Posted on: July 8, 2009 by Matt
Many of you are probably familiar with the Food Network Show $40 A Day with Rachel Ray. If you are not – the basic premise is that Rachel Ray goes out on a trip to a city and tries to get through the day spending $40 for all of her meals. While I was out of town on business I figured I would see what I could do to stay around her benchmark and still eat relatively well for the 10 days I would be gone.
After returning home I promptly went through my spreadsheet of expenses to submit an expense report to my boss. All said and done I had about $565 out of pocket for the 10 days I was gone and another $1325 or so for the base trip expenses (airfare, rental car, hotel) that my boss picked up on the company card. The $565 I spent breaks down like this:
- $112.45 – Parking for the airport I was departing from or 10 days. I used an economy lot with shuttle service to the terminal which saved about $5 – $10 per day.
- $101.28 – Rental car taxes: I guess these were not covered by the reservation booking.
- $74.06 – Gas: One fill up for my car to get to the airport and two for the rental car.
- $23.50 – Parking in Denver: Parking in downtown Denver can run up to $20 per day. Most uncovered lots are in the $10 – $12 per day neighborhood. I generally parked a few blocks outside of downtown in a lot that ran $2.50 per day. I had to walk about 15 minutes to get to downtown but saved the company about $10 per day here as well.
- $253.26 – Food total: That was all of my meals for the 10 day trip plus coffee, snacks and anything else I ingested. That totals out to about $25 per day which is $15 per day less than my baseline. I did have a couple of dinners that spanned two nights but also treated coworkers to coffee as well as one coworker to lunch. This makes me wonder if maybe I should get a show similar to Rachel Ray’s and search out the cheap eats in a town for people that need to spend less than $40 a day. Of course I am not a fan of cameras and have no interest at all in the idea but it is an idea just the same…
So for the entire trip my total came to about $1890 which is $110 less than the $2,000 I set as my goal to stay under. I am not sure what my boss had in mind for a baseline for expenses or what other coworkers have spent while out of town on business but think I did a fairly decent job of keeping costs low. How about you? Do you have a standard amount that you spend while out of town on business?
Posted on: June 4, 2009 by Matt
A couple of months ago I pulled most of my cash out of savings and applied it to my credit card debt. While this eliminated the debt it put me back in the position that many Americans today are stuck in: not having an emergency fund. I could always fall back on my credit card in an emergency but I really feel much more comfortable having a little bit of money in savings in case something comes up. One of my goals is to reestablish my starter emergency fund and while thinking about it last night I thought that I would invite any readers trying to get their emergency funds up and running to join me!
The challenge is pretty informal and is geared to help hold me accountable to rebuilding my emergency fund and to help anyone else out there that would like the additional encouragement! To take part feel free to leave a comment, contact me here, or even send me an email to: matt at myfinancialrecovery dot net. Just drop me a line somewhere along the way with a goal you would like to reach by the end of the year. Then send over an update at the end of each month from June – December and I will post updates monthly of my progress and will also post your progress in the process.
My goal is to build back up to the $1,000 starter fund recommended by Dave Ramsey in The Total Money Makeover by the end of the year. My current status is that I have $108 in my online savings account that I have had set aside as an emergency fund. In order to reach my goal of getting it back up to $1,000 I do not want to drastically impact our family budget in any given month. In fact - I would like to reach the goal without any noticeable impact on the family. Here is my plan so far to accomplish my goal:
- Communicate with my girlfriend about where we are at financially: Setting money aside will effect both of us and I find life is a lot better when we are both on the same page. Usually checking in once every week or two works fairly well for us on financial matters.
- Pay attention to my spending: Identify areas that I buy things for myself that I could go without and make a few sacrifices.
- Make small weekly transfers to savings: In stead of trying to make a big monthly payment work on making small weekly ones – $25 per week seems much more manageable than $100 in one shot.
- Keep an eye open for any extra opportunities to save a little bit extra.
- Discuss budgeting based on my base salary with my girlfriend and put a couple months of commissions into the bank.
Based on the math I would have (including June) 7 months to reach this goal and would need to save about $125 per month to do so. At the same time I intend to continue paying off my current debts by making at least minimum payments. I also have one other variable coming up in August when I send my last payment to an ex-girlfriend for the car she lent me money for – which will free up another $400 per month. Overall the goal should be easily attainable based on my current income and expenses and I should have it completed by the end of summer or so.
So now the question is – does anyone else out there want to join me in starting, rebuilding or increasing their emergency fund?
Tags: Banking, Budget, Cash, Expenses, Goals, Personal Finance, Planning, Relationships, Savings Filed Under: Budget, Goals, Planning, Savings
Posted on: May 28, 2009 by Matt
While stumbling around some of my favorite reads I happened upon a post over at Budgets Are Sexy asking What Would You Do With 3 Financial Do-Overs? which it turns out was an extension from a post over at Your Money Relationship. I know I can not change the past and I am in the midst of dealing with yet another collection agency but if the money genie did happen to stop by my house for a visit I would probably take him or her up on the offer.
