4 Hidden Expenses that Can Destroy Your Budget Plan

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Several factors can affect the way you budget your household. This is why we wrote the article ‘How to Get Your Husband to Budget With You’. When it comes to narrowing down household expenses, two heads are better than one. Now, let’s take a closer look at another potential budget plan destroyer: hidden expenses.

Acquiring the Latest Technology

This may seem glaringly obvious, but you don’t really need that new smartphone. Unless you need to acquire the latest version of a phone, computer processor, digital camera, or graphics card for your job or career, there’s really no real reason for you to get it. Don’t get caught in the hype and social pressure of always having the latest gadget. It’s likely to be an expense that you don’t really need, and there will be cheaper versions on the market.

Succumbing to “Good Deals”

It’s good to take advantage of discounts, but don’t let mall and outlet store sale events fool you. Mall department stores are notorious for marking up items and then selling them at “discounted” prices. Again, avoiding the hidden expense here is important. Bustle state that there’s no need to buy items that you normally wouldn’t buy just because they’re “on sale.”

Overpriced Coffee

It’s no secret that franchise and boutique coffee shops overcharge for coffee. If your office or workplace has a kitchen or similar facilities, just brew your own. The money that you spend on quality brews at coffee shops translate to more than twice the amount of a home or office-brewed coffee of similar quality. Additionally, the more you brew your own, the better you’ll eventually be at picking the right beans and brewing them correctly. The only thing better than saving money is acquiring a new skill while you’re at it.

Hidden Bills and Taxes

Hidden bills and taxes are some of the most frustrating ways to spend money, and this is more of a problem than most people realize. For example, if you buy a property in a city like New York, you might be surprised to find that the title costs are unexpectedly high. Check the paperwork and you’ll likely see that the most expensive item on your title bill is something that’s called mortgage recording tax.

Here’s what you need to know about this semi-hidden bill that can cause frustration to homeowners trying to budget their expenses. It’s a percentage of the new mortgage debt amount and is generally paid by whoever buys the property. The city-imposed tax applies to all new mortgages, and is due when the mortgage is recorded. Unless you’re buying a co-op unit, you’ll need to factor in the cost of your mortgage recording tax early on. Otherwise, you might fall short of your original budget and find yourself having to dig deeper into your savings. The lesson here is to always read the small print.

Another notorious source of hidden bills are hotels that list hidden charges on your final bill. This is commonly done via “drip pricing,” which the Federal Trade Commission explains is when hotels only reveal prices as the buying process proceeds. This means being charged for things like valet parking, pool maintenance, exercise facilities, or other privileges even though you haven’t technically benefited from them. So before you book any hostel, motel, resort, or hotel, be absolutely clear about what you need to pay. And if they still charge you erroneously, feel free to contest the bill.

Avoiding any and all hidden expenses is a matter of being informed and assertive about your own financial rights. Always do your homework whenever you’re planning to spend a significant amount of money or even just a little.

Clothing Budgets for Teenage Girls

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Something came up this weekend and made me change the way I parent.  It wasn’t something new, but it was the final straw.  I’d had enough and things were going to be different.

My oldest daughter was having trouble finding something to wear for church, and she was searching in a closet full of beautiful dresses.  Dresses, she picked out, and I purchased for her with a very limited family clothing budget.  She was close to melting down and yes, it was about more than a dress.  It was also about cooking the perfect Mother’s day meal and making the perfect Mother’s day surprise.  Plus knowing that her boyfriend’s parents were coming over to join our Mother’s day celebration and wanting to make a good impression.  It was about singing in the choir loft where the whole congregation could see her, and taking on the stress of trying to be an adult when she isn’t quite there yet.  (I feel like I need to tell you that I was helping her with the meal and everything else, which just seemed to make her more upset, because she WANTED to do it all by herself to make a very special day for me.)  It all added up and equaled “nothing to wear.” I hope other Moms of teenage daughters can verify that this is normal.

It wasn’t an isolated situation and it wasn’t limited to her.  Her sister a few weeks ago, begged for a reasonably priced pair of jeans at Costco.  You can’t try things on there, but their return policy is excellent as long as you leave the tags on.  She cut the tags before trying them on only to discover they didn’t fit.  I was panicked. “Let your sister try them on.” They didn’t fit her either.

