Financial Freedom

Financial Freedom, those words are like music to my ears and something I have been longing for since I graduated from grad school in 1996. Financial freedom means different things to different people. It might mean not having any debt, it might mean having only “good debt,” or it might mean having “extra” money each month that can be spent freely without guilt. Whatever your definition, have you been able to achieve it for you and your family?

My family and I have been on a 13-year-long journey to pay off all of our debt, aside from our mortgage. The debt in our well-educated household is comprised of $60,000 worth of student loans resulting in nearly $100,000 of principle + interest payments. The great news here is that persistence does pay off. In March 2010 my family will be free of the debt burden when final payments are made to our friends at the Direct Loan Servicing Center.

I Love Vacation!

Who doesn't love a great vacation?? Whether your idea of time away involves an outdoor adventure or leisurely site-seeing or lounging on the beach, this time is both valuable and necessary to recharge for the demands of daily life. Many of us don't make our vacations a priority for a variety of reasons, often due to cost. I want to share a few of my "secrets" as well as nudge you into considering just where your next vacation might take you. For me Living Large means having an annual vacation, outside of my city of residence, and I am willing to make some sacrifices throughout the rest of the year to make that a reality. In my family's first year of Living Large with Less we managed to save approximately $125/month on our groceries, this resulted in a $1500 savings for the year! We used this money for a trip to Kauai. Would you rather have name-brand groceries or a trip to Hawaii?

Free Babysitting!

The words "Free Babysitting" are strong enough to move almost any parent into action. Personally, I equate free babysitting with gold or some other precious commodity. Whether it is having the time for a date with my husband, a chance to go to the store by myself or simply getting to work, the need for childcare is the common denominator. In the early years of parenting I relied solely upon my parents and in-laws to provide care on an as-needed basis. Usually I tried to limit my calls for help to once/month for the truly necessary outings on the calendar. This worked fine for a few years but I find that as life has become busier (another child, more hours at work, and less time with the husband) that the need for childcare has increased. Where I live the going rate for childcare/babysitting is $13-15/hour for one and upwards of $15-20/hour for two kids. Sure, you can find a junior high student who will most likely charge less. But even at $10/hour, who can afford to stay out all night? Or get in more than one date night per month??

Giving myself a Break

Ok folks, it's confession time on ye ol' blog. As the originator of Living Large with Less I have to say that as the demands on my time have increased, (and this includes adding a child and returning to work) my ability to pursue all LLWL topics has diminished somewhat. The spirit is definitely willing, but the body sometimes craves sleep over processing receipts, balancing checkbooks, and being an efficient & wise shopper. I still love dispensing advice on the latest deals but I am having trouble with the day to day and even the month to month. I just needed to let you know that I am like so many of you, just trying to make it through the day with everyone safe and fed and hopefully keeping my employer satisfied too.

My encouragement to myself is this: Don't give up. Count each small victory as a success and when you have a free moment be sure to set one or two reasonable and attainable goals. My goal is to deal with the growing mountain of receipts, to input those and track them against our budget. This is something I used to pride myself on doing twice/month. Now I am lucky if it happens every other month! My second goal is to make a plan for where our "extra" income will be directed. I was fortunate enough this summer to pick up some additional hours and I don't simply want the extra money to vanish. I would like to be intentional about some savings and debt reduction, as well as a little bit for something fun. It's a new day and we can all move forward with grace and dignity no matter what happened the last few weeks/months etc of unattended finances.

Me and Gerber (as in Baby Food)

Most of you know that we have an infant in our house, Garrett is now 8 months old and true a delight. Today's post is about baby food, a topic I was a bit rusty on until recently when Garrett entered the world of solids. When my older son Lukas was a baby I happily bought all of his baby food and kept Gerber afloat. Unlike some of my friends I did NOT have visions of homemade baby food. I was happy someone else (Gerber) did the hard work and all I had to do was choose between sweet potatoes or squash. Fast forward nearly 7 years, with Living Large with Less as my middle name, I have reconsidered my stance.

A friend gave me a book on making baby food which was a beautiful book with lots of pictures and super simple recipes. My summary of the book: cook vegetables and put in blender with a little of the cooking liquid. And needless to say, I have been going to town making baby food for Garrett. Once or twice I have consulted my own Betty Crocker cookbook for reminders on how long some vegetables need to cook, but other than that it has been an easy road. The cost was a primary driver as Garrett began eating more than one 2.5 ounce container of food per day. Gerber charges anywhere from 12-25 cents per ounce, depending upon the food, where you purchase it and whether or not it is organic. It doesn't sound like a lot of money but when I can make my own baby food for about 4 cents/ounce, the savings start to add up. In addition to the cost, I can also control the quality of the ingredients as well as use my own creativity in making "meals" for him. Currently Garrett eats a lot of the same foods that we do: soups, pasta dishes, lentils, rice & beans and other ingredients. Once Garrett starts eating non-blender food, his palate should be similar to the rest of the family's as that is what he has already been eating. When I cook a vegetable for him I make enough to fill several empty 4 oz. Gerber baby food containers. (Yes, I did buy some Gerber product and now I re-use the empty containers). I have found that making the food doesn't take a lot of time, is easy, fulfilling for all involved AND it saves me money. If you have an infant my encouragement to you is that you give it a try. You may surprise yourself as I did.

