September: Our Savings Month

Our family is on a “no-nonessential spending kick” for September. Why? We had a few hangover bills from a summer vacation and three unexpected car repairs. So a spending freeze seemed like a sane way to get our budget back on track.

Now, we’re pretty careful with our money anyway, so I thought, “How hard can this be?” Well, it’s only September 2. And I’ll tell ya the truth: It’s very, very hard!

I read a suggestion in financial celebrity Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan (which I downloaded for free; you can still read the first chapter here). It was: Don’t spend ANYTHING for one day. So during the last part of August, I kept trying to do that, in preparation for September. Emphasis on “kept trying.” I’d think: OK, this is an easy day to spend nothing. Then we desperately needed milk. Or it was my “mom’s night out” and I wanted to buy a cup of coffee with a friend. Or I needed to send in a check for my daughters’ lunch money.

So I’d put off the “spend nothing day” until tomorrow. But the funny thing was that something kept popping up—sometimes a need, sometimes a very strong “want”—and I found it really tough to go even one single day without spending at least a few bucks! I wondered: How the heck are we going to get through September?

Zen money management

Ahhh. I love my new bills/receipt organizer. It truly makes me feel more peaceful when I use it.

I PAY most bills online, but I still accumulate a bit of financial paper. So I’ve used this simple collection method for many years. My old accordion file had seen better days so I was thrilled when I found this cool one (by Real Simple) at Target. This one is quite similar.

When I get bills in the mail, I plop them into either the “15th” or “30th” category since I pay bills twice a month. I also have a tab for household receipts (HH Receipts), which are ATM and debit receipts I keep until I balance my computerized checkbook–I use Quicken. And I have categories for my personal receipts (Teri Rec.), my elderly dad’s receipts since I handle his money (George Rec.), Statements (to balance) and Discuss (talk over with my hubby).

That’s it. Everything I need to pay bills is in this portable little folder. Once I’ve balanced our accounts or paid bills, I shred. I don’t save much, other than receipts for big purchases or tax-related items, since I can get copies of almost everything else online. Plus, have you EVER gone back to look at an old electric bill? Not me. The less paper, the more zen-like I feel. Ommmm.

How knitting cut my grocery bill

This one little tool: A hand-held row counter. (Mine is this one by Clover.) In knitting, you click it at the end of every row, and it helps you keeps track of your work so you stay on pattern. But after buying it, I realized it was just what I needed for grocery shopping! I keep it in my pocket and when I toss an item in my basket, I round the price up to the nearest dollar and click my counter.

Eliminating “surprise” expenses

Ever think about the fact that the holidays come at the same time each year…yet somehow we forget to budget for them? Or that you need to fill your home’s oil tank a couple of times each year (for those of us in old houses), yet you never seem to have enough cash?

If you take a minute to consider it, there are lots of expenses that only happen a few times a year, so we don’t really plan for them. But why not? A few years ago, my DH and I sat down and brainstormed every annoying expense that had caught us by surprise. Could we somehow anticipate them?