I'm NOT adding to Stash

Ok. So the February challenge is to not buy anything to add to your stash. How's it going so far? Yeah?

If you need a little help accomplishing this challenge, I have some tips for you. I've done  these when I've done spending freezes before. (100 days is usually what I go for.)

Break it Down

A month seems so long right? You really struggle with this, I mean, you've tried it before and it didn't work.

Just break it down. Set the goal to go a day. Then make it a week. Then keep going. You eat an elephant one bite at a time.

If you are a visual person, make a special mark on each day you don't buy. Make a chain of days with the mark on them, and DON'T BREAK THE CHAIN! This is something that totally works for me. When I did the 100 day challenge, I actually wrote the number of the day I was on.

Focus on Finishing

You know all those WIPs and PHDs? (Works In Progress and Projects Half Done.) Finish them. It feels great to finish. You can check them off your list. Bonus, if you get them all done, you can start out March with a clean slate.

Savings

Ok, this one is one I have not actually done, but have thought about it and may try it this go-around. Every time you are tempted to add to your stash, write down the price of the items, and then walk away. DO NOT buy it, just take note of how much it would cost you if you were to buy it.

From here you have two options.

 At the end of the month add it all up and be excited/surprised/flabbergasted at how much money you did not spend on supplies. What could you do with that money instead? Emergency savings? An extra payment on the car/house/credit card?

Or, each time you are tempted to buy, instead of buying move that money from your checking to your savings account. Do it as you are in the store if you have a fancy phone that allows you to do that. Again, at the end of the month look at the total amount of money you saved by not buying for your stash.


Those are my top  tips to help you accomplish this month's goal. What are your strategies for not buying?

Stash Along February: Freeze

Here we are.  February, the time of year where some people fall off their New Years high and start abandoning resolutions. If you resolved to use your stash, stick with us! We will help you all year long. If you are just joining us, we started out the year with the challenge of Inventory in January. Go ahead and catch up, since that challenge was meant to help you know exactly what you have so you can have a successful year using it up. You're really going to need it this month.

Freeze is the theme for February.

As in freeze your stash. Do not add to it. No buying. No trading. Nothing. This is one month where I am being explicit with the challenge. Most of them will be left open to interpretation, but not this month.

WHY? Because February is the shortest month. It's only 4 weeks long. 28 days. I know how hard it can be to not buy something just for the sake of buying it. It's cute, it would make a good such and such, or you love it and know you can find something to do with it. Resist. Just for this month. You can do it.

Taking a month and not buying will force you to start actually using your stash. This is going to help get you into the habit of shopping your stash first, so the rest of the year of stashbusting will go more smoothly (in theory).

Stay tuned for a post on how to help yourself accomplish this month's goal.

100 Days

I made it. Guys, I really did it. 

100 Days of no yarn buying. 

As I wrote before, the stash doesn't appear any smaller, but at least I know I can do it. And yes, I will keep going, except for one treat this weekend. You see, I've got a fiber arts festival that I'm going to, and I want to have the option to buy a skein. AFTER I take my lovely dye class. 

I'm excited for the class, not so sure about buying yarn though. It's an option, not a requirement. I'll see if I can make it 200 days? 

Finance Friday: MTurk

Hey, so I totally missed Fiber Friday last week. For good reason though, I had a shawl blocking, but my dad also happened to be in the same state as me. So he and I got to sort of hang out and introduce the future in-laws. Fiber Friday should be back next week, hopefully it will be a good one ;)

Do you love Amazon? Do you have an Amazon wishlist a mile long, but an empty wallet? Here's a solution-ish. While I'm yet to see great returns from this, it has helped here and there with some extra dollars.

There's this place called Amazon Mechanical Turk, found at mturk.com . It's run by Amazon, and will link to your Amazon Payments account.

So what is it? Well, it's surveys and tasks. I stick mostly with the surveys because some of the 'tasks' are sketchy like "Download this program and test it". Ummmm.... viruses and hard drive malfunctions anyone?

A lot of the surveys I take seem to be preliminary research for graduate students getting ready for their thesis and such. Some are really short, like 5-10 minutes. But some are over an hour long. (I'm yet to actually take the entire hour to complete the survey though, I'm a fast reader.) And often have quality control questions in them to make sure you are actually paying attention.

The only downfall to this is you have to 'qualify' in order to get higher paying tasks. For the first few months I used this, I could only qualify for tasks that paid $.01- $.50. But, it does add up over time. And when you do start to qualify, you can make a few bucks per completed task.

