Itemizing the Wedding Budget

I’ve decided to update my sidebar to include a specific target for my wedding fund. I assigned a pretty arbitrary number as my goal… and my total wedding costs will far exceed $9,385, but it helps me to break down my goals a bit, and I decided I could itemize that amount, so it will motivate me to contribute more money. I researched on theknot.com and several other non-pf-friendly websites to get these estimates, so I may be able to do better than this on all of these, but I figure I will keep them aggressive for now, until I actually get further down the road, and actually start talking marriage with the Guy, let alone laying out our budget.

The Itemized Wedding Specific Goals:
Personal Training for one year: $1,000 budget (certainly not a wedding essential, but this has always been a dream of mine to do, and wedding's probably as acceptable an excuse as I'll ever get!)
Dress incl. alteration costs: $4,500
Save the Date Cards: $400
Wedding Invitations: $1,625 (based on 6.50 per card for 250 people)
Postage: $310 (based on save-date, invites & reply cards for 250)
Wedding Cake: $2,000 (based on $8 per slice for 250)
SO FAR: $9,835

In the future, I will take on thinking about costs for: Photographer, Flowers, Wedding Party Gifts, Favors, Venue, bridal accessories, hotel rooms for wedding prep, wedding food & Open Bar, band cost… so much more to think about…and such a ways to go with the savings! Good thing we're a long ways off!

My Tax Refund Savings Stimulus Plan

The good news is in: $1696 Federal and $444 State for a total of $2140. Same as last year, but still feels like an unexpected relief. $1000 will go toward my Business School deposit, $500 to maxing out my Roth IRA (stretch goal, done!), and the rest to beefing up my emergency fund. Yay!

"In Case of Emergency" but not THE "Emergency Fund"

How much money is the right amount to have immediately available to you, in case of emergency?

With all of these big b-school expenses on the horizon, I’ve had that question on my mind lately. Like many of you I’m sure, I funnel a great deal of my savings into my ING account, which is not very accessible, purposefully so. I have two other accounts – Bank of America and my corporate federal credit union. My BOA account is the main one I use for direct deposit, paying credit cards and bills, etc., and I feel like I’ve kept it more or less at the right level – I have enough cushion that I’m not worrying about overdraft fees without wasting any interest potential. But the credit union account is essentially just a rainy day account – it’s helped when I wanted to take out a big lump sum for a vacation or a necessary shopping spree without interrupting my BOA cycle, and ensuring I’m always able to pay every credit card bill in full. But how much is too much to have in that account? Should I just move it over to the emergency fund – out of reach? Or should I keep some of those funds handy now that I have more unexpected expenses coming up? Right now, it’s at $1150.

I know it’s almost impossible to come up with that magic number yet, but I don’t feel like I’ve gotten there yet on this one… Does anyone have any principles / rules of thumb they use for how much “in case of emergency” (but not the emergency fund) money to have on hand?”

Good News and Bad...

The Guy has a great opportunity coming up at work to get more sales training in another office – so he will be living in another city – right now, we don’t know which – for a month. Living in a hotel with a corporate card for a month!!! I have to say it will be really strange to be living alone again for that long, and I know it will be lonely. But there is a silver lining… next month can be my haven of frugality. I know I will be able to save a LOT. I love the Guy and all, but he’s just not as savings-conscious as I am, and so I often fall prey to his takeout or restaurant requests, because I want to make sure I’m not smothering him with my pf philosophies.

Which is ideal because March is when my initial $1,000 tuition deposit is due for school. So my goal is to absorb $500 of that hit in my March expenses. It will be a challenge, but by cutting down on food costs and entertainment, I think it may be achievable.

The 10-10-10 Principle

In cruising around the blogosphere, I stumbled upon Dave Ramsay’s 10-10-10 principle. And being just the type of person to cherish any kind of arbitrary, if firm principle, I immediately rushed to check myself against his. And found myself… yes, lacking.

The Principle is based on the notion of saving 30% of your income… 10% to retirement, 10% to an emergency fund, and 10% to saving for future fun purchases. I only made the cut on retirement.

Me:
__ 6% Pretax +8% Post-Tax for Retirement
__4% Post-Tax on Emergencys
__4% Post-Tax on Fun future purchases

I also save about 6% on a cash-value life insurance policy which I’m using as a mid-term investment (kid’s college one day, far far away I imagine), which doesn’t fold into the 10-10-10 principle as described. So all in all, if I included this as well, I think I would just need to increase my savings to another 6% to meet the full criterion. But starting small, as I usually do, it will be my goal to move my Emergency Fund Savings up first. If I can move my automatic withdrawls up another $60, I will move it up 2% there!

