How to develop your PLAN

[Poudda]

I hear ya. In truth, we did have the conversation in the first week. I even bought her a pad of paper and a pen (nothing says I love you like a pad of paper and a pen!).

She saw right through my offer of neverending love, and wouldn't even think to attempt to track her expenses. It could have gotten heated, but I took my loss gracefully and was allowed to continue having sex with her.

 

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[CarrieW]

you may or may not have thought about this...

almost every place has credit card capability right. why not open her up an account where she can put her play money in and only use the card. then its automatically accounted for all you need is the statement...

 

[Poudda]

Generally, we allowance ourselves $50.00 per week each. It's guilt free money that we can spend on whatever we like - or not - and no one gets in trouble (I think it's great for a marriage). If we don't spend it, we save it up for something that we really want later on - some of the withdrawal money in our above budget went into a pot that hasn't been spent yet.

We did this really well last year and mostly stayed on budget - there were very few surprises. Since Michelle went back to work, we haven't been purchasing cost conscientiously and have been enjoying the extra income. The timing for this exercise was great to get a look at what we have been doing since September.

I do like the credit card idea, but quite frankly... I'm just as bad as her. The next step is to use what I've learned and compare it to the "stuff" I have in the house. How do we minimize and yet prioritize our spending. We have lots of questions to ask ourselves:

For example:
$1800 per month cost on the house representing about 35% of our monthly expenses. What are we really getting for this expense?. What can we do to reduce this by $1,000 (consider selling and renting, or selling and buying a smaller house that has a lower carrying cost - or do we keep the status quo)

what about groceries - $891? What are we purchasing that's making this so high. I know it's a lot of diapers and my nicoderm patches are in there too. Maybe we could grow more in the garden this summer and do some canning. Maybe we could switch to cloth diapers.

Does the hobby cost too much - $517? Or should we ration out our expenses on the hobby. The expense for this month were primarily the start-up expenses, and will not reoccur as high as this going forward. Does the hobby fit with our family values - my personal values? and how important is it really?

Meals out was a surprise - I know we ate out more this month than normal, or am I deluding myself? I just went to subway for lunch today - haven't done that in a while during the work-week, but it was convenient and probably wont happen for several more months.

Even though my wife isn't the best participant in the documentation, I guarantee you she will review this with me and we will make decisions together based on the findings.

Anyways, I'm ranting.

Thanks again for the suggestion Carrie, and thanks again to Russ for taking the time to run the exercise. The next part - the dreaded part - inventory our "Stuff". Somebody kick me in the a$$ to get me to get this done this weekend please!

 

[CarrieW]

heres a swift kick comming at ya!lol

 

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[rcardin]

What kind of hobby are playing with Poudda? As far as the inventory goes it took me two weeks just to go through the garage and organize it much less inventory it.

 

[Poudda]

Model Trains HO. scale.

Fortunately, I don't have a garage. Do have two sheds though - one has a lawnmower, two elecrical extension chords, a rake two tarps a snow shovel and a broom. The other shed has some lawn furniture and some gardening equipment. The basement storage area is what's going to kill me. ie, we have a ton of camping gear in the storage area and kids toys and our files.

How detalied does the inventory have to be? as detailed as # of dishes - 17 forks, 9 knives and 7 bowls? or as groups of items - cutlery and dishes?

 

[rcardin]

I have a box ful of N guage? (the little bitty ones ) in the attic. probably from the late 60's to early 70's. We call that kind of stuff college fund for our daughter. It just sits in the attic collecting dust and hopefully appreciation.

 

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[Poudda]

I've got hockey cards and unopened nascar hotwheels from 2000 - 2002

 

[CarrieW]

My dh has tons and tons of antique ho trains he inherited from his grandfather. we just had them appraised recently. they arent worth hardly anything. they all work and have boxes too...

also my dh bought "investments" lol. he has about 50 collectable nascar cars and lots of nascar collectable clocks.

let just say that none of them are worth anything more then what he paid for them if he can even sell them for what he bought them for.

after he married me he stopped buying his "investments" lol.