Then, as you shop on Amazon, during checkout it will ask if you want to use your Payment Account balance, letting you know how much is in there, for your purchase. So, you don't have to charge your card or bank account if you have enough.

If you want the cash, I know that you can cash out the balance, as long as it's over $1.00. Personally I like to set a goal and work to it before withdrawing so it really makes a difference if/when I do withdraw.

This is a great way to get some extra cash during commercial breaks, or during your lunch breaks, even for an hour or two on weekends!

Good luck and happy earnings!

Cooking, a Love (and future regular post)

Recently while talking with my fiancee, he asked how much it costs me to bake bread from scratch. He was trying to figure out if it was really worth the time of baking it when you could just go to the store and buy a loaf.
I said it was worth it because I like cooking and baking. It was cheaper, but I couldn't tell him exactly how much cheaper. But I felt like (and still feel like) the time and effort are what makes it infinitely better than buying. I love mixing it together, letting it rise, baking it, and eating it fresh from the oven. I get a really satisfying contentment from it.
It's not just bread either, I love baking desserts and cooking dinners. I just like it.
However, he did get me thinking. So I started to calculate how much it costs me to bake and cook the things that I make. I thought maybe perhaps some other people out there would like to know this sort of thing too, so I will be making a regular post of it.
I will be posting the recipes I use, the cost of the ingredients, and how much I get out of the recipe. Keep in mind that I am a single girl, and I shop at Kroger using store brands. Also, one of my pet peeves is when people say 'it cost such and such', but they don't break it down, so I'm going to break it down for you telling you how much each ingredient cost as well as the total cost.
If you have a recipe, or see one on Pinterest, that you'd like me to try and calculate for you, let me know! (again, keep in mind that I'm in grad school, and it might take me a couple weeks to get to it...)

Love you all, if you have a chance you should come over for brownies, peanut butter cookies, or cinnamon bread!

Finance Friday: Couponing made Easy

I don't 'coupon' like some folks do. It's ridiculous. But I still do what I can to save money at the grocery store.

Enter: The Kroger App (disclaimer, I have no idea if other stores have this type of thing, but Kroger does and I love it)

Each week I need groceries (which isn't that often really), I open up the Kroger app on my phone. It has the weekly specials in it. AND coupons. Generally I get my list together before checking the ads, but sometimes I have a general idea of what I need, like some fresh veggies, and see what they have.

The nice thing about this is you can add the item to "Your List" and it gets organized based on the areas of the store. You can pull up your list and it's in an order of sorts that makes sense so you're not running back and forth in the store.

The best part however, is that the coupons get loaded directly to your frequent shopper card. When you scan the card, if you have a coupon for an item it automatically deducts it. You don't have to cut the coupons out, and such.

Super nice too, I can open the app while waiting in line at the post office, while on the bus, over my lunch break when I don't have homework. It's portable coupons folks! I love it.

Bonus tip: When you get your receipt, check it for the survey code. Each survey you complete  gives you 50 fuel reward points, and with the cost of gas these days every little bit counts!

A Challenge

Some of you are young, like me. Some of you may be getting some extra cash over the holidays from extended family members as your holiday gift. I would like to offer you a challenge when it comes to this money.

Put it in savings.

Yep. Don't spend it. Well, don't spend it right away that is. The official challenge is to put it in your savings account, and wait. Wait to spend it for at least one month. Just try it out.

And I'm thinking that one month will pass and you'll totally forget that you're allowed to spend that money now, because Hey, it looks pretty good in that savings account. And you realize that it added quite nicely to your emergency fund.

If you're really daring, put it into retirement or investments, where after a month you really can't take it out. All it's really doing is adding to your net worth and ability to retire comfortably, or pay all cash on that house in a few years.

Dave Ramsey Talking in an Understanable Way

Okay. I had the good intentions to do a regular post each Friday and Sunday, but life (aka Grad School) got in the way there. But I'm back (hopefully)!

Since my last post, I think it was Oddly Enough about selling Box Tops for Education on Ebay. (It really works, at least it did for me), I've been trying to squeeze in some financially based reading. I've seen Dave Ramsey mentioned over and over, and I found a decent deal on one of his books, so the next few Finance Friday posts may be a little Ramsey heavy.

I will admit I don't watch his tv show, because, well.... it's annoying. But the book I'm currently reading is very user friendly and easy to understand.

Today's Financial Gem:
" (Make) a decision about looking good versus being good. Looking good is when your broke friends are impressed by what you drive, and being good is having more money than they have."

Thank you, Dave Ramsey!

Oddly Enough....