I Should Receive a Frugal Gold Star

I eliminated a bit more of my discretionary spending this month – and it was something that I just recently professed to being unable to do. But I finally overcame my reluctance and decided to cancel my home delivery of the New York Sunday Times. That’s right, I’m now one more straw on the back of the newspaper industry’s decline. One, my promotional rate shot up to $27 bucks a month. For FOUR papers – almost $30 bucks! And despite how much enjoyment it affords me, I just don’t need it delivered to my doorstep four weeks out of the year. I will probably still go pick up the paper at a newsstand twice a month – if the Guy and I split, I’ll still be spending $5 per month on my beloved paper indulgence. But really, that’s $25 of savings and given how hard it is to make my budget fit on more essential nonessentials, I realized, sacrificing my Times is really an easy call. In short, I should get a gold star for giving up my fave thing!

A Frugal Winter Project - and a Challenge?

Instead of spending lots to see movies or go shopping or go out to keep ourselves entertained over the LONG months of Minnesota winter, the Guy and I decided on a little project. We’re planning to see every single movie on the AFI’s Top 100 list… with a deadline of April 1st. The significance of April 1st is supposedly when Winter will have ended here in Minnesota and it is also the date for when we’ve planned to get a DOG! So the idea is to contribute what we would have spent on movie tickets ($10 each) and putting it toward the dog savings fund, everytime we see one on our list. (For now, we’re ignoring the fixed cost of Netflix).

So I looked through and we haven’t seen 75 of the movies (wow, I’m uncultured)…. Leaving us at a savings total of $750 each if we see all of them by then. Maybe we won't make it, but it will be a fun little winter project... want to take the challenge and put the savings towards your own savings goal? Customize it any way you'd like and leave a comment on this post if you want to take the challenge!

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler's List (1993)
9. Vertigo (1958)
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. The Philadelphia Sotry (1940)
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Intolerance (1916)
51. West Side Story (1961)
52. Taxi Driver (1976)
53. The Deer Hunter (1978)
54. M*a*s*h (1970)
55. North By Northwest (1959)
57. Rocky (1976)
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan's Travels (1958)
62. American Graffiti (1973)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
73. Butch Caddidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
80. The Apartment (1960)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie's Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Let me know if you want to take the Frugal Winter Project Challenge with a post! Oh, and let me know if you have favorite movies on this list where I should start!

Save $1000 in 30 Days - Volume II

So I promised to post back on all of the things that I didn't do to try to save $1000 in 30 days (or how I ended up saving only $185). I might dip back into these at a later date... but for now, I'm keeping them on the shelf. Hopefully some of you can find something here that works... or I would encourage you to dip back into the original posts at IWTYTBR.



Things I Didn't Do:
> Enlist the help of friends to help support your savings. – the Guy hears enough about my various savings schemes as is...

> Save money on cell phone bill – I did use billshrink.com and found two offers/plans from other carriers that could save me around $40 a year. For that much money, it’s not really worth my time and patience to pick up the phone and talk to customer retention people, but next year when I move and have to deal with it, I’m going to dig up this resource.

> Fuel Hedging - Now that prices are coming down, I'm less motivated to squirrel away money for smaller expenses like this. I would rather handle it with flexible budgeting.

> Cancel Discretionary Subscriptions – I did cancel my Netflix subscription about 6 months ago, and I haven’t really regretted it at all. The only subscription I have now is my Sunday times, and I get more enjoyment out of that on Sunday mornings than anything. I noticed that the monthly charge is $27, which is expensive, and has definitely creeped back up from the promotional price I opted in at. So I may cancel out and buy newstand in coming months if I need to tighten further. I'm so on the fence...

> No Christmas Gifts this Year. I would like to do this this year. Christmas gifts are so guilt-ridden and awkward sometimes. I would rather do something else to show people that I care about them. But I can’t seem to actually do this one. I want to at least moderate my gift giving this year…. But giving smaller gifts seems even lamer than giving no gifts somehow. I think the best thing is when everyone is on the same page though, which I think we are.

> Cancel any large purchases temporarily – I don’t think I really had any on the docket, but I like the tip of putting a calendar reminder 30 days out, to make sure you really do need whatever decently large purchase you might be considering. I live by calendar reminders so that system might work.

> Self-persuasion…. This one was kind of lost on me frankly. Sorry, Ramit.

> Only Buy new things when replacing something old (also take issue with this guy… I mean, some old things DON’T need to be replaced…

> Minimize interest by paying a little extra off your loan each month (no loans and I pay credit cards off in full)

> Change the Date of Christmas to avoid paying high premiums for airfare, etc (Next year for sure). Or, I may even consider coming home less next year. I hate to say it... but I'm getting older, I have the Guy's side of the family that I could visit instead, or maybe just stay at home awhile. I am coming to realize that I really don't enjoy those extra days in my childhood bed... and I might be able to satisfy the family obligation elsewhere.

