Mogul In Training

This Friday and Saturday, April 16 & 17, I'm having a huge garage sale. This willl be my first ever garage sale. The purpose of the sale is to get rid of a lot of my excess. It is amazing how much "stuff" I have accumulated that amounts to nothing more than clutter, at this point. I am selling clothes, shoes, handbags, sunglasses, wallets, home decor...you name it, I'm probably selling it. I am committed to living more consciously and this extends to my future purchases as well.

Before I buy any new things, I will ask myself do I REALLY need it and how much use will I ACTUALLY get out of it. This garage sale feels cathartic for me. I cannot wait to have a minimal house!

I am expecting to earn around $400 from the sale. I am not sure what to do with the money. Any suggestions?

In a nutshell, I was able to stick to my $40 a week Spending Plan. In order to keep track of every penny I spent, I put a container in my car to store receipts. Also, I found a website called SpendingDiary.com that I used to track my entertainment spending. Once the numbers are entered on the site, a report can be generated for daily, weekly, or monthly spending. What I did find, though, is that my $4 a day spending should not be for the work week, meaning Monday through Friday; rather it should be Sunday through Thursday because Friday and Saturday constitute my weekend. I would exclude Sunday because I usually go to church, then home to do chores and run errands. Therefore, my entertainment is usually on Friday and/or Saturday nights.

So, my total spending for the week was a whopping $39.57. This included spending my $4 free money everyday at work and having drinks and an appetizer at 'On the Border' on Friday night with the girls.

Another revolation for me, now that I am finally taking control of my frivolous spending, is that I need to include at least $20 a month in my budget for miscellaneous spending. In the miscellaneous spending category, I spent $3.85 to buy some handwipes, sanitizer and a small notebook.

I am SO proud of myself for sticking to my entertainment spending plan. I know that having this blog has made me more accountable. Even if no one reads it, it is my way of holding myself accountable--kinda like an online money diary.

The first video was too dark and blurry, but I didn't feel up to re-recording it. This one is much better. Drop a line in the comments and let me know what you thought of my book review and if you I peaked your interest in the book. By the way, I LOVE being a southern girl, but hate hearing my voice on camera.

Because my identity is not exactly anonymous on my blog, I will not get too specific in terms of dollars and cents. But, what I will do is list the accounts that I currently have and explain how I allocate money to them.

1. Emergency Fund--this account is fully funded. In fact, it may be over funded and I am considering moving some of the money into one of my retirement accounts.
2. Retirement Accounts (2)--One account is my own IRA (which I may move money into from my Emergency Fund; the other account is through my employer.
3. Checking Account--only my bills come out of this account, nothing else. Bills are mainly withdrawn through automatic draft.
4. Short Term Savings--this is my account for expenses such as vacations, car and home repairs, etc.
5. Fun Money--checking account that I put my spending money in for the month and deposit any left over money from other categories such as groceries, household, etc
6. E-Trade--online investment account
7. Business Account--bank account for my online business.

These are my accounts and they work well for my needs. I kind of think these are a lot of accounts to keep track of, but they each serve a specific purpose. What bank/investment accounts do you have?

These little tidbits of information are in no particular order, but I decided to put them in countdown order ('cause I'm cool like that). Following these simple tips has helped me almost reach financial freedom (I will be debt free, everything except the mortgage by the end of 2010)! So, yeah me! And YEAH to you also, if you are already following this advice or choose to implement them after reading this post.

10. Assests buys luxuries. We should not buy luxury items with regular income. If we desire luxuries, we should make sound investments, then use the money generated from said investments to by "wants".

9. Never take out a loan or pay interest on anything that depreciates. That beautiful new car you want--yeah that one--until you can pay for it cash, you should drive a used car and save to pay for it in cash.

8. Create multiple streams of income. Robert Kiyosaki calls it "having your job and minding your business". We should all have our full-time jobs and our legal side hustle.

7. Pay yourself first, and do it automatically. Most of us won't even miss the money if we never see it in our paychecks. We learn to live off of what we take home.

6. When you get a raise, don't raise your standard of living. That one bears repeating---When you get a raise DON'T raise your standard of living. Invest the increase instead.

5. Investing in any retirement program that provides a match is equivalent to getting free money. Where else can you get FREE money and who, in their right mind, turns down free money? Got it....good! Sign up for your company's retirement program immediately--if you haven't already--and invest up to the match amount.

4. Money is simply what we choose to trade our time for--that's all it is. We choose to give it more value and more power than it deserves by trading too much of time for money to buy material possessions that add no value to our lives.

3. Drive a paid for car! Enough said....

2. Debt is slavery. We are enslaved to anyone we owe.

1. Live below your means--the simpliest, yet hardest rule for people to follow.

My biggest money vice, by far, is eating out. I can easily spend $300 a month eating at fast food and casual dining restaurants. It is so crazy because I can easily spend $80 a week eating out for lunch and dinner, but will cringe at paying $13 for a facial moisturizing; then conclude that the purchase will just have to wait until next month because I simply don't have the money this month. Subsequently, I turn around and spend another $80 eating out the next week. Afterwards, I realize I could have bought 6 jars of the cream. Crazy, I know! I've also noticed that when I'm on a diet (sue me, I'm a girl), I save SO much money.

This is part of the reason why I started this blog. I am so close to Financial Freedom, I can taste it! By June, I will be debt free, everything except my mortgage and a $5,0000 student loan. I plan to have the student loan paid off by the end of the year. Despite all of these strides, I still need to get rid of this thorn in my side, called 'eating out.' Therefore, my goals in this area are the following:

1. I will give myself an entertainment budget of $160 a month--that is all! This amount will include eating out and activities.
2. The amount is broken down into $20 each work week for frivolous spending at work (e.g. sodas, snacks from vending machines, etc). This amount breaks down to roughly $4 a day for Monday-Friday. The other $20 dollars will be for weekend entertainment. This includes activities AND eating out. Therefore, if I know in advance that my weekend entertainment will cost more than $20, then I better spend less than $20 during the work week to supplement the weekend. The total amount I am allowed to spend for any given week is $40. This isn't a large amount of money, but considering the fact that I am single and some weekends, I don't do anything at all, this should be more than enough money if I carry over unused money from each week.
3. Additionally, if I cannot afford to participate in all invites I receive for the week because of my spending plan, I will just have to learn to turn down a few events, here and there.
4. I will hold myself to this spending plan (the word budget always conjures up restrictive and negative thoughts) by only using CASH for entertainment spending. I will only carry $20 with me for the work week and the other $20 dollars on the week.
5. I will withdraw the total amount from my bank account at the beginning of each month.
6. Finally, I have taken all debit cards out of my purse, to ward off temptation. I have one credit card and my checkbook in my purse, in case they are needed for something other than eating out.

So, this is my plan. Today is April 5, the first work day of April. I have not gone to the ATM yet--as I am typing this post in the a.m. But I will venture to the ATM for my one-time only $160 monthly withdrawal; AND I brought my breakfast and lunch to work with me today. Yeah, me!

I will keep you posted on how well I kept to my monthly entertainment/eating out budget. Wish me luck! Do you think my plan is realistic/unrealistic? Speak on it...

You can improve your finances while helping the environment by following one simple rule:

REDUCE FIRST, Reuse second and Recycle as a last resort.