Reader Request: BUDGET!

Remember a while back I asked if anyone had any questions for us:

Here's the email I got from Nicole:

Maybe how you guys decide how much to budget towards things after the bills are paid. It's hard to do without using actual numbers so maybe a percent? We definitely want to save money every month but also have a night or two to go out and have fun but still have money to get things for the house if needed. We need a good plan to stick to and everything I've found so far doesn't work for us. It's definite trial and error.

 Our philosophy on life is you can't have everything (it sounds grim but it really is true). You have to sacrifice in one category to gain in another, just like you don't have an unlimited supply of time, you don't have an unlimited supply of money.
No one can tell you how to spend because we all have different things that are important to us. If going out to dinner with your friends once a week is super important to you, then steal from another category that isn't as important. I think we get into trouble when we aren't willing to sacrifice in one category for another.

For us having a house is very important so we spend 35% on housing. Having New Cars isn't as important to us so we spend less on transportation.
We've cut back in entertainment to do repairs on the house (for us that's kind of like entertainment).
You can't have everything and do everything and once we figured that out we got out and stayed out of debt.

Here's how WE spend our money:

We're on a pay ourselves first system. We pay the bills (fixed expenses like mortgage etc . . .), then we pay ourselves, meaning we put away a set amount for savings (whether it be an RRSP or just a plain old savings account), then we are free to budget the rest.

On Groceries:
When we first put together our "budget" I had a really hard time deciding what to spend on Groceries. Groceries is one of those expenses that can easily get way out of hand and is super easy to justify the expense (we all gotta eat, right?) So we decided that $500 a month, that's $125 a week, is a good amount to spend. That includes Dinners Out.
 What I did find during my research was that a thrifty family of 4 would spend around $524 a month, and a VERY liberal family of 4 could spend around $1014. 

$100 a month goes to Household expenses like soap, tin foil, cleaning supplies, paper towel, toilet paper, things of that nature.

Entertainment 
is a super variable expense in our house, some months we spend more some months we spend less, it all depends. The months we spend less gets carried over to the months we want to do more, like small trips in the summer. In general we allocate around $100 a month to entertainment. I also use my VISA points for movie tickets and gift cards to restaurants.

Housing:
In the 1960's the average American household spent 13% of their household income on housing, today the average family spends upwards of 34% (I just found that kind of interesting).  Ideally your housing costs should be around 35%, that 35% includes, property tax, utilities and household repairs. We include cable, phone etc. . . under LIVING EXPENSES.

Transportation:
Includes any car payments, insurance, gas, and auto maintenance *. Remember car parts aren't meant to last forever and you'll need to save up for repairs. Soooo many people forget about this part!
We spend $470 a month to run our cars, that includes insurance, repairs and gas . . . OUCH! I didn't realize it was that much! And that's with NO car payments!

So that's how we spend our money, you may be very different and that doesn't make you wrong, and this doesn't make me right.We all have different things that are important to us! Maybe traveling is super important to you, so spend less on housing, we get into trouble when we want the house, the trips, the stuff, everything.
My advice would be, to pay yourself (savings), pay your fixed expenses, then sit down and decide what's important to you, home, travel, shopping, luxury, charity, and divide your "leftover" money accordingly! Paying yourself first, ensures you're SAVING!
I hope that answered your question Nicole!
and if all else fails, refer to the following diagram:

* Sponsored Link

I must, I must, I must . . . . reduce my waste.

Usually I end I MUST, with . . . . increase my bust.  You know the little song. "I must, I must, I must increase my bust. The bigger, the better, the fuller the sweater!"
But I've given up on that dream and moved on to: " I must, reduce my waste", because that's actually something I can control :)
Here's what I'm doing:

• Padded Bra's

• Chicken Cutlets  

Wait we're talking about garbage:

• I wasn't sure if I was going to write down buy fewer cans, because we recycle those, but they usually come in packaging of their own. Although if it's cardboard you can recycle that too so, I'm torn. Lee had a good point, all packaging whether it's recyclable or not, takes resources and energy to make, so we're cutting out cans.
• No take-out. Take out containers create so much garbage!! One night of Chinese take-out is almost an entire bag of garbage
• No Disposable razors. It's not so much the razors as it is the plastic packaging they come in. Or maybe I'll just stop shaving my legs all together ? ? ? ? probably not . . . . probably!
• Buy milk in Glass Containers, not only good for the environment, but cute and retro too :)

• Make my own laundry detergent. It's super easy, and you skip the huge plastic bottles. If you'd like our Laundry Soap recipe, follow the LINK.

• No more plastic grocery bags. We've been bringing our own bags to the grocery store for years now, and I'm assuming you've been too. But now we'll be bringing our own produce bags with us. 

