One Year to an Organized Financial Life - February and April Week 1

Good afternoon, readers!  Are you ready for the next installment of this great book I'm reading?  I am yet again amazed at the wonderful "packed full" chapters I read this week.

February

This week talks about getting our bills paid on time.  By doing so we save money in late fees and administration charges.  There are really only four simple steps that start when you pick up your mail!

1. Deposit your mail when you walk in the door.  Put it in the same place every evening.  Decide whether to deal with it when you get home or later while watching TV or unwinding in the evening.  I tend to do my mail sorting as soon as I get into the house.  I deposit it on my desk.
2. Eliminate.  I eliminate all the extra papers right away - flyers, return envelopes, etc.  When that's done I either file the bills in an action file or just on my keyboard, so that when I sit at my desk I don't do anything else until the bills, etc are entered into my QUICKEN.
3. Schedule.  The bills are scheduled to be paid on their due date.  However, they get paid on the pay day before they are due.  Usually this keeps us ahead of the game and the late fees at bay.
4. Pay.  I do all our paying online that I can.  If I can't do it online, the company is probably local and so we walk the cash down to the store itself.

One thing that has happened for us in the past is that there is not enough money to go around.  We are doing okay right now, but there is a dry season just ahead of us.  How do you decide who to pay first?!?!  And how much?  We've found that giving everyone a little bit usually keeps them at bay.  There is a shaded box in the book called "TRIAGE".  Regina and Russell suggest the following:

• Pay Uncle Sam FIRST!
• Ask who can REPOSSESS!  Pay them NEXT.
• Seek the lowest cost.  Pay the loan with the HIGHEST INTEREST!
• Tap your conscience.  SMALL "mom-and-pop" enterprises will be needing the money to pay their own bills before the big corporations will.

April

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."  Joseph Campbell.

We need to be looking for ways to reduce our expenses.  The text this week in April is all about brainstorming for ideas of ways that we can reduce the "little" costs and what these "little" things are really costing us over the course of a year.  As I read through this chapter I was amazed at what DH and I were already doing!  And just as amazed at the suggestions that we were not willing to make changes to in our lives.  For example, food is the last place we will skimp.  Our grocery budget amount is the biggest number.  The one thing we are willing to do in the area of cutting food costs is finding a store that has lower prices.  We have to travel at least 30 minutes to get to such a store, but we are realizing that even with the gas and time we will still be saving money.  We don't eat out a lot and that's something we have cut back on and are willing to cut back on. 

We are not willing to be cold in our home.  Our heating costs are quite high and to many our home is much cooler than other homes.  We are not willing to cut back on our telephones or internet.  We pay for satellite TV but do or have very little other cost for entertainment.  We don't travel.  We buy used and are given many hand-me-downs.  We don't have memberships to gyms or anything like that.  There are very few magazines that come into the house.  We just aren't magazine people.  Car pooling is not an option, and we need two vehicles because DH works out of town so often.

"It's really both.  The real problem is that most people put their effort into the big expenditures, such as buying homes and cars, while thinking nothing of overspending on groceries and their phone bill.  Any kind of repeat spending is insidious because the amounts seem small, but they truly do add up."  (Gregory Karp, quoted on page 70 of One Year to an Organized Financial Life.)

Habits

Dedicate 10 minutes a day to decluttering.  Keep the extra papers at bay!
Log your savings.  "Every evening, make a note in your financial notebook that shows what you saved that day."

Tools

Mediation.  Focus on your breathing.  Just focus on the in and out.  Don't let your thoughts wander.
Sleep.  Sleep in a bit longer, go to bed a few minutes earlier.  Aim for an extra 20 minutes a night.  See how it makes you feel.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,