Save money

My wife and I have struggled to save, pinch pennies (which is really hard when your not employed) to make the Baby Step of saving $1000 in emergency savings. With Christmas, and the blessings of friends and family we have the $1000 and are going to put it into a savings account on Monday!!! I guess I can say we’ve made this one goal, but now the next goal for savings is to have 4-6 months of money put aside. Thanks Dave Ramsey, we are on our way to living like no one else..

Now my energy bill was low to begin, at about $180 a month it wasn’t a killer. But with colder weather moving in, it was a chance to cash in.. Since Texas has a relatively warmer winter compared to most of the USA, we decided to take drastic actions at night. We purchased a $45 computer thermostat, and st the temp for 60 during the day and 50 degrees at night. Everyone in the house gets thicker blankets at night, and we wear warm clothing during the day in the house. I have the thermostat set to 70 for only one hour in the morning, so we can wake up to a warm house. Our November bill was $99! Little things make big cuts in cost.
Another little trick, which actually works well if you have a freezer. Simply collect those milk jugs after you’ve used your milk, clean it, and place them in your freezer. Your objective is to fill up empty space with water (ICE). The ice will help to keep the items in your freezer cold not relying on your compressor. This cuts down on the amount of time your compressor runs. Also I’ve heard if you take an old quilt and wrap it around the top and sides of your freezer, you’ll be adding to the R value, and thus keeping it more insulated. A Friend of mine told me that this kept his food frozen for almost a week after storms took out his power.
I know that if we do other things like hang out laundry and put switches on our TVs and Computers we could cut that back a bit more. These extra dollars add up quickly!

I really need to focus on this goal, if I want to kick the debt habit. It seems like every time I dig myself out from under my debt, things happen which were not planned. Murphy’s Law states “If anything can go wrong, it will”. If I want to be Debt free Murphy is the first guy to be kicked out of my house (he’s the only reason I use credit cards). To be secure without having to rely on debt, our plan is to put away $1500 in a savings account, not to be touched but for true emergencies. I am going to try to accomplish this by Mid February. The reason I picked $1500 is because this is the deductible on my health insurance policy (auto policy is a lower deductible). If I can have at least that amount saved, I know if anyone has an accident in our home it’s covered. My only downfall before now with getting out of debt is the emergency backup plan.

I’ve figured that if I pack my lunch every day, I will save $4 or $88 a month. This is a big savings.

I’m trying to save for our Holiday Break, and I’m doing things to try to offset the cost of my day to day life. Eat less (diet) and pack my lunch rather than eat out. I’m in the middle of a De-clutter process at home, where I’m ebaying all that I don’t need, maybe get a few dollars. Keep the Air\Heater off, set the water heater lower, turn off lights, and other general waste of energy cost. But the general thing is to spend less.

It seems at least in my life, Rainy Days seem to come whenever it looks clear. I guess Murphy had something on this type of fate. But those Rainy days are what keep me from my goal of being debt free. An example was how last spring, my wife was hit on the side by a front-end-loader. It took us 4 months to get the insurance money to pay off our vehicle, but we lost all future use of that vehicle thus we lost money, now we are back in debt more because we bought a replacement vehicle with another loan. There are a lot of costs which just aren’t covered by insurance. But how about situations like Katrina, how could having some extra cash help you be more prepared for what happened? My plan is to put together a small savings account that I can get to In case of an emergency. What is the best way to stash money away?