• Cancelling our cataloge and magazine subscriptions. Except for Martha :) 
• Really trying not to use paper towels. I'm not going to say we aren't going to use paper towels (because seriously I'm not cleaning up dog puke with anything else), but we're going to make a very conscious effort to reach for a dish towel to dry our hands instead!
• Make my own household cleaners in old cleaner bottles (as soon as I run out I'll be sure to write a post full of recipes)
• More good Old Home Cooking, package free :) You can peek through our meal plan monday's to see some of our recipes.
• I'm really excited about this one: Make my own . . . . sandwich bags!!! Here's an example, tutorial to come! 

• use bulk bins more. The plastic bag from Bulk Bins isn't great, but it's better then the plastic bag inside the cardboard box, in shrink wrap.
• Use craigslist more! Although we use it a lot already :) Used goods, don't have packaging :) 
• When we need to get rid of something, you know something that no one would buy, like an old kite or a ratty old chair, offer it for FREE on craigslist. We've had a lot of success doing this! Freecycle is also a good for this. And what ever we can keep out of the landfill is GREAT!
• Re-use when ever possible
• Re-use old clothes as rags
• Re-use any old fabric or clothes and make a quilt (currently working on my first one, I'll let you know how it goes). 
• Re-use old tin cans as pencil holders (I just really miss this idea from elementary school)

• Borrow and Rent. Instead of buying a huge ladder you might only need once or twice is a waste, try renting it from Home Depot or you might be lucky and have a fabulous neighbor who has one. We've done this for everything from a ladder to a saw to a pick up truck.
• Keep things in good repair. If you take care of your stuff, it's less likely to break and you won't need to buy a new one wrapped in packaging :)
• And last COMPOST as you read in our previous post we've been composting!

So there it is, all of our plans, what's that they say about the best laid plans . . . eeeeek!

One thing I noticed while writing this post was that almost all of these tips will also save money! It's funny how these two different topics completely align with each other! All the changes we've been making have been sending ripples through the rest of our life. For example:
Cutting down on garbage = making more homemade meals= healthier us!
or
Cutting down on garbage = making our own laundry soap = saving money and healthier soaps for us!
or
Cutting down on garbage = re-using old clothes = made a quilt = warmer us = not having to buy a new quilt for winter = saving money!
I'm starting to like MATH!

Meal Plan Monday: Budget Part Deux

Budget is such a huge consideration for our meal plans. Lee eats like a family of four, and I eat like a lady . . . a hungry lady. So really we're cooking for a family of 5 most nights. Seriously if the recipe says it feeds 4 it feeds the two of us.

COUPONS:
I've recently jumped on the Coupon Clipping Bandwagon (Thank you Extreme Coupons on TLC) although it seems couponing in Canada isn't as easy, we don't have any double coupon days (none that I know of anyways). And Extreme Couponing doesn't really fit that well into our lifestyle either, who really needs 45 jars of mustard and 100 deodorant sticks??? I've also had a hard time finding coupons for organic products, but once and a while they do pop up and we take advantage :)

CHEAPER CUTS OF MEAT:
This option is my favorite because it tastes a lot better too. We almost always use our slow cooker to these cuts. It makes them super tender and so flavorful.
Which brings me to Monday's Dinner: Soooooo Easy!
Slow cooker Pot Roast
2 cans cream of Mushroom Soup
1 (1oz) package dry Onion Soup Mix
1 1/4 cups water
5-ish pound Beef Bottom Roast
A carrot or two (sliced into 2 inch chunks)
two or three small baby red potato (quartered)
a handful of pearl onions
Season Roast with salt and pepper and sear the meat on a frying pan, on all sides!
In the slow cooker mix together the soup, soup mix and water. Add the seared meat, and place the vegetable around it.
Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours, or low for 8-9 hours.
So Good, So easy!

 VEGETARIAN:
Another way we save is we cook vegetarian meals at least once a week! Meats expensive so we save a bit here. The best way to serve vegetarian meals is in ethnic recipes, I find a bunch of steamed vegetables way too bland so we make it into a curry or this week on Tuesday we're trying Serena from the Farm Chicks, Pon Pon Tofu! It looks really yummy and Lee and I both Love a little spice in our food.

BORSCHT:
This sounds more like a recipe then a way to save money, but, it's both! Borscht is a fabulous way to use up left over . . . . anything really. We cut a chunk off of Mondays Pot roast before we cook it and save it in the fridge, and use that for the meat in our Wednesday's Borscht. Some cabbage, some carrots, and left over pearl onions, beets (lots of beets) some mushrooms, what ever else might be in the fridge like, corn or green beans or spinach or kale.

