Moneysavinmama's Personal Finance Blog

Wow, I haven't posted since the end of June. I have lurked and kept up with lots of you but I have majorly fell off the wagon. Hard. That July budget I posted I completely blew it out of the water, didn't track expensese. I did absolutely horrible. Then came august, I've done even worse. I took a week off UNPAID and spent SO much money, I did as much as normal people would do in a summer in a week. We did two summer parks, a water one and one with rides, we did swimming, dinners out with friends, a mini trip, hotel, zoo, shopping, beach, parks. But most of everything we did cost money, lots of it. I'm still looking okay for this month meaning I'll be able to pay bills, pay off my credit card, keep groceries in the house but there will be no adding to my car fund, my bed I still owe on, my savings. But we did have a great week off and I plan to get my butt in gear and get back on the wagon September first by sticking to a budget!!

Now to update you on how my accounts are looking,
Christmas: 525(hoping I can add another 75 once all bills are paid)
Misc: 0
Ef: 5321
Small ef: 700
Car savings: 1060
Bed: 900 ( owe 1300)

Overall not to bad, the story on the car. My old one passed inspection so I'm going to hold off on buying a new one. Now a big thing, I had a family situation and lend out 2500$ of my savings... They are to pay me back 500$ a month until it's paid off I'm hoping they stick to it and do it ontime.

My income will be dropping start next month so my new budget will have to reflect that. My dds birthday is also next month and another family members so it will be a pricey gift month. I'm probaby going to start my Christmas shopping next month to ive already done up a list of who all I need to get for so just what to get it left. My goal is to have saved 900$ for Christmas by December. Well if you got through all this thank you for listening to me ramble hope everyone is having a great summer!

Alright I did make all my June goals at all I set a new budget for July and here is how it's looking:
Bills: 352
Rent:500
Weekend: 240 ($60 a week/weekend to be used for eating out activities and misc stuff)
Clothes: 50
Out: 100 (higher then normal because I'm going to a play the beginning of July and tickets are about 45)
Sitter: 50
Bed: 200
Groceries: 400
Gas: 100
Car: 50 ( maintaining vechical)
Christmas: 75
Hair: 40
House: 40
Car: 150 (towards a new car)
Extra save : 100
Misc savings : 30
Balance on cc: 50

Now I really hope I can stick to it and cut back a bit on the flexible expenses.

I really need a new budget plan! Not really sure where to start or what to do. I was attempting to do the cash/envelope system but am failing!! I need something new to try. I need to pay off another 800 on my new bed (interest free till december), another 350 till I make my christmas goal. I need a new car and am still going to save as much as I can towards it but life has been getting in the way lately. Between birthdays, other gifting holidays, grads, things I needed for the house etc. I am kind of looking for a cheaper ($6000-$7000) car to finance so its a bit nicer then an 2000/2001/2002 thats in my price range for cash but haven't had that much luck either. Right now I still owe out about $1025 if I'm going to make all my "normal" savings goals. (Save:100, Misc:100, Account Over:150, Bed:200, Car:150) then rent, groceries, gas, dds account money and this weekend. But I only have about $813 coming in, but I charged $92 on my credit card yesterday that I have to pay off.

Wow, I feel overwhelmed!!! I wish I had have kept tracking my spending the only things I really know what I've spent on is gas everything else has been a free for all.

So if anyone has any other budget plan ideas for me please please please let me know!! I need to get back on track! I also updated all my info in the side bar, not much progessing being made as you can see. Oh and not to mention that in August I am taking an unpaided week off and will be about 500/600 short from my normal budget not including the bed savings or car ugh, life.

3, 4, 5? What a bad month June has been so far and it's not looking like it's going to get any better. Im behind on some bills, have put nothing towards saving, or a car, or my bed. I have lost work, had more bills pop up. Had a sick dd and had to take more unpaid time off. Its been a long run of bad things happening. I have 2 more small pays plus child support (I hope) so I might be able to catch up a bit.

I need to start tracking my spending again, I stopped a few months ago and just haven't been able to get back in the swing of things I'm spending money faster then I'm making it. My fingers are crossed that July is a way better month, I can't take much more of this bad stuff.

Well this month was good but I spent lots and didn't track any of my spending, took dd on a weekend trip had a great time and stayed under budget!! I managed to put away the normal savings. 25/dd, 75/ large ef, 100/baby ef, 75/Christmas. But nothing extra. June will be a WAY better month it has to be! I'm going to track everything, and really try to cut back on unneeded spending. Also going to try to not eat out as much. Fingers crossed it's a way better month!!