“Calm down, Mom.” They said.  “We’ll sell them. It will be fine.”

“What do you think you could get for them?”

“$1-2.”  They looked happy.  “Then we’ll use the money to buy jeans that do fit.”

I said, “I bought brand new jeans for $12 and you are going to turn around and sell them for $2?”  They were cheap jeans from the get-go….but still.  This is bad math.  I had to leave the room before I said anything more.  The air was thick with my frustration.

I’ve noticed a pattern that when I buy their clothes for them, the items end up in the garage sale pile much too soon.  Or relegated to the “nothing to wear” section of the closet.   Or just tossed on the floor and trampled on. I tried to prevent it by asking them lots of questions in the store: “Is it too tight?” “Is it comfortable?”  “Do you like the way it looks from the back?” “Are you SURE you are going to wear this?”  They promise they will, but then don’t.  Sometimes I think all my questions just sowed seeds of doubt that blossomed into full grown confidence busters once the clothing gets home.  Parenting is so hard. Being a teenager is hard too.

The best solution I could find is to turn it all over to them.  I handed them each an envelope with their portion of the monthly clothing budget in it.  It’s $20.  In June they will get $20 more and so on. That $20 will make the $12 pair of jeans look a lot different in a few months.  Right now, they feel rich.  They said, “Oh Thank you!  That’s so generous of you!”

I didn’t feel very generous.  I reminded them, “That will have to cover your underwear, bras and socks. Swimwear, school clothes, formal wear, shoes.”

“Yes! We understand.”

“You can save it from month to month until you have enough to do something with.”

“Yes, Mama.”

They know the glories of thrift stores and garage sales, and we recently discovered a lovely consignment store near us as well. Perhaps they will discover the joys of selling to the stores as well as shopping there.  Perhaps they will learn about Ebay or Craigslist.  Perhaps they will learn to sew.  I’m not sure.  It’s up to them now, and I’m kind of excited to see what they do with it.

P.S. While this feels like the perfect solution right now, it was really hard for me to do, because I’ve never divided the budget evenly among the family members.  I always used the money in a lump sum for the people who have immediate needs, like athletic shoes or longer pants, and fill in the gaps with hand-me-downs from brother to brother.  Now my lump sum is $40 smaller each month, but I think the educational experience will be worth any kind of adjusting I need to do on my end. 

Why we didn’t buy the floor

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Oh Friend, I’ve struggled a bit in writing to you.  I’ve been wanting to find something that truly benefits you instead of just sharing what’s on my heart, and every post I’ve started this week has put me to sleep.   So back to my heart it is.

Remember 18 months ago, when I shared some inspiration photos about our basement here and here?  Well, I finally starting tearing the walls down to start the process.  Specifically this one beside the stairs that will become the kitchen area:

I was proud of myself for disconnecting the light and switches :).  Next I need to learn how to shut off the water and pull the sink out.  In the new plan I’d like to block off that door on the left and put a full size refrigerator there.  Right now the fridge is in the garage, but it will be much more convenient here and give us more space to work in the garage.  We’re not really moving forward with this project, but some of the demo was necessary to be able to access plumbing and electrical for our master bedroom project.  And Darren said I could move forward with any of our projects as long as whatever I did was free.

I had such a productive labor day weekend, but part of me is a little sad.  You see, the flooring I picked out for this space was almost $1 off per square foot the the holiday sale.  It’s the first time in 18 months that I’ve seen it go on sale, and I didn’t buy it.  I felt a bit of anguish at the time but it was minor compared to the disappointment I feel today now that the sale is over.  When the waves of disappointment come, I tell myself all the good reasons why we didn’t buy the floor.

  1.  We need to make sure we have enough money to finish our bedroom project.
  2. We weren’t positive that rigid flooring is the best option for the basement.  I’ve heard it’s awesome for smoothing out imperfections, but others have said the imperfections might weaken the floor and cause cracking and flexible is the better choice.
  3. We aren’t ready to install the flooring yet and at the rate we’re going it could be a year or more longer.  That means we’d have to find a place to store the flooring and hope it didn’t get damaged before we could use it.
  4. Since we need to wait to install the floor, we might find another good deal or an even better fit for our area, OR my taste my change completely and I’ll choose something else.

