8 Tips to Help You Stick to a Budget!

We're getting to the end of my husband's two week pay period. And since we use his paycheque to pay for groceries, things usually start getting pretty skimpy around here towards the end of the two weeks. It's a lot of searching the back of the pantry and the bottom of the freezer to use what we have. I find it kind of an exciting challenge! It's like the Food Network show "Chopped" - where they give the chefs a random basket of weird items like cotton candy, a rabbit's foot, rutabaga and coconut milk and they have to create a gourmet dish based on those ingredients. I tell ya, we've made some pretty interesting meals around here while we've been budgeting! If we needed to, we could take money from another area, but I hate messing up my system!

Here are 8 tips to help you stick to your budget.

1. Write it down

Every dollar should be accounted for and you should have each dollar spent on paper before you spend it for realz. You have a finite amount of money allocated to each area. Each dollar has a name. Each dollar has a purpose.

2. Step away from temptation

Are you a mall-aholic? A Starbucks fanatic? If these places throw you into a spending frenzy, just WALK AWAY. It's time to get serious with your budgeting and spending, so why tempt yourself unnecessarily?

3. Stick to your envelope system

If you want to find out how to use an cash envelope system, you can check out this post. By using cash for all your purchases, you really do have a lot more control over your spending, because if there isn't any money in the envelope for it, you shouldn't be buying it! At the beginning of each month, really think about the expenses you will have that month that may be different from previous months. Things like birthday parties, swimming lessons for the kids, Christmas, hockey equipment, etc. You get the picture. If you know there is an expense coming up in a few months, start budgeting now.

4. Only buy what's on your shopping list

This is not the time to try Kobe beef! Stick to the basics, make as much food from scratch as you can, and learn to shop using sales from flyers and coupons. And remember to take advantage of reward systems like PC Plus Points or Shopper's Drug Mart Optimum Points (in Canada).

5. Exercise at home

I discussed this in a previous post but last time I checked, you didn't need a gym membership to get healthy. Walking works, and you can get lots of FREE workouts on Youtube. Jillian Michael's has a bunch. This is my favourite one! Imagine how hot I'll be after doing this workout for a few years and paying off my debt? Rawr....

6. Visit the library

It's a free place to take your kids for a fun little outing, and you can go home with books, DVDs and audio books. And it doesn't cost anything. Plus reading is really good for your brain. It makes you way smarter than watching TV will. Blogs are great reading too ;)

7. Carpool

Have any people at work you can carpool with? I know sometimes we just want to rock out alone in our car to Iron Maiden but you can save so much money by splitting the cost of gas and parking fees. Just make sure you pick someone you actually like, and who has good hygiene.

8. Create a vision board

Some people think this is a little too much woo-woo for them but in my opinion, a vision board is a road map that everyone in the family can follow, and it helps remind them why they are making big sacrifices. Take a bunch of magazines and start pinning up the fun things you're family will be able to do once you've paid down debt, and have been able to save.


Have any great ideas to help us stick to a budget! Send me a comment. Please, oh please?

4 Ways To Get Your Kids Involved In The Family Finanaces

We've all had these conversations with our kids:

Kid: "Mom, can I get that new Elsa doll? I really want it, it's so cute and I'll play with it so much!"

Parent: "Why don't you put it on your Christmas list?"

Kid: "Christmas? It's July, I can't wait that long. I want it now!"

Parent: "We can't just buy things whenever we want, just because we want it. You have to decide if it's worth it, and if it is, you need to save for it."

Kid: "But I want it RIGHT NOW!"

Parent throws hands up and wonders why he/she ever thought having kids was a good idea. *wink, wink.

It's not that all kids are all bad and greedy, psychologically-speaking, they start off their lives mostly under the assumption that the world revolves around them. Hence the reason why you have so many meltdowns at Target with your two-year-old. (Or in my case, three-year-old.) But as they get a little, older, like 4 and up, you can start explaining to them how finances work and how THEY are also part of the family's financial fabric. It also teaches them, while they are young, that you aren't just entitled to stuff. You have to work to get what you want. I'm not raising any slackers here!

Here are 5 ways to get your kids involved in the family finances.

1. Discuss the plan

I actually just had a detailed discussion with my 8-year-old this morning, while we were lying in my bed, about how our financial plan is laid out. As I've said 40 times already, we're following The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness.

This plan is laid out so you are following 7 baby steps to get to your goal. We are currently on step #2, PAYING OFF YOUR DEBT.