Well me and dd went away for the weekend and I am happy to say that I was under budget for the trip! I have 10$ left in my wallet and 70$ left in my misc trip account! We had a great time, seen baby bears and baby monkeys, cougars, lions, we went swimming, out to eat, did a TON of shopping! It was a great time I'm hoping to plan for another little two day trip in August!

I started to plan out my June budget and I am hoping to add an extra 100 to savings and 200 to my new car savings account. My budget will look like this if it goes as planned:

Bills: 351.91
Rent: 500
Weekend Money: 240 (works out to be 60 a weekend)
Clothes: 50
Out: 40
Sitter: 25
Groceries: 340
Car Maint: 50
Extra Savings: 200
Christmas: 75
Hair: 40
Misc Savings: 100
Gifts: 50
New car: 200
House items: 40

Any extra money I make that is not budgeted out will probably go 50/50 to savings/car, Now off to go and update my goals on the side bar!!

I was sitting here writing out a new list of goals and decided the ones I was making were not realistic at all. So I scratched them out and started again small. Here is what I have so far: Boost baby emergency fund from 500 to 1000. Keeping adding in the automatic 75$ a month into my large ef so by December as long as I don't touch the money or add any extra I'd have 5600. Start saving for a car since I don't have to rush anymore to buy one, I have about 1000$ left of my income tax and I am going to put 500 into my car fund and 500 toward shelving, a picnic table and the rest towards a new camera. My goal is to save about 2000 for a car. So not so offical goals:

1) Baby Ef: 500/1000 To be completed by Sept. 2011
2) Large Ef: 5000/5600 To be completed by Dec. 2011
3)Christmas: 300/800
4) Car: 500/2000

Hopefully I can meet them all my job is kind of up in the air as of September, not sure what I'm going to be doing. Lots of decisions to make so hopefully I can just save up and maybe finish early. That would be great

Well my weekend has been pretty good, trying hard to not spend money I don't have to. If I can make it through today I will be good till the weekend and then we are off for the weekend, hoping for nice weather for the zoo Saturday. I am not tracking my spending anymore I'm finding it a pain to write it down right now once I get my apartment organized and I have a desk set up for all this stuff/business stuff it won't be as bad so for right now I am spending my category money in cash only and not spending more then what I had alotted that category its working good so far. I have been spending my weekend/eating out/misc money (which is $60 a week/weekend) on eating out, 23 on Friday and then another 20 last night but on the bright side its Sundaty and I still have about 30$ left in the category and I get another 60 next week and the week after. This is working way better to just take 60 a week whatever is left over will go into my misc savings which currently has 106 (206 as of next week) but will be spend this weekend on our mini trip.

Car update: I don't have to rush to find one! My parents went out yesterday and bought a second hand van so I can take my time looking this is such a relief!!

My income this month is a huge mess, with pretty near a full week of me being sick and then the children I watch being sick my pay at the first of the month and next week will be a little short. I'm hoping for a full week of all the kids to make up for all the missed days and then a VERY healthy June to get back ahead!

Income tax money, I still have no set plan for this but it is slowly getting spend on random things for the apartment/yard. Shelving for my dds room, living room and play room, getting a picnic table build, and will probably buy the kids a pool. I still didn't buy my new camera I think I will research a bit and buy a really nice one at some point. I also need to sit down and write out a new set of goals since I met my two bigger goals alreaady of 500/5000 and am still doing my ongoing goals of christmas etc.

Well if you made it through this all your a trooper thats a whole lot of random updates/thoughts! Hope your all having a great weekend

I need advice. Long story short: I need a car. I bought a car off my parents in October for cheap I have been driving it since, they are now looking for a new car because the inspection on the car they were driving is up and its not worth putting work into. They really like the car they sold me, I dont. So they will buy it back and I can get something I like. Here is where I need the advice, I really want something newer, nicer etc. Would love an suv type car but with the price of gas I don't know if it would be smart. I still have about 1000$ from my income tax, 700$ from the car from my parents, and I could sell my old old crappy car for about 300$ so thats 2000 right there. Do I take that 2000 and buy another older car, do i take 1/2 my ef and buy a decent newer car or do I go and buy a new car from the dealer at 0% finacing for 60 months and have a car payment of about 391 but full cover insurance. But no maintance and a 60 month warrenty. Would love some good advice because I need to make my decision soon right now my parents are using my car (aka their old car) all the time and thats leaving me carless a lot which isn't a big deal cause I don't use in through the week at all really but still it would be nice to have the opition.

I am very thankful for an ef this week, my dd ended up sick on Monday and I ended up sick Wednesday so this caused me to miss near an entire week of work. If I didn't have money in my savings incase something like this happened I don't know what I'd do! Use my cc that only has a $500 limit? We are a one income household, we rely on everything I bring in. Very thankful for my ef but also starting to think $5500 isn't enough. Time to set some new goals.