"THE" Birthday Party

Today is my oldest son Lukas' birthday and for the last seven years my husband and I have been tasked with planning just the right party for him and his friends and/or family members. I love using my creativity and planning usually begins well in advance. I am willing to give it serious thought and attention because of what I am NOT willing to do: spend boat-loads of money on a party! I am constantly amazed at what parents spend for their child's (or children's) birthday parties, especially for the younger set. The list of party possibilities is nearly endless if you are willing to drop a few hundred dollars, and that doesn't include the presents. Popular choices include: Chuck E. Cheese, Pump it Up (or similar inflatable place), Zoo, Restaurants, Movie theatres, Science Center, Video Game Arcades, etc, etc.

Additionally, I am amazed at how few people do what we have chosen to do, host the party in our own home or at a local park. It seems people may be paralyzed by fear of having extra children in their home, of what to do with them, what to feed them, etc. For me the savings makes this choice a no-brainer, hosting my own party puts me in control of the costs and all of the variables. I can choose the time, the amount of guests, the food served and the games to be played, as well as what will be placed into the ubiquitous goodie bags. The first step is choosing a theme, then a location, and finally how much food I want to worry about which determines the time of day. This year we chose a "biking" theme as my son loves bike-riding. Our neighborhood park was the perfect location with its bike path and play area, with no reservation or payment necessary. I didn't want to worry about bringing lots of food to the park so we chose to simply do cake, drinks and some munchies - this meant mid-afternoon instead of a meal time for the festivities.

Our costs were minimal as we only invited a dozen guests. We had the kids decorate their bikes with streamers, then they played a few games, rode bikes, ate cake and played on the playground. If I round the costs up, I probably spent $50 on the entire party which included everything I mentioned (food, drinks, decorating supplies, & goodie bags). I challenge you to try an at-home party or simply a do-it-yourself party as opposed to paying someone to do the planning for you. You may surprise yourself at how much fun it is to use your creativity!

The New Eating "Out"

I love those Target ads which depict the "new" ways of doing things in this current economy, like home haircuts and date nights in lieu of the more expensive alternative. Target should have consulted me about that ad campaign because I have been living most of their suggestions for the past 2 years! Needless to say, about a month ago on a Friday night my husband came home and told me that he thought we should go out to eat dinner. It was the end of a long week and the thought of yummy Mexican food as he suggested did sound like a great option. Then my reality-meter kicked in: eating out with a 6 year old who has zero patience and with a baby really doesn't make for an optimal dining-out experience at least not for the cost involved, most likely $40+. Although initially I burst my husband's bubble, he did agree with my logic and we decided we would rather save the money.

At this point we were hungry for Mexican food, not the pork chops I had planned, and I quickly offered to run to the Grocery Outlet where bargains abound. At the store I bought some tortilla chips, an avocado, tomatoes, and more importantly some beer. Total cost for these ingredients was $11 (including a 12 pack of beer). At home I cooked the pork with some onions and taco seasoning, something I had never tried but has become a new favorite. We then decided to make a huge tray of nachos and involved my 6 year old in the assembly process which he loved. In the end we made taco salads with the vegetables, meat & nachos, and topped it off with fresh guacamole. The result was a delicious meal for a fraction of the cost of eating out, with leftovers and beer well into the future. All in all, two thumbs way up for the new "going out". Is there some way you can turn your favorite restaurant experience into a fun and more affordable at home, dining-in experience? Please share your ideas, I'm getting hungry!

Wedding Season

I always love hearing how my friends are choosing to Live Large with Less and today's post comes from Charlene who attended one of my classes last summer. As we head into wedding season I thought others might appreciate her story.

"Getting married has never shown up on my “to do” life list yet, here I am, getting married. And as I’m learning, my beloved’s lukewarm interest in the planning is pretty typical of groomsmen everywhere. I’m naturally inclined to be an organizer and planner, always starting well in advance of typical timelines, usually thorough. And now, cheap. This wedding business can quickly get out of hand. Neither Dave nor I want a huge pagent of a wedding but we both want a great experience for ourselves and for our guests. A memorable party that has to walk some slippery slopes between informal and formal, between traditional and ours.

