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How to Keep Your Money from Sneaking Off

November 11, 2020 by Tasha Hackett Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Need to figure out how to keep your money from sneaking off? Tasha shares her not so secret secrets!

How to Keep Your Money from Sneaking Off

by Tasha Hackett

Hello! Tasha here. Do you ever have trouble with money? Ever wonder why it’s so difficult to keep it around? Dave Ramsey reminds us to tell it what to do, but lately, I find that my money is behaving like a sneaky five-year-old girl. When I ask it, “What is going on in here?” It makes this suspicious noise with a shrug that’s a mix between, “Please don’t look at me,” “I don’t know,” and, “I will lie to your face if you ask me a direct question about the granookie crumbs on the carpet.”
Therefore, I have taken a few extreme measures to ensure nobody has to steal granookie, or spend money. You know, whichever.

Granola Cookie

Keeping Your Money Step 1: Tell it what to do.

Foremost, to know if your money isn’t behaving, you first must tell it what to do. For our family, this means a budget meeting on payday. Generally, my husband and I get along during these meetings, but it’s good practice to go into all family meetings on a full stomach (no hangry words let loose), pre-planned arranged time (no springing budget meetings on each other), and no important conversations after 10 pm. Starting with prayer is a great choice, especially if these meetings are a point of conflict, or if it’s your first time even having this type of meeting!


Around here, payday is once a month. As close to payday as we can, we sit down with our nifty spiral notebook, or any old scrap of paper I find lying around, and do basic elementary school math. He logs into our bank account and I write down what’s currently available. We plan to keep $100 in the bank, and together we systematically write down every bill occurring this month and subtract from the total, estimating high for variable bills like utilities. House, investments, church tithe, Internet, monthly subscriptions, etc. Next, we tally what is coming out for our cash needs or to be transferred to other accounts. General savings, savings for Christmas, vacations, car maintenance, clothing/shoes, school, gifts, allowance, home improvement, etc… AND THEN, we look over the calendar and talk about anything extra that might be happening before next payday. Sometimes this is stressful and sad when we realize there isn’t enough and we juggle things around. Sometimes it’s amazing when I find I already have enough saved in the correct budget line for what I need! Woo-hoo! At this point, any extra pennies are sent to our future house savings fund.

Keeping Your Money Step 2: Make sure it doesn’t wander off.

This, my friends, is the trickiest part, isn’t it? It’s one thing to write down: Groceries $400. But it’s another thing entirely when there’s a cheese sale and all the sudden you’re down to $40 in the grocery budget and you still have 12 days until payday and your family is tired of oatmeal… but hey, there’s still a jar of pickles in the fridge, and then of course, there’s all that cheese…


My solution? Go shopping on purpose. I no longer carry any money with me. Zilch. No debit card. No cash. I can’t spend it if I don’t have it. On the way to pick up the kids from Grandma’s, you pass Dollar General and remember you need glue sticks… Nope, just keep on driving, girl. Because you know what will happen if you go in for one thing, right? Yes. You know. You will come out with a cartload of other things you need… so it’s best not to go in. Unless you are going in on purpose, because you planned ahead to go in and buy everything on your list.

I keep a running list, sort of. And then I, purposefully, (on purpose) take the debit card or the cash, and go buy stuff. Surprisingly, this nifty trick has been great for my bank account. Greatly annoying when I don’t have money when I need it, but overall, the system works for me. I still overspend on food sales, but it’s cheese… so I’m not too concerned about that one. So far. I’ll let you know if we get sick on too much cheese. But I’ve also been known to come home with 40lbs of butter. For some odd reason, frozen peas sales do not speak to me with the same vigor.

 

Keeping Your Money Step 3: Inspect what you Expect.