Save $1000 (or $185) in 30 Days.

Recently I started reading the blog “I Will Teach You to Be Reach” who recently sponsored a challenge to save $1000 in 30 days. I didn't save anywhere near that amount, but I did record all of the tips and tried to implement many of them. The summary is below, noting which things I actually did and how much I'm thinking I could have saved. The basic idea is that hopefully you can find at least a few things, and hey, maybe you’ll save $100 instead of a $1000. Every bit counts… My calculation: $185 savings. I'll post again on all of the things I didn't do.

Things I Did:



> Packed my lunch for a week. I did this, but beyond this one tip, I would say the underlying idea is to create a system to help reduce food costs at work. Whether you only allow yourself two lunches in the work cafeteria or maybe there’s a set amount per week, it’s easy to exceed what you would budget on these types of expenses because they’re more blind.
($12 savings)

> Sell something on EBAY. Okay, I tried. But it didn’t sell. I think I might stick with good ‘ole Craigslist from now on. Same principle.
($0 savings)

> Create one no-spending day each week. I love this idea. Mine’s going to be each Monday.
($20 savings - probably a generous estimate)

> Buy Generic for Stuff you don’t care about. I do think this is very smart. I already do so with some things, but I know I can go further.
($8 savings)

> Invite People over to one’s house instead of going out (we do this all the time).
($20 savings)

> Use free rewards from credit cards etc (I do already, for holiday gifts!)
($125 savings)

My 2009 'Annual' Goal...

Recently, in a comment-exchange with Well-Heeled, I realized how valuable it would be for me to have an annual savings goal in addition to my monthly goals. I do think it would help me keep a longer-term, broader perspective beyond all the ups and downs and surprises from month to month.

Admitting that my whole financial world will be changing next year when I take out enormous loans to go back to school, I think this will be a realistic goal for now until next August – so most of 2008. In reality, my goals on the sidebars are really more like my financial “to-do” list.

My net worth has gone up $7,000 over the past year, since I started tracking. So my “most of 2009” goal should be to increase it the same amount in 3 months less time. Should be kind of interesting in the current market, but not entirely unrealistic...

2009 Annual Goal: Increase Net Worth to $46K

End of July Wrap-Up and August Goal: Budget Itemization

I’ve updated my July net worth – woohoo, +7% to $41,600. Most of this was my end of year bonus. I also took down the estimated value of my car from $9,000 to $7,000. It’s probably still a little high, especially in these anti-SUV times, so I’ll keep recognizing the depreciation over the next few months. Spending-wise, I blew it a bit with my friend’s visit at the end of the month. Otherwise, I think I would have come in at my budget. As it is I’m quite a bit over.

As for August goals – there’s just one – Budget Itemization! Seven sexy syllables that I’m going to be immersed in for the next few hours and committed to for the rest of the month. I’m trying out a bit of a budget rehaul:

1) I have committed to trying the “envelope” style budgeting for one category: eating and drinking out at restaurants. This is the one category where I always overspend and I think actually seeing the money disappear will help out a lot with reigning in spending.
2) I’m also going to work on a WEEKLY budget for restaurants - $50 a week (that includes everything from food to drinks to coffees out.
3) Next, I’m going to get really detailed about my current budget categories. Instead of “entertainment,” I’m going to start itemizing movies vs. books, etc. That way in the next few months I’ll have even more new information about how to save smart.

All in all, I have a pretty positive attitude about my financial outlook for the rest of the year. I’m getting better at least! Also, the Guy and I were thisclose to scoring free tickets to Lollapalooza in Chicago this weekend. We didn’t win them, which may have been a financial blessing considering all of the gas and expenses we’d have incurred to go. Still… it would have been fun.

Increasing Automatic Deductions.... Bit by Bit

Automatic deductions work really well for me – in fact, any tactic by which I can trick myself into saving more money is what works best. I have a hard time keeping to a budget, only because I don’t like tracking it. It’s easy for me to say no to myself. But it’s hard when saying no to myself means saying no to someone else, i.e. the Guy or friends. So by upping these automatic deduction amounts gradually, hopefully I’ll be able to ramp up without being budget Nazi. So for my business school savings account, I’ll up the current $100 a month that I contribute to $125 a month. For travel, my transfer isn’t automatic yet, but the bi-monthly $50 I contribute will now be $60 and 75 per deposit.

