When you are trying to get out of debt you usually start to look at expenses and see what you can cut, where can you be more frugal? You also stop spending money where you don't have to, but the other thing you can do is earn more money. My question to you is which would you rather do?
I had to think about this for a while. I personally love to find ways to save money. For me it is a game or a challenge. I think even if I had unlimited money I would still find ways to save.
I love the Hawaii plan's blog. She and her husband make a good living but she is always finding ways to save and increase her income even if it is a little. She has been an inspiration to me. She is loaded with good ideas.
Rhitter and I have been together for over 9 years now and paying off debt with her over the years has been very soul searching. We both have had serious problems but different reasons for our debt. It is like I have a sister who knows my pain and will never judge me for my foolishness. I have watched her make so many major sacrifices and you have to sacrifice to pay off debt. Read her "Destination planet debt free"
Then there is my beloved and I say that seriously Sluggy( who I will get to see in 2 weeks) She is like another sister to me. I have learned so much following her blog. She is the star of rite aid shopping and saving money on just about everything. Plus she just has great advice. If you are struggling with debt she is a great friend to have plus she loves donuts almost as much as I do. Read: Don't read this;it's boring. Great lessons in how to be frugal.
I love Cheryl's frugal corner. Now here is a woman who is after my own heart. She is full of great ideas. SO much knowledge. She really should be teaching classes. Plus she has taught me to be more gentle in ways, more patient with Hubs, kinder.
I read many blogs daily but these are just a few that stick out because I have learned from them. I want to keep on learning. I know for a fact that cutting you expenses and finding ways to be frugal really helps you get out of debt, but after thinking it through, increasing your income is probably more important in the long run. However they must be done together. If you don't learn to cut back or retrench, you will never get out as we humans usually just spend more when we have more.
Now please don't shoot me a bunch of crap as I was serially thinking of having Hubs and I take on a cleaning contract in the evenings. It would bring in about $1000.00 a month and help us pay off the house faster. It is also good exersize. Like going to the gym every night, and getting paid for it. I was trying to find someway to increase our income. But now that the shop is back up and running I don't think I will have to do that.
So my question is which do you think is more important? Saving money and cutting back on expenses or earning more money to pay expenses?
Thrifty Thursday:
1. saved all my change in my pig bank
2. saved all my $5 dollar bills up to $750.00
3. continued to save my $1,$5,$19,$20 challenge
4. filled two envelopes in my 100 envelope challenge
5. Cooked all meals at home except for the two that we went out, one to eat with friends at their house, and one where we took a restaurant meal out to friends who were home bound.
6. used coupons at Joanns
7. found a nickle and a penny this week at Wal mart
8. Picked up 8 packages of free bread from a give away froze most of it
9. only purchased loss leaders from grocery stores for two weeks in a row.
10. decided to recover outdoor cushions as the price of new is just too high, purchased fabric at 80% off
11.trying to find new pots for flowers outside and found two at a discount store but one was chipped, so asked for a further discount and they gave it to me at 50% less. Win!
12. Used two $5.00 off coupons on ACE hardware.
13. Hubs wanted to buy camo clothes for hunting, and I suggested seeing if his old army things fit and they did! Saving a good $75.00 at least.
14. gassed up out at reservation saving .23 a gallon on gas.
15. feeding all food scraps again to the chickens
16.downloaded receipts to fetch
17. sold an old crack on face book market place.
What have you done this week to save money?
Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.
Kim
Here's my oh so profound answer-it depends. I agree that if you earn more, you need to keep cutting corners or you will not have the net results you want. However, working longer, more hours, without a specific timeline and goal in mind is not a good way to live, and not sustainable health wise. I mean if you took on that evening contract, you'd be working all day in the shop, then evenings cleaning. Where does spending time with your kids and grandkids come in-where does sleeping come in, as I know you would put your kids ahead of yourself if they needed you to babysit. For how long? Six months to pay off or your mortgage or refinance to free up cash flow? Maybe doable. Needing to do that for the foreseeable future because a person has more bills than they earn and may lose said house, might be a requirement. There might be other options. Is there a way to earn more with what you already do? Are your rates too low, or your overhead too high? Could you invest in something in the short term that will yield higher returns? I'm also confused. If hubs can't work now for regular pay due to health issues, how could he take on a regular evening cleaning contract? What happens on his poor health days? Do you do it all yourself? I wouldn't do it now, but or me, I went back to school 23 years ago when I had an OK job, to earn the credentials to land a great job. While it was 18 months of stress, Real tightwaddery to pay the tuition with a two children, a mortgage, a car payment, financially paid for itself 95 times over! I splurge more than I should, but it is rarely on myself-usually others, so I am OK with that. When I get tired, I resort to easy, and that is a bad vice I'm trying to correct.
ReplyDeletetop Savings strategies:
1. Limit buying new clothes unless needed and at a good price-then they are not trendy, but can be worn for years.
2. Trying to avoid drinking our eating out money. A beer or two, a glass of wine, but not like friends who spend $50 a person no questions on asked on drinks alone
3. Staying put n our affordable house
4. Shopping for deals on gift giving, layering coupons clearance, and sales
5. Trivia and surveys for perks
Tanks SAM for your concern. I think I thought about this because the shop had been so down for over a year. I was starting to panic about having extra money to pay off the house. I could do a cleaning contract alone, but Hubs can be very helpful. Obviously the shop has picked way up and taking on anything extra is just plain silly. When we cleaned before we never left to start before ( p.m. so it would not interfere with grandkids. But it was just a thought when I had no real money coming into the shop. The shop provides all of our extras and pays off debt. We had quite a few smaller debts with the purchase of this place. It has been very frustrating, but things are getting better. I think you are so wise to have gone back to school and you deserve to splurge.