(he bought them to lower his taxes lol. problem was he never spent more then the standard deduction so all he did was WASTE money lol.)

we also have 2 pushbutton antique handguns and a ww2 japanese sniper rifle with paperwork(allowing dh gf to bring it into the country) that his grandfather brought home from the war also worth hardly anything.

 

[wildambitions]

HOCKEY??? A man after my own heart...although I already have one of those, too (a man, husband, etc)

Hey, the wife not tracking her expenses thing?
My husband and I have two completely separate but joint checking accounts. I know what bills I have to pay and he knows what he has to pay. Beyond that, we spend our money wherever we want to.

Typically, I spend on all the practical things or things that end up a benefit to the houshold. He spends on "fun" stuff. Although, I am SURE that he would say his purchases are for the same purposes as mine. And, sometimes they are.

Have your wife get involved with the finances. Do them together! At least at first. Suzy Orman has some great books on how to set up tracking finances as a couple.

Has she played Cashflow? That might help her to want to get more involved with financially educating herself. Even if she is knowledgable with finances, there is always more to learn.

Good Luck.

 

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[Poudda]

Don't get me wrong. My wife is the financial controller in the house. It was only the tracking she had a problem with (doesn't fit her personality style, I suppose). She monitors all of our accounts at least twice a day and follows all of our investments at least once a week. Because of her, we know exactly what our net worth is on any given day.

I wouldn't be so detailed. We have played cashflow a couple of times, and need to play more. Our friends with the game moved, and I keep saying to myself that we should purchase it and play again and again. Maybe for my birthday....

We did go through the expenses, and we have come up with a few ideas in the short term, waiting for baby before we make any major decisions (7 weeks to go!!).

.....And back to the plan....

We did inventory our stuff.... What a lot of crap!

We divided the list into three categories:

Stuff to keep and put in storage if/when we sell the house
Stuff to sell / give away / throw away - can be done anytime, but some stuff we keep if we do not sell the house (ie. furniture)
Essential stuff - things we use and wont give away or actually do need.

Have to go through the list in further detail and organize it a bit better, but we spent the better part of Saturday going through everything.

Cheers!

Dave

Wonder what the next exercise is?

 

[rcardin]

Been tracking expenses for 3rd month now. We are officially 541.00 excess this month. Add that to the refund check form our escrow account and we are 1450.00 ahead. That gives us a cushion of 1 1/2 months payments on our rental. I cashed out a 403b program that I was not happy with. Should have about 4k from it. With the rent check this month we should have about 6500 accumulated by the end of March. Time to buy another house Just in time for prime rental season to start.

 

[Russ H]

Wonder what the next exercise is?

Next is an in-depth analysis of what people discovered when they inventoried.

So to move forward, we need more of you out there in fastlane land to inventory!

So far, it's me and Poudda.

Anyone else?

Wild Ambitions & Being Chewsie, I know the two of you have gone through some major shifts, so taking stock of what you own may have been a part of it.

I'm not looking for anyone to do a personal listing here.

Just DO IT, and then report in.

We need at least half a dozen people to do a full inventory.

A fast inventory can be done in ONE WEEKEND (we used to call this "spring cleaning").

Start with the cleanest/emptiest rooms in your house. Put all unknowns in the garage.

We did it in this order:

-Living room/dining area
-Bedrooms
-Bathrooms
-Kitchen
-Closets
-Basement/garage

This approach gives you visible results, fast. You'll have beautiful living areas and bedrooms within hours.

For us, this gave us the energy/encouragement we needed to clean the bathrooms (fast) and then kitchen (more stuff, so it went a bit slower).

As we went from room to room, anything that we hadn't used in 3-6 months was up for grabs ("Do we *really* need this? Will using this enhance our daily life?"). In a lot of cases, the answer was "No."

