goodfountain

Late last year I participated in a personal finance carnival challenging us to declare a 2008 Financial Resolution. In a rare overachieving moment, I drummed up a whole slew of Financial Goals.

PaidTwice recently called out to me for a check-in on how I’m progressing against my 2008 Goals.

Not too bad, I’m happy to report.

For the goal of reducing how much I spend at my three favorite money drains - Costco, Kroger and Target -I am happy to say that I did great for January. Two changes helped this a lot. One, I shopped for two weeks of groceries and household items at one time, versus my usual weekly shopping, and I did most of my shopping at the Evil Empire itself - Wal-Mart. Actually, I don’t have a problem with Wal-Mart. The reason I tended to avoid shopping there in the past had more to do with the shopping experience itself than any moral/political/religious/whatever reasons. Target is just a more pleasant shopping experience.

My goal was to reduce my spending by 20% after a quick peak at last year’s number revealed my spending hovered around a shocking $1000 a month. A 20% reduction breaks out to about $200 a week. Both times that I have shopped for two weeks at a time, I have spent right around $300, or $150/week, $50 less than budgeted. Seems I did better than my goal!

A most excellent secondary benefit for this was that I was able to avoid meal planning and a trip to the grocery store(s) on that off weekend! Anything that can reduce the frequency with which I have to shop for household stuff is worth making the effort.

A couple of other goals met include that we found and are using a new accountant (he’s been doing our payroll which has made things simpler); and we found a financial planner who is helping with our retirement funds.

In addition we came in slightly under in the Eating Out budget of $150 - a big savings compared to previous months where it seemed like the spending was getting out of hand.

Still have a few more goals to meet, and of course, 11 more months to keep that spending in check, but I feel pretty good about kicking the year off to a good start!

First my apologies for the lengthy absence. After posting my Year in Review I left for a road trip (that should take 10 hours but took us 13) with Chee and Ess and my Mom. We were off to celebrate a couple of family member birthdays including their cousin turning Four. I will write more about that trip later. My girls did awesome!

However I want to look ahead to 2008 and talk about what is yet to come. I have read about a gazillion posts on various blogs from people who have resolved to no longer resolve. I began to wonder, am I the lone fool out here in the Universe who still makes a New Year’s Resolution or two? Surely not. Perhaps others will feel comfortable coming forward now that I am bravely making public my Resolutions.

On the simple but serious side, I am resolving not to talk on my cell phone while driving. The stats are out there - it’s just not safe. And my little ones are usually on board too. Therefore I am done with talking for the sake of talking while driving. One of the side benefits will be me reconnecting with what’s going on in the music world. One of my favorite bloggers, Mom-NOS, and her son have a love affair with Dierks Bentley and I haven’t a clue who he is.

On the more practical side, I resolve to do a much better job with personal finances. That’s going to take some time and effort on my part, but I think it’s an important area of focus for this year.

My final resolution is to pick a hobby and stick with it. I have a few hobbies actually. I love writing. I enjoy scrapbooking. I want to be a better photographer. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect myself to do all of those things extremely well. But to focus on one area is realistic. No time like the present to choose the hobby, so (drumroll please) I choose scrapbooking! I am soooo behind. So very, very behind. That doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly become a terrible writer or that my photography skillz are going down the toilet. Rather I’m going to choose not to put the time into those two things that I would if I had all the time in the world.

So there we have it. A few resolutions … some things to stay focused on in 2008. Wish me luck!

I have mentioned several times that we own a small business. It’s a side business, really, as my husband has a full-time “career” job that pays the bills and is funding our retirement. The side business we use to build up College Savings Accounts for Chee and Ess. And so far it has paid for a couple of vacations and other miscellaneous things here and there. We’re small and profitable, but we’re not going to get rich off the business at its current size. We have aspirations though…

First some background on how we acquired the business and then I’ll share how we make it work for us.

After Chee was born and I was staying home full-time, we started brainstorming ways to supplement our income. Near where we live is a pretty good-sized, pretty popular flea market. Anyone can rent a booth and sell (almost) whatever they have to sell. There are many long-term businesses there and more than a few one-two weekend pops. It’s only open Saturdays and Sundays.

My husband drove out there one weekend to peruse the place and find out what’s involved in renting space. What he found was a business for sale. The owner was moving out of state and didn’t want to take it with him. After a few lengthy conversations, and a great deal of soul-searching, we ended up buying it and paid cash. We effectively drained our savings to start our own business - leaving only $200 in reserve. Just a wee bit worrisome when pondering all the “what-ifs” that could go wrong.