Today was a very long day, DD woke up last night and ended up getting sick. She was sick on and off from about 12-3:30 so I didn't get much sleep to begin with and then had to wash just about every blanket in the house today and had to take the day off from the kids so I have to sit down and redo my budget since I'll be short money. She is feeling a bit better this evening I just hope it lasts and she doesn't get sick again!

We made a trip to the mall yesterday and got my mom a mothers day present and my friend a graduation present I also bought a few things for the dog and cat, new dora sandels for dd and cute picture frames for my bedroom! I'm hoping to keep this a no spend week from today till Thursday then payday is Friday so we will likely go for groceries Friday night!

I still haven't decided what to do with my income tax refund so right now its just sitting in my baby ef account. I should have all my weekend trip funded by next week! I am very excited I book the hotel room last week so its all set! Zoo, shopping, hotel, swimming cannot wait for a long weekend of fun/relaxing with dd and my friend!! 18 more day!!!

Well my end of the month savings numbers are in and I am SO happy to say I met my 5000$ goal early!! I was hoping to get it done by December! I also took the 1076$ I got from my income tax I spent 34 on tanning sessions for myself and the rest got moved into my baby ef until I decide what I'm going to do with it. I messed up majorly on my budget, didn't track my expensese, stop tracking my money in just a bad month but I am starting fresh in May and back to writing everything down.

I booked the hotel room for mine and dds mini vacation! Now to really cut my spending for may so we have some extra money to spend! I am so excited and relieved right now!! Time to think of a new set of goals for myself!

I failed big time on my "no spend week" I made it till Tuesday and then I took the kids and mom out for lunch. Mind you it was 26$ for 5 of us to eat, it was really good, lots of food even had left overs BUT thats not the point of a no spend week is it. I did Good Monday and Yesterday two no spend days, tonight shouldn't be I'm planning on going to the gym tonight which is covered under my membership but its rainy and gross out so I may stay home and have a movie night with dd either way it should be no spend.

I wrote last week about being overwhelmed by the state of my apartment well since then I kind of jumped from room to room and really didn't get much done so yesterday I sat down and made up a big 3 page list of things I want to get done starting with dds room. I want to turn it into a space for just her, with some special toys if she wants time alone she can go and play and then that way she doesn't have to share all of her toys with the children I watch and I am proud to say I am pretty much done! I have a small table and chair I need to move outside when the rain stops and then I have 6 boxes of clothes to sell but I am done! Her room is so neat and tidy now, closet is so clean, even extra hangers in her closet! Next will be my bedroom with the main goal being to remove the playpens from the children I watch right now its a bit of a maze to get to my bed I packed up one to sent home today and the other one we will work at sleeping on couches this afternoon. So hopefully by tomorrow I will have 2 out of 3 gone!! I then want to make my room more relaxing, comfortable for me to get away in, my own space since the rest of my apartment is full of toys!

Tomorrow I will post my end of the month savings totals and its looking pretty good that I will make my 5000$ goal!! I am still wavering back and forth about what to do with my income tax, either bank it all or 500 towards a camera, 50 for a pinic table for outside, 100 towards getting my dog fixed, 50 towards shopping when me and dd take our over night trip next month, 200 towards my large ef and 176 towards my small ef. But then I feel like I should be putting at least half into savings, but I really have wanted a new nice camera for awhile. All the choices!

I woke up this morning and went to transfer some money out of one account to my savings account and there was a deposit made in the middle of the night to my account of 1070 and some odd cents. Now I have been waiting for my income tax refund but from what my mom worked out she thought I would be getting 1700 back and when I looked it over I thought around 1400/1500 so maybe its my income tax with an adjustment? I checked to see when it says and it just says deposit, direct deposit is great until you end up with money that your not sure where it came from! I almost don't want to transfer/spend it incase its a mistake and they try and take it back out. Now if it is mine time to decide what I'm going to do with the money, if I had have gotten the 1700 back it was going to go like this: 500-small ef, 500-large ef, 500-new camera, 200-dog fixed. Since its not as much I'm not sure how I should break it up I'll think about it this afternoon and if anyone wants to tell me their opinion then let me know!! Hope everyone has a great day

We had a great and very busy Easter weekend! We seen lots of family and even had a Egg hunt through the woods at my grandmothers my dd loved it! She had so much fun and loved that she got to eat jelly beans for breakfast!