Anything we hadn't used in at least a year was banished--either to the basement/garage/storage, or (in most cases), we decided to sell it/give it away/throw it out.

We started at 7 am on Saturday. Had pizza for lunch. We got the entire house (except for garage & basement) done before 6 pm. Had Chinese take out for dinner, and kept working. Crashed at 10 pm.

On Sunday, we had a special breakfast (waffles!), since we had found the old waffle iron. Got to work on the basement by 10am.

Had the basement inventoried and organized by the latter part of the day.

So at the end of that weekend, we had done the ENTIRE house, everything except the garage.

Of course, the garage now had a bunch of extra stuff in it that we'd decided to sell/give away/throw out.

We spent the next week talking about how this all made us feel, and 2 weeks later, had a huge garage sale (this forced us to clean the garage!).

I'll be happy to share any cleaning tips (Jeff Campbell's Spring Cleaning and Clutter Control books are excellent).

Use a video camera (and talk while you're doing it) to document things like books, DVDs, CDs, etc. Move it slowly enough to show all individual items. You can also use the camera for furniture and electronic equipment, as well as clothes.

BUT DON'T LET THE CAMERA SUBSTITUTE FOR GOING THROUGH EVERYTHING!!!

(actually sorting through stuff and asking these 3 questions:

-Do I need this?

-When will I use this?

-Can I live without this?

Will *really* make a difference in how you start to look at things (after only a few hours!).

C'mon folks, let's do some Spring Cleaning, Fastlane style!
:banana::banana::banana::banana:

-Russ H.

 

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[Russ H]

With the rent check this month we should have about 6500 accumulated by the end of March. Time to buy another house Just in time for prime rental season to start.

Now THAT is what having a plan-- and tracking your expenses-- can do.

Powerful stuff.

Reducing enough things that were "throw away" expenses so that you can actually buy something that gives you passive income.

Yes!

Feels good, doesn't it?

-Russ H.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Okay, I confess.

I haven't inventoried due to this exercise.... but...
.
.
.
wait
.
.
.
don't pounce on me yet
.
.
.

It is because about a year ago we sold everything - - - and I do mean everything we owned. Okay, we kept the pictures and the laptop.

Since then, we have been very slow and intentional about what we allow back into our lives.... and it isn't much. Been living the simple abundance lifestyle for a while.

 

[Russ H]

Sonya (ATW)-

This is great.

You'll be able to share what you felt when you went through the process.

And, you'll be able to tell us what you've brought in since then-- and why.

(just not yet!)

We need about 3 more people who have done this (sorted through EVERYTHING they own, and taken stock of why they needed it).

-Russ H.

 

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[rcardin]

Yes it does feel good to take control of the finances instead of finances taking control of your life.

Next is an in-depth analysis of what people discovered when they inventoried.

Use a video camera (and talk while you're doing it) to document things like books, DVDs, CDs, etc. Move it slowly enough to show all individual items. You can also use the camera for furniture and electronic equipment, as well as clothes.

BUT DON'T LET THE CAMERA SUBSTITUTE FOR GOING THROUGH EVERYTHING!!!

(actually sorting through stuff and asking these 3 questions:

-Do I need this?

-When will I use this?

-Can I live without this?

-Russ H.

Just how in depth should this be? Should I count each die cast car or just call it my nascar collection. Each cd or cd collection? Each coin or coin collection? Each camera or camera collection? Just my office could take the better part of a day. Then the kitchen and our collection of cooking utensils. Every now and then the waffle maker still comes out as does the bread machine.:smx7:

How in depth would you like it?

We have started going through the process of selling off stuff. 1 jetski is on craigslist right now for less than half of what I have in it but we need to come up with cash for a down payment on another house. All the extra jet ski parts are on ebay right now. Remote control airplanes are next. I am going through the attic tonight getting everything together. Our short term goal is to come up with 10k and possibly get 2 houses before august.