We are coming up on the 3rd anniversary of owning our little shop and so far it has been highly successful (by our own standards). Here are a few ways we have managed to make a side business work for us.

We know our limitations. When we first bought it, we worked our booth ourselves every weekend. Every. Single. Weekend. We usually split the days. As I was a breastfeeding mom, I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) leave Chee for a full 8 hours, so Hubby would take the morning shift, I’d bring Chee out in the afternoon and we’d swap.

After about 3 months of Zero time together as a whole family, we knew it was time to find some help. We simply could not keep up the pace of him working a full-time job Monday thru Friday and then us splitting a full-time gig on the weekend. We hired our first employee. That leads me to ….

We’re not afraid to ask for advice. When it was time to hire someone, our biggest worry was finding someone who was reliable and trustworthy. Inotherwords, someone who would show up every weekend and who wouldn’t steal from us. We had begun to form relationships with some of the vendors near us, so I asked one of them if she had any suggestions for how to find a good employee. Working with her that day was her niece who raised her hand and said, “I’m looking for a job.” Turns out she had worked the booth before under the previous owner so she knew what to do (great!) and her Aunt gave her a high recommendation (great!) and promised to keep her in line (fabulous!). That simple step of asking a fellow vendor for advice led us to a long-term relationship with an excellent employee.

We take small risks. For a few months, our customers would frequently ask if we carry a particular very popular item. An item that we weren’t even sure what it was. Through the magic of eBay, we started offering them in our booth. However, we started out with a very small assortment. We weren’t sure if they would sell and we didn’t want to sink a lot of money into finding out (more on the hard way we learned that lesson another day). So we started out with a small inventory - they flew off the shelves - proving to us that our location could support it -and we invested big. Sales have been fabulous.

Finally, we keep our priorities straight. Right now, job Number One in our world is raising our two girls. We spend many an hour brainstorming new business ideas. My husband looks for businesses for sale on a regular basis. And often something will look very enticing and equally promising. Nothing comes without cost, though, and often the high price is time. Time is something of which we just don’t have extra. They already are growing up so fast - we blink and we miss it. So even though our passion is to own another business (a bigger one) we have chosen to back burner that until we are at a place where we can devote the right amount of time to it … but not at the expense of our children.

These are just a few of the ways we make having a side business work for us. In a future post, I’ll share how we are using this very small business as a training ground for a future, larger business.

Remember that game you used to play when you were a kid, or perhaps you play it with your own kids now, where at first glance five or so things seem like they are all the same, but one of them is actually different and … not like the others?

At my Husband’s work Holiday Party last night, he and I felt like not the One that didn’t belong, but the Two. Sure we had an enjoyable time making idle chit chat with other similarly-aged and -occupied persons. It was nice for me to wear “pretty” clothes instead of my usual Mommy wardrobe of comfy jeans and a sweater.

However, once all the kid-bragging and what-part-of-town-do-you-live-in conversations were maxed out, we started to stumble. Ever since writing about my 2008 Financial Goals, I have been thinking / planning / strategizing ways to achieve them. Thus, they are on my mind. A lot.

Standing in a lovely near-million-dollar home, I listened to a Dad talk about his first-grader playing competitive basketball. Then there was a Mom who complained about her preschooler’s too-busy ballet schedule. Another Mom bent my ear about her daily trips to Target and how she can’t get out of there for less than $50. I heard tales of daily take-out for dinner, swim club memberships, classes at Gymboree, dollars thrown here, dollars thrown there. My head was spinning.

I was at a loss on how to participate. While I’m proud of my financial goals and excited by the challenge of spending less money shopping, bringing that up would have been the proverbial lead balloon.

In a social setting like that, standing amongst the corporate cookie cutouts, with their designer handbags and their iPhones, it’s easy to look at all the toys and lose sight of the Bigger Picture.

Driving home, though, we talked it through and reminded ourselves that while They may have more *things* to show for their money, it’s not what makes us happy. I couldn’t care less about This New Gadget or That Excellent Thing.

No, rather, we love the thrill of watching our investments grow, and the buzz from saving money on an exceptionally good bargain. We are proud of our small business and how it’s grown because of our own ideas and decisions.

It was a timely reminder, spending an evening with people with whom I couldn’t have a meaningful conversation, that not everyone shares our Vision of Financial Freedom and Passion for Entrepreneurship.

And I was happy to hop online again and browse the Blogs of the many I’ve discovered who do share our Vision and Passion. This is substantially more rewarding (in more ways than one) than any single item that money can buy. And I no longer feel like the one who is …not like the others.

