It's FREEZE time again!

Thankfully, this freeze is not referring to temperatures. February marks my first spending freeze of 2011!

For those of you who may not be familiar with this little practice, let me give you some back ground. A long time ago in a life that feels very far away (translation: when I was living in CT and working at Pfizer) a dear friend of mine gave me the book "Women and Money" by Suze Orman. Say what you will about her personality, or her annoying voice, this lady has some great content in her books. I credit reading this book with putting me on track financially and, in an abstract sense, getting me into the work I'm doing today as a financial educator.

One suggestion that came up in the book was to put yourself on a spending freeze, meaning that you don't spend money on anything but the most essential things: bills, food, transportation and the like. I started small, going just one week at a time (some folks may need to start with just one day, depending on their current spending habits). I'm now at the point where I freeze my spending quarterly, for one whole month.

Yes, you read that right. For four months out of the year, I spend money only on household bills (rent, utilities, insurance), groceries (this does NOT include eating out or buying non-food products at the grocery store: it is just basic food supplies), and transportation (in my life, that means gasoline, my car payment, and insurance). Oh, and I still continue to deposit money into my savings accounts as usual, since I'm not really "spending" that. At the end of the month, all the extra money that I would have pissed away on stuff that I really don't need gets rolled over into my savings.

There are several benefits that I've found from this exercise:
1. It is a GREAT way to save a ton of money!
2. It "resets" my spending behavior. For many of us, our knee-jerk solution to many problems is to throw money at it. By taking money out of the picture, I get more creative about ways to solve problems or spend time.
3. It reminds me that I really do have just about everything that I could possibly need, as well as most of the things that I want.
4. If I realize that there is something that I don't have but need/want to acquire before the spending freeze is over, I refer back to #2: get creative. (For example, last year I was longing to have a toaster oven at work because honestly food is so much tastier when it isn't microwaved to death. Instead of buying one, I trolled around on FreeCycle and found one that someone else was giving away!)

I almost feel like I'm cheating, since February is the shortest month of the year. The only exception I may end up making is if Brian and I find the perfect house. But I'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it!

So much for relaxing summers...

You may be thinking to yourself "Hmmm, Skye has been quite the slacker at blogging lately. She must be just lazing around on the beach enjoying that sweet Savannah summer."

Oh, how wrong you would be! Here is a quick summary of the last few weeks (not necessarily in chronological order).

Last weekend was the annual Thrivent St. Mary's to Fernandina cruise.

Joy and I rode along on Kevin's motorboat since the sailboat was out of commission this year.

We got to see the ponies on Cumberland Island and Fort Clinch, both from a distance. Lunch was fun, but being in the direct sun for 2 hours was a bit much for me and I rode home with Dad in the car.

When I got to Dad's that Friday after work, I had just enough time to get in a quick workout on his treadmill. I forgot how much I enjoy jogging when it's not on hard pavement or 98degrees outside. When I came home I decided that I would start trolling CraigsList and FreeCycle to see if I could eventually get lucky. And lucky I was! I managed to score this sweet tready for a bargain.

I had to make an exception to my July spending-freeze (once a quarter I implement a spending -freeze and don't buy anything except gas and groceries), but I didn't know when another deal like this would come along and it seemed like adding cardio was the next rational step in my exercise program.

On the crafting front, I have continued experimenting with the little zippered pouches. I think I might be on to something with the striped pouch below...

In addition to the zipper and exterior pocket like the others, I have added a flap that has a few card slots. It still needs some fine-tuning, but I really like it!

Jessie has a great book of cute, quick patchwork projects, where I found the pattern for this adorable little bird ornament. It looks very different in the book, where they used floral and patterned fabric. But with the solid colors, it just feels like it's lacking something. Eyes? Wings? I'm not sure yet...

In the knitting world, I FINALLY finished the lacework shrug that I started last May! Because I improvised the pattern, it ended up not being exactly the right size to make the type of shrug I intended. But in true crafter form, I winged it again and am really happy with how it came out. Of course, it's a bit too warm to wear anything wool right now, but come Fall this will be perfect.

To celebrate the completion of a ridiculously long knitting project, I decided to whip up a really quick one! This charming little cabled cap came out much smaller than I expected, but looks to be just the right size for some folks!

Yesterday was my 8-hour home buyer class, which really means a 10+ hour work day on a Saturday. Blah. If you think that means that I took today off completely, you would be wrong again! This was my to-do list for today:

I also made my lunches for the week and finally updated my blog (as you have just witnessed). The yogurt will go in the oven tonight and since I'll be taking a comp day tomorrow, hopefully I will get to those last three items!

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Anyone who has known me for more than about 10 minutes knows that I am a fairly frugal individual. If you've known me longer than that, you'll probably just call me flat-out cheap!

