Spending tips

I am not a professional accountant, and I do not claim to know the best way to budget. But I do know I like to spend money, and I only have a finite amount of it to spend, so here are a few tips that we use to help determine on what/how to spend our extra income. Obviously, don't take grocery money and go out to eat or spend it on the movies.

1. Eating out is expensive- try to cook all your meals at home.
    
It may seem like everyone says that, but it is definitely true. This past weekend my husband and I   ate out twice! We went to brunch with friends, and we ate lunch out at an order at the counter  kind  of place. After all was said and done we spent about $50.00 on two meals. Probably not worth it.

2. Look up a coupon online before you purchase, especially free shipping if buying online!

At this point, I will 9/10 times not buy something online unless I can get free shipping. There are those rare occasions, that I just can't happen to find the product in a store or anywhere else online, and I bite the bullet and pay, but I can only think of one example in the past six months of that happening. On top of that, find a coupon for a percentage off! If it's clothing that you don't absolutely NEED, wait until you get that coupon! You'll get more for your money! Again, I never buy clothes for myself that aren't on sale unless I absolutely need it for something. Even then, I am not happy about it!

3. Buy quality items!

I bought a Camelbak water bottle a while back, and after using it for about a year, the a hing broke on my straw. I was really sad, but I wrote their customer service department, and I received a lid and straw for my waterbottle at not cost to me! Totally worth the investment!  Sometimes you don't find quality items with awesome warranties, but buying that quality item, means it's going to last you a very long time! So the extra money upfront saves you the heartache of it breaking a few months down the line.

4. Skip the cable.

Now my husband still misses sports, it's true. But I know if we had cable, we'd both be spending a lot more time in front of the TV than we do reading or investing in other worthwhile activities like being active! Instead we pay 7.99 a month for Netflix, and we also have Amazon Prime (primarily for free two day shipping and the kindle lending library), which also offers TV shows.

5. Projects!

I am all about my projects. So that's how I decide what to spend all that extra income on, after I've found all my coupons ;) For instance, I really want new bedroom decor, but that's not my current project so until I am done improving the organization in my kitchen, everything else will wait. This helps me stay focused on actually completing a project, and I don't get sidetracked! My goal has been to buy one thing to help me complete that project every pay check. This week I bought a garlic keeper and pan organizer thing. But more on those later!

6. Spend on yourself.

My husband and I need to be able to invest in ourselves and the different things we like, so we allocate a portion of our budget to each other. We get an equal amount of money, and we are allowed to spend that money on WHATEVER we want. No judgment, and it's completely fair. I am a money saver, and my husband is more of a spender, so when we didn't have that money set aside, mine would get spent on house items, and he'd end up buying a great deal of things that I didn't think we should be spending "our" money on. Now it's his money, and I have my own money that I can keep nested away and saved for that big ticket item I want or whatever! But the main point is that we know it's important to have that money for ourselves and for our hobbies, so we've worked it into our budget. And it doesn't take away from our family's money for things like groceries! ;)

I am sure marriage and having a family will keep teaching me better ways to assess and improve our spending habits, but I am proud of what we've developed so far. I hope these tips help and give some amount of inspiration.