TAKE THE STRESS AWAY FROM ONE-TIME EXPENSES THE EASY WAY Over the years I’ve had many fans email asking me how to budget for one-time expenses when using a budget. This is no surprise as we’ve made our fair share of mistakes during our newbie years of budgeting. Let me explain. If you’ve never used a financial budget before for your expenses and are contemplating ringing in the new year with a fresh look on money, you’ve come to the right place. You won’t find any hard-to-understand information here as I tend to keep it simple. The key to budgeting is to start slow and to remember that your first go at budgeting might need tweaking. You may find that using budget jars works for you or stashing money in envelopes for the month. Some readers would not dare keep cash at home for fear of dipping into the jar here and there. Everyone IS different the way they handle their money. What’s important to remember here is that it really doesn’t matter what budgeting platform you choose as long as it’s working for you and not against you. How do you know if you’ve found the right or […]
3 Foolproof Savings Tips For One-time Expenses : November 2017 Budget Update
How Tracking Expenses For One Week Can Change Your Life
BLINDING DEBT IS THE WORST WAY TO GET AHEAD FINANCIALLY All it will take for most people is one week of tracking expenses to stop, drop and roll because alarm bells go off and someone has to call 911. The only problem is that no one is going to put out your financial fire but yourself. Skip the I’ll pay tomorrow, next week, next month or forgetting about bill payments all around. This has to stop and if you can’t get your sh** together then there’s no point whining about money. Even someone who is on government assistance, working minimum wage jobs sometimes even two to get by can be better savers than the person who earns a higher income but doesn’t have a damn clue how to save it. I’m tired of people who have it all and can’t get it together and it’s the people who hit rock bottom that are climbing the financial ranks because they teach themselves about money and how it all works. You know, spend less, save more. It’s a simple way of looking at money even if you only have $5 to spare every month BUT that $5 surplus is going to […]
University Student Makes Costly Friendship Mistake
SOMETIMES THE BEST PATH IN LIFE IS TO FIRST BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. Friendship is a wonderful thing especially when you are networking and keeping doors open for opportunity that might come your way. It’s all about who you know right? In most cases, yes but you can’t just rely on friends. Do you tell yourself, “I need a friend” or ” I want a friend”? There is a difference between Needs vs. Wants that we talk about in the finance world and the same can be applied here. If you don’t need it then don’t waste your time, energy or money on it. If you want something then you have to work hard to save money to pay for it. Compare this to earning the friendship of someone new in your life. Don’t get me wrong, having friends is great but at the end of the day they do their thing and I do mine. Contrary to what you’ve read in children’s books growing up life isn’t all about rainbows. There are no unicorns, dolls and talking cars who will watch your back and give you advice. At one point you probably imagined that Spiderman was your hero and […]
How To Curb The Fast Food Temptation After Grocery Shopping : The Grocery Game Challenge 2017 #2 Jan 9-15
YOUR BUDGET WILL CHANGE IT’S COURSE IF YOU’RE NOT WATCHING HOW MUCH YOU SPEND WHEN YOU’RE NOT LOOKING. Let me show you why you’re eating out after grocery shopping and how to beat the temptation that could send your budget into an unbalanced mess. The idea of spending $200 at the grocery store to fill a shopping cart and then buying fast food straight after seems absurd but we’ve all done it. If you want to slash your grocery budget this year it’s important that you look at all the inside and outside factors that influence the way you spend money. The temptation or the idea to cut the time you’ve just wasted in the grocery store seems appealing especially when you’re not in the mood to cook. Eating out means less time doing stuff you don’t want to do after a grocery shop. I am guilty for getting take out after grocery shopping, After all the shopping I’m tired and don’t want to cook- Ami K (Facebook) Eating before you go grocery shopping so you don’t spend more money at the supermarket is a well-known fact. Depending on what you eat and how much you’ve eaten you might […]
Statistics and Traps Every Investor Needs to Know
Statistics and Pitfalls for Investors In the second part of this two-part post on independent investing, we will look at 3 critical investment statistics and the 3 biggest pitfalls to individual investing. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, jump back to post one to learn about what investing on your own can do for you. When selecting between the various investment options there are a few key metrics or statistics that are important to keep in mind. These form the foundation for any good comparison between investment assets. Personally, I like to use the filter tool available through my online trading platform to sort by the statistics below. Doing so helps me gauge what appropriate values are and to immediately weed out the less attractive options. Metric #1 – Expenses & the Expense Ratio (Mutual Funds and ETFs) Possibly the most important investment metric or statistic is the expense ratio. Expenses directly eat into your return each and every year. The expense ratio is the easiest way to determine how much extra you are paying to own an investment. Any mutual fund or ETF will have a specific expense ratio that shows how much […]
How sleep deprivation causes us to spend more money? : The Saturday Weekend Review #90
TIME TO GET SOME ZZZ’S There’s only so much coffee and tea that I can drink to keep me going before sleep deprivation takes over. Sleep deprivation effects can be serious whether you are behind the wheel of your vehicle, at work or doing something that could potentially cause an accident and injure yourself or someone else. There is also something else that lack of sleep may compromise and that’s your budget if you allow it to. Sleep patterns Not sleeping enough may cause you and I to spend more money because when you are tired you just want to go to bed and sleep which means saving money might not be at the top of the priority list. These days daytime sleepiness has found a place in my life even though previous to my new sleeping routine I was used to working long hours with odd sleeping patterns. Whether you have trouble sleeping at night due to insomnia, late-night work hours, illness or like us have a newborn in the house being tired can take its toll on your budget. Our sleep patterns are now in sync with our newborns sleep patterns which means we sleep […]
Unexpected expenses and savings: Our Budget March 2014
SAVINGS ARE IMPORTANT We’ve talked about having emergency savings and the budget over the years here at Canadian Budget Binder and for good reason. You need savings for unexpected expenses that pop up. Savings whether a small amount or a larger amount are important not only to keep stress levels down but also so you aren’t creating debt. Debt is created because one doesn’t have the cash to pay for a service or product that they need. Just this month as you will read down a bit further we have purchased a product for our home and required emergency services which were paid from our projected expenses account. The reality is that things happen whether it’s this year or the next and being prepared for expenses with some savings in the bank is much better than creating debt. Some people as I wrote about the other day don’t mind carrying debt as they see it as a number on a piece of paper and others like us despise it. I don’t mean mortgages, student loans and car payments because the majority of people do carry debt to pay off some of the largest debts most people will ever have. […]
The power of plastic points
If you’re like most people, you probably have a wallet full of colourful plastic cards that are taking up space and making it harder and harder for you to close the clasp! If you look through them, you’ll likely discover that while some of these cards are useful credit and debit cards than a few are loyalty cards you just never use. It’s understandable how anyone can end up with such a collection. Practically every retailer offers a loyalty point scheme. At the time, it can be hard to think of a good reason to refuse and with a little effort, the points we collect with plastic can be worth it … as the following tips show. Be selective of points cards Before saying yes to every loyalty point card which is put under your nose, think about how often you shop in a particular store. Is it really worth the effort of filling out the application form? Think about where you would shop regularly even if you weren’t part of a loyalty scheme. Once you’ve identified these stores then take advantage of the schemes that they offer. One of our favourite shops to use a rewards points […]
