My Focus For February

In order to achieve my 52 goals, I decided to work with focus areas; one theme for one month. Last month, I choose 'Home'. Since that was still a little general, I decided to be a bit more specific for February. My theme for February will be Money. And more specifically:

- Finish 2011 businesswise (Goal 37)

- Earn more extra money to contribute to my saving goals

Wishlist of totals after February:
Mortgage: €3000 (Goal 1)
Emergency Fund: €500 (Goal 6)
Emergency fund joint account: €600 (Goal 51)
Emergency fund business account: €3000 (Goal 52)

- Stick to the groceries budget of €160 a month (Goal 28)

I've also added tickers for Goals 51 and 52 to my goal page, in order to visualise my progress.

What's your plan for February?

Zero-based-budgetting works!

I've tried a bit of zero-based-budgetting this month, and I'm very pleased to say that it works! Usually, if I received for example a payment of 90 euro's, I would put some money towards savings, and keep the rest in my account. Usually, that meant that it would go somewhere, I'd use it on groceries or whatever. Now, I first checked the amount, then I decided how much I wanted to put in several savings accounts. The outcome had to be 0, so there wouldn't be any money left for mindless spending, unless I decided it was supposed to be used for that.

I've done this for three weeks now, and have been able to save much more than I usually do, even though I thought I was quite the saver already. I think it also helped that I combined this with sticking with my grocery budget. Anyway, I will continue using this method next month, looking forward to the results!

Have you ever tried zero-based-budgetting?

Renovating or saving?

We've been renovating for almost three years now, and it will probably be well in 2013 before everything is finished. That's not just a time issue, but also a money issue; we do everything from savings, and we don't really have any savings anymore.

So right now, I'm kind of wondering what would be best: continue, or stop for a while and save some money.

Pro's and con's for continuing:
+ We'll finish sooner
- We have to continue to live from day to day, depleting whatever savings we have left, etc.
- We might have to compromise, which we don't really like

Pro's and con's for stopping:
+ We can save more money
- It takes longer
- If the pressure of having no money is not really present anymore, it might even cost us more as well.

What would you do, and why?

Work and new kitchen

Last week has been a busy week and this weekend probably won't be any different. But I'm not complaining (oh, I am, but that's just because of the workload), it's great to have so much work during a crisis, which is what we're at now, if I read the news correctly.

Anyway, I do have some great news to share :-) Last summer, we renovated a part of the house that turned into a great relaxing space for me, and only one thing is still lacking: a small kitchen/counter with a sink and tap, so I can make my tea upstairs, without having to go to the kitchen. Lazy, I know, but when BF is not at home, me and the cat often just sit upstairs, since that's much cosier if it's just us. We didn't get to installing it, because we had other (financial) priorities. But today, BF told me he had saved up some money and I could use that for my new kitchen! I might even get a discount, but I'm not sure about that yet.

So if I don't feel like working, I just dream a little about my kitchen, and get on with it, since I can't use it if I'm too busy working :-)

How's your weekend?

2012 - 2016 : My 5 Year Plan

Having goals helps to achieve something. If you never set goals, you are lucky if you get somewhere halfway. While I've created many (52) goals for 2012, I did not really think about the longterm. However, Michelle from Making Sense of Cents inspired me to think about a 5 year plan, and so far, I've come up with this:

2012
• Pay off €10,000 in mortgage debt
• Create a small emergency fund of €1,000
• Build towards an emergency fund of €21,000 (€3,000)
• Focus on renovating and decluttering
• Finish the rest of my 52 goals

2013
• Finish renovating
• Build towards an emergency fund of €21,000 (total €10,000)
• Pay off €11,000 in mortgage debt
• Save €1,500 for retirement

2014
• Pay off €16,000 in mortgage debt
• Complete emergency fund of €21,000
• Save €3,000 for retirement

2015
• Pay off €16,000 in mortgage debt
• Save €5,000 for retirement

2016
• Pay off €16,000 in mortgage debt
• Save €6,000 for retirement

And somewhere along the way:
• Take another great holiday to the US (costs approx. €3,000 per person)
• New car for BFF (costs approx. €8,000 + trade in of old car)
• Get a greenhouse (I've seen a real beauty, but it is €1,100...)
• Work less, earn more

I plan on checking this 5 Year plan every year, so I can adjust it. If we haven't finished renovating in 2014, or finish early, it impacts other financial goals.

Do you have a 5-year plan?