I was honored to be included in the First Carnival of Financial Goals, created and hosted by Patrick at Cash Money Life. He selected my post as an Editor’s Pick - another honor! Thanks!! In hindsight I wish I would have stated one single resolution. But as I review my goals again (and again and again) I realize they can be summed up in one Resolution: Spend Less Money and Make More Money.

There were many challenging and exciting Resolutions set. I am eager to see how progression is made on those in 2008. Check out:

• Steve at Brip Blap who set a very challenging (to me at least) resolution regarding alternative sources of income.

• Mighty Bargain Hunter’s plan to track and categorize all income and expenses.

There were many exciting Resolutions and Goals set for 2008. Good luck to each and every one us as we work toward their achievement!

A veritable avalanche of credit card offers has been descending into my home! Today in the mail came not one, not two, not three … but FIVE credit card offers. Today. I’ve received offers every day this week. And nearly every day last week. How I wish I would have had the forethought to save them all. I’d like to know just how many corporations are banking (snigger, snigger) on me being unprepared for the Holiday Season and therefore needing to transfer a balance to a zero interest card to Pay Off Christmas.

No, thanks. Don’t need a new credit card. I am very happy with the credit card I’m using. First, the balance is paid in full every month. I use Microsoft Money to track my purchases, and each month I balance the credit card just like a checking account.

The credit card pays us rewards that can be used in several different ways. We can redeem “Dollars” toward our insurance premiums. We can deposit them in checking, savings or money market accounts (with that bank). They can be invested in mutual funds.

From reading this blog you know that I own a small retail store. Not only do I use my credit card for all my household purchases, I use it for all of my wholesale product purchases as well. Inotherwords, I earn a fair amount of Reward Dollars.

For the past few years, I have redeemed them to pay my auto insurance premiums. I can’t say exactly what the savings have been, but I think the Reward Dollars pay for the full amount of insurance on at least one of our vehicles. Perhaps a little more. Unfortunately, I haven’t kept accurate records of this.

Lately I’ve been contemplating a change. Paying our auto insurance premiums is not a hardship. With proper budgeting, I could have the money set aside every six months and easily write out a check to pay it

The change I’m considering is to open a Money Market Savings account and periodically deposit my Reward Dollars into that account. We are not actively putting money into Savings right now (per our Debt Reduction Plan). We already have an adequate Emergency Savings Fund. Unfortunately, we cannot apply the Reward Dollars directly to debt as we don’t hold any debt with that bank.

Until now I’ve looked at the Rewards as simply a type of windfall that shows up when we have an Insurance Premium due. If I redeem, for example, 300 Reward Dollars, I don’t then take the $300 I just “saved” and snowflake it to debt. I just consider myself lucky. When I don’t have enough to pay the full premium, I take the remainder that’s needed out of our “slush” fund. However, I set a goal to get rid of the slush fund in 2008 and will begin to assign every dollar to a category.

I’d like to be smarter with my Reward Dollars, but I’m not sure what’s the best approach to take. I see 3 options.

1. Continue as I’ve been doing and pay my Auto Insurance Premium with the Reward Dollars.
2. Open a Savings Account and deposit my Reward Dollars and accrue extra savings which could then be periodically snowflaked to debt. At least in a savings account they could be earning Interest.
3. Set a monthly budget amount to cover the Insurance Premiums, however Redeem the Reward Dollars, and snowflake the budgeted amount to Debt.

Whatever is decided, it has to be simple for me to implement. Anything that is either complicated or time-consuming will not work.

Advice and opinions welcome!

Patrick at Cash Money Life is hosting a new carnival starting this week on Financial Goals. His first one encourages us to share our 2008 Financial Resolution. I appreciate him starting this and inspiring me (and a swarm of other I bet) to start thinking about our Financial Goals for next year.

We have debt in addition our mortgage, but it is not realistic to set a goal to pay it off in one year. Therefore, I’m going to leave debt reduction out of my Financial Goals for now. I have a game plan for paying off our debt that is currently working. While the overall goal of debt reduction drives most of my financial decisions, I don’t want to put hard numbers to that right now. Instead, my goals focus on what I can do to reduce our monthly outflow and increase our income, with all dollars saved and earned snowflaked to debt.

Without further ado - My 2008 Financial Goals!

1. Reduce monthly expenditures at my Holy Trinity of Consumerism - Target, Costco and Kroger. I just did a quick analysis of my spending in the Household Goods category of my budget and it came to just under $1000 (most of which goes to the aforementioned Holy Trinity). My goal is trim that by 20%. This will involve better weekly meal planning, clipping coupons, studying the weekly ads looking for deals, stocking up when it’s a good deal, and trying more private label brands. Household budget categories include Food (i.e. grocery), Toiletries, Baby Care, Miscellaneous (paper, cleaning products, light bulbs, etc…) and Wine.