If we’re still comparing money to a five-year-old, it’s all well and good to tell it what to do, and even to put it in time-out every so often. Glue-sticks can wait until they make it on the list. But if you don’t truly keep an eye on it, it still finds ways to sneak off. As best as I can, I will log in to my bank account every couple of days. It was only $6 here, $32 there, $18 there, $130 there… and unless I’m tracking it, I am not aware how much has left. Of all the budget tips, this is the one that will help you get a handle on your money the quickest. Yes, you need to budget. Yes, you need self-control. But if you need a place to start… start with tracking. Start with logging on to your account once a day and keep an eye on what’s happening. NOT to blame or point fingers at your spouse. NOT to make yourself feel bad, depressed, or anxious. But only that you may see patterns and ways to improve or habits that need adjusting.

Happy Spending!

I hope these budget refreshers were helpful to you! Maybe they’re not the most inspiring things you’ve ever heard, but c’mon, I left you with a granookie recipe last month and Laura’s got a new PRINTED cookbook on the market, so don’t ask me to top that on my very next post. With the holidays upon us, I bless you with happy spending after your joyous budget meetings. (Think I’m spreading it on too thick?)

But really, don’t make finances harder than it has to be. I found I was spending too freely… so I cut myself off. Simple. If I don’t have the card, I don’t spend. It’s working for me so far. I guess I’ll let you know next year how this goes in the long run. Are you looking forward for the time I take my kids out to dinner and after we’ve eaten I realize I have no money with me? Hmm… that story could be as juicy as the time Laura chased a taco across the Wal-Mart parking lot.


Tasha HackettTasha Hackett, friend of Laura, is patiently waiting until Spring 2021 when she’ll get to hold her very first published novel (that has nothing to do with budgets, budget meetings, or Dave Ramsey. Whew!). In the meantime, she’s homeschooling her older kids, sewing ridiculously time-consuming felt Christmas stockings, and prancing about on the Nebraska prairie where she plans to build a house some day. Connect with her on Instagram @hackettacademy or for Laura @heavenlyhomaker.

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How Tasha Paid off $49,000 in Two Years on a Low Income!

February 9, 2020 by Tasha Hackett Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

You are going to be so inspired to read about how Tasha paid off $49,000 in two years!

Hi guys! It’s me, Tasha.

My Kentucky roots are urging me to say, “Hey y’all,” but I’m not sure if my northern friends could handle it. I’ve been budging in on Laura’s blog for a couple months now. I’m the one who feeds her kids a dry crust, likes to set goals, had an Amazon addiction, paid off all the debt and wants you to know that God really really loves you.

I can’t wait to share with you the wonderful things I’ve learned on this crazy Get-Out-Of-Debt journey! I’m going to start digging into how we paid off (for us) big debt with not-so-big income.

I’ve deleted nearly 10,000 words trying to get this out; you’re welcome. The problem is I keep getting distracted by all the things I want to tell you! I want to write the right story. I want you to hear what I’ve done here and see over the sea of words as I explain the sun to my son and teach him the joy of homophones. Sorry, what was I saying?

How Tasha Paid off $49,000 in Two Years on a Low Income!

No really. How did we live on half our income and give away $49,000 in two years? ($29,000 the first and $20,000 the second.)

  • BY NOT GETTING DISTRACTED
  • SETTING A GOAL AND STICKING TO IT

We decided what we wanted to do, we made a plan, we wrote it down, and we stuck to it. It was the theme of the year. For two years.

Deuteronomy 6:7-8 says, “Impress [the old covenant laws] on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

We were this intentional with our goal for financial freedom.

Ben and I lived and breathed financial freedom. “Ramsey says…” was perhaps the most used conversation starter at our dinner table. I was going to use the term, Laser Focus. But no, our focus was broad–it encompassed every facet of our lives for two years. We had floodlight intensity.

Our “drastic” first step was to cancel our internet service. Yes, Ben was taking online courses for his MA degree at the time.

As it turns out, the library has internet! For Free! Here’s the basic line-up of what we did:

Eating out? Nope. If we did it came out of the grocery budget. Yikes!

