Money Maven Tips from the Original Champagne Taste but Beer Budget Diva

I am saving tons of money by making only a few simple changes to my lifestyle.  Seriously, I am!  I have always had a tendency to overspend.  When I was in my 20s I would go shopping in Manhattan’s trendy little corners spending glorious weekends laughing and enjoying looking at my conquests (new shoes, new purse, etc…).  I would then go home and look at the bags with the pretty wrappings and fancy tissue paper, sigh and wonder whose budget did I think I had.  I would then have the walk of shame going back to each store and return my new gear.  Oh, the agony!!!

Once I got married, things changed because we both couldn’t live on the edge.  I am CFO and my hubby is CEO.  We try to save and pay cash for big purchases, but we have never been what you would call frugal.  We both enjoy the finer things in life and have always lived on the edge of our budget.  Usually just a smidge to the red side of it.

After having our twins things got real.  The fatigue, unexpected expenses, road trips to visit family and my hormones (I breastfed them until they were 7 months) caused our non-401K savings to dwindle by half.  After they turned a year old I resumed my CFO duties in earnest.  I have even been able to find a way to micro-manage our finances even with a husband who does not keep receipts.

• Figure out your recurring monthly bills – I looked at 2-3 months of credit card statements and bank statements to accomplish this.  We get paid bi-monthly so I went a step further to figure out when debits would be made in order to see if we were on track or over and where.
• Weekly Meal Planning-  Tedious, but super effective. If I go to a store once I may buy one or two impulse items.  So going grocery shopping once a week– and once a week only — is a significant savings and a time saver because I know what to prepare for dinner and when.
• Get inspired – Websites such as Money Saving Mom have really helped me to do some of items listed above.
• Luxuriate on a dime-  Figure out where you can save money and make it work.  For me, a mom of young twins, I need caffeine.  I was buying lattes 3-4 times a week.  Expensive!  Frivolous!  I found a way to make my own lattes at home thus saving time and money.  I found this awesome information on homemade lattes on Money Saving Mom’s website.  Click here for the link.
• Spend less-  Duh.  In the past I would search for ways to spend every single dime of my personal monthly budget or the boys’ budget, etc…  Inevitably, I would go over by $5, $10 or $20.  This adds up and causes shortfalls throughout the year.  Now my goal is to spend only 90% of the allotted budget and –guess what?– I spend an amount under or on budget.  Oh, and to keep me honest.  I write down what I spend on my personal budget and post it to the refrigerator immediately.  I also do this with what we have allotted for miscellaneous monthly spending.

These are baby steps for me, but they have yielded great rewards so far this year.  I thought that I would feel deprived, but I don’t.

So far so good.  I am looking forward to the end of the year of accrued savings and to not having to transfer money into our account for a buffer!