Making Money, Squeezing Money & Thanking God

Is there really anything out there that isn't a scam? I have been trying the survey thing. Most legitimate survey sites will tell you that you are not going to get rich doing surveys through them, which is true, because when you actually qualify to do one of their surveys, which seems to be never, they are only worth a buck or two at most. If you are not making money you are earning points towards money or prizes. And most of the time you just get entered into a daily, weekly or monthly prize drawing. Most surveys are scams to get you to buy something or join survey sites that you already belong to. And then you have the survey club sites that say they have researched all the sites on the internet and they know the top 25 sites that can make you money, and most of them you already belong to anyway. I decided I would try this survey taking thing for a month and see if anything pans out. I will let you know.

More bad news: Our health insurance is going way up! The claims filed, where my husband works, went up over 230%, so I can't blame the insurance company for increasing the cost. We researched around and because we have so many kids we are eligible for something called Hawk-I Insurance, which is a health insurance for kids in Iowa for lower income families. I've not really considered our salary on the low end, but with this many kids I guess it really is. We finally sat down and actually figured our budget with the new paycut. It is going to be extremely tight, with no room for junk food, prepackaged foods, going out or emergencies, but I think we will survive. My sister from FL, Dawn, was all over that and can't wait to send junk food up to the kids for Christmas!

I am very thankful to God. I know everything happens for a reason, but sometimes we don't find out until later what those reasons are, but it is my goal not to fail the test. I am thankful that my kids are appreciative and grateful and will be even more so now with the cut backs. I am thankful that my husband has a great job and makes great money still. I am thankful that he has a friend in need that he can help and make some extra money doing so. I am thankful that keeping things tight keeps me closer to God. I rely on Him so much more now than I did two weeks ago. I know I can't do it without Him. I know he will not give me more than I can handle. And I trust in Him and His Word. I give Him all my burdens and let him worry about them so I can relax and do my job.

Speaking of my job, I have math and phonics to do with two of my children.

Frugal Findings

Before I go into all my findings, I should say how I got into this predicament in the first place. It was easy, my husband and I were spending more than we made. So to help rectify the situation I went to our Wellsfargo account and they have this wonderful thing called "My Spending Report" which breaks down all of your spending. We discovered (like we didn't know it already) that we were spending over $500 a month in restaurants, amongst other things. So, we were both put on a cash basis. I was given $1,000 a month for groceries...which includes household items also, remember I am shopping for a family of 9. Well we succeeded, actually went out to eat a little bit and still had around $500 a month left over. That was great! We were going to be able to get out of the hole very easily. Well, that is until this week when we were told that starting November 1st we were losing 28% of our income! Yikes

I know $1,000 a month is a very comfortable number for me, so I went online to research to see what I can do to reduce that number as much as I can. Like I said in the last post, I haven't learned too much that I didn't already know, but it is nice to refresh your memory and to get reinspired to be frugal. The following information is not just for grocery shopping, and remember this is the stuff I found on line, I am not telling you to do any of it. This information you use at your own risk...this is a cya statement.

Finances:

• You have to know what is coming in and going out, and where it is going, too. If you do on-line banking they may have a spending report. Use it, or something like Quicken to figure out what is going on with your money.
• To pay off bills there is something called the snowball effect, which sounds amazing. You don't worry about interest rates, but look at the smallest bill. Pay your minimum on all the bills but the smallest. Put as much money as you can on the smallest bill, keep doing that until it is paid off. Then put all that money, plus what you were paying on the next smallest bill, towards it. Do that until that bill is paid off. Then take that amount of money and add it to the next bill, etc. Keep doing this until your bills are paid off.
• Now that your bills are paid off, you think you have that extra money each month? NO! You take what you were paying to your bills and put it into savings until you have enough to live on for 6 months should something happen to your job.
• Now can you spend? No, you need to start investing your money, increasing your retiremnt accounts, and when that is done, invest in income earning assets, to bring you to financial freedom. This is where my husband can take over.
• Most sites recommend not to use credit cards. They all agree you need one for car and other emergencies. If you have a debit card that can be used to earn points if you use it as a credit card, then I would use it as a credit card every time you make a purchase. That is what we do, and at the end of the year we have $300-500 in store gift cards to use for Christmas shopping.
• Remember you cannot be accruing debt during all of this. You are actually supposed to try and increase your income through bettering yourself and your skills so that you are in better positions for raises. Also, you can "clean house" and instead of having a garage sale, sell it on line....actually you can go to other peoples garage sales and auctions and get things cheap to sell for a profit online.

