How to Make a Monthly Budget

What are Budgets?

Budgets are a helpful way to plan your finances. A lot of times, individuals and families spend more than they would like, but have trouble determining where their expense overages are. Budgets are useful tools to determine where your money is going and decide where you want it to go. By making and sticking to a budget, you can become in charge of your finances and make financial goals that benefit you, rather than living stressed out every month because you only have a few dollars left in your bank account. Here are some simple steps that show you how to make a monthly budget:

Write Down Your Monthly Income

Taking into account both your income and your spouses’ income, write down your total take-home pay (after taxes and any withholding has been taken out).

List Your Household Expenses

This includes your mortgage, electric, food, gas, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone, internet, student loans, cable, etc. Do not forget any expenses that are paid quarterly vs. monthly (such as your home owner’s association expense). Some of your expenses are fixed every month, and some are variable. For example, your rent/mortgage is a fixed expense (it stays the same every month); however, the cost for gas for your car might vary month to month. With that being said, please estimate variable expenses in your budget. One of the best things that you can do in creating a monthly budget, is to track your ACTUAL expenses each month. You should look at the past 3 month’s bank and credit card statements to see where you are actually spending your money and estimate your monthly spending using your previous spending as an indicator.

Do Your Expenses Exceed Your Income?

Uh oh! If your expenses exceed your income, you will need to cut back. If they do not – you are on the right track! Even if you do not spend more than you earn, this is not to say that you cannot cut back on household expenses to save more money or pay down your debt sooner.

Determine Your Target Spending for Each Category

On a sheet of paper, write down your actual expenses for your fixed monthly costs (mortgage/rent, car payments, internet, cable, student loan payments). Then, write down your actual expenses for your variable expenses (eating out, groceries, gas, gifts). For the most part, variable expenses are much easier to cut down on than fixed expenses (although, in many cases fixed expenses can be modified, too). Looking at your actual spending and taking into account your income, what are your target spending goals for each item? Write that down on the Targeted Expenses column (see example photo below).

Think about ways that you will be cutting costs in each category. Do you eat out a lot? Maybe you need to stop by the grocery store and have more easy-to-make meals on hand. Do you spend a lot in gas? Maybe plan your trips around a certain route, or carpool with a friend/spouse to work. There are little things you can do to cut your budget in the different areas, I will be going over them in future blog posts.

Create a Safety Net

Initially, you should set aside a small fund to “float” you if any unexpected costs come up. This fund should be enough to help you make it until your next paycheck, so you are not getting further into debt by racking up credit card debt OR borrowing money from loan sharks. Everybody is different in the amount they are comfortable with, but many people feel that a figure around $1,000 to $3,000 is a good amount to set aside as a safety net.

Pay Down Debt and Start Saving

After you set aside your money for your safety net, if you are in debt, any extra money that you save needs to go towards your debt. Make sure that you are paying the monthly minimum amount due for all your loans. Then, when paying down your debt, you should prioritize putting extra money on your loans with higher interest rates, such as credit cards. After you pay down your credit cards, then you pay your other loans off (student loans, mortgage, et cetera). Once a loan is paid off, you should put the money you were paying on the previous loan towards your next debt on the list. Once all of your debt is paid off, any extra money needs to go towards savings. You should build up your savings so you have money in case something (Heaven forbid) happens. Many financial planners say you should have three to six months’ worth of savings in the bank. The best place to have this money is in a savings / money market account, so you are earning interest on the funds, but it is still accessible to you.

Live Freely

From this point, the money you have saved can go towards saving for your retirement, and/or paying for big-ticket expenses that come up (car, college, house) in cash, or at least putting a large down payment down. Not all debt is bad; however it does limit you in what you are able to do in life. Additionally, debt can add up and the cost is not worth it. Lenders like to take on fees and interest, transforming a $10,000 loan to a $11,000 loan, before you have even needed to make a payment. Over the life of the loan, you could be paying $25,000 to borrow $10,000 (depending on the interest rate and the loan term).

I hope this helps you in creating your budget plan. If you have any questions regarding making your personal budget, please do not hesitate to reach out!

XOXO

Charlotte

How to Save On College

With the average cost of a four-year degree at a public university costing around $25,000 a year, it is no surprise that cutting college costs can add up to valuable savings. One of the best ways to save money is to cut your costs on large-ticket items; and aside from purchasing a car or house, college tuition is one of the most expensive items a person can purchase.

I have worked two universities, and in both of my roles I learned some helpful tips to save money on college tuition.  I’ve compiled a list of ways to save money in college, please check them out and let me know if they work for you!

Go to College In-State

In-state tuition is often WAY less expensive than out of state tuition. If you are flexible on where you attend, it is a good idea to consider attending a college in your state, as an added plus, you will also save on room and board if your college is close to where you attend.