A 20% reduction should free up nearly $200 per month, or $2400 for the year.

2. Cut back on the amount of money we spend eating out. I’m embarrassed to admit that we average over $300 a month eating out. Really, I’m embarrassed. Some months it’s more, some it’s less, but averaged out over the last 11 months it’s ~$340. Ways we can reduce this include (but are not limited to) my husband packing his lunch 4 out of 5 days per week (instead of eating out every day - to his credit he started this already a month ago), better meal planning at home, only eating at restaurants for which we have a coupon, and ordering take-out instead of dining inside.

We can afford to eat out occasionally, and it’s something we enjoy, so I’m going to reduce our Eating Out budget to $150, which will free up nearly $200 per month ($2400 per year).

3. Redo my budget to assign every dollar to a category. I don’t currently budget for things like clothes, family activities (e.g. trip to the zoo), or gifts. Instead I leave a “slush fund” which is supposed to cover those items but I usually overspend it. Starting in January I’m going to assign every dollar to a specific category. This will ensure that I don’t over spend and it will help me stay on track in my debt reduction plan.

4. Generate an additional source of income for our family. This can be accomplished either within our existing business or via expansion. In time for the 2008 Holiday Shopping season, I would like to find another new item to add to our product line (that would be within our existing business) or we could start another business (selling our current lineup) at a similar location (e.g., another flea market).

5. Find a new accountant to help us with our business. Currently we use an accountant who happens to be a distant relative, however he gives us the “family treatment.” Other than actually doing our taxes, we never hear him from him. And when I do call, I am not satisfied with the responses I’m getting. By February 1, I will find a new accountant with whom we can establish a partner-like relationship and who we feel confident will give us appropriate and timely tax advice.

6. Learn how to use Quickbooks to manage our small business finances. We have the software, but it is, and this is putting it mildly, Over. My. Head. There’s a reason I have a degree in journalism and not accounting. However, I believe that using the right kind of tool to help me manage the business’ finances will save me both time and money. Quickbooks classes are taught to small business owners at the local vocational high school. I will look into taking the first one available in 2008.

7. Lastly we need to meet with a financial planner to review our retirement funds and make adjustments as recommended. We have someone who comes highly recommended, so, simply put, we need to meet with that person and transfer our various accounts to their “care.” It’s a bit scary to start to put our trust in someone else, however we simply do not have the time to study the stock market the way we used to (pre-kids) and make informed buy and sell decisions.

These goals are ambitious for me and what I would call very active goals. It will take a fair amount of work on my part to achieve them. However, I am particularly excited by the weekly challenge of spending less money on household goods.

I will share my progress as the year progresses.

One of the reasons I became interested in blogging is from reading the ever clever and always brilliant Paid Twice. She inspired me to take a look at my own financial house and get things in order. I have more houses to get in order than just the financial one, though, so this Blog aims to cover a wide variety of areas of personal improvement.

I should be thinking about my Financial House right now and pondering my 2008 goals. But I’m not. Instead I’m splurging. Today my baby, Ess, turned one year old. When Chee turned One, I took her to a well known local Children’s Photographer. It was worth every penny (I wish I could remember how much!) and I have never regretted stepping it up from the likes of Sears and The Picture People. The pictures are wonderful and capture Chee’s delightful personality. We will treasure them forever. (This reminds me that I need to scan them. While I loved this photographer, she is still living in the dark ages of Film.)

Sometime after that I splurged (there’s that word again) and bought a Nikon D70s (digital SLR camera for the uninitiated) with the intention of taking pictures of Chee myself. I practiced and practiced and then held a little photo shoot with her around the time she turned two. While they are certainly not professional quality, I am happy with the result and proudly display them in our home.

Aside: Part of how I justified the cost of the camera to my husband is that I would no longer get their pictures done professionally. I would study and practice and do it myself. One of my Goals for 2008 is to spend more time studying and practicing. I’d like to learn about lighting in particular.

Tomorrow’s splurge is that I’m having a Photographer come to the house to take pictures of Ess. This splurge is of particular importance to me. I am the younger of two daughters and I always felt like my sister “got everything” and I was gypped. It sounds whiny to say that, but I remember a few distinct times looking back and thinking that I wasn’t as Special because I wasn’t First.

My hope is that Ess never feel that way. I always want her to know that even though she’s #2 in birth order, all of her Firsts are equally Special and Important.