As things we are supposed to do and how much it costs to get them accomplished are piling up, one of the aspects I’m currently wrestling with is the rentals. There are some minimal things to rent even if we are skipping the string quartet, the DJs and the chocolate fountains. We need: Tables, Chairs, Dishes, Glasses, Flatware, Tableclothes, and Napkins. Without getting into the possible tent rental (”in case it rains”) and the outdoor dance floor (who can resist dancing to our iPod wedding playlist?), we are looking at paying about $700. For things we’ll use once. For things we’ll have to set up ourselves. Dave suggested using plastic plates instead. You know, he emphasized at my stunned look, the really nice ones. As I started looking into rental prices I started entertaining the plastics possibility. Turns out they are rather expensive too. I’m not being el impossibly cheapo bride. They seriously cost as much as cheaper ceramic plates. Which got me thinking…

What would the costs be if instead of renting 75 place settings, we bought them, along with tableclothes and napkins. Turns out, buying is neglibly more expensive than renting. Which got me thinking…

Why not buy our own linens and tableware? And then, rent them out to friends and family for their big events? We’ll buy them for about $1000 instead of renting for $700. And then we’ll gladly rent them out for … what? $200 per event. We could recoup our costs to some extent and still have some useable plates and napkins in the future. And our friends and family would save their own big bucks by renting from us at a great bargain price.

Am I getting too cheap? Or am I clever beyond belief?"

The Scale

As someone who has attended Weight Watchers in the past, I cannot help but see the analogies between money management and weight management. Every week at WW you step on a scale and your current weight is recorded enabling you to literally "see" the progress towards your ultimate weight loss goal(s). I must note that I HATE stepping on the scale and will go to great lengths to avoid this act which most likely explains my 11 month absence from WW! However, last week I knew it was time to gain some accountability for both my weight and my eating habits so I returned to WW to step on the scale. Fortunately the damage of inattention was not as bad as I had anticipated and the reality check gave me my weight loss marching orders.

So it is with our finances, while I can certainly move forward in life without a budget or verifying my bank account, having real-time information is a much better and proactive place to be. This means tracking your spending (stepping on a scale) and seeing how it aligns with your budgetary goals. recently my husband and I were more than a month behind on inputting our receipts into Quicken. Typically we do this twice per month, but in the absence of this I felt as if I was spending money in a void. I was hoping everything was ok but I didn't have the confidence without complete information. The scale can be scary, as can reconciling a check book, tracking receipts, or creating and maintaining a budget can be but the benefits of knowledge, truth and reality can not be overlooked. Take a step in your personal finances to be honest and know exactly where you are today and where you want/need to be in 6 months, a year and farther into the future if you can. One of my favorite quotes is, "If you aim at nothing, you very often hit it."

It's a Way of Thinking

As I have been busy promoting my upcoming class by telling people that "Living Large with Less" is as much a way of thinking as it is about money-saving strategies. In fact, I would go so far as to say that without changing how you think about money many of the potential benefits of my practical information will not be realized. This brain change takes time, but a willingness to open yourself up for change is the perfect place to start. The title of my class begins with the words, "Living Large", so I would suggest you begin this mental journey by thinking about your life's priorities, where/how do you want to Live Large? Is it spending more time with family and/or friends? Is it being able to travel regualrly? Is it being able to buy artwork? Is it setting up a college or retirement account, something you've always desired but haven't done? Or giving to favorite charities generously? Or as simple as enjoying a latte at Starbucks every day? The possibilities are endless.

The second half of the equation is the "with Less" piece. Where can you save or let go of money in order to achieve to aforementioned goal(s)? In my case I wanted more time at home with my family instead of spending 45+ hours/week in a stressful corporate job. I made a decision that cost me 80% of my pay. I changed jobs to work just 20 hours/week at my church, reducing both hours and stress and more importantly increasing my time at home with my young children. Living with Less wasn't easy initially as it meant changing how/where I spent my new, lower income. Yet when I kept my eye on the "Living Large" goal it made it easier. For example, saving money on my monthly groceries freed up money for other bills to be paid...so the whole thing begins to work together. Again, time is what we all need to set and attain goals, to make changes both mental and practical, so hang in there and continue moving forward.

So Where are those Gift Cards?

In 2007 a research firm estimated the value of unused gift cards in the U.S. at $8 billion for 2006. So where are your giftcards, the ones you received for Christmas or your birthday last year? Are they hiding in your desk? In your wallet or purse? Or do you have no clue? I have a single drawer where all of them are kept and I think I seriously counted 16 cards the other day. This my friends is FREE MONEY. I will not succumb to the $8 billion statistic, I use my cards with zeal and purpose. Take a moment right now and see if you can collect all of your unused giftcards into one location and then take stock of what you have. Typically there is a phone number listed so you can find the remaining value of each. My husband likes to write the value, using a Sharpie pen, across the front. If the card is subsequently used he crosses out the old value and writes the new one.

