Money matters

May 2008 sales

moneymatters — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:00:10 +0000

May 2008 Budget roundup

moneymatters — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:29:08 +0000

I did absolutely BAD this month as I went over budget by 541.81 ( no idea how I spent that much). This week the electricity bill was way less than usual and I could not save that $200 but instead of ended up spending that $200 and on top of that another $541.81? Groceries were also high for the month of May since we went camping and I volunteered to do groceries for another family but never got paid back. ( lesson learnt – don’t volunteer from next campimg trip-let them do their own groceries). I also spent about $100 on my newly acquired hobby which I am planning to bring income from it in future.

However, I could have controlled the money that I spent in Personal category which I did not. So, moving forward from the month of Jun I will break down the personal into sub category so that I will have a clue as where I am spending the most …….but for now here is my May round up. Goal for Jun, spend less on personal and groceries.

Savings for her education

moneymatters — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:51:14 +0000

Our small business is one of the initial steps we have taken to save for our daughter’s education. He bought it from his co-worker and I am little skeptical about this. If the business was doing good why did the co-worker sell it? Was he losing money instead of profiting from it? Well, only the colleague knows the answer to this. However here is the sales so far…… Eventually, this will help us to decide whether to keep the business going or sell it. Any comments are welcome. ( Please click on the image to view a bigger version)

April 2008 Budget Roundup

moneymatters — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:43:01 +0000

I will post my budget results on every first Friday of the month. ( I missed on this one by almost a week.) So, every first Friday of the month I will post the previous month’s results. So here is my April’s budget. I did quite good as I lived UNDER BUDGET and saved 180.59

Importance of a budget

moneymatters — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:40:05 +0000

If you look up the meaning of the word “budget” in dictionary.com you will find that there are ten definitions listed for this word. However the best one that I liked was “the itemized allotment of funds, time etc for a given period of time”

I have learnt the importance of budgeting for the last couple of months. It has not only provided me with a history of my monthly expenses, it has also helped me to track down my un-necessary expenses and cut down on it. It has tremendously helped me to achieve my goal, and based on my budget now I can forecast how realistic my goal is. Now, I have an estimation of how much money I need every month for grocery, fuel etc to which I was oblivious couple of months ago. In other words living strictly by the budget it has helped me to save money and I have already reached the first goal of this year which is having a $1000 in my immediate saving account that covers any overdraft protection for checking account or any unexpected expense. Now I am on the voyage of saving $5000 until end of this year. I know that all I need to do to reach that goal is to follow my budget religiously. So, if you happen to read this post and have not worked on a finacial budget, please start immediately and you will not regret.

Taking babysteps – One

moneymatters — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:48:13 +0000

I have reached the milestone that I had set forth for the first quarter of this year!! Yipeee!!!

Paid off my CC with the highest balance

Now I am working on the following milestone

Emergency fund – raise it by $2500

Cash fund – raise it by $1000

Pay off the loan of $300 that I have in my camera purchase account.

IRA or 401K

moneymatters — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:36:31 +0000

I have been always haunted by this question and I have not had a chance to do much research on it. Now, I am qualified to open a 401K account with my present employer and this question has become a reality for me. I plan to put 3% of my income to 401K from April. My spouse also has a 401K from his work and he invests a good chunk of his paycheck towards it.I am wondering whether it is a better idea to payoff the debts that we carry in our CC first than opening an IRA account for 2007?Any comments are welcome.

Baby steps

moneymatters — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:36:50 +0000

I am glad to post that I have made some progress regarding my habits of spending though they are in baby steps. Since my last post here, I have done couple of things that I am happy about.

I have stopped buying books but made some trips to the library.

I have started bringing home food or frozen lunch at work, though I am doing at least three times a week, this is definitley helping me.

Another biggest goal that I am trying to accomplish by end of this month is pay off my CC debt.

My weakness

moneymatters — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:05:07 +0000

There are certain things that are out of my control, like the credit card debt, which I have already incurred and all I can do about is start paying it off. But, there are certain things that I can control in order to save money and this year I want to work on my greatest weakness of all – impulsive buys

I need to work on the following impulsive habits of mine and I am sure I will be saving a lot.

1. Books – I need to use library more often than the bookstore.

2. Shoping I need to buy fewer clothes/shoes than I do now for my daughter since she is outgrowing more than half of them without even wearing them once.

3. Eating out: I need to bring home made lunch more often at work instead of spending $6 to $10 every day eating out at work.

4. Groceries: I am going to buy only the food that we need and stock up enough for a month . Above all I need to pay close attention to what groceries I buy and buy only the ones that we eat.

any time I will say ‘NO’ to these impulsive buys the cost of that merchandise I will be considering them as savings.

Birth of my wise bread

moneymatters — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:48:36 +0000

This clipart vividly tells my story but with careful financial planning I am determined to get out of it. So here starts my journey to the financial freedom…..

Hopefully in few years I can get my short term debts paid and rescue my self from the pain of this load. Welcome to my journey of gradual financial freedom. The ride may be slow, taking one baby step at a time but I have faith that I will reach there evidently.