The Joys of Hermit-hood

Ever since my freelance work dropped off into oblivion and my job hunt revealed itself to be full of disappointment, I've turned my obsessiveness to saving money and losing weight. 

I told you about my neurotic grocery budgeting, which so far is proving to be a real challenge to successfully execute. I'm also attempting to save money by becoming a hermit. (Hermits never have to worry about all those miscellaneous expenses.) The below zero temperatures are making this endeavor much easier. 

As for losing weight, it's not that I have a lot of weight to lose, but since I hate (hate) exercise, have no willpower, and love sugar and butter, it's more of a psychological battle. Really, it's not about the weight as much as the jiggliness in the mid-section. I'd happily stay at my current weight if things were just a little bit more...defined. But also, I need to be healthier. I have no endurance and my body is aging faster than I am, which is no good. 

And so I am treadmilling. This might sound like no big deal to those of you accustomed to physical activity, but for me it's quite an accomplishment. Obviously I need to do more than walk if I really want to be in shape, but you have to start somewhere. 

If I can stick with the treadmilling habit, I'll think about adding in some weights or something...I don't know, are there pro bono personal trainers? I need someone to hold me accountable besides me because I'll just tell myself to shut up and go bake some more cupcakes (although I promise I'll feel guilty about it for weeks). 

So will I emerge from this "transitional time" (that's how I like to think of it) healthier and with more money in our savings account? Maybe...or maybe I'll just stick with the hermit thing - you don't really need money or a good figure to be a hermit, right?

Grocery Neurosis

I wouldn't call it a resolution exactly, but I've decided to make an effort to trim our grocery bill by 25%. I've been told that our grocery budget was pretty lean already ($400/month for a family of 4), but I think I can do better.

Any of you who watch Jon and Kate + 8 regularly have probably seen the episode where Kate goes grocery shopping and explains that she spends $150/week to feed her family of 10. She is meticulous about clipping coupons and recording how much things cost at various stores so she gets the best deals, but that is still an insanely low number for 10 people. That's $15 per person for an entire week. In my new plan I'm giving us a luxurious $18.75 per person. 

Today was my first attempt. I finally gave into my OCD urges and started working on an Excel spreadsheet listing every grocery aisle of SuperTarget so that I can make my list in order. I actually took photos of the aisle signs with my cell phone today so I can ensure accuracy on my next trip. It's freaky, I know, but it's always such a bummer when you get to aisle 7 and realize you forgot something that was in aisle 2. 

I also clipped coupons for today's visit. I used to love clipping coupons and then I would always forget them when I went to the store and so I gave up. But not today. Not only did I bring the coupons, but I made little asterisks next to all of my coupon items and had the boys help me find them using the pictures on the coupons. Yes, it took longer, but if I get the boys onboard the coupon train, it will help me remember to bring them and encourage me to keep clipping them, even when saving 35 cents seems like a big waste of paper. 

So, the good news is that I saved $6 today with coupons. The bad news is that I didn't make my $75 goal, but I was close. Next time I'll do it.

Why am I going through all of this trouble? Is it really worth saving $25/week? Well, since that's $1300/year, I'm going to say yes. Plus, despite my interest in home cooking, I don't think I'll ever love to eat at home. I'd much rather put that $1300 toward Hawaii...or a weekend trip to Las Vegas...or a handful a really nice dinners in town...or, oh yeah, my steadily rising property taxes. Wait, aren't we in a recession?

Stopping the Insanity

That's what the husband and I ate for dinner last night. It's a boat...a boat of sushi. It was his birthday, so I'm not going to bother feeling guilty about it (it was delicious, btw), but today the insanity comes to an end. No more birthdays for awhile and no more excuses for crazy spending.

Inspired by this CNN Money article and my desire to be able to actually afford to take the kids on vacation this winter, I am pledging to exercise the willpower that I know I've got inside of me somewhere. I got some good ideas from a few of you regarding lowering my grocery bill (thanks!), so I figure if I combine those with cutting up the credit cards, not eating out, not signing my kids up for any additional summer activities and resisting the Target impulse buys, we should be on our way to paying off our debt and having a real travel budget. 

Send me your good thoughts. It all sounds very simple, but restraint isn't my forte.  

The Spending Diet

As we near the end of birthday madness, I'm renewing my efforts to become a teensy bit more financially solvent...or rather, I'm trying to find ways I can save some cash without drastically altering my life. 

We're not exactly one of those families you see on Oprah yet -- you know, the ones who don't have health insurance, but the mom gets her hair and nails done every week...or the ones who eat out three times a day(!), but we aren't exactly sticking to the budget, either. 

The problem is really that we're playing catch-up, only not very well. When we moved into our new house about 14 months ago, we had fully anticipated selling our old one. It's in a nice neighborhood and just getting its taxable value would have been okay. But after 6 months on the market, we not only hadn't sold it, we had begun to accumulate credit card debt fueled by the notion that as soon as we sold the house, we could pay it off...just one more month, then another. 

Sadly, it's a common story these days. However, having been raised by a mother who became a CPA for fun (seriously, she's never actually worked as one), credit card debt is a source of great anxiety for me...not to mention a really huge drain on the family budget. 

So anyway, the bad news is that we still own the old house. The good news is that we started renting it out back in October, which allowed us to begin our game of catch-up...and that brings us to the present, where I'm trying to find ways to cut our living expenses so that we can A) pay down the credit cards, B) start saving some money, and C) travel. I realize my compulsion to travel works in direct opposition to saving money, but we all have our vices, right? Let's save that one for another blog entry.

Alright, so I know there are plenty of things I could do to save money - cancel the cable, for one. I read The Simple Family and admire Rachel and her efforts to live more simply. But as I said at the beginning, I'm trying to find ways to save without drastically altering my life (and as we know, Bravo, A&E and the Food Network are important to me). I realize this means it will take me longer to reach my financial goals, but this is something I can accept as long as I know I'm moving in the right direction. 

So my current focus is on how to cut our grocery bill. I am really bad with coupons - I like clipping them, but am notorious for forgetting them when I go to the store. I'm considering using a grocery delivery service purely because it eliminates the possibility of impulse buys -- and since I do my grocery shopping at SuperTarget, the impulse buys can get out of hand. 

I'm also looking for cheap meals I can make that my kids will eat...and I'm trying to break out of the spaghetti, mac 'n' cheese, chicken nuggets and repeat routine. Unfortunately, my little Owen fears unknown foods so unless it can be marketed as one of the aforementioned foods, it could be a battle. Is a diet of ramen and soup the answer? Is winning the lottery the answer? Is getting some willpower the answer? Maybe, maybe and probably...but I'm hoping one of you smart people has a more useful suggestion.