 

I’m feeling a little better now that I wrote that all down.  There were definitely more reasons to not buy the floor.  The only reason to buy the floor was saving $1,000 with the sale, but there’s nothing that says we won’t find another sale when we’re more ready.

In the meantime, I’m taking the studs and pine board paneling that is too short to use in the reconstruction phase and using it to turn this front closet into a bench with drawers.  Like this one from the House of Smiths.

To finish it all out, I’ll only need to buy a few trim boards and a piece of foam for the bench cushion.

How about you, have you ever bought something because it was a great sale and then regretted it?  Or didn’t buy something even though it was a great sale and wondered what might have been?  I’d love to hear about it.

 

 

 

 

I’m a Budget-Compliance Motivator, but…

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I still want you to have a beautiful life.  I want you to celebrate birthdays, have family vacations, reliable cars, and a beautiful home that reflects your personal style.  I want you to have nice clothes, to eat healthy food, to give good gifts and invite people over.  I want you to make memories with your family, to support missions and causes that tug at your heart and to be generous in unexpected moments.   But most of all I want you to fall sleep quickly at night, knowing there are no bills coming in the mail that you won’t know how to pay.

Do you ever read social media posts and look at the beautiful pictures of vacations, new cars, remodel projects, and family outings and wonder, “How in the world are they doing that?”   I do.  I wonder and then remember, that I have a bigger than average family with bigger than average medical needs, and an aversion to debt that makes us weird.  I can’t compare my life to theirs; it just doesn’t make sense.

Sometimes we need a voice to reassure us that, “Everyone’s not doing that.”   And sometimes we need new ideas for ways that we can re-route our money so that more of the things that matter to us are possible.  And when we’ve dug as deep as we can with our time and creativity, sometimes we need ideas to get more money.

I want to be that friend in your life, the one that tells you it’s more than ok to live simply.  To help you remember that the most important things in this life aren’t things. To help you with ideas when the money just isn’t there this time.  The one that smiles with you in solidarity over the clothing rack at the Goodwill.   The other mom at the zoo with the packed lunch from home.

How can I be most helpful to you? Choose as many as you like.

The Best Proteins to Buy when You’re Broke

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We’ve all been there.  Funds are limited, but you still have to eat.  Most people think of high carb foods like white bread and pasta when funds are low, but it’s important to get plenty of protein, especially in times of stress.

Eggs 

Eggs average $1 a dozen or 17 cents for a 2 egg serving with 140 calories and 14 grams of protein.  They are full of healthy fats and vitamins too.  With eggs you can make:  egg salad; scrambled eggs; fried egg sandwiches; creamed eggs over biscuits; and frittata.

Read more…

One thing to do Before the New Year

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The Christmas tree is still up and sparkling a cheerful greeting today.  My organized friends are already put away for the New Year, but I’m letting the 12 days of Christmas linger on.  It’s not our usual thing, but we’ve been working in extra doctor visits this week which included a 6 hour trip to see a specialist in the next state over.  Times like these call for grace.

I know you’ll understand, when I say it was an accomplishment to just get the dishes washed and find clean underwear.

This week between Christmas and New Year’s, when you still have some lingering memories of Christmas and how you felt about everything, is the perfect time to make your life better next year. Were you joyful? Disappointed? Super Organized? Stressed?  While you can still remember what went right and what went wrong, write a note.  I have an excel document that I add a new tab to every year for gift budget planning.  That way I can easily reflect on past year’s happenings and improve my plans for the next year.

How I Make My Christmas Budget

At the end of the year, I write a few lines under the budget about things that I want to remember.  (And trust me, we won’t remember if we don’t write it down.)  For example, one year my daughter had a meltdown about not having a cute outfit to wear to our family gathering where her really trendy cousin would be. It’s not a big deal in the scheme of things, but it sure disrupted the happiness at our house. I made a note to work with her at the beginning of the season so that she’ll have a good option and then this year she surprised me by not caring anymore.

One time, I was surprised by “family gifts” that were passed around at our white elephant gift exchange party.  I had thought we were doing the white elephant to avoid individual gifting and save budgets and stress on family members….but then I was handed a gift and had nothing to give in return, and I was the ONLY one who didn’t bring family gifts.  That felt awful.