And so a Photographer comes tomorrow. To our house (my house with clean and sparkly, freshly mopped floors). I love that she’s coming here. I’m not a fan of posed-in-the-studio shots. Although I have some like that, they aren’t anything spectacular. She likes to capture the children in their natural environment. I can’t wait to watch her work. For $200 she will provide 25 retouched ready-to-print images on disk. I can print and print to my heart’s content. 25 pictures of Ess may be a tad too much so, at no additional charge (one of my favorite phrases), Chee will also be photographed. Perhaps a few of them together even. Let’s just pray they cooperate.

This is a big splurge. Spending $200 on a single item a month before Christmas is not standard fare in this house. Spending $200 on a single item anytime is not standard fare.

But she’s Ess. My baby. And she’s Special. And Important. There is no splurge too big for her. The Financial Goals can wait.

My husband did something clever the other day. Clever by our standards at least. He took one of those plastic bin drawer thingies, dumped all of our Sunday coupons and savings magazines in it, and decreed it the Drawer of Savings.

We both religiously peruse the Sunday paper ads and coupons looking for deals on things for which we are in the market. And then promptly forget about it. It’s stupid really. See coupon for toothpaste. We don’t need toothpaste right now. We toss it. Three weeks later, we need toothpaste. No coupon.

Another problem we’ve had with using coupons is that often times my trips to the grocery store are spontaneous and sometimes (gasp!) without a list. It’s awful to go without a list. Awful. And I don’t carry coupons in my purse, so the spontaneous trip never has the benefit of coupons.

Step 1, therefore, in trying to be more frugal in ways that we’re not currently frugal (more about our current frugality later) is to use coupons. Using coupons is going to require that we be more organized about saving the coupons (enter the Drawer of Savings) and that we are more organized about making a weekly meal plan and grocery list based on items for which we have coupons. You might remember that I am not naturally very organized.

Meal planning is my least favorite Chore. I hate it. I can never think of anything new. And when I do recipe searches I get overwhelmed with the gazillions out there, so I give up. Alison at This Wasn’t In the Plan promises to share a tried and true recipe each week (I hope) that contains ten or fewer ingredients. Tried and true and less than ten ingredients. THAT I can handle.

Step 2, it seems then, in using coupons more effectively, will be to make grocery shopping part of my weekly routine. Get on a (dare I say it) schedule for it. No. No, I won’t say schedule. I’m not there yet. Not quite ready to live a scheduled life (outside of what has to be scheduled like preschool starting and ending times). I shall stick with routine. I am far more comfortable with the language of routine than schedule.

For the last few weeks we’ve been doing our grocery shopping on the weekends. Plan meals for the week on Friday. Make a list. And shop when we have the time on Saturday or Sunday. Now I shall search the Drawer of Savings for coupons that we can use. That shouldn’t be too tough. One additional step in the process.

It’s likely there is a mighty important Step 3 in using coupons more effectively to be frugal. Probably has something to do with studying the weekly store ads to see who has what on sale and then visiting however many stores necessary to get the best deals.

I’ll have to think about that one. As my 3 yr old says when I ask her if she wants to use the potty, “I not ready yet.”

Seems everyone has a blog these days and many of the ones I’ve read have been very motivating. People are really accomplishing great things for themselves and/or for others. There’s something about writing, I guess, even if just for yourself, or a small audience of virtual strangers, that is inspiring. To me at least.

I’ve read a number of personal finance/frugal blogs of late that have inspired me to take a closer look at how I spend my money. I would call myself a little frugal, but I could be better.

Going green is all the “rage” right now and is likely one of the political hot buttons for the upcoming election. I have changed most of my bulbs to CFL, but I could do a little more.

I could be a healthier eater, and I most certainly need to exercise.

My spouse and I could stand to work on our relationship. Try to remember that we’re more than just parents.

I wish I didn’t waste so much time. There are things I’m interested in reading about and learning to do and I don’t seem to ever get started.

I’d like to do a better job with my business. Maybe put some effort into and see if I can make a little more money.

I’m mostly happy with the job I do raising my two girls, but sometimes I think perhaps I didn’t spend enough time with them on a given day. Or maybe I didn’t hug enough

All of that is what is leading me to Blog. I’ve been noodling the idea around for more than a few days. What would I Blog about? What do I want to get out of it? Mostly I came to realize I just want to do a better job at being me - a wife, a mother, a (really) small business owner. And the me that likes to scrapbook and is interested in learning more about photography - I’d like to do a better job there too.

I’m not exactly sure how this will ebb and flow and what directions it may or may not take. But I’d like to look back in a few months and see that I have made some positive changes in my life, and maybe impacted those close to me in a positive way.