Our daughter was saying how much she wants to go on a Disney Cruise. I said once we pay off the money we owe, we will start saving for some fun activities like a cruise, but for now, our focus is to pay off what we owe. I also told her we need to save money for retirement. She couldn't understand why we needed to worry about retirement when we are still young. I told her we need close to a million dollars to retire comfortably. She was blown away! But at least now she understands why we need to pay things off and save.

2. Set up an allowance system

I don't have an allowance set up for my little guy - he just doesn't quite get it yet. But our 8-year-old is old enough and we have set up a cool system based on chores. I got the idea from Pinterest. We used to pay her every week based on her list of chores but it didn't work well for us. I like that she can do a chore and quickly see the payoff. Now, she doesn't get the money right away. After she does a chore, we put it into her chore jar. At the end of the week, she gets her money.

3. Set up a envelope system for your kids

Now that our daughter has money from an allowance every week, we want to teach her how to save and give, not just spend. So we have three envelopes for her: Spend, Save, Give. This teaches her the importance of putting money aside to save for bigger items, but it also teaches her to be grateful and to share her blessings with others.

4. Create a vision board 

Some people think vision boards are fluffy, or that you just make them, sit back, and wait for your dreams to unfold. That's not the idea at all. A vision board is like a road map to achieving your goals. I've had a few vision boards over the years, and while some of the goals didn't occur until a few years later, some of them came true in eery ways. (I'll discuss vision boards in depth in an upcoming post). So I challenge you to sit down with your kids, grab a stack of magazines and start planning your family's vision for the future. Put it up where every one can see it and work together to reach those goals. I do truly believe that if you see your dreams in front of you, they will unfold if you work towards them. Thoughts become things.

How do you talk to your kids about money? Do they have allowances? Do they know how to save? I'd love to get your feedback!

How to Create a Cash Envelope System

The idea of having a cash envelope system is that you should only buy things with the cash you have allocated for that area of your life. It's to help give you boundaries to work within so you don't over spend.

1. Create a Budget
This is the fun part! Yeah, not even close. If you have a partner, spouse or roommate, you'll have to sit down together and hash out what money needs to go into what areas. This part can get a little touchy if you're not on the same path. But work it out the best you can. This is where you are going to figure out how many envelopes you need and how much money will be in each envelope. To figure out how to create a zero based budget, you can use this form and watch the video below to help you out.

2. Divide your Hard-Earned Cash into Envelopes
(if you want, you can roll in it before you stash it)
My husband gets paid bi-weekly and I get paid bi-monthly, so we withdraw a certain amount on his paydays and some on my paydays. Also, some of our bills come directly out of our account, so that money just stays in our chequing account. You'll need to update your budget monthly as different things come up that you have to budget for i.e. Christmas. We've been saving in this envelope for a few months! High-five for not having to use any credit this Christmas! Here are the cash envelopes our family has this month:

• groceries
• gasoline
• restaurant
• His spending money
• Her spending money
• Water bill
• Christmas gifts
• Car maintenance
• Home maintenance
• Clothes 
• Pets
• Haircuts
• Swimming lessons

3. Cash is King

Going to get gas? Take it out of your cash envelope. Grocery run? Cash, baby! By the end of the two weeks, the envelopes are pretty skimpy and lonely but there is some satisfaction in knowing that you stuck to the money that was allocated to that specific area. I'm not going to lie, sometimes, at the end of the two weeks when all the grocery money is gone, there is a lot of PB and J and eggs for dinner. That's okay - a few sacrifices never hurt anyone! The key here is to not use your debit card AT ALL. You should have enough cash to cover all your expenditures. And if there is no cash for it, you just don't buy it. Save up for it next month. What? Wait for something. Ouch... I know.

4. Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Just kidding. No need to wash and rinse but you will repeat this process every month: Create your budget and then allocate the money to different areas of your life. The hope is that, by budgeting, you will have extra income at the end of the month to save or pay off debt, depending which baby step you are on if you're following Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness.

Other Helpful Tips:

• You might need to adjust things in the first few months as you try to figure out how much money you really need in each area. That's okay! That's how you figure it out.
• You can buy an envelope folder from Dollarama or any dollar store for cheap. Until then, good ol' fashion envelopes will do, one for each area. I just like having everything in one place.
• If you would rather take out cash for the entire month, you can do that. If a weekly system is better for you, go with that. It doesn't matter how you divide the money, as long as you follow your budget.
• I don't walk around with a huge wad of cash in my pocket. If I know I need groceries or gas that day, I make sure to take it out before I leave home. By the way, don't come looking for my envelope. I have a Belgium Shepherd that will chew your face off. She's sweet... until you mess with her family.

How does your family budget? I'd love to get your feedback!