After giving it a little thought I think that given the opportunity I would probably wish to:
- Have paid for college without loans: Well since it is a wish then when not go all the way? I suppose I would be happy with not having defaulted on student loans in the past as well though. If the genie was unable to get me through college debt free then maybe it could save me from myself right?
- Learned about personal finance earlier in life: I really had no clue when I left home for college at all. I could not budget or even balance a checkbook and I had no idea how credit worked. It was not until I read Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Make Over that I got the basics for the first time and that was about 4 years after graduating from college. I think that knowledge of all personal financial essentials probably would have saved me a few headaches in the past.
- Saved more: Only recently have I really started to enjoy saving money. I like to see balances go up for what I have in the bank and debt balances go down. If I had put 10% of what I have earned through my life in the bank and left it there I would probably be sitting pretty happy right now. I can still start doing this but I thought I might as well fill out my third wish.
Really the only thing that I wish I had done differently in my financial past was the way I failed to manage my student loans after college. The rest was a learning experience and while it may have been difficult at the time, I survived. The student loan issue is really the only lingering big financial mistake that I have to deal with and it will pass someday as well. All said – I think that a wish of making it through college without student loan debt would put me in a much different situation today and it is probably the one aspect of my life that I would change if I could.
However – I do keep in mind that by changing the paths I have gone done in life I may not have ended up where I am at today! I have a family that loves me, a place to live, a car to drive and food on the table. If changing my past meant changing my current family situation for any reason I would have to decline the money genie’s generous offer. The people I live with mean more to me than any sum of money – if I had to go through what I have gone through to get where I am today then I would not change a single step along the way.
Posted on: May 19, 2009 by Matt
As a follow up to our implementation of a chore and allowance system for the kids I thought I would let everyone know how the first pay day last night. Overall it went pretty well and the system seems to be doing well. My girlfriend took the chore charts down from the fridge and we counted out how much each child had made.
Her son neglected to pick up toys all week which lead to a $0.75 deduction from his allowance. To emphasize the point my girlfriend took the approach of “This is how much you would have made, but since you did not pick up the toys you only get this much” and laid the money on the table so he could see how it all worked. We then gave him two jars where he placed 20% of his base amount and 10% of his base amount (so $0.50 and $0.25) for savings and charity respectively. He took the remainder to his room and put it directly into his piggy bank (he wants to save it). The point seemed to hit home that he needs to do all his chores to make his full allowance and he did manage to get everything done last night to start the new week. However in all fairness we are not sure how much of the incentive was financial and how much was fear of losing access to his favorite video game for the rest of the night (he had to finish chores before he could play).
I missed the review with her daughter but know that she had a $1.00 deduction ($0.50 for a missed chore and $0.50 for a poor attitude) for the week. I also noticed a couple of smaller jars on top of the fridge this morning containing her portions for savings and charity containing $2.00 and $1.00 respectively. I also noticed that she did not appear to get any of her chores done last night but she also got home a bit later in the day than usual – I am not sure what the result will be here and will have to talk to my girlfriend about it. She may be granted a waiver or she may have deductions, I am not sure yet.
The kids also went out for ice cream with their uncle last night and I believe that they each brought their own money as well. Overall I think that our little system is working fairly well and I am looking forward to seeing how it works over a longer term.
Posted on: May 11, 2009 by Matt
As I have mentioned in the past – my girlfriend pretty much never ceases to amaze me (in a good way). Most recently she has managed to meet one of her financial goals by opening a savings account this month! Needless to say I am once again impressed and excited that she has met her goal (hence the public congratulations!)
So far this month we have both met goals that we have been hoping to accomplish for a while (as I paid off the balance on my credit card) and it feels pretty good. After all for each one of these individual goals that we accomplish we come one step closer to accomplishing some of our larger long term goals (like buying a house).
Additionally – I truly value the level of openness and communication in our relationship. In the past I have been unwilling to discuss finances with anyone and have largely held the attitude of yours and mine. Considering that two of the most commonly cited issues for the downfall of relationships are sex and money I think that the fact we can openly discuss issues is critical. Naturally we do not always see things the same way and the open dialogue allows us to often reach a point we are both happy with.
Overall – I believe that while in a relationship or marriage that communication and support of each other in all areas of life really sets you up for success. I know I struggle with it but find it invaluable when the two of us discuss our financial lives openly. So far I have discovered that we have (or at least I have) been able to use each other for:
- Setting goals together, both individual and as a couple.
- Assisting with reaching goals: I know she has supported me with reaching goals and hope that I have reciprocated adequately.
- Looking at problems from other angles: Sometimes getting advise from somebody that has not been caught up in a mess is very helpful. I have found on a couple of occasions that I simply did not look at all alternatives (cause I didn’t think of them) or that I had not analyzed something through all that well – talking it out has helped.
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