In my drawer I have a few giftcards for restaurants, this is like a double treat, as each will become the basis for a future date....without paying the dinner bill! Coffee cards tend to stay in my wallet, but due to lack of space I simply cannot tote my entire giftcard collection.

My hope is that we would all enjoy using the many gifts we have been given, instead of giving the companies who issued these cards a windfall. Take time to locate, assess, and then determine how you might spend them in the near future. I was recently able to enjoy a manicure, which is something that is not in the current budget but was a fun treat thanks to a birthday gift card. This weekend my husband and I will be enjoying both dinner and a movie courtesy of our giftcards. And last week I went to Home Depot and bought new door mats, something I had been meaning to do and when I realized that I had a giftcard to support the purchase it was the perfect time! So start digging for your very own "Free Money". Looking forward to hearing what you might have unearthed.

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's off to Work I Go

I returned to my part-time job at the beginning of the year and as a result, I can see that my blogging time has taken a hit. Given the economic challenges in the U.S. and all of the changes to corporations even since I went on maternity leave in October, I am just plain thankful to even have a job right now. Working outside of the home is not everyone's first choice but for those of us who do work, now is the time to buckle down.

My thoughts for today are for those of us struggling with financial pressure of any kind; perhaps it is a growing mountain of debt, a spouse who has lost a job, or perhaps your own job loss, or loss of hours or wage of any kind, or simply that income doesn't cover the necessary expenses. While I was on leave I began to stress about a small loan we had recently taken and how impossible it seemed to repay. After stressing for weeks I realized that I had the capacity to work more than 20 hours/week, if I could do so when my husband was home so I wouldn't need to pay for childcare. I began to think about some options for evening retail or grocery work, I didn't need to earn a ton but I needed the flexible hours. Then one Sunday at church I noticed that the Hospitality dept needed somebody to help serve dinner to families attending the evening services. Bingo! I contacted the director and was hired on the spot. Now this job isn't glamorous and it is hard work for 6 hours straight, and yet I am thrilled to have figured out a solution that a) generates additional income, b) allows me to do so without needing outside childcare and c) alleviates most of my concern about the loan as I am on track to repaying it in a timely manner.

My challenge for you is to think creatively if you are in a situation where a little extra income would make a big difference in your family. Sometimes the obvious idea, "earn more money" seems to escape us, and quite possibly the solutions may just be under our noses. (Recently I also added a bi-weekly babysitting gig for a friend.) This is not the time in the economy to put pride before your financial security, you may well need to take a job that you consider beneath your ability/skill set....and then be thankful for it. Please share your creative work and/or revenue-generating ideas with all of us, we need to help each other here!

New Year, New Phone Service

I did some research during the month of December, prompted by a Consumer Reports article saying that most people could save money by going with a pre-paid cell phone service. I had been thinking about this for months but it took a little work to decide what the best replacement for our cell service should be. Each pre-paid Provider's program is a bit different and depending upon the need certain ones make more or less sense. I started by really examining my cell phone bills for the past 8-10 months. I spent approx. $50/month which included $10 in taxes and averaged 10 cents/minute across the months. Please note: truly heavy cell phone users may be better off sticking with their contract as the more you talk, the cheaper the minutes.

There are Providers which require you to pay only on the days you use it, these are called "Pay as you go" plans (typically $1/day + 10 cents/min) and then there are "Pre-Paid" plans which means you buy chunks of minutes on the front end, at a variety of price points per minute. These chunks of minutes have expiration dates of varying lengths so you need to study that too. Again, you need to think about how often you use the phone.

I also realized I used my cell phone from home a lot to call locally which is a total waste since my land-line can do so for the cost of my local monthly service through Qwest. As a side note I downgraded my local calling plan from one with 3 additional features (voicemail, caller ID & call waiting) that cost $40/month with tax to a plan that costs just $21/month including tax, same unlimited local calls but without the features. Additionally, we bought a phone card at Costco for $20 which will give us 700 long distance minutes for those calls we typically make from home to friends out of state, but used our cell phone out of convenience. The calling card is just under 3 cents/minute as opposed to 10 cents/min!

The pre-paid phone I ended up purchasing was from Costco, via T-mobile, but these phones are also available at Target and a variety of stores around town. Costco gave me a better phone for the money, but again it depends upon your needs.

In total I plan to save about $35-40/month on cell service and nearly $15/month on my landline once I account for the addition of the Costco calling card for a healthy savings of $600-700/year!! Now that is a nice chunk of change.