Otherwise, I’m really looking for other tricky strategies to get myself to save more without feeling it. The $5 bill tactic pointed out by Boston Gal from the Globe was interesting, but I never (NEVER) pay in cash – always on a card to get the points. So that won’t really work for me. Ideally I want something that takes no time, no discipline, just tactics… ha, any ideas?

My Financial WANTS

I read an interesting piece in the blogosphere of late about emergency funds and how they create this negative psychology around anticipating catastrophes at every turn and create a poverty mentality. That got me thinking about the right way to set up your goals to motivate you to save positively, and not discourage you about where you are, where you want to be, and where you may never be. That’s depressing, whew. For my goals:

Emergency savings – $9,000 really is three months of my current salary, so that one is based on a pretty typical principal.

Business School Savings - $50,000. I realize this is actually way higher than I can actually achieve. I sincerely doubt I’ll be able to save this much before I go to school. However, this is the amount that I would feel really good about going into school to sustain a semblance of my lifestyle without taking on excessive amounts of debt. For me, it’s more important here to acknowledge the real total rather than set an achievable end goal. In the end, I will have to take on tons of loans to go to school. Everyone does it. (Sigh) I’ll do it too, and I’ll be okay. What is important for me in the meantime, is to set achievable short-term goals along the way to that total amount, i.e. upping the ante on my automatic savings each month.

Travel Goal - $2,500 This is the bare bones amount to have a real South American adventure. I honestly don’t think I can do it for less. So this is more about budget setting than anything else.

Wedding Goal - $? I can’t even think about how much I’m going to need for this right now. I should probably take it off, because I’m not even contributing to this yet, but it’s a reminder that I really should be saving if I want to pay for my own wedding and get married anytime in the next decade.

Those are the big ones – the NEEDS – that I’ve chosen to prioritize but I also think it’d be great to set a few other positive goals, to recognize that I’m trying to save, cover my needs, and be more frugal so that I can enjoy some of my WANTS. And as long as you save and budget for it, you can enjoy these fun things that cost money. So, a short list of my financial WANTS.

+ A Personal Trainer for a Year
+ A Dog, complete with Dog Walker for weekdays
+ A few more of my favorite magazine subscriptions (right now it’s just Vanity Fair)

Right now I’m not saving specifically for these, but once I’ve finished up with my travel goal, I’ll choose one of these as a positive savings goal to tack on. Any other strategies for keeping yourself on the positive side of saving?

Carrots & Sticks

I read an article in Money Magazine once (while on the elliptical, so I have no idea what issue, etc. and can't provide a handy link) about how to keep yourself motivated towards your financial goals – and they debated whether carrots or sticks were more effective. Money ultimately recommended a combination of both. So you grant yourself a reward if you make your savings goal, and “dock yourself” in some way if you don’t make the goal. To me, carrots have always worked better, and I’m really not sure how the concept of a money “punishment” would work. But maybe I just have the wrong ones? Anyone have an effective combo of carrots & sticks to keep them motivated? Obviously from my last posts, I could use it.

Making a List

Another post about stealing savings strategies from other bloggers (isn’t that the point of this whole thing anyway). This Writer’s Wallet originally wrote about making a list to fuel creativity, so I thought I’d take a crack at applying this to my personal finances. Here goes…. I’m starting my “100 Strategies for Saving More Money” list. Feel free to add your own personal faves in the comments, and help me make my way to 100. I’ll only post 10 for starters:

1) Round up credit card/debt payments to nearest dollar to increase the rate you chip away.
2) Every time you avoided a cost (found free parking, get something comp’ed at a restaurant) take the money you would have spent and contribute it to a high yield fund.
3) For paying off credit card, pay off twice the amount of each new purchase you make.
4) ING Account referrals. Target younger generations, siblings coming of age, younger cousins, etc. [Buy the way, if you are somehow reading this blog and don’t have an ING account… email me :o) They’ll plunk $25 in your account for signing up.]
5) Instead of rewarding yourself with things that cost money (a shopping trip, a meal out), reward yourself with time – devote whole hours to something you enjoy (like reading, baking or even blogging)
6) Cancel Netflix and watch TV for free at ABC.com or other like stations.
7) Cancel newspaper subscriptions and read them online. Or if you love the weekend paper in your hands feeling, you can usually pick them up for free lying around the coffee shop.
8) Instead of bringing a bottle of wine as a hostess gift for everyone that asks you over for a party (it adds up!), make or create gifts (baked goods, something more heartfelt and cheaper like a small plant or a few stems).
9) “Split” a Costco membership with a friend. You can sign yourselves up as domestic partners. I can’t usually justify $50 worth of savings / year. But $25 – easily.
10) Set up automatic deductions for smaller savings goals – like your travel fund, not just your retirement fund.