There are a myriad of possible ways to give charitably during the season. Our church sponsors families and we have the opportunity to buy gifts for those less fortunate.  I also belong to a charitable giving group of local friends and we sponsored our local foster care system and women’s shelter this year.  It was an awesome way to show my kids the joy of helping others, except I failed to plan for it in our budget.  At the time of year when things are already tight, this had me scrambling.  I wrote a new budget line just for that for next year’s budget.

Our grandmother passed away a year ago, and several of the grandchildren gave her daughter the grandmother’s favorite Christmas candy to remember her.  It was really meaningful and I didn’t think of it, so it went into my notes.

One year I made several homemade gifts to help with our budget and improve the quality of the gifts I was able to give.  The only problem was I got both kinds of flu 2 weeks before Christmas and had to wrap unfinished gifts to take back and finish at home later.  Now I give myself a calendar notification in September to start choosing projects and a before Thanksgiving deadline to have them all done.

You see where this is going?  It could be a good thing too, like wrapping my gifts as they came (with a code number on it so I can remember what’s in it!) and putting them under the tree and there was no last minute scramble or danger of the gift being found and the surprised ruined.

While I have the excel file open, I go ahead and copy my old budget over for the new year, then tweak it.  If I have gift ideas, I add them in as well.  In 2017 I’m doubling my gift budget for my own kids.  It has been so small since they were born, that if we wanted to give them anything big, it had to be a family gift and use all the budget for all the kids–no individual gifts.  I’m ready to change that and breathe a little.  When we started out, we budgeted $20 per kid for Christmas. Then when we were debt free, doubled it to $40. For the last 4 years we raised it to $50.  Next year I’m budgeting $100.  I also raised the birthday budget to $100 per child. Since Darren’s salary didn’t go up, that means I’ll need to make up the difference. I kept the amount the same that comes from our regular household budget, and the rest I will earn extra each month to make it a reality.

This is also a great time to update the addresses in your Christmas card list.  I almost forgot about that, because we haven’t managed to mail any out for the last 3 years or even take an updated family photo.  I’ve set the bar low to improve next year, bwa ha ha.

Plus, check out this post on 2 options for a 52 week savings plan.

Making the Most of Your Christmas Budget

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making-the-most-of-your-christmas-budget

It’s technically still summer and autumn colors aren’t even here, but I want to talk about Christmas just a smidge.  Even though we only give 2 gifts to our kids,  Christmas stresses me out if I don’t plan ahead.  Far AHEAD.  Truthfully, sometimes I still freak out—but this helps.  It’s what I’m doing today, so I thought I’d screen capture a summary of my movements and thoughts as I plan.

I made a little video for you showing how I budget for Christmas and how I buy each item at the lowest price possible.  I hope it helps take some stress off of you this holiday season!

Here are the video notes plus some extra stuff that the video missed:

  1.  Plan to set aside money every month for Christmas Gifts, and know what your total budget will be by the end of the year.

2.  Make a list of all the people you need to buy for and put a dollar amount by each name.  This list total should equal the amount you’ve budgeted for the year.  You might want to add some extra lines for Hostess Gifts or other unexpected exchanges.

3.  Next to each name, brainstorm gift ideas.  I use color codes to tell me if it’s just an idea, or if I’ve placed the order etc.  I also write in the actual amount spent so I can track my spending and not just the budget.  If I buy more than 1 item, I add a line so each item and actual price is on it’s own line.

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4.  When shopping on Amazon, first make an account at camelcamelcamel.com.  Then copy the item URL  to camel and ask for an email alert when the price drops to your target zone.  Since you’re planning NOW you can afford to wait for a better price.  This is important because Amazon no longer offers partial refunds if the item drops in price after you purchase it.

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5.  I also belong to a discount health and wellness club that as a side benefit has a unique shopping portal.  In addition to providing more than 500 toxin free products for my home and body at great prices, they’ve partnered with hundreds of stores like Old Navy, Target, Home Depot etc.  When shopping through this portal I have access to extra coupon codes and discounts to use in the online shopping cart PLUS I get a cash back rebate in the mail, on every purchase!  It’s only $19 a year for me to be a member, but right now they are offering a $1 special for the first year.  I can’t give all the details in this post, but if you want to know more about it, you can request info here. (Your contact info goes straight to me and no one else will se it, so be sure your best email address is included.)