New mortgage payment!!

Usually I don't really like the blue envelopes from the tax collecting office, but this time, they brought good news. I received about €5,000. Had to pay another €1,000, but it still left me with €4,000 extra. So I put €500 in the renovation fund, used €885 for paying my health insurance at once for the entire year (had never done that before, so I also did not save for it. I will save up for it this year) and I put €2,500 towards the mortgage! I had just a little over €400 on the mortgage account, so I had to take about €2,100 from the tax return. What was left, will be used for my retirement.

Or at least be stored in my retirement account, since this was not the final return, and I might have to pay some of it back.

What would you have done with this money?

Can I gloat?

I do not mean to gloat, but after the news I heard today, I cannot help it. About three years ago, we were looking for a new home. We went to see one which was absolutely great. We loved everything about it. It was over budget, but not much. We could pay 98% of the asking price, while in Holland, it is quite common to pay about 90% of the asking price, or even less.

Anyway, we wanted this house so bad, that we offered the 98% we could pay. They refused. They didn't particularly want more money, they wanted other people in it. People who would accommodate elderly/handicapped people. So we felt really sorry for ourselves for a while and we went on to look at other houses. We found another one we fell in love with. And we bought it.

And now, three years later, the house we first wanted to buy is still for sale, and for almost €100,000 less than what WE OFFERED THEM! So the final price (if someone wants to buy it) will probably be about 75% of what we offered.

So.

I don't want to gloat, since I know it's hard to sell a house these days. But in this case, I can't help but gloat a little...

Making holiday plans

Having expensive holidays does not really help reaching my goals, but I'm really dying to get away. We went to the US a few years ago and it was really great, so we would like to do that again. All-in costs: about €3,000 a person. The last time, we rented a car and drove around. We didn't make reservations beforehand, so we would be as flexible as possible. We spent most money on the car, the flight and some shopping.

So, what should I do: start saving for a holiday and loosen a bit on my other goals? Trying to do both? Any tips/suggestions?

Bye bye pedi's and facial treatments

Usually, I visit the beautician and pedicure once every six weeks. But since I have to make some choices, I've decided to limit that to 2 and 5 times a year. It saves me about €200, which will come in handy, since other things have become more expensive.

Would you skip something like this, or would you try to save money on other things?

Back to work

In 2011, I became a fulltime freelancer. Before that, I also had a parttime job. This week brings back memories, since I have a job at another office (not my cosy home office) and I have to be there at 8 sharp every morning. It's funny how fast I forgot about the planning etc. if you have a day job. If I don't have any deadlines, it doesn't really matter if I get out off bed at 7 or 8 or 9. It does now, because every hour I'm still in bed, I'm losing money and time (since I will have to work evenings then).

Even though it's nice for a week or so, I'm glad I freelance during the rest of the year. My income might be more irregular, but at least I got my freedom. What would you prefer; freelancing or having a steady job? And why?

Saturday = houseworkday

Since I've started my frugal journey, Saturday has turned into my houseworkday. Since the electricity is cheaper at night and during weekends, I save my laundry until then, bake cakes, and do other things that require electricity. We also use Saturdays for renovating our home. Savings might be tiny, but I like focussing on 'home' for one day. On Sunday's, I prefer doing nothing (well, no work, no mandatory things, etc. I love organizing, reading, etc.), so there's one busy day, followed by a day to relax.

Yesterday, I focussed on:
- Home
- Baking
- Money

For today, my focus will be on:
- Reading a Bible-part (it's been too long)
- Reading blogs + book (latter is for my 52 goals)
- Organizing (also part of the goals, since I want to get rid of some stuff)

What does your weekends look like?

Why pay off the mortgage and how to motivate yourself

In Holland, many people have a 30-year mortgage and like to keep it that way, because of the tax advantages. So why would I want to pay off mine early? For a number of reasons:

1. We can't afford to keep it. If something happens to one of us, chances are that we won't be able to make our monthly payments > problem
2. It's a debt with a LOT of interest
3. It's a debt that makes us bank-dependent
4. If we don't we'll pay €2000 a month for 30 years (assuming that the interest does not get any higher) and after those 30 years, we'll still be stuck with a €200,000 debt

However, I must confess that it is hard to make extra payments. Things come up and small payments don't really seem to add up. To motivate myself, I've started with 52 Goals for 2012, but I also take a lot of time to read other blogs/stories to find inspiration.