SALAD:
A simple salad with some grilled chicken on top is so easy, so fast and super cost effective. This is what's for dinner on Thursday:
Here's our Cajun Chicken Salad Recipe.
2 or 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Some reduced sodium Cajun Spice
~Coat chicken in Cajun spice and fry in a touch of olive oil or grill it on the BBQ
Salad:
This is our favorite Salad Dressing! It's AMAZING (TRY IT!!!) Sorry about the generalizations, I make it out of memory
Make right in the salad bowl before you put the lettuce in
1-3 cloves of garlic (depending how much you like garlic)
about a tsp Dijon mustard
about a tbsp Worcestershire sauce
juice of half a lemon
about 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
Whisk in 
about 5 or 6 tbsp's Extra virgin olive oil
Chop up a head of crisp romaine lettuce, add to bowl, toss salad together, top with a little grated Romano or Parmesan cheese. Top with Cajun chicken. 
It's our own super light version of a Cajun Chicken Caesar Salad

EGGS:
Eggs are cheap and good for you, and delicious!
Friday Dinner is Quiche Lorraine!

So that's how we're planning on saving money and feeding ourselves this week! If anyone has any other tips on how to save money on groceries, or any Canadian Coupon Tips we'd LOVE to hear them :)

Meal Plan Monday: Budget!

I LOVE being a housewife (and a blogger-ess) and one of the many reason I'm able to be a housewife and stay at home  is by squeezing every penny, and saving the rest when I can.
Here's how I keep some pennies in my wallet and squeeze the rest to get all the food we need, plus a little we don't need and a little we shouldn't eat :)

•  As you know I always do a Meal Plan Monday :) Our weekly food bill went down by almost half once I started planning our meals.
• I always check the pantry, fridge and freezer before I go out, this saves money on many levels, first I can make sure I don't buy items we already have. Second I can use up anything that might soon expire (wasting food is the enemy :) and three you can have a pantry week! 

*Pantry Week is when you try to make the bulk of your meals from the pantry, fridge and freezer before you go the grocery store for the week. We allot a $20 spending cap on food for the week, just enough to add a little meat and a little fresh veggies into the mix. We can only manage to do this 6 or 7 times a year, but the savings are very welcomed in our savings account.*

• I ALWAYS plan to use the leftovers. There are never enough for dinner the next night but there is enough for Lee's lunch the next day. I do plan on using the leftovers to make parts of the next nights dinner, like roast chicken for chicken pot pies the next day or leftover roast beef for beef dip. 
• Planned Snacks, If we don't plan our snacks we run out for anything and everything we can find . . . mmmm. . . . Timbits (aka. donut holes to our American Friends :)
• Plan Breakfast, on weekends I make a big double batch of pancakes and freeze the extras. It works Great, just pull them out of the freezer and pop into the toaster.
• I use our Slow Cooker a lot. I can buy very cheap cuts of meat, and they turn out amazing!
• Make meatless once or twice a week. This option has many benefits aside from the cost savings.
• We make at least 90% of our meals from scratch. Pre-packaged while not being very good for you (in general) are also very Expensive. So we try to cook all of our meals ourselves. If you are going to buy pre-packaged food avoid buy single serving portions, more packaging means more money.
• We buy no name brands whenever possible, if the quality is the same we go ahead an buy no-name. They are even coming out with no-name brand or store brand organic foods.
• I only grocery shop once a week, it cuts down on the impulse purchases.
• We don't buy pre mix's of things (except for Montreal Steak Spice, or Poultry Seasoning, I haven't been able to crack those codes yet :) but pancake mix, biscuit mix, taco seasoning,  chili seasoning we make ourselves. *Bulk section spices are usually cheaper then pre-packaged spices.
• Try as hard as possible to not shop with kids or husbands for that matter.

BE SMART:
-Waste Less
-Store foods correctly
-Plan to use leftovers
-Take your lunch to work
-Shop Locally
-Shop in Season
And the number one rule is an oldy but a goody: NEVER, EVER SHOP HUNGRY!

This week we are going to try FISH TACOS!!!! Tilapia is a very inexpensive fish, so it's the perfect meal for our Budget Conscious Meal Plan Monday :)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (125 mL) shredded carrot 
1/4 cup (50 mL) thinly sliced red onion
1 tsp (5 mL) lime juice
1/4 cup (50 mL) light sour cream or plain yogurt
1 tbsp (15 mL) minced fresh coriander
1 green onion, minced
8 small flour tortilla or corn tortillas
1 plum tomato, diced
1/2 avocado, peeled and diced

Fish:
1 lb (454 g) tilapia fillets or catfish fillets
1 tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil
1 tsp (5 mL) chili powder
1/2 tsp (2 mL) dried oregano
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
1/4 tsp (1 mL) pepper

Preparation:
Fish: On plate, combine oil, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper; add fish and turn to coat.
Place on greased grill over medium-high heat; close lid and grill, turning once, until fish flakes easily when tested, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine carrot, red onion and lime juice. In separate small bowl, combine sour cream, coriander and green onion.