Go Online verses Residential

Online colleges and universities are often more reasonably priced than their brick and mortar counterparts. Students can save a significant amount of money by attending college online, and online schools offer a lot more flexibility and convenience than residential schools. Additionally, if your college offers both residential and online advising, this is an additional tip that may help you save money: a university that I worked at offered both online and residential courses, and since our residential students were able to take online courses the university also allowed our online students to take residential courses. Residential student tuition was WAY more expensive than online tuition. Students who took advantage of this loophole saved a lot of money.

Go to College for Free (or With Minimal Cost)

Remember I said that the average college degree costs $25,000 per year, or $100,000 total? There is an amazing college opportunity that I have learned about, called University of the People. This college is the brain-child of Shai Reshef, who is an individual whose goal is to provide free tuition or affordable tuition to whoever would like it. The college is a non-profit college has academic partnerships with Yale Law School, NYU, the University of Edinburgh, and UC Berkeley. Through these partnerships, individuals who are qualified can transfer to these colleges to complete their studies. This college is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), which is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency. The only drawback that I can find is that this college only offers three degree programs: Computer Science, Health Science, and Business Administration; however, these programs are in high demand and individuals who are interested in pursuing these degrees would have the benefit of attending college for a very low cost. Since the college is only online, they do not have the overhead of running in an actual building. This The estimated total fees for the Bachelor’s degree program is only $4,060. If individuals cannot afford tuition they offer scholarships so that students in need can attend for free. This is a link to their website: https://www.uopeople.edu/

Work at a College / University

This is how I obtained my Master’s Degree for free. A lot of people do not realize that most colleges offer free tuition, as an employment benefit. Additionally, these colleges often extend the benefit to the employee’s spouses and children. Some colleges / universities have a timeframe that you have to work for them (one university I worked for had a 6 month waiting period, the other had a year waiting period); but if you are looking to further your education on a budget and are looking for a job this could be a good avenue to check out.

CLEP Tests

Have you ever heard of CLEP tests? Most people I talk to have not, but they are a serious way to save on college. Believe it or not, I took the CLEP tests and received credit for 30 credit hours of college (that’s a full academic year)! The acronym CLEP stands for College-Level Examination Program. The tests are put out by the College Board, which is an organization that creates these tests that measure your mastery of various college-level materials. Do you know a lot about psychology? Take a CLEP test to measure your knowledge. If you meet the minimum qualifying score, you don’t have to take the course at your college. The CLEP test costs range but on average, the ones I took cost about $120 each. Make sure that you verify that the college you are attending accepts CLEP tests – over 2,900 colleges and universities do, but universities vary in which tests they accept. Additionally, military students as well as some civil service employees can take CLEP tests for free because they are funded by the government’s Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support program (click here for more information).

Rent, Don’t Buy

Each semester my college textbooks cost on average $600-900. Even by selling my college textbooks back to the bookstore each semester, I still was out a lot of money because college bookstores only give a percentage of the cost of the book back. There are a lot of college textbook rental sites out there, but I used Chegg.

Maximize the Credits You Take Each Semester

A full-time undergraduate college student usually is taking at least 12 credit hours a semester. Many colleges allow students to take up to 18 credit hours a semester, but you can sometimes take 1-3 credits over that amount (with a waver). This helps, because the more credit hours you take in a semester, the quicker you finish your degree (equating to less money spent overall).

Scholarships

Scholarships are competitive, and if you are able to obtain one due to your talent, athletic ability, or leadership capability you should take advantage of your opportunity. Colleges and universities often offer scholarships for students who take on a leadership role, such as a resident assistant or student leader. Additionally, you should keep your eyes open for scholarship opportunities throughout the year – one time I went to a conference that was not very well-attended. The flyer advertising the conference stated that whoever attended the conference and wrote the best 10-page paper about the conference topic would win a $1,500 scholarship. When I was sitting in the audience, I looked around and saw that there were only a handful of individuals who were taking notes. With this being said, I turned in the paper and won the scholarship. Keep a lookout for scholarships through your employer, your parent’s employer, local community organizations, et cetera. The less people applying for the scholarship the greater your odds are to win it.

Pay Cash

The less loans you take out, the better. College loans are disgusting, but they are a necessary evil sometimes. The less you have to deal with them the better! I remember my husband and I had to pay $500 a month to our student loan providers, and a large portion of the $500 was applied towards interest. It’s depressing. With that being said, anything and everything you can pay in cash you should, and you shouldn’t take money out in loans if you don’t absolutely NEED it. Don’t use college loans to fund a fun and fabulous lifestyle in college; because you might just regret it when all you can afford is ramen noodles out of college.