When I first got out into the "real world" I managed to get by on a series of minimum wage jobs. Then I experienced something that I know others have also experienced: as my wages increased, so did my cost of living. Every time I got a raise or moved to a higher paying position, I took on more expenses: newer (and more reliable) cars, larger apartments, trips overseas, etc.

Then, several years ago, my good friend Angela gave me the book "Women and Money" by Suze Orman. Though I don't enjoy listening to Suze in person, the content of the book really smacked me upside the wallet. While I had managed to pay off my student loan and keep a few hundred dollars in the savings account, I couldn't help but thinking that I could, and should, be doing better. So began my critical thinking about money, budgeting and consumer lifestyle choices in general.

I began tracking all my spending in an Excel spreadsheet. I opened money market savings accounts for Emergency Savings, Periodic Expenses and Travel. I taught myself about retirement options and set up a plan to save more each year (raises get automatically added to my pre-tax contributions). I chose not to pay for cable, Internet, gym memberships, and many of the forms of entertainment that others consider necessities (think books, music CDs or downloads, DVDs, going out to drink/eat/watch shows regularly). Later, I began to make my own yogurt because it saves me about $10 a month over buying mass-produced yogurt. I even volunteered to help with the Savannah Music Festival so that I could see some of the amazing shows but not have to pay and seek out other free activities around town. Maybe the most drastic action of all is the fact that each quarter I take a "spending vacation" where the only thing I buy is gas for the car and groceries. That's right, I don't spend money on ANYTHING except gas or groceries.

A lot of folks think that I live this way because of my job: if I'm teaching others how to live below their means, pay off debt and save money then I have to practice what I preach. In fact, I was doing most of these things before I took this job, and have just kept building on my previous experiences. Living below my income actually allowed me to take a pretty drastic pay cut to take this position (my gross adjusted income dropped by about 25% on my taxes this year!) but maintain a comfortable standard of living.

Last night I sat down and reviewed my finances for the first quarter of 2010. Whereas I used to just track my spending, this year I wanted to stick to a pre-planned budget to take my money management to the next level. My monthly budget for all expenses is $2000 (which includes a double car payment to have my car paid off within 3 years), with another $200 assigned each month for savings. For the first quarter I managed to spend less than my budgeted amount and save more than projected!

You may be wondering why I am posting such detailed information about my personal finances. I mean, people aren't supposed to talk about their money, right? Well, I'm writing about my budget exactly to GET people talking about money. There is a social taboo, a code of silence, about money matters, and it does little more than make us feel more isolated and insecure about how we deal with money. I encourage you to talk to your friends and family (especially children!) about money, buying habits, costly consumer choices, use of credit, debt levels and retirement goals. One of the best ways to break the mentality of keeping-up-with-the-Jones is to realize that the Jones are up to their eyeballs in debt and can't keep up with themselves! No one is perfect, but if you talk to others I can almost guarantee that you can learn, or even teach, something new.

A helpful and entertaining post.

April is Financial Literacy Month! Check out a great article that offers some easy steps to do some financial spring cleaning: It's time to spring clean your money savannahnow.com

Now for the entertaining part (not that I don't find money topics entertaining, because I do even if most other people don't...). Have you heard about the Peeps Diorama Contest? No? I tend to lose track and miss it each year too. But you can check out the top finalists here. Some very clever Peepers out there!

CCCS in the news

Here is a nice little piece in the local news about couponing. I'm getting better at it (meaning I'm saving money, but have also stopped buying things that I don't use just because I have a coupon and it's on sale!).





I've been doing a lot of reading about all the credit card and overdraft changes. My boss, John, and one of our clients was just on WSAV talking about the same topic.

Credit Card Reform?

Just a little something to tickle the brain...

Home & Family Finance Radio

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Home & Family Finance Radio Show. It was a lot of fun to tape and the host, Paul Berry, was gracious and entertaining. I got to talk about savings plans, of which I am a big advocate. You can listen to the podcast by clicking here and selecting the broadcast that was published on May 17, 2009. I am the first of the three guests to be interviewed, and also chime in on some of the Q&A at the end of the segment. The show was recorded live at the Westin for the Georgia Credit Union Affiliates annual conference, so that's not canned applause! Enjoy!

Something to smile about

Just a very brief note to share some exceedingly good news. After working really hard last year to get myself in a better financial position (which proved to be very helpful in dealing with the job loss and relocation efforts) I can finally make the following annoucement:

I am DEBT-FREE!!!

That's right, I have no outstanding debt. I do not owe any money on credit cards. My student loans were paid off last Fall. But, most importantly, I just paid off my car! My only expenses are my current living expenses, and I'm pretty cheap when it comes to those.

What better turning-30 birthday gift could I give myself than to enter this next phase of my life without the crushing weight of debt hanging over me? Not only am I debt-free, but I also have money in savings and am stashing money away for a trip to Spain in 2010 with my sister. Let me tell you, it feels really, really good. Try it, I bet you'll like it.