How do you keep yourself motivated to achieve large goals?

First setback of 2012

This morning, I wanted to get some cookies from the basement (which is in the kitchen, we keep most of our food there). I was glad I never go in there when it's still dark, since the place was flooded. We've had so much rain in the last few weeks, that the level of underground water has risen. I called the office responsible for underground water, but they are so busy at the moment, that they couldn't say when they would be able to get here. So I spent most of my day getting water out, using a scoop and a bucket. Approximately 100 litres down the road, the basement started to look a little drier. Hopefully it stays that way...

Fortunately, not all was bad today. I did manage to stick to my groceries budget. I made a nice vegetable soup which will feed us for at least two, but maybe three days. That means cheap, healthy and fast dinners :-) I was allowed to spend €40 this week on groceries, I've spent €13 up until now, and I think I'll probably have to spend another €7 before the week is over, since we'll have guests this weekend. I will make cookies myself, but want to get some buns (mine are more like stones) and maybe something extra to eat on bread.

How was your day?

52 Goals for 2012

Why settle for 3 goals, when you can have one for every week? Before you all think I'm some kind of goal-maniac: I am. Sorry. But up until I started blogging, I never really followed through on any of my goals, at least, not if I could help it. Since I started blogging, the support I got made me WANT to achieve my goals. For me, 2012 shows a new beginning. Therefore, I came up with 52 Goals for 2012, one for every week. Some can be done in a few minutes, for others I'll need the entire year.

I was so keen to start, that I finished some of the goals already last month. However, there is still a lot to do. I'll write more about my plan of action (which is quite solid this time! I think.) in the next few days.

What are your goals for this year? And what is your plan of action?

5 Ways To Save Money Every Day

If you want to save money, don't just focus on the major things, but also on the small things. Here are 5 tips to save money every day:

1. Turn off your computer
Nowadays, computers are almost constantly on. Not good for the computers, and certainly not for your electricity bill. Turn it off if you're gone for more than 30 minutes and try to find hobbies that do not involve computers. Fan of blogging? Maybe you can use an iPad instead, if you have it.

2. Be gentle with the toilet paper
Well, if you gotta go, you gotta go. But how much that costs, is almost entirely up to you. Use only what you need. It might be a little adjustment, but it can save a lot of money.

3. Watch your lights
If you are like me about six months ago, you get out of bed, turn on the lights where you walk and turn them off a few hours later, if you see that they are still on. Don't do that. It is a waste of energy. Don't turn them on, unless you really have to and turn them off if you leave the room. Even if you plan to come back to it within a few minutes. Turning it off at all times creates a habit, that will pay off in the end.

4. Keep it cool
Is it really necessary to turn on the heat right after you get out of bed? If you're off to work, you are probably walking around and not really cold. If you have to stay at home, start with keeping it 15 minutes off and try to extend that period. You do get used to colder temperatures, which is also handy if you like to be outside, but hate the cold.

5. Find a cheap hobby
You're bored, so you go to the mall. Sounds familiar? Then it is time to find a cheap hobby. For example: reading. If you're a member of the local library, you can get books for free. Return them in time, so there are not late return fees. Reading is also good for your brains and if you do it during the day, you won't need any electricity for it. Get yourself a nice blanket and settle in, and you won't need to turn on the heater either.

How do you save money every day?

Replace goals with focus

Instead of focussing on separate goals, I want to try a new approach this year. Usually, I set a number of goals, I reach them (or not), and nothing really changes. Since that would indicate that my list of goals only gets longer, without ever seeing real progress, I decided to find myself a new approach. And what day is better to start with this, than the first of January?

This year, instead of fixed goals, I will find a theme or focus for every month. I do have a list of 52 goals (which is currently only available in Dutch, but will get here as well), but I am not going to attach those goals to a specific month.

For January, my focus is on HOME.

That means that I will try to stick to the groceries budget as best as possible by cooking from scratch, finding creative ways to deal with leftovers, waste less, enjoy myself at home, declutter and do some minor repairs. In order to do this, I will immerse myself in blogs and stories about people who do or have done the same. I have noticed that this keeps me motivated.

If my focus stays on HOME the entire month, I will probably have accumulated some money for paying off the mortgage and the emergency fund, read some books, found nice and cheap ways to entertain myself and taken important steps to make our house a home, which means I may be able to strike off about 5 or 6 goals. Not bad, for a first month!

What do you prefer: using a goal or focus? And why?