Groceries and Household? $200 a month, with $50 extra for buying All The Butter if it went on sale. Oatmeal was a staple. I could stretch a pound of beef for three meals, but mostly chicken was on the menu. Neighbors are always trying to offload extra garden zucchini and tomatoes. I didn’t buy blueberries. Cream cheese was a treat. I made use of Amazon Subscribe and Save to get 15% off many household items. Sometimes this may have actually cost $1 more than an off-brand at a store, but the time and gas it saved me was worth it. I read recently the average shopper spends $18 to $37 extra on impulse buys every time they go grocery shopping!

These three tagalongs did not eat much at the time.

Dates? One pre-planned show for a highly anticipated film. Many pre-planned home “dates” and free entertainment excursions.

Christmas? Saved $25 a month leading up to December to cover the special food and travel. Our two babies (4 yr and 2 yr) at the time enjoyed homemade gifts and were just as grateful.

Cell Phone? Just one.

Birthdays? Averaged $10. So many fun experiences!

Tithe to local church? YES. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

Coffee Shop? $2 once a month when I met with friends.

Vehicles? Paid for. Budgeted $50 a month covered yearly taxes and insurance for both. We drive the cheapest we can find that are still reliable. 1990 Buick is the way to go.

Vacation? Saved $150 a month, camped with the kids multiple times and took an adult only $1000 trip to Denver. Spent six nights in an Airbnb, hiked, relaxed, breakfasted at one delicious French Crepe restaurant, dinner at one 5-star restaurant, other meals from the grocery store.

Beautiful hike just the two of us! I thought I was suffering from severe altitude sickness for five days before taking a pregnancy test! Hello, Baby #4!

Other Gifts? This one was hard. When your kid gets invited to a birthday and begins to notice that other kid getting a bunch of presents when he had a perfectly happy birthday without the presents and now questions why he didn’t get a bunch of presents…. Our standard was to give a lovely hand-made card to the child offering a ONE DAY OF FUN for a playdate at our house. We would arrange afterward with the parents, we would pick up the kid, have special activities planned like a sprinkler or a trip to the park. Everyone had fun without feeling jilted.

Side Hustle? Yes! I took in sewing jobs and alterations for prom dresses, etc. Ben worked early mornings at another job.

Heart Change? Yes. God said, “I am Enough.”

You could take this action plan: Pay off $$ by a certain date. Don’t buy stuff. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t do anything. Work more. 

{Haha, I’m dying with laughter over here. I’m of the generation that doesn’t know how to have a written conversation without emojis so this is a struggle for me. I’m laughing-with-all-the-tears.} That plan sounds terrible! That’s what we did, but it was way more fun than it sounds.

We didn’t buy a bunch of stuff because God helped us see that He was enough and to find contentment in Him. We didn’t go places without intention. We did lots of things that were free and affordable. We did have a zoo membership and a pool pass and packed lunches on days we went. We did spend hours at the park and invited friends over to play and grilled hotdogs and danced in sprinklers and listened to music really really loud. We did work more, quite a bit more with multiple side hustles, but God’s peace permeated our financial goals those two years.

Is this the face of a boy who wishes his parents spent more money on him? I see pure joy and childhood bliss.

Don’t be Discouraged!

If reading through our story has brought you more discouragement than hope, chin up! If getting out of debt is something you yearn for please please please take this up with God. Ask him to show you how, ask him for his peace and discipline. Perhaps you really can live on $20,000 for two years and bust it out! But perhaps you are in a place where that is not possible. I really do believe that if you listen to God telling you that He is Enough and lean into him, you will find peace and perhaps a few extra thousand dollars. I have a friend that pays the minimum on all the loans and then an extra $50. That’s a great start!

What about you?

How can I encourage you in your journey? What questions do you have that I can address? What would you like me to cover? Would you like to know actual numbers for our current budget?

I want to hear from you!

P.S. No really. I want to hear from you. Comment below and tell me what’s the craziest thing you ever bought on accident. Mine is face cream for $145 from a mall kiosk during year two. After reading thousands of words of my financial journey, can you believe I spent $145 on a tiny jar of lotion? I don’t know what came over me. Your turn!

 

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