Break fish into chunks; divide among tortillas. Top with sour cream mixture, carrot mixture, tomato and avocado.

Budgeting for the Manor

It sounds kinda crazy but I love to budget! I don't know why, I'm kind of a control freak so maybe it's because I feel totally in control, but I love it. I even do it for family and friends who ask  who mention they don't have one who make the mistake of mentioning budgeting in front of me. 
I can't explain  how much peace of mind a budget rewards us with.
Being a stay at home wife, we live off of one income, and since Lee brings home the bacon it's up to me to divide it up and make sure there's enough bacon for today, tomorrow and 40 years down the road.
Here's the formula we use:

 Image via

 We have used this formula for about 5 years now and it's served us well. It helped us get out of debt and now that we are out of debt (except for our mortgage) it's helped us stay that way.
Housing 35% includes, your mortgage or rent payment, home repairs (necessary ones, apparently a new deck is not a home "repair") property taxes, utilities and insurance.

Savings 10% personally I think 10% is a little low, but the idea is to pay off all debt then take the 15% you would spend on debt repayment and add 10% to your savings and add the remaining 5% to whatever you like.

Other Living expenses 25% include Food, eating out, entertainment, vacations, gifts, clothing and other variable expenses. A variable expense is an expense that you have control over, your mortgage is set, heat and electricity are set (although you have a some control over how high your bill is). You can control variable expenses, you don't have to buy those new shoes, no matter how cute and one of a kind they are and how you could were them everywhere and everyone would stop and say how cute they are you don't have to take that vacation even if you could take those perfect one of a kind shoes with you and people would stop and say how skinny you look because the shoes make you look 10 lbs lighter moving on. . . . . . . 

Transportation 15% This includes any car payments you might have, car insurance, repairs, gas, parking or public transportation. This category is a bit lean even for us. We don't have any car loans for any of our cars and we are at 12% with just insurance, gas and repairs. And we both drive very fuel efficient cars my SUV gets 500km to a $45 tank and Lee's car Gets almost 750 km for the same price.

Debt 15% self explanatory, credit card debt, line of credit debt, loan shark debt (hopefully not) and loan debt you might have, student loan, car loan. If you have no debt you can always bump up your savings or another great idea is to start adding that 15% against your mortgage.

And don't forget all of these percentages are based off of your net income (the amount you have after taxes). This chart is also open for interpretation if you have excess in some area's and run over in others, move the money around. The chart is just a good starting point, a general idea of what you can and cannot afford. 
Disclaimer: I am no money guru by any stretch of the imagination, but this is what works for us!
If you're looking for something simpler you could always follow the 50/30/20 formula
50% on Needs
30% on Wants
20% on Savings
Sweet, simple and to the point!

So this is how we budget, if anyone has any budgeting tips or methods I would love to hear them. I'm always excited to learn more about  how other people deal with and manage money.

Happy Fathers Day!

I know it's a little late but Happy Fathers day to all the dad's out there. Over here at the manor we celebrated fathers day with a car show at a local tool and auto shop. Lee got a Ducky soap on a rope and a to go coffee mug from his fur-baby Max.

Yes, that's right Max (our dog) got Lee a fathers day gift, and why not Lee's the best puppy daddy ever. In fact Max wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Lee. A couple years ago we were at a dog park when a big black dog attacked Max. Max was right beside me and there was nothing I could do the Black dog was way too big for me. Lee ran over and wrestled Max out of the dogs mouth, once the big dog let go of Max Lee had to wrestle the dog trying not to get bitten until the owner finally came over and leashed their dog. If that's not worthy of a soap on a rope I don't know what is.

 The ducky soap on a rope was more of a gag gift for Lee, but the to go mug was a gift that he's been asking me to pick up for a while now.
At home drip coffee cost approx. $0.42 a cup (that includes sugar, milk and coffee). Drip coffee from the cafe approx. $1.50 and if you prefer a fancier coffee that average price is $4.00 a cup. Lee has one cup of coffee a day so we stand to save approx $34.00 a month, and that doesn't count the impulse purchases like pastries.
We had the metal coffee to go cups but they weren't able to go into the dishwasher and were incredibly difficult to clean. What is different about this mug is it's ceramic with a silicone lid. The ceramic mug and lid are dishwasher safe,  I loved this mug so much I might have bought one for myself, and it might have a pink lid! 


~ Ashli ~