Build My Budget

Recently I have been thinking more and more about hiring a cleaning service. Several of my coworkers discuss how it is some of the best money they spend each month, yet I can't seem to get myself to pull the trigger.  From what they tell me, for about $15/hour a local cleaning service will dust, mop, vaccuum, clean the bathroom and more.  Oh, and did I mention I hate cleaning the bathroom?

Currently there is only two of us so it's not too difficult to manage the cleaning and we usually tackle it each weekend by dividing things up.  I'll take the living room, my wife will take the kitchen, and so on.  With work and grad school though, it makes it even more difficult to justify using precious free time on tasks such as cleaning

So it's holiday season. The unique time of the year when your budget goes wholly out the window, and your expenses seem to fly out of your control.  I have seen many forum posts lately on how making hand made gifts instead of buying gifts and wanted to convey that it is possible to make really great gifts without breaking the bank.

There are many different things you can make instead of putting gift purchases onto your credit card. Me, I like to make Molas.  Molas were traditionally made by the Indians by sewing pieces of fabric together into designs.  I follow the same concept, but I cut my designs into paper with an exacto knife.

So for about $10 for an exacto knife and some paper, you can make really cool one-of-a-kind gifts.  But be careful!!  Exacto knives are sharp and must be handled with care.

I was reading through one of my favorite forums, SavingAdvice.com, and came across an excellent list of tips for savings money when it comes to paying for Gas.  Jeffrey, an administrator was kind enough to compile this excellent list.  Thanks Jeffrey!

1. Shop around for a lower price, but don't go miles out of your way to get the best price. When traveling a long distance to save a few pennies, you end up spending more on car driving expenses (AAA estimates that it costs 56.1 cents a mile to drive a car in 2005 while the IRS allows a deduction of 40.5 cents a mile) than you end up saving with the lower gas price.

I recently  read a fabulous quote:

"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone elses plan.  And guess what they have planned for you?  Not much.

- Jim Rohn

Some people..ok, ok-- a select few of my family and friends will be happy to know that Monica and I finally purchased a coffee maker and are starting to drink coffee. I occasionally would drink a cup at work a couple of years ago but stopped because it typically led to a 50-yard sprint to my office’s restroom followed by a dose of Montezuma’s Revenge. Hmmmm, perhaps that was too much information.  Anyway, so you might ask why have I started drinking coffee all of a sudden?

Do you find it nearly impossible to find a couple of dollars to transfer to your savings account after paying your bills each month? Back when I was studying for my undergraduate I was constantly surprised when my bills would show up in the mail. I couldn’t save any money because of these surprises and I was surprised because I wasn’t prepared.

When I created my first budget I continued to have the same problem—no matter what I did I was always surprised each month by some unforeseen expense and the gap between my income and expenses would turn out to be zero or worse! So I set out to create a foolproof way to make sure I had enough cash to pay all my bills with some left over to transfer to savings.

Happy New Year to you and yours! Monica and I have established a few goals for the New Year which we think are pretty attainable…if neither of our cars explodes and the economy doesn’t claim one of our jobs. Our primary focus is on increasing our emergency fund and saving towards a down payment on a house. Hopefully the two vacations will still fit in our budget, but attending five weddings in four months isn’t going to be much of a help (cheers to those getting hitched!!!).

For 2009 we have six main goals:

So Monica and I just returned from our first trip to San Francisco. It's been about seven months since our honeymoon so a break from the everyday grind was long overdue. We spent three days in Napa and Sonoma Valley and four right in the center of the San Francisco tourist trap.

We had our priorities straight, so the first thing we did when we arrived was open a bottle of wine. Well almost anyway. We decided to stop by an amazing national park called Muir Woods (home to the famous redwoods) on our way to Napa Valley.

We managed to fit in about thirteen wine tastings during the few days we spend in wine country.

It took me quite a while to realize that I needed to start building my financial foundation. I had moved home after graduating and was ready to move out on my own after landing my first stable job. With no furniture and thankfully no credit card debt I moved out into my own one-bedroom apartment.

I really enjoyed living alone, but my spending was starting to get out of control and even worse, I was starting to ignore what was happening. I bought furniture, pictures, plants and everything I thought I "needed" to make the place a little more livable. I hooked up cable and internet, another couple of things I desperately "needed."(Ok, the internet is a must for anybody these days!)

In short order I was back into credit card debt and the gap between my income and expenses was going further and further in the wrong direction. I would pay my credit card bill and then put the money right back on the card going out with my friends for drinks.

I was talking to a good friend of mine recently about his condo situation and let me tell you, it leaves nothing to be desired.  I'll spare you the details but let me assure you that he is going through an incredibly difficult period in his life right now because of his decision to purchase a condo during the 03-04' boom years.  As a result he is upside down 60k on his mortgage with an interest only loan.  I feel for my friend because it truly is an unfortunate situation.

The crazy part is how close I was to making the exact same decision at the exact same time my friend bought his place!  I was looking at buying a one bedroom apartment conversion because it was the only thing I could afford, and it seemed like the right thing to do.  I mean, who wants to keep throwing money away on rent, right?