not buy everything I wanted, but once I got going, it almost became fun to see how much money I could save! I don't even enjoy eating out now because all I do is think about how if I made this meal at home, it would cost a fraction of what I was paying at the restaurant.
I have cut our food costs by 75% by not eating out and using coupons at the grocery store. It seems silly and old-fashioned, but they really add up! Also, plan your meals so that you are using some of the same ingredients in the meals so you aren't left with unused items.
Hope that helps and good luck!!
Budgeting? 
