So I believe I’ve written before about the Smart Cookies site that I found… I really respect them. They are a group of women, in my city, the same age as I am who managed to start knowing nothing about finances but managed to handle debt, build an investment package and achieve the goals that they want. These are things that I’m looking at a lot right now because I really want to get back on the financial plan track that I was on. But there’s a catch. My current position pays a great deal less than my last position.
Now I grant  you, I’ve had time living on savings (which is why I need to get back onto my financial plan track), so I’ve shifted focuses a little bit, but I had things mostly on ‘hold’ while I wasn’t working full time and I didn’t make any changes to my life because I didn’t know if I’d end up staying here or going to another city for a while. Now that I’m here changes need to happen so that I can still save even with an income that’s lower than what I had before.
One thing I did do when I got laid off, was I started tracking what I spend. It’s not perfect, and I certainly forget things when I can’t get a receipt. Particularly when I avoid entering things into my spreadsheet for a while (a chore I detest).
So that’s a good start, I already know where I spend money:
Coffee
I’ve also been making sure to make my coffee at home and bring it to work. The coffee at work is nasty so if I don’t have it with me, made myself, I’m tempted to go to one of the 600 coffeeshops in a 2 block radius around my office. What I do need to do though, and it’s difficult to face, is cut back on my caffeine intake. I really should have done that between jobs, but my personal life got in the way of that. Because looking at my spreadsheet, it’s even then still high.  Part of that is that if I go to a coffee shop with a friend and have a muffin and a coffee, say, I still sometimes end up counting that as ‘coffee’ rather than ‘restaurant’. I suppose I could combine them, but at this point because I do spend so much on “solo coffees” I want to keep the expenses separate. I do know that as long as I have coffee in the house I’m okay because I set up my coffee maker the night before. I do count coffee that I buy for my house as ‘grocery’ because I usually grab it with my groceries.  So, I need to keep coffee in the house, and reduce my dependence on it so that I can reduce my intake.
Restaurant
I definitely need to reduce my spending in this area, I eat out a lot. I am taking my lunch to work most days, but I need to plan my menus better so that I can be healthier in my eating in general (a continuing goal of mine), and also so that I can reduce my grocery budget. But definitely I need to drop down my restaurant meals to much less than I do. I know that I was avoiding updating my spreadsheet in the winter, when I was particularly stressed about all this, but restaurant eating has increased. For some things, like when I go to Seattle, I need to start planning my meals ahead so that what I can bring I bring. That would help. This past weekend, for example, there were times when I needed to eat out, and I did try to chose the cheapest menu option. But really, it’s summer, and there are many times when it makes just as much sense to pack a picnic or BBQ and go to the beach rather than hanging out on a restaurant patio.  So… Pack lunch, Beach rather than restaurant, and be diligant about sticking to the budgeted amount — or less.
Groceries
Meal planning is a big one here. I don’t know if it’s possible to plan meals for 2 weeks, especially since I rarely plan for even a full week, but I know that this makes it easier to budget meals and my grocery bills have been stupidly high lately. Though I do admit that I haven’t changed my budgeted amount in ages, and with attempting to eat out less, it should go up at least a bit. And go up it definitely has. So, menu planning, and batch cooking are important. Maybe I should spend the $$ to reactivate my costco card so that I can get much cheaper staples.
Household
So this is more general. One thing is adjusting my cable so that it is cheaper. Perhaps increasing my internet too. I rarely watch TV these days and there’s really no reason to have a full cable package. I often end up just downloading shows from the internet to watch when I want.  That’s the main thing. I also need to keep an eye on my cell phone bill with this stupid new ‘charge for incoming texts’ system that my provider’s put into place.  But this is also something to thing about longer term with the view of saving money for longer term goals, such as moving to reduce rent so that I can save more money. Things to keep in mind in general.
Clothing
To be honest, I need new clothes and shoes. And no, that’s not an excuse or something that many people women may say “But I need that seventh pair of burgundy shoes with the matching purse”. Seriously. I need new shoes and such. But I’m trying to be good about it, and I’m not even really looking in stores because I can’t spend money there just now.  Maybe at the end of this quarter when I get my bonus I’ll give a percentage of that to wardrobe replacement. Not all, most of that will go towards debt, but I do need to do some replenishment.  I was good last weekend. I did buy one pair of dance shoes for $21 they were needed, my old ones are falling apart. But I resisted buying the leather jacket I’ve been eyeing for months. I don’t ‘need’ a leather jacket in that I have a number of them, but they don’t fit, so I wear them anyways.
Overall though, since the start of August, I’ve really tried hard to stick to cash only.  The Smart Cookies discuss this.  The first week was a challenge – I was away, so I did that cash only, but it wasn’t part of the ‘cash only’ that I’m looking towards right now and I wasn’t carrying cash that first week (but I did debit only), so this week I’m trying the cash only thing. It didn’t work so well last night given that I stopped at the grocery store and grabbed a few things. I should have paid cash then.
And so the process continues…