Today I am catching up on cleaning and 5+ load of laundry, I am trying to budget for next month to include a trip to a hotel, summer shopping and zoo with dd and planning for a full week off with no pay in August. I am hoping to do a full Monday-Friday no spend week, I filled up my car on saturday so I shouldn't need gas, I got enough groceries to hopefully get us through so hopefully I can make it! Save a bit of monry for the trip and then plan for a low spend weekend!

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter weekend!!

Yesterday was payday and I ran to the bank this morning to put some money in then back home to do all my banking. I took money out for rent, 200 back to my baby ef bringing it back to 500, paid the 114 off on my credit card bringing it to a 0$ balance, paid my cellphone bill, put 75 into my christmas fund and took out some money for groceries, an activity this weekend with dd and fun money! I feel more in control this week after paying all that and still having a bit in my chequing account!

This morning I painted Easter eggs with dd and we went out for breakfast, I'm hoping for a really nice day tomorrow so we can enjoy the trampoline and maybe go to the park and for a walk. Then Saturday night the Easter Bunny comes! Or as DD calls him Super Bunny! Sunday morning will hopefully go good, DDs dad is coming out to spend the morning with us so he can see her going through her easter basket and then I have a family dinner in the afternoon. I'm hoping for a really nice day so we can go outside blow bubbles and play with some of the outside toys!! I hope everyone is having a great weekend and a very Happy Easter!!

I am sitting here in my living room SO overwhelmed with stuff, books, toys, papers, craft supplies, more toys and books blankets boxes of clothes just so much stuff. I don't even know where to start. I watch children out of my home and need to keep a variety of toys for the different ages but I'm beginning to lose the battle and my home. Where do I start!! It's so stressful to sit here and look at everything, I did one corner this morning packed up a bag of books to send away, and a bag of papers to get rid of. But now what. What do I do with toys I spent good money on but dd just isnt interested in playing with them. She actually doesn't play with at least half of her toys because there in piles in the "playroom" that we don't play in because its to full Of stuff! Do I just get rid of it all? Even though I spent money on it? I could sell it but that seems like a lot of work. What about boxes? How long is to long to keep them? I've had a huge 42" tv box along side my stairs for 2 years! I keep thinking what if I move and need to move it? Someone please offer some advice in where to start to regain control of my home!!

I've made some really bad financial decisions lately, I actually said the other day frig the budget, if I want to buy something I'll buy it. So tired of counting every cent, writing everything down, only spending this much on this or not having any money left in this envelope till I get paid again when I know I have money sitting there in the bank. So I went and said forget about the budget, went out and did some shopping and out for supper 113$ later on my cc, spend 60$ on a night out with friends, and took more money out of my baby ef which is now down to 300 because of bad choices. I sat down this morning and check my bank account and could have smacked myself, who in the right mind says frig the budget and then goes shopping!! Bad Bad idea! Anyways I went over everything and get paid this week, I will put the 200 back into my ef, send 113 off the to cc company, take out my rent money, pay my cellphone bill, add a bit into savings, into dds education savings account, my christmas account and will hopefully be back on track. I am still hoping to finish off my large ef of 5000 this month even with all my extra spending, and then back to my normal budget still not sure about keep/getting rid of the envelope system though. Rant Over

I've been trying really hard to stick to the envelope system and am having troubles with it working for me. I think I'm going to quit using it except for certain things, car maintance, clothes, babysitting, going out, but for things like eating out, misc, groceries etc I think I'm going to use debt. I'll still set my limits and write down what I spend but its starting to be a pain splitting up the money trying to split a 20 into 5s so I can fill an envelope. I don't have time to get into the bank to get the proper bills, hopefully this doesn't completely ruin my efferts and send me back into crazy spending! But its just getting a little to easy to spend those twenties, I'm homing it'll be easier to say no to swiping the debit card. Has anyone else tried and given up on the envelope system?

Well it was another spendy weekend, took dd swimming and out for supper on saturday and then out for supper again sunday. We got the trampoline up and spend all of yesterday out side SO nice! I paid off my cc on Friday took the money out of my misc savings account and got dds Easter stuff and am happy to say I stayed around my 110 budget!! I haven't gotten the chance to put any extra into savings this month and it's not looking like I'll have much extra to add it. As long as I can find an extra 85$ I will be very happy and my first goal of a 5000 ef will be complete! My car went in for an oil change but that will come out of the car fund, and I am going over my budget and putting in my numbers from the weekend! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Is anyone else budget crazy or is it just me? Almost once a day I go over my budget, my income, what has to come out, what goes into savings, how much I have left in each category! (my period key just broke so I apologize for the run on sentences and commas out of place lol)
I made some changes and added a new category to my budget for activities with dd I use to take this out of misc but I ALWAYS went over! Hopefully this works better it ups my budget a bit each month but hopefully it will work out with the overages, Tomorrow is pay day which makes me happy time to fill all my envelopes, pay off my cc for dds trampoline AND Easter shop tomorrow night! I have a budget of 100$ for Easter things for tomorrow I'm going to try VERY hard to stick to it. (it worked!) I already picked up 2 baskets, chalk, bubbles, and eggs to fill that I'm not going to count in my 100$ so total for her basket will hopefully be 110 or less! I had planned on giving her the trampoline for Easter to but she was with me when I picked it up and every day since we bought it she has to check to see if the snow is all gone so we can set it up! So excited! Well I hope everyone is having a GREAT Thursday!!!