Reduce Temptation:

• No more shopping for pleasure or because you're bored! Only shop when it is necessary and when you have a list. The only time you are allowed to deviate from the list is, if something you usually buy is on major sale and you can stock up on it. And of course shop on a full stomach.
• Toss all the catalogs that come in the mail...without looking at them first.

Groceries:

• Plan your meals; there are many frugal recipes online. Don't shop without a list
• Make more things from scratch: soups, casseroles, cookies, breads, snacks, etc.
• Do without junkfood and processed foods. They are more expensive and very unhealthy. There is an allowable amount of most kinds of fats that you can have, except for Trans Fat, it should be zero! Unfortunately, companies can label their items zero trans fat if they have less than one gram of trans fat. To be safe, read the ingredients label, if it says shortening, hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil, then the product is unsafe and you shouldn't buy it, period! Animal lards and tallow are okay. They aren't the healthiest, but are a much better alternative to trans fats.
• Go back to the staples and fresh foods.
• Use less meat and more filler: The kind you put in the meat to make it go further like textured vegetable protein and bread crumbs, etc., and other options on the table like vegetables, potatoes, rice, noodles, and bread.
• Start doing once a month cooking or when you make something, make enough for two meals and freeze one.
• Buy in bulk, but you need to be careful and bring your calculator, because many times I find it is cheaper to buy more of the smaller size than to buy the larger size or in bulk. Sometimes discount food stores such as Aldi or Save-a-lot will be cheaper to buy in regular sizes, than to buy in bulk at a warehouse type store. This is key when storage space is at a premium. So, be careful when buying in bulk.

Laundry/Clothing:

• Don't wash clothes, especially jeans, unless they are visibly dirty or stinky. Hang things up after you wear them. Washing too often wears out your clothes quicker, plus you are using more water, soap, fabric softner/dryer sheets and electricity than you need to.
• Only do full loads of laundry, and use the smallest amount of product necessary to do the job.
• Stain Remover Recipe: 1 part Wisk liquid laundry soap, 1 part Dawn dishwashing liquid, and 1 part vinegar. Put into a squeeze bottle and use on stains.
• Shop at consignment shops and/or second hand shops...like Goodwill. Never pay full price.

Household:

• Depending on how your garbage works, you can save money by recycling and using a trash compactor. Before we moved to our house with a trash compactor we used 3-4 garbage cans each week. After we moved we were down to one can. Now that I recycle, we are basically down to one to two compactor bags every week depending on whats going on and the time of year.
• Of course you should turn off all lights when you leave a room, and if you are a Myth Busters watcher, you know that they busted the myth about it's cheaper to leave a flourescent bulb on than turn it off and on again. Also, you are supposed to switch to flourescent bulbs, which use to be a big turn off for me, because it was never bright enough, but now they make those "day light" bulbs that have the white/blue light instead of yellow, and they are awesome!
• Don't leave your water running: when brushing teeth, when washing/rinsing dishes, and some will go so far as during washing in the shower...I'll leave that up to you.
• Don't be wasteful. Don't use 5 paper towels when you could get by with 1-2...or better yet use cloth napkins, rags, washcloths, dishtowels, to do all the work and you won't have to buy paper towels at all; and while your at it you can stop buying paper plates, too. I refuse to tell you to use less toilet paper!

Well, most of this is probably obvious to anyone who has been at it a while, being frugal that is. Hopefully, you have found something useful in my meandering.

Penny Pinching

Due to some financial changes at our house, I have spent the passed week searching the web on how to be frugal. I read the Tightwad Gazzet years ago, so I haven't learned too much that I didn't already know. But, boy there are thousands of people wanting you take surveys. You can tell the scams from the real deal, just in their website design: some are very professional and some look like they came from the used car sales person. I can't believe people really fall for all of that! I will let you know some of the results I came up with in all my research in my next entry.