Map out Your Degree Completion Plan

Make sure that you maximize your time at the college you are attending – make sure that the courses you are required to take all fit in the timeframe that you are attending college, whether that be 3 years or 4 years. I knew a lot of fellow students that became 5-year college students, because of poor planning. Plan and save yourself the money and the additional time – make sure you will finish the courses in the timeframe you are attending, and make sure your prerequisites are mapped out so that your courses won’t be held up by prerequisite that you failed to take ahead of time.

Get a Waver if Your College Course has a Prerequisite

Sometimes, even with the best planning you are stuck in a situation where your prerequisite needs to be taken before a certain course, but you need to take the course at the same time as the prerequisite, otherwise your time at the college is extended. Thankfully, you can request that the prerequisite be waved (usually the Dean of the Department or the Chair is the one who does this, so it can be helpful to befriend the heads of the Academic Department you are attending beforehand – not just for this reason, but it definitely helps).

Community College First

Colleges and Universities often have a reciprocity agreement with local community colleges. If you know what college you would like to attend, you can contact the college and find out if the classes that you are planning to take at the local community college will transfer.

I hope these tips helped give you some ideas on how to save money on tuition. Some of them I used, and some of them I found out after the fact (but wished I had known earlier). College doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, with careful planning you can shave several thousand off the cost of tuition.

XOXO

Charlotte

How Ebates Can Make You Money

I discovered a neat little trick to making money back when I shop online, and I figured I would share it with you: Ebates! “What Is Ebates?” You might be wondering.

Ebates is a website that sends you anywhere 1%-20% of whatever you buy online from participating websites. When you pair that with website sales and promo codes, as well as the points that you get from using a credit card, it all can add up! For example, yesterday I bought $164.45 worth of products on JCPenny.com for only $8.43!!! I will be sharing how I did that in another post…

So far, I have made $568.52 from Ebates. If you haven’t checked them out, you should. I am making money back from buying things that I was already planning on purchasing anyways – I love it!

The key to me being able to make as much as I do, is that I have the “Cash Back Button” enabled on my browser. Whenever I go on a website that offers cash back through Ebates, it pops up in red in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and sometimes does a drop-down like below.

If you haven’t used Ebates yet, sign up for them using this link to receive $10 back on your first purchase: https://www.ebates.com/r/CP2623

Since I am referring you, I will also get money from Ebates too! 😊 This is the link to the button, after you sign up you should install it on your browser so you can get notified when you are on a website that accepts Ebates. Hope you love it as much as I do!

XOXO

Charlotte

How to Make a LOT of Money at Consignment Sales

If you are like a lot of other moms, you have a bunch of your kid’s outgrown clothing and toys hanging around the house. Selling your no longer needed items at a consignment sale is a great way for you to turn them into cash and declutter at the same time. Also, in addition to clearing out space, many moms usually will take the money they earn and buy the next clothing size up for their little ones, or toys that they might want.  

How to Consignment Sales Work?

Consignment sales usually keep anywhere from 20-50% of sales, depending on the sale and if you decide to volunteer or not (some sales give you a higher percentage if you help out with the sale). With that being said, they are still worth the time investment because your items are exposed to a lot of people shopping and you can get much better pricing for your items than if you were to sell them at your local yard sale.

What Can I Sell at A Consignment Sale?

What are some things that you can sell at consignment sales? Pretty much anything your child would want or use: clothing, toys, books, movies, shoes, backpacks, costumes maternity wear, cribs, car seats, strollers, Rock 'n Plays, baby swings, breast pumps, bottles, nursing bras, DockATot sleepers, Pack 'n Plays, et cetera! Each sale is different, so check your local rules but most sales accept all of the above as long as they aren’t recalled.

Plan Ahead

When you are getting ready for the sale, make sure you set aside enough time before the sale to get things ready. In the beginning, my husband and I made the mistake of waiting too long and weren’t able to sell all of the items we wanted to get rid of, because we didn’t have everything ready to go.

How Do I Sell My Items At the Sale?

Most consignment sales use an online inventory management system, called “My Consignment Manager”. You will need to follow the consignment sale’s instructions for completing an account and entering your inventory into their system. Make sure you sign up at least a few weeks early, because some sales limit the amount of consigners that sell at each sale.

Having sold at several consignment sales, I LOVE them because they give me the chance to declutter and make a good amount of money. Also, because I have done so many I have learned a few helpful tips along the way that I would like to share with you, because it can be a little daunting getting things together for the sale if you haven’t done so before.

Prepare Ahead

In preparation for the sale, make sure that you get your supplies together – collect your hangers, card stock, scotch tape, plastic baggies, clothes pins, zip ties, tape and scissors.