 

[CarrieW]

I havent done the expense tracking yet. I am already a stickler for the finances. I know where every single dollar goes in this house.

so Ive done it already just not on paper recently.(only thing on paper is just the budget)

I have shown my dh the money we have wasted since weve been married. its ALOT. it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about lol. we blew somewhere inbetween 60-75k over about 6 and 1/2 yrs time on basically nothing. I realized after about 5 yrs in but it took us over a year to finally make the changes. (ok when I say us I mean it took me that long to convince dh to change lol)

since oct 06(when we were losing the house and decided to move away) we have become way more concious of what we are spending on and if we need to or not. we have cut those wasteful expenses down to less then 300 a month from 1200-1500(or more some months)

the way its set up now there is no extra money that can get spent on something its not allocated for.


I have done a partial inventory. we have an attic and storage room full of stuff that we are selling.

we got rid of tons and tons of stuff before we moved from pa to ga. and when we just moved in january we got rid of all the stuff we thought we needed that we brought with us that we never even touched in over a year. so we tossed alot of things (that we moved 3 or 4 times lol)with the exception of the things we kept to sell.

so basically we have furniture, clothes, pets, toys, dvd's, books and a few nick knacks.(getting rid of alot of this stuff too when we do the yard sale) we are just keeping the basic essentials.

everything in the attic and storage room is outgrown baby toys and clothes(we were keeping for the next one but......)and dh's investments(see my last post in this thread) lol and alot of excercise equipment.

in the next 60 days we will have sold everything excess in our lives. we are even having the kids scale down. they are majorly fighting us but we are pushing. they have far too many toys and stuffed animals. mostly its just taking up space... it will be better for them in the long run to get thru this phase now.

 

[BeingChewsie]

I didn't just do inventory, I did a dumpster and anything else went on ebay. Some of the reasons for that are because of my sons autism. He does better in an uncluttered calm environment. I know people walk into my condo and wonder if I'm either moving out or have just moved in and that is fine. I like Sonya am very cautious and slow about allowing things to start creeping back into my life.

Sue

 

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[offroadaz]

Little late but here is my list

Core values:

• Serving God
• Spending time with family
• Spending time with friends
• Learning new things
• Adventure
• Living life to its fullest

Things I like to be around

• New cultures
• New places
• New experiences
• People
• Animals
• Nature

Things I like to do:

• Travel
• Explore
• Hike
• Offroad in the jeep
• Caving
• Build things
• Reading
• Teaching
• Community service
• Cook
• Develop plans

Ive been tracking my monthly expenses with the site www.mint.com It works great, it imports all of your expenses from your bank, credit and checking accounts then categorizes each expense. Its a very easy way to see what you spend each month and where your money goes. They also have an easy to use budget feature that keeps track of your expenses and lets you know when you are over budget

Some of you know already that I haven't been very good with my money lately. Ive managed to rack up 27k in credit card debt. I was having problems paying my monthly bills and incurred a few late fees which really hurt me. I'm doing better though, Ive already paid down 17k of the debt with a loan from my 401k and hope to have the rest paid off this year.

Ive spent $13,022(click for pic) in the last 3 and a half months. Some of that has been on bills but a large portion was on useless stuff and things that could have been avoided (late fees, overdrafts, junk)

I have finally sat down and put together a monthly budget. Hopefully this allows me to spend my money on paying down my debt and bills rather then on starbucks or movie tickets.

Im still having a hard time changing my thinking though. I just filed my tax return and my first thought was, "Sweet I can use the refund to go on a vacation!" I have been thinking about it since then though and I know that unless I change the way I think and live my life then I will never be out of debt and on the fast lane. I have talked with my wife and instead were going to use the majority of it to pay down our credit card and only keeping out a little to paint the living room.

Once the credit card debt is paid off I need to focus on building my asset column rather then buying more junk.

Thanks for the exercise Russ. I know that I still have allot to learn!

