STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Alikat · Kate Spade

Budget help

Elle · Hermes

Well, for starters I like to budget for worst case scenario - then when you're off on the budget, it's because you have more than you thought instead of less !

First add up your non-negotiable expenses. It will vary depending on your life style, but the biggies are Rent, Transportation (car pmt, gas, insurance), Utilities, Food, and any outstanding CC debt or Loans. This might also include things like internet, cell phone, gym, and cable but again that depends on your situation. If school is going to be costing you money up front, make sure to include that too. I always like to figure high for expenses that are variable from month to month, just to be on the safe side.

Add all that up, and divide the amount by how much you make per hour to see the minimum hours you need to work in a month to break even. You can further break that down into hours per week. Hopefully you come out with less hours here than you are actually planning on being able to work, and the bigger that gap the better.

Just for example, lets say you need 20 hrs per week to break even and you make $15 per hour, that comes out to $1,200 per month. Lets say you're actually planning on being able to work 25 hours per week, bringing your income up to $1,500 per month. That leaves you with $300 per month that isn't already promised to other revolving expenses. In this situation I'd try to leave (at least) $100 leftover for savings or unexpected expenses per month and take the other $200 for entertainment/shopping/whatever - that'd give you about $50 per week of fun money.

Being on a tight budget helped to seriously hone my bargain hunting skills - I actually shopped quite alot when money was tight (it helped me not feel deprived, and it was free entertainment if I didn't buy anything!) but only bought if I found a screaming deal on something. Adds the thrill of the hunt to the experience, which makes up a bit for lack of quantity .

Alikat · Kate Spade

Thanks so much for the advice, Elle! How did you determine your food budget? I'm pretty clueless with that one.

Elle · Hermes

The more you eat at home, the cheaper your total food bill will be. I plan meals for the week and make one grocery shopping trip for that week - running in for a few things here and there adds up I find, and you don't notice it because the money is spent in many small trips.

I try to plan 4 or so dinners for each week with at least a couple of those being big enough for leftovers - they work well for lunches or nights when you don't want to cook. We don't buy alot of processed foods or premade items, which cuts cost too. Every week we'd also pick one 'treat' item for the week - helps keep you from feeling deprived. If you don't really cook, try to make at least one big main course item per week (like a big baked dish or casserole or spaghetti) that you can eat off of for a couple meals. Then you can always stock up on the lean cuisine or south beach frozen meals when they're on sale if that's more your speed. Those big Stouffers lasangas are good for quite a few meals too - we buy when they go on sale for $8 or $9.

Buying for two people to eat 3 meals a day plus snacks, we used to spend about $250 ish per month, or about $60 per trip. We have a pretty solid list of 'staple items' that we cook off of most of the time - all very cost effective - so let me know if that's something that would be useful for ya .

Alikat · Kate Spade

You are so helpful! yes I'd love a list of your staple items.

travelgirl · Kate Spade

My suggestions are:

-First of all be proud of yourself for thinking about budgeting-that is an important step that most people don't do.

-Make yourself a spreadsheet or use Quicken or something like that to help you keep track of money in and money out.

-Make saving money a hobby. For example, sell stuff on ebay, sign up to do focus groups, mystery shopping, etc.

-Bargain shop and bargain shop some more.

-Get really creative about saving money-like Elle said, these are great habits to get into and sometimes the challenge of making your money stretch can be fun! For instance, do free things for entertainment such as renting movies and cds from the library, attending free concerts, go to festivals and fairs, etc. Hit up restaurants with happy hours and eat and drink ONLY during those hours. Do a clothes swap with friends that are the same size as you. You get the picture.

-As for a food budget, it depends on your situation. Are you living with others or by yourself? Obviously it is cheaper to buy groceries than to eat out all the time but make sure you shop at cheaper stores such as Trader Joe's, Aldi or Save-a-lot. Also use coupons and make them stretch. If you eat out, make it your entertainment too (see happy hour technique above), etc.

Hope that helps!

Elle · Hermes

Alikat wrote:

You are so helpful! yes I'd love a list of your staple items.

No problem!

LOTS of fruits and veggies - fruit for snacks mostly (whatever is on sale that looks good that week, we buy a huge bag of it!) and veggies to stretch recipes because meat is expensive. If fresh is unavailable or expensive, go frozen which is much healthier and cheaper than canned. Frozen veggies make a quick side dish and keep well if your fresh veggies tend to go bad before you get to them. We always have onions and garlic on hand - lots of flavor for little money there too. We also buy full heads of romaine and wash/cut ourselves instead of buying bagged salad.
Canned/boxed stuff - beans of all kinds (garbanzo, black, kidney, navy, pinto, etc) very good for you, and cheap-o! Cheap spaghetti sauce, olives, mushrooms, chicken broth, low-fat coconut milk, chipotles in adobo, green chiles, etc are always good to have on hand because they're all really versatile and won't go bad. We also buy short or medium grain brown rice (instant or regular) and wheat pasta and keep a couple packages of each on hand - the rice is also a good meal-stretcher and the pasta enables you to throw together spaghetti in about 10 minutes flat (for the sauce I saute onion and garlic, add the jarred sauce, and then slice and throw in some canned olives and mushrooms, along with whatever italian seasonings you have). Barley is good too and then you can make a simple soup (veggies, broth, barley, beans). We also keep a couple cans of soup (tomato is good for grilled cheese ) and tuna and a couple boxes of mac&cheese around, for when we're really in a pinch!
Meat - we use meat very sparingly. We do still eat it a couple times a week in some form, but almost never as a 'main dish'. We buy packaged (if on sale; freeze individually) or frozen chicken breasts to keep in the freezer, sometimes a couple slices of bacon from the meat counter to add flavor to something, deli lunch meat that's on sale. We make homemade burgers with ground lowfat turkey when it's on sale, but we bulk it up with veyr finely minced onion, garlic, and canned mushrooms so you can easily get 6 decent burgers out of a pound of meat. We also reverse the traditional meat to veggie proportions when making fajitas and use 1 chicken breast, 1 onion, and 4 or 5 peppers. We also get frozen tilapia and salmon filets, if you like fish - they're really quick and keep a long time!
Dairy - EGGS! Eggs are super super cheap and a great source of protein - buy a couple dozen at a time and hardboil them (we only eat the whites). They make great snacks! They're good chopped in salads too. We buy milk and yogurt on a regular basis, stocking up on yogurt when it's on sale. Cottage cheese and sour cream when it's on sale too. We do keep a bag of shredded cheddar around (it lasts a long time!), but otherwise stick to very flavorful cheeses (goat, feta, etc) so they go farther.
Other - Whole wheat bread, tortillas, cereals, oatmeal, off brand sodas, boxed meals when they're on sale (lasagnas, etc). Lots of grocery stores now also sell balls of uncooked pizza dough, as do many pizza chains, usually for a dollar or so. Easy dinner with some spaghetti sauce, cheese, and sliced fresh or canned veggies on top.

That got reallllly long, sorry! We basically stay away from 'convenience' foods, candy, stuff like that. You can also try hitting up a local discount grocery (Grocery outlet kinda place) for canned items. Basically every meal we eat is made with the above ingredients, and I swear we're never bored and I never spend more than 30 minutes in the kitchen making a meal!

When we feel like we really neeeeeed to go out to dinner, we usually pick a place that's good for large portions and cheap prices - mexican or asian places are usually good for that. Then you can either split an entree with someone or eat half and box the other half for lunch or dinner the next day. Or, you can always eat dinner at home and go out for dessert!

-- Edited by Elle at 17:40, 2006-08-22