So, over a year ago, I was looking for ways to make some extra money online. I found a guy who claimed that you could save your Box Tops for Education, and caps with codes from Coca-Cola, and sell them on Ebay.

I was a bit skeptical, but also a bit desperate. So I decided to give it a try and started to save all the Box Tops for Education I could find. Once I got about 100, I took a deep breath, and posted it on Ebay.

And it sold. Generally they sell for the same amount they would be worth to a school. So, 100 box tops = $10.

Ten bucks back on my regular groceries. By selling a piece of cardboard/paper on Ebay. I'm yet to try the Coke rewards, but am saving up the caps from my bottles to try that one too.

So, if you need a few extra bucks, don't have children or have children who go to a school that doesn't use Box Tops for Education. Start saving them up and get selling!

Car Free Friday! (Or Saturday)

When it comes to saving money, I like to look at big things and little things. In the past week, I've filled up my gas tank twice. Once on Friday, and then again on Tuesday. In the three days between gas prices went up 11 cents per gallon. And over the course of a month that can add up to a couple of dollars.($3.96 for me if I fill up three times a month, that's more than it costs for me to get some dinner at Taco Bell.)

I'm into saving dollars and cents here and there, because over time they will add up to something amazing (like the down payment on a house).

Now this got me thinking about life back in Utah. At USU there was a campaign for "Car Free Fridays" in hope of making a difference in the air quality in Cache Valley, especially during those winter inversion months.

It was ridiculously easy for me to go car free in Logan, I mean, I lived a mile and a half away from campus where I both worked and studied. I could bike, or use one of the two free public transit systems that operated in my neighborhood.  I only really NEEDED a car on Sundays to get to church down the hill.

While it really is a small financial difference, I still have a designated car free day where I am now. It's Saturday. And on weeks like this week, Fall Break, I make it a point to try to have more than one car-free day. Less driving means less gas consumption, and less wear and tear on the car, so car bills are slightly lower.

 So, my tip for this week is for you to look at your week, figure out which day you really could get by with not using your car. This may mean rearranging times when you shop or run certain errands (I shop on my way home from work one night instead of doing it Saturdays), or running errands closer to home so you can walk or bike, but you can do it.

It might also help if you set up a reward for yourself for not driving that one day a week. I exchange that day for driving out to Knit Night.

Remember, it's those pennies that count when it comes to savings!

Two Words

Manager's Special

(Just because it's a little dented, or the box is bent a little doesn't mean it's going to kill you when you eat it. And only paying 50% or less of the retail price? You will be saving like crazy!)

Getting a Picture of Your Financial Situation: Mint.com

"You can't hit a target you can't see." 

Brian Tracy

I'd like to add that you can't pick a target unless you know where you're standing. 

So, before I get into things like making smart financial choices, saving money, and all that sort of thing, we need to get you to a point where you know exactly where you stand financially. Over the next couple of weeks I'll share some different ways to keep track of your finances, because different people operate different ways. What works for me, might not be so great or useful for you, and vice versa. Feel free to add anything you have tried that works for you because you never know what will work for what person.

This week is a very brief, but helpful post to introduce you to a useful online tool. (Most of you probably have heard of it already, and may even be using it.)It's a website called Mint.com. 

What Mint.com does is it links up all of your accounts that you have online access to. Credit cards, loans, savings, stocks, etc. And it adds everything up and gives you a total "Net Worth" (or how much money you actually have after taking into account all your debt). 

Mint also keeps track of things like unusual spending, unexplained fees, when bills are due, and low balances in accounts. Now this can be useful, but honestly I find it annoying at times. Mint doesn't understand the automatic identity protection program I use and that it's not a 'fee' charged to my card for using my card. It also lets me know that my bank accounts have 'low' balances when they reach something like $200, which for a starving grad school student really isn't a 'low' balance.

What I like most about Mint is it has tools to help you calculate how much you need to save for retirement. It also has a tool that shows how long it will take to pay off a debt and allows you to enter in different payment amounts. It even calculates how much you'll save on interest with each payment option you try out. 

My favorite however, is that Mint allows you to set financial goals for savings (like the retirement one), and links to an account. I set up a "House" account for a down payment on a house. Mint calculates how much I would need for a down payment, then keeps track of where I'm at on progressing toward that goal. 

And I'm all about setting and reaching goals, and I think that's the best part of Mint, it gives you a visual look at how you are progressing on goals, and what you need to do in order to meet them. 

(We WILL talk about setting financial goals later. Right now just focus on figuring out where you stand now, so you can set better goals later.)