Final Week!! Week #8

Ladies, we are here! The final week of our financial fast. So this week I challenge you to find "free" money. I know you are thinking "Girl, that's impossible", however there is free money out there and we are going to find it.

1. Find out if your employer will match your 401k plan. Many times if you contribute a certain amount towards your plan, your employer will match that amount. Contact your Human Resources department for more details. That is free money!

2. While speaking with a representative of my Credit Union, she begin giving me information in regards to purchasing CD's (certificate of deposit)for Ashayla. If I purchase a $25.00 CD today, it will be worth about $44.00 in 12 months. That is free money.

3. Coupons are actually free money as well. There are a lot of coupons out there, especially online. I recently had to purchase bathroom rugs(mine shredded in the washing machine). I went to JCP's and they had a 50% off sale. My total was $36.00, but after I presented my $10.00 off coupon(printed off line) my total was $26.00 for 2 very nice rugs! I had budgeted $40.00! I felt really good about this purchase.

So ladies, let's find free money and let us all know where to look. Post your comments and suggestions about other great finds!

Cutting Your Grocery Budget-Week 7 budget

Okay ladies if you currently have 2 teenagers in your home like me, you understand that your grocery budget can often get out of hand quickly. It seems as though your groceries are only lasting in your home for about 3 days. I just cringe during Spring Break, Winter Breaks and the Summer Break because we never have food in the house. My teenagers will eat cereal in the middle of the day!

Not only am I being hit by my teenagers, but the price of food have increased greatly in the last few years. If you currently spend $100.00 on groceries, you will only leave with about 5-6 bages of groceries. A few years ago, that would have been about 8 bags of groceries.

So our challenge for week #7 is the cut our grocery budget by 10%!! I know that is a lot, but we can do it and I am not sure about you, but I NEED to try. So here are a few tips to help slash your grocery budget and put more money in your pocket.

1. First, Actually establish a monthly budget.- In order to accurately track what you spend per month, you need to keep track of your monthly grocery bill. Review your checkbook or bank statement and add up your grocery spending.

2. Set a goal for your new budget. If you are currently spending $1000 per month, try to spend only $900 on food this month. That is only a $25.00 a week cut.

3. Plan a weekly menu plan- making a food plan is not hard it just requires a little of your time. You can find online websites that can help you plan a weekly menu and print a shopping list as well. I use www.allrecipes.com for my menu planning and shopping list. It works great.

4. Make a shopping list and stick to it-I believe a few of us are doing that during the fast. Only purchase needed items. Watch out for items at the end of the aisles, they are there for a reason.

5. Use coupons! I registered at http://www.coupons.com/ and I save at least 5-7 dollars on my shopping trip. You can find a lot of coupons online for free. One caution is to only use coupons for the items that are needed and that you currently use. You can easily get "caught-up" and start trying new items.

6. Lastly look at prices before you buy. Sometimes the bigger, "on-sale" item is not the better buy. Check the prices of the smaller item and make sure you are getting the best deal.

If you have other suggestions to saving, please post under the comments.

Let's stay in the race ladies.

Late, Late, Late- Challenge week #5

Okay ladies the only time it is okay to be late is when you are married and WANT to have a baby!

So, this week's challenge is about checking our late fees!

I am sure that at one point or another we all have forgotten to pay a bill, or you looked at your banking account and you simple did not have the money to pay the bill until your next pay check which is 2 days AFTER the due date. Then, when you are able to pay, now you have an additional $20.00 to pay for late fees. Some credit card companies have no grace period and they charge up to $40.00 for late fees.(just crazy). Now a days even, utility companies charge late fees, depending on your balance.

I have started to really look at late fees. Various accounts, such as phone or cable may charge only $5.00 per month for late fees, but that is $60.00 a year. That is a nice "trip to the spa" money. So ladies your challenge is to look at your accounts and find out how much you are spending on late fees a month. Let's try to at least cut that in half! Hopefully, we can elimanate late fees all together. This will take time so have patience!

So here are a few tips to help avoid late fees:

1. Change your due dates. I sat down last month and changed the due dates for 5 bills that I have. All you have to do is call the company and ask to change it. The only account I have that did not change was Target. If you get paid twice a month, put your due dates around your payday.

2. Organize your bills. Keep all bills in one place and in order by due date. This will help you to quickly view and pay your bills.

3. Use your online bill pay service. You can actually sit down and pay all of your bills once a month. You can schedule your payments out for a month to assure that they are received on time. Just make sure you keep track of your spending!

4. Sometimes if you call a company and say "Hey, I am going to be a few days late" they will waive the late charges for you.

So ladies, let's avoid this unnecessary waste of late fees! Any other suggestions!