The Other Budget Categories

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laundry area

Our washing machine died yesterday and it isn’t an emergency.  The Fisher and Paykel washer was 11 years old and after 3 loads a day (roughly 12,000 loads), we knew it’s days were numbered.  Planning for this didn’t start last week, or even a few years ago.  It started the day we bought it. After we became debt free with a fully funded emergency fund, we added some other budget categories to prepare for days like today.  Every month, we set aside $10-30 in an “appliance fund” and since we know ourselves and needed extra accountability, the cash went into a real envelope and tucked into a combination safe (not into the bank account where we pay for other bills.) We also fund other bonus budget categories including a car replacement fund and furniture replacement fund.  We set aside small amounts each month into these envelopes so that over the period of 10-15 years we can replace our items that wear out.

craigslist washer

If I hadn’t had an appliance replacement fund, my day yesterday would have looked very different.  I would have searched our local Craigslist for a working washing machine to limp by with until we could raise the money we needed.  They had used machines about the age of ours ranging from $50-$150.  I would have used part of our emergency fund or my home repair fund, to pay cash for the appliance.  It’s not a bad plan really and if there hadn’t have been any good sales on, I might have done that anyway so we could wait for a better deal.

Instead, I had the cash to shop for the best rated machines I could afford.  I looked at reviews online, drove to the scratch and dent outlet store to see their choices, and thanked my lucky stars that Independence Day sales were still going strong.

When it came time to make my final decision, I almost went with my less favorite, just to save a few hundred dollars.  Then Darren reminded me that this machine should last us 15 years or more and that since we had the cash saved up, I should buy the set of machines that I wanted to use for the next 15 years.

Even though our dryer is still working, it is almost 18 years old.  We decided to buy a matched set since the machines are visible from most of the main floor.  I should be able to sell the working dryer on Craigslist to offset our costs a little.

spin_prod_914554512

I chose the Whirlpool Cabrio set because of it’s huge capacity, low resource use, and good reviews.  I loved the idea of a front loader and would love to be able to build a counter over the top of my machines, but the whole mildew thing and needing to leave the door open discouraged me.

After searching the prices online of all the stores that carry this model of machine, We called Sears to order over the phone.  I needed the dryer door reversed and that couldn’t be specified online.  While I was on the phone the operator asked me if I had a coupon code I would like to use.  I said, “oh! Is there one?”  He put me on hold and we both searched for any available coupon codes.  I was unable to find a coupon code that would work in their system, but his manager approved an additional 5% discount for us. The cool thing about this, is the 5% discount is the same we would have earned by using a sears credit card.  As a rule, we don’t use credit cards and I was feeling kind of bad about missing the discount.  Turns out, I didn’t have to miss it after all.

It may seem like a lot of extra little categories, but most people won’t miss the extra $10-$30 a month and over 15 years that fund will grow to be $1800-$5400.

 

The $20 Birthday She’ll Never Forget

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This post isn’t really about birthdays.  It’s about how relatively unimportant is the amount of money we spend on our kids.  It’s about how kids spell love, T.I.M.E. and how having a friend to come along beside you to give new ideas and tell you that things are going to be ok, can make a hard thing seem possible.

birthday girl

Things have been quiet on the blog the last few days, because I was putting all my energy into a free webinar that has been my dream for the last 7 years.  Finally all the pieces came together to make it a reality.  The webinar itself gives enough information to massively change a financial trajectory, but there wasn’t enough time to go as deeply as I want to go. You can see the replay right here for the next few days.  I’ll need to take it down after the weekend, because some of the information is time sensitive.:

Grocery Shrink Live Replay from Angela Coffman on Vimeo.