 

[AroundTheWorld]

<<< KID COMMERCIAL KID COMMERCIAL KID COMMERCIAL >>>>

My kids also really do better with less "stuff." We have some sensory integration / asperger's type challenges in our house, and getting rid of all that plastic and artificial "stuff" (to include the TV) sure made a huge difference in the house. Friends would often comment on how empty the kids rooms are.... but, our kids were never "lacking" of entertainment or meaningful activities. They have real hammers and nails and wood carving kits. They have knitting needles, and sewing machines and a keyboard and harmonica and books about how to weave baskets and real pots and pans, etc.

Choosing to selectively let REAL / USEFUL / MEANINGFUL things into our children's lives can sure pay off in miles and miles of happiness. Why buy the latest greatest plastic gismo anyway? It'll just break in a month and end up in the landfill - - - or get played with for a week, then lost in the bedroom abyss.

I didn't just do inventory, I did a dumpster and anything else went on ebay. Some of the reasons for that are because of my sons autism. He does better in an uncluttered calm environment. I know people walk into my condo and wonder if I'm either moving out or have just moved in and that is fine. I like Sonya am very cautious and slow about allowing things to start creeping back into my life.

Sue

<<<< YOU MAY NOW RETURN TO YOUR REGULAR SCHEDULED PROGRAMING >>>>>

 

[PEERless]

I would love to declutter my life in this way, but whatever empty space I create is instantly filled by [someone else]'s stuff. Grr...

 

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[Poudda]

I did the dumpster thing two weeks before my son was born. I sold my house in Ontario (was a furnished rental) and lived in Alberta. Wife didn't want any of the furniture and we didn't want to spend the money to transport it. I also had some of my personal things there as well.

Everything went into the garbage except for things I gave away (bongos to a friends son, and guitar to previous roommate), and an old maple dining room table that was my Grandmothers - It's now at my folks place (unless they threw it out!). I think my parents took some of my grandmother's dishes, but I'm not entirely sure. Also gave away a really nice bedroom set to the tenant.

It was a huge experience to just get rid of it all and it was kind of a shock at the time. I don't miss any of it.

Right now, I'm converting all my old music tapes to digital and then throwing them out.

We're planning on having at least one garage sale in April / May (too cold this time of year) to get rid of the easy crap and nick nacks and kids toys.

I think that if we do sell the house (market is cooling here) we may have an "estate sale" to get rid of the larger furniture. Going to put an ad in the paper for the piano and cross our fingers.

Don't know what we are going to do with the stuff we don't sell, but will cross that bridge when we get there.

Cheers!

Dave

PS: Anyone want a piano? You can have it for $500 if you pick it up!

PPS: Thanks for the rep russ!

 

[Russ H]

Little late but here is my list . . .

It's never too late to start this thread!

Great stuff, offroadaz!

(in typing your screen name, I just realized you are referring to Arizona (off-road-AZ).

At first, I just thot you were a gangsta, hangin' widda utha off roadaz.

I've *got* to stop watching MTV . . .:smxB:

-Russ H.

 

[Russ H]

Just how in depth should this be? Should I count each die cast car or just call it my nascar collection. Each cd or cd collection? Each coin or coin collection? Each camera or camera collection?

Count each of the coins, cars, CDs, etc.

243 CDs,
143,292 cars,
3 coins,

etc.

You don't need to describe/catalog all of them, unless they're worth over $50 each (and only then if you want to, it's more of an insurance co thing at that point, not so much for this thread).

But DO video each-- that makes a HUGE difference for your insurance!!!

-Russ H.

 

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[wildambitions]

Alright, I guess it is time for me to get back into this. Russ, you are right in that our inventory was done as we planned to move. One thing that I wish that I HAD done that I did not was keep a list of EXACTLY what we have in storage with us. I do have a pretty good memory of what is there (even where it is in the storage unit), but I should have made a list for insurance purposes. I think the reason I did not was because everything that we left was not NEEDED. Anyway, back to task...