Card Stock: Most people go with white, but it is helpful to pick a light color / pastel to help you find your items when it comes time to pick them up. Anything higher than a 90lb cardstock is usually good, but you can go with a 110lb cardstock if you would like it to be a little sturdier.

Hangers – Get rid of any unwanted hangers you have, or if you are running low, save money by buying in bulk.

Safety Pins – These help you to keep the clothing on the hangers. I like to go with the large ones, and I buy a large bag of them, which lasts me for a few sales.

Tagging Gun – I have done sales with a tagging gun, and without and found that tagging guns save SO MUCH TIME. They are usually only $15-20 and well worth the investment.

Paper Cutter – This saves time cutting out your tags (I love mine, I picked it up for a couple dollars at an estate sale).

Clothing Rack – This helps to keep your clothing sorted and wrinkle-free. Definitely worth the investment, especially if you are planning to do several sales.

Garbage Bags – We use these to separate clothing, by poking a hole at the bottom and running the hangers through the top, or you can use flagging tape to tie the hangers together.

Ziplock Bags – We use all sorts of sizes: gallon, quart and sandwich are used the most frequently.

Packing Tape – This helps you attach your tags to toys, bags and other items.

Get Your Items Together

Go through your kid’s clothing and toys, setting aside items that your kid no longer wants, needs or plays with any more. It is important to make sure that you have enough merchandise to sell, because consignment sales do charge a nominal fee (usually around $10-20 to consign). If you don’t have a lot of items to sell, a good thing to consider is listing the items in a local yard sale group (if you do this, you won’t have to pay the consignor fee and you will keep all of the proceeds).

Inspect Your Inventory

Inspect your items and make sure that they are in good condition – don’t try to sell items that are stained, ripped, have pet hair on them, broken, etc. Clean your clothing and hang after washing, or steam/iron them (if your items look good they sell better). In this aspect, it’s important to think like a store and only sell items that are in good enough condition that you would buy.

Sort Your Items

Sort your items by size and gender and keep them together after you have finished tagging them (my husband and I poke a hole on the top of a clean garbage bag, and pull the hangers through to keep the clothing separated, but you can also use flagging tape to tie the hangers together).

Get Organized

Once you round up your inventory and sorted, GET ORGANIZED. Write down how many of each item you have – books, toys, clothing (make sure you write down the size, gender and if it is summer/winter). This will help you, when you are entering items into the computer system.

When hanging your clothing, pay attention to how the consignment sale requests you hang the clothing. Most, want you to pin the tag on the shoulder (if it is a shirt). Using safety pins help to keep the clothing on the hanger, when people are sorting through the clothing and shopping.

Price According to Your Goals

Do you want to get rid of the items? Price aggressively and mark that you would like to discount your items, on half-price / discount day (if they have one). If you want to make more money and do not care about selling the majority of your items at that sale, then price in the mid to high price range. At my first children’s consignment sale, I made the mistake of pricing too aggressively. Example: I wanted to get rid of a kid’s Black and Decker workbench, so I priced it at $7 because it did not come with any of the accessories (my son was only interested in the accessories and never used the actual workbench, so it was just taking up space). It sold in the presale night, and, when I looked at other workbenches, I saw that they were priced for anywhere from $30-40. This is where it can be helpful shopping the sales, because you become more familiar with how to price your items. When pricing clothing, make sure to price lower-end brands cheaper than you would boutique brands, to maximize your profit. Usually lower-end clothing goes for anywhere from $2-5, and the higher-end clothing goes for 25-75% of retail, depending on condition, and if the clothing is new with tags (NWT).

Group Your Items

Group toys that are smaller together, people like buying lots of toys and it’s less work tagging them individually.

Don’t Forget the Batteries

Put batteries in your toys (buyers like to see that the items work). You can use batteries that are almost at the end of their life-cycle, to save money or buy them at the dollar tree (I have found good deals on batteries on Home Depot, too).

Sell According to Seasons

Winter clothing does better right before Summer is about to end, and right when Fall begins. If you are limited in clothing spots, take advantage of this and only sell clothes in the season that you are about to go into or have just started.

Decide if You Want to Donate

Decide if you want to donate your items at the end of the sale, or pick up (if you decide not to donate, don’t miss picking them up, or the consignment sale will donate them). Usually, you are unable to get a tax write-off slip if you donate at the sale, so I pick them up and either sell them at another sale, at a yard sale, or donate and get the tax receipt.

Don’t Forget to Shop

Take advantage of shopping ahead of the crowd – Many consignment sales have shopping for consignors before the general public, which is nice, because you can often score some wonderful items at good deals, before they get picked over. Saving money on items you need for your family puts more money in your pocket!

Let me know if you have any helpful tips in the comments below!

XOXO

Charlotte