Well I had a really bad start to April, eating out twice, movies, treats for the movies, trampoline, grocery, gas. All out of my 150 over fund, and my misc savings and some on my cc. Looking at my budget and what I spend so far I feel like I've ruined April already and its barely even started! The trampoline was something I had planned to buy dd, I did put it on my cc just because I was to get some credit going so when I do decide to buy a house some day I have something they can look at. My plan is to put my whole misc fund onto my cc, and then put the rest on it when I get paid on Friday and to redo my budget taking into consideration the things I've already spent on for the month. Its times like this where it stresses me out being so organized with my finances/budget sometimes I wish I could just be like most other people and just spend when I want to spend, buy what I want to buy and not think/worry so much. But then I'd more then likely be in debt and worrying even more! So I'm going to stick to tracking all my money, where every cent goes, and trying to save as much as I can. I really hope I can go up from here and add a bunch of extra into savings finish off my large Ef and fund a weekend trip with DD in May! I hope everyones April is off to a better start money wise then mine!!

Here is my recap of my March budget, I actually did half decent!! I'm going to list my budgeted amount first and then my actual amount spent!

Income: 1885
Other:1036
Total: 2921

Bank Fee: 12.95/12.95
Car Ins. 31.75/31.75
Tenant Ins. 21.83/21.83
Cell/Internet: 130/126.87
Life Ins: 48.38/48.38
Auto Savings: 75/75
Education: 25/25
Rent: 500/500
Misc: 100/137.91 Over by 37.91
Out: 40/40
Clothes 50/50
Misc Save: 100/100
Snow Removal: 20/20
Grocery: 380/376.17
Gas: 100/80
Eat Out: 80/65.60
Car Maint: 50/50
Extra Save: 100/1030 Extra 930 into savings
Christmas: 75/75
Hair: 40/40
Sitter: 20/20

Total Budgeted 2040 Total Spend: 1996.46 + 930 extra into savings.

I use cash for just about everything expect bills and gas. So if I have money left over it just stays in the envelope till I need it, like I did use my sitter money but I still put the 20$ in. I also go through my envelopes and take out any change left over from the month and add it into my change jar. I also make sure I have an balance of 150 in my chequings account at the end of the month anything else gets put into savings. I'm expecting a lower income next month and even lower come the summer so I may have to do some more adjusting of the budget. I hope everyone had a great March!!

It's near the end of March which means setting up my Budget for April. I really want to finish for my larger Ef in April so I will be cutting back on some things to do so. I did OKAY for March, I will post my total numbers tomorrow. I think I'm going to post my budget at the end of the month to kind of "fess" up to where I over spent.

I have a job interview Friday so if everyone could cross their fingers just a little for me that would be awesome!!

Well tomorrow is the start to an early weekend tomorrow but that doesn't mean it will be any less busy. I have a bunch of appointments tomorrow morning, its pay day so time to pay bills and then taking dd for a fun afternoon! I'm getting so close to my 5000 goal I really hope I can scrape up the extra money and finish it next month.

I'm starting to look into school but am a little nervous about going into debt for it, taking time off from working, making way less and paying for childcare! Lots of decisions to make in the next few months, I just hope I make all of the right ones!

I'm a 20 something single mom to a busy 2 1/2 year old girl! I am all about saving, budgeting, and staying debt free. I decided to start this blog to make myself more accountable with my spending. So here are my goals!

1) Baby Emergency Fund: 500/500 Completed Jan.31/2011
2) Large Emergency fund: 4606/5000
3) Christmas Account: 150/800
4) Misc Savings: 147/?
5) Save all extra change in my change jar till Dec.31/11
6) Stick to my budget, cut where I can, and use the envelope system.

Those are my current goals, I'm hoping to add go back to school soon. I'm doing pretty good so far I wanted to have my 5000 EF saved by Dec.31/11 but it looks like I'll hopefully have it done by April! If I make this goal me and dd are going on a weekend trip! Can't wait!!