DeleteAAhhhhh bless your heart! You made my day!!! Seriously - some days I wonder if what I do makes any difference. TY
ReplyDeleteWe never made it about making more money - as we cherished our down time. It was about spending less and spending wisely. Luckily I had a hubby who was on board (most of the time).
We went through retirement and SSD each month on bills and hubs wanted me to take SS early and I resisted. His idea was we weren't accumulating fast enough.
I miss that man so - but I have figured out HE did a bunch of the spending!! He shopped online since he couldn't go any where. My expenses now are less than half what we spent together and I accumulating quite a bit. Weird how things work. He would be happy for me I am sure!!
Just keep spending on track and don't be frivolous. Manage wisely. Realize how blessed you are by getting to take trips ad visit others - those things are huge. You can do those and still pay stuff - that is wonderful.
You got this kiddo!!!!!
Thanks Cheryl, just following you wisdom and trying to be grateful for all I have helps so much.
DeleteWhat a nice tribute to the four women bloggers! We all could add you to the list also. You are such an inspiration with your hard work, cooking from scratch, helping people, and frugality. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you Julie, I love blogging because it gives me so many ideas, it helps me stay on track and have someone to be accountable to.
DeleteVery kind comments about the other bloggers and I agree with your choice, I would also add brandy at the prudent homemaker ;). I would say cutting expenses was key to my husband and my retirement. But each person will be different. We had an adequate income to save, we just didn’t get in the habit until about ten years a before we retired. But for someone earning minimum wage, income would be the key.
ReplyDeleteI do love Brandi, but have no personal attachment to her. Her blog is full of great ideas, but she is so large that a relationship with her would be difficult. I read her weekly and love following the growth of her children.
DeleteFor our family, cutting expenses and pinching pennies worked best for most of our marriage. We made it a priority to have no debt and as few monthly bills as possible.
ReplyDeleteThen, our income increased more than we ever expected and we still watch what we spend but we enjoy some frills when we want.
I hope you can pay off your mortgage soon. We paid ours off and as it got smaller, it paid off really quick as we were paying much less interest on a small balance than when it was bigger.
Well it is a small mortgage, but I worked so hard to pay off the other, that I am impatient does not help. But I love your blog and it helps me stay on track.
DeleteFor us, it's not about making more money, it's just being very aware of where/how we spend it. I am a thrift store shopper, not because I have to shop that way, but because I LOVE to shop that way! I am usually good at watching groceries - we don't over-buy, but we do splurge on other things - like vacations, etc. So I guess I'd say it's saving money/cutting expenses where you can over earning more.
ReplyDeleteI do think I have done both over the years. It is just now that Hubs is retired, I wonder if we should take on more?
DeleteBoth are important.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteSo my question is which do you think is more important? Saving money and cutting back on expenses or earning more money to pay expenses?
ReplyDelete1. Write a precise plan for reducing debt. Include the fully debt-free target date. This determines the trajectory.
2. cut expenses and use that additional money toward debt.
3. Earn more money to pay debt if needed to meet goals.
4. Do whatever it takes to hit #1.
THat is what I am doing. I think with the covid pandemic and my shop nearly shutting down I was panicking about getting this small mortgage paid off. I am not really very patient. Two months without being able to pay extra n the mortgage had me in panic mode. can go from calm to panic in just a second. :)
DeleteMe, well I am of the saving where you can. Cutting a bit here and there always adds up.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we even actually manage to sell a few things or trade cutting down trees (small ones) in exchange for the wood. I have never turned down anything for free. Free is great and can always be used somehow.
We no longer have any debt which is great now that we are retired. It makes it so much easier to stay within or under our budget every month.
God bless.
I love the fact that you trade. My sister has a large tree that has to come down. I told her to just have it dropped and let neighbors come chop it up for fire wood, save her the expense.
DeleteAhhh, thanks so much for the shout out. You are so kind. And likewise, I learn so much from you & the other bloggers. I enjoy all of the community & sharing.
ReplyDeleteAs to your question:
So my question is which do you think is more important? Saving money and cutting back on expenses or earning more money to pay expenses?
We're very lucky to have really specialized skills, so I'll answer for us, but the key answer is...it depends. Because we can earn a lot, I'd much more heavily prioritize the income side. But, that doesn't mean you can just spend. We know too many people who earn the same income as us, send their kids to private schools, spend a lot on travel & housing, order out almost every day, buy fancy clothes, etc...in theory, none of those things are bad on their own. Combined, they can take a significant income & drop it to next to nothing.
We do a full review of our expenses each year, and then I review them monthly. We are always looking to ensure our spending matches our values. We grimace at the cost of housing, but we prioritized being near work, so we could get to the kids during the day for sports & activities, and not spend so much time commuting. In order to afford the house, we cut a lot of other things.
I know home prices where you are can be so ridiculous, but i admire your priorities and determination to get ahead of that game.
DeleteI think the answer is "it depends" also. For us, saving is probably the most important because TheHub is nearing retirement, and we stuff as much into savings as we can while he is still earning. Even though I am not one of the frugalistas, I have never been particularly spendy, so we have managed to save over the years. I suppose we could cut our expenses but we do not do a lot other than take out (which we have been doing way too much the past couple of weeks)
ReplyDeleteIt is a hard question to answer for me as I have been the major money earner in our marriage. Although hubs had a good retirement plan and that is great now.
Delete