Right now we do not have anything that has not been part of our plan with us in the new home. We have made many new (planned) purchases because of the new home. Nothing is excessive. Most are creature comforts like furniture that we do not have in storage. Most will not be replaced for at least 10 years. Most were paid for with cash or financed with 0% interest for a year and which we make excessive payments on to avoid having too much "bad debt". The hardest part for us thus far is making sure that we don't get a case of the "gotta have it nows" and make purchases of what we already have back in storage. This is especially true for my auto mechanic husband and his tools.

We have had some trouble making it a priority to go back to our storage facility (back where we moved from) because we don't really NEED any of it. But we are also PAYING to have it stored and because there are SOME things we'd like to have (our bed). So, we FINALLY set a date. AND we told friends back there when it was. (We told friends so that it would force us to actually go through with making it happen)

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A GOAL AND A PLAN, TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT. WHEN YOU TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT, IT MAKES IT MORE LIKELY THAT YOU WILL ACTUALLY FOLLOW IT THROUGH AND ENACT YOUR PLAN AND REACH YOUR GOAL. And the funny thing is, THE MORE PEOPLE YOU TELL, THE QUICKER YOU WILL REACH THAT GOAL.
("I feel, I feel the need for speed! Rep+??? It has been awhile)

OK, so back to the stored items. Our plan is to go back, evaluate with keep, sell or donate. Load truck. Come home and re-evaluate upon arrival home. This is because the are things we don't want or need in our new home but could use here in NM in the cabin biz.

Things I have learned are too many to try to list so here are a few.
1. The one above in the note is HUGE and I have used it many times. Usually you don't tell anyone until you are convinced that you really ARE willing and wanting to enact your plan.
2. When making purchases, evaluate the NEED compared to the WANT. It is OK to purchase a "want", just know that it will detain you getting to your goal by that much. Evaluate if putting off you goal is worth it.
3. Even if you purchase a "want" don't regret it even if it was a poor decision. Learn from the mistake and find a way to not repeat it. I guess that should be true of all mistakes.
4. Change your view of mistakes as "just one more way NOT to do something".

That is it. "Easy? No, but it is simple." I think Jim Rohn said that.

 

[Russ H]

Rep speed to all of you, for the work you've done on this.

GREAT stuff.

-Russ H.

 

[Jill]

Man, my spending has changed Russ. I am trying to live normally, but I keep thinking what a pain it will be to write down a cup of coffee- so then I just pop into work say hi and grab a cup there! I think this will be a good exercise in the end. I will use my credit card for the rest of the 30 days (since I started mid-month).

I laughed out loud when I read this. I know how much I spend each month, and it's pretty ridiculous and definitely unnecessary, but I've not really worried about it.

But now that I'm starting to try to track everything, I'm cutting way back. But not because what you might think. It's not the amount that distresses me. It's just that I'm so administratively inept, that I just DREAD having to itemize all the purchases, so I've been choosing not to make them, just so I won't have to record them!!

Whatever works, eh?

 

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[AroundTheWorld]

I laughed out loud when I read this. I know how much I spend each month, and it's pretty ridiculous and definitely unnecessary, but I've not really worried about it.

But now that I'm starting to try to track everything, I'm cutting way back. But not because what you might think. It's not the amount that distresses me. It's just that I'm so administratively inept, that I just DREAD having to itemize all the purchases, so I've been choosing not to make them, just so I won't have to record them!!

Whatever works, eh?

I completely relate!!! Are you kidding me??? You want me to add one more "task" to the list???? I'm trying to GET RID OF TASKS - not add to them.

I found a few years ago that what works best for me is to use a credit card and use quicken. Download everything into the software - and spend (or have someone else spend) a little time at the end of the month catagorize each purchase.

Walla. I've got a pretty little chart that tells me more then I ever wanted to know.

 

[AlwaysCurious]

@AroundTheWorld: I practice that since 1998, except that I use a self developed Excel sheet for that. Thanks to that I knew exactly when I could afford buildign a house, which I did. The knowledge of your spendings gives a warm feeling of safety.