Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Where Did it All Go?

Every year when I do our taxes I'm reminded of how much money we make and I ask myself, "Where did all that money go?" Because we are down to a single income we are more conscience of our spending...when we spend it, where we spend it, why we spend it, and how spend it.

Since going down to one income here are some things I have discovered:

1. Mint.com-this website is a free budget website that you enter your data in and it will tell you where you can save money and how much you can save. It will make a lovely pie chart of your spending so you see how big a chunk you spend on coffee (yes, that is a category on mint.com). Recently, I received an offer from mint telling me if I transfered the balance from my current credit card to another one I could get 0% interest on it.

2. We ate out a lot! Our main reason for eating out was because it was the easy thing to do. I would come home from work and not feel like cooking so we would just go out. Now that I stay at home I have all day long to think about what to make for dinner and thanks to my wonderful crock pot dinner is usually ready when my husband gets home.

3. Coupon websites! There are a ton of them! I find myself printing out coupons before I go any where. Most products I buy store brand but if I can get a better deal using a coupon than I will. Of course, there are some things you just don't buy store brands...toliet paper, paper towels, etc.

4. Free stuff is the best stuff. If you look at Walmart.com or Kroger.com, etc you will find that they offer free trials of several products. Because they are trial sizes we use them when we go on trips instead of buying trial size products. My favorite freebies are formula samples! Lucky for me, my son pretty much eats any kind of formula so I take full advantage of those samples!

That's all I have for now...