At the end of the webinar, I announced a 2 month course/private group coaching session that starts on Monday!  In this time frame we can go as deep as we need to, to seriously change lives! Several readers signed up immediately and we’ve already started the journey in our coaching private group.  One mother especially touched my heart with her story.  We’ve been where she is and there were so many things she said that brought back those old emotions.  She gave me permission to share her story here:

C:  I’m a stay at home mom of 4. I am the financial manager of our home. (LOL) I too homeschool our kiddos. We are currently trying to prepare our home to sell. What we need to sell it for, is more than it’s valued at. We have nothing to pay the difference (a $20,000 difference). We are trying to upgrade the house for a higher resale in high return areas. We are doing the work ourselves to save there. Dinners have become a nightmare. We are feeling the urgency to list the house on the market “now” in prime selling time. However, feeling overwhelmed because the work is not yet finished. I tried to earn some income on the side to help offset the building material cost but I have no time to working the business. I’m still diapering and breastfeeding a baby. The other 3 children’s birthdays are right around the corner. We feel defeated as we may have to settle for a short sale. A real kick in the teeth. Because we almost lost it once before to foreclosure after the hospital bills from birthing came in. We did a loan modification and have been great with mortgage payments ever since going into the 6th year now. ~well that was a bit of a ramble. LOL, I suppose I could have journaled all that, it’s the first time I’ve stopped to look at the big picture! Oh yes, the Goal: to sell the house and become “us” again.

You see the course is about groceries.  We are going deep into groceries and everyone in the course will save the cost of their tuition the first month or get a complete refund. But the course is also about you, your goals, your needs.  That’s what the private group is for.  8 weeks of personal access to me and the other friends on the same journey.  To encourage each other, share ideas. Here’s what I said:

Me:  Oh hugs, C–. How stressful. How old are your kids?

C:  They will be turning, 10,9,6, and 2

Me: Such great ages. If you want we could brain storm low cost ways to celebrate birthdays that make the kids feel like they’ve splurged.

C: That would be awesome b/c the first one is this month the 28th and I usually order things online…

 Me: How old is this one? Boy/girl? Interests?

C: Girl turning 6. She loves horses, princess, tiny figurines to play with like critter county~she loves making little families, arts & crafts, cooking/baking, and dress up

box candy

Me: I’d make it a friend only party and limit it to 2 hours from 2-4 so no meal needs to be served. For party favors buy each little girl a box of movie candy ($1 each) and wrap it in cute paper, or plain white paper and let your daughter decorate them with markers. Grap a couple of extra boxes of candy for the cake. Buy a bag of mixed baloons (Walmart has the best quality for the same price as dollar tree.) Blow them up with your own breath and tie them together with strings (or curly ribbon if you have it already) and hang them from the light fixtures and backs of the chairs. Only buy festive paper napkins (you don’t need paper plates, cups, silverware and tablecloths) and serve the cake and ice cream on your dishes and use the best tablecloth that you already have. Pull out the fancy china if you have any. If not your regular dishes will be just fine. Serve juice mixed with a 2 liter of lemon lime soda in tea cups and call it punch. Do a $1 box cake mix and $1 can of frosting and let your daughter decorate the cake with candy. Get plain vanilla icecream to go with it and pass around a bowl of sprinkles and a spoon. For the party, have the little girls decorate a couple of refrigerator boxes with markers, colored paper and glue sticks to make a castle/house. Then pull out all the dress up clothes and costume jewelry and let them play. You won’t need to buy gifts yourself because each friend will bring something and that’s 9 gifts! at 20 minutes before the parents come, stop the play, serve cake and ice cream. Then open gifts. Hand each girl her own wrapped box of candy on the way out the door. Total cost: less than $20

For the boxes, call Home Depot several weeks ahead and ask when they recycle their appliance boxes. They will save them for you if you ask, but you’ll have to go early to pick them up (like 7:30am) They are free

C: wow, just wow! that all sounds fantastic! seriously I’m stunned…this sounds amazing and I know she would have a blast!

Me: The highlight of her day will be decorating the stuff with you for her friends. The key is to let perfection fly out the window and just let her do it her way. (That’s the hardest part.)

C: yes…I can see your ways 🙂 and all this incorporates who she is,… honestly I’m humbled and stopped in my tracks…

This quick intervention literally just saved me over $300. That is impressive indeed. But, what’s more heartfelt and gets me to the core, is my daughter. I have been trying to find ways to connect with her. She’s a quirky little duck…But I shared with her the birthday plan and she excitedly threw her arms around me saying “oh mommy this is going to be the best birthday ever!” I cried…the $ saved is amazing, but that moment with my little Ellie, priceless. I will remember that for the rest of my life. 🙂 

Me: I LOVE this so much <3 <3 <3

We only have about 20 slots left in the class, but if this is something that speaks to you, you can see more here.