Question for a Thursday Afternoon...

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Question for a Thursday Afternoon...
7
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 3:26pm

Thought Thursday would be a good day for some board questions! :)



  • What, if any, strategies have you implemented to handle the increase in gas prices?

  • Do you have a "set" grocery budget?

All my best,
Danni

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-10-2003
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 3:49pm

What, if any, strategies have you implemented to handle the increase in gas prices?

Unfortunatley, I live in a city that is not transportation friendly. It's geographically really big.. everything is very spread out. I work about 18 miles from my house, so 36 miles round trip each day.. it's a lot of gas!!.. Good thing I have a small car! I feel for the people that have SUV's!

Do you have a "set" grocery budget? Do you come in near target, or do you find yourself always going over? What ideas do you have about how to get closer to meeting that budget?

I DO have a set grocery/toiletries budget, its $125/week. I usually come pretty close to that amount every week, unless I Have company coming..

We've all pared luxuries out of our budgets...well...mostly. What is/are the thing(s) that you splurge on when you have the money to do so? IF we have any extra cash.. we will go out to dinner usually...that's fun!

When was the very last time you used a credit card? Why did you use it? What was your plan for paying it off? Did you do what you "planned" to do, or did something pop up to derail the plan? What was it?

Oh this is a good one! I haven't used a credit card in almost 4 years. Last time was when I was getting married. I have 4.. about $1800 left on all of them, and have been in a credit counseling program for about 3 years.. I pay $203/mth, and should have the balance paid by next March.. if not sooner! A lot of people have a lot of different things to say about credit counselor's but mine has turned out to be a godsend. It really worked for me. When I am done with it, and am able to get credit.. I don't think I will. I like paying cash.. You DEFINATELY think about where your money is going when you actually have to fork it out right then and there.. Credit cards get me in trouble. They are evil!!hehe

Good questions!

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-09-1999
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 4:04pm

I have cut back on some driving, stayed home over a couple of weekends instead of driving to the city 75 miles away. I'm just kinda hoping the gas prices will go back down soon so we don't have to make any drastic changes.

I usually set $100/week budget for groceries which includes pet food, cosmetics & cleaning products. When I beat my budget I always feel really good. I especially try to do some cooking/baking ahead on the weekends to help during the week so that we aren't tempted to eat out. I know we don't need the calories of eating out but also it can put a strain on the budget if we do it too often.

I still splurge on diet soda & bottled water so I try to keep that on hand. I also still work out at the gym & have to drive to get there. I've been working out at least 3 times a week for 5 1/2 years & I feel the health benefits are worth the costs. I do run on the weekends around town at home which is a freebie!

I spent $100 on JC penney card last month (purchased a few fall clothes on line) just got the bill and I'm paying it off in full. We don't carry any cc balances anymore. My DH are in agreement on this one, if we ever do carry a balance forward we immediately will cut the credit cards up.

Have a good Thursday everyone!
cindylee

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-23-2005
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 4:27pm
- DH bought a 1995 Toyota Tercel to save gas, since he drives near 130 miles each day. So far, so good. It's getting about 38 mpg. Much better than the 18 his other vehicle gets.
- Grocery budget is currently set within our weekly overall budget. I haven't really taken the time to separate it all out yet since groceries aren't really a "problem" area for us. Running through fast food- now that's my downfall.
- Splurging for me is a shopping trip (usually for clothes) that includes eating out someplace besides fast food. We've cut back on these quite a bit.
- Credit card was used twice lately- once to pay for a weekend vacation (used card to reserve) and then to pay for airlines tickets for our trip to FL in November. We are putting $100/week into savings to cover this cost (when it's all said & done) plus any cash we will want to take with us for spending $.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 4:31pm

We already live close to work so we walk there, I have tried to get DH to take DD in the bike trailer to school some mornings and I bike to the grocery if the number of items is low. Friday is my errand day and I rarely go to stores on other days (last night I really wanted ice cream so that was the grocery trip on the bike). DH will be turning in mileage on some of his shorter work trips that before we handled.

I budget $200 for the month and stay close to that. I have a checkbook where I write I subtract each trip as I make it. I use powdered milk in cooking, make multiple batches of items, DH is a vegetarian.

I love scrapbooking so developing film, scrapbook supplies and crop fees are my splurge.

I used the CC this morning for film developing. I pay the balance off each month and I subtract each charge from my checkbook so I "feel" that money being spent.

Taleyna

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 5:47pm

Oooo... good questions.

Let's see:

Increase in gas prices: We drive less. We plan more. I found a great bike trailer for the kids at a yard sale and am planning to use it for trips to the library and Harris Teeter, which are just down the road. We increased our gasoline budget a while back when it looked like gas prices were headed for $2 a gallon and when it was predicted that they might get to $3 by summer. But most significantly, we are in process of obtaining the materials and equipment to make our first test batch of biodiesel. If that is a success, we'll learn to make a test batch from used vegetable oil (obtained for free from local fast food joints), then we intend to build a small biodiesel processor and sell my car and buy a diesel station wagon in its place. We'll run my car on biodiesel (estimates run at about 60 cents a gallon if it's made from waste oil) while continuing to run dh's small, fuel efficient vehicle on gasoline.

Grocery budget: Yes, it's set. Sometimes I go a bit over and borrow from the gasoline budget, sometimes I come in under and end up borrowing from it for something else. What I used to do, and what I intend to start doing again, is when I come in under setting the extra aside in an account for months when there are extraordinary grocery expenses--like Thanksgiving and Christmas--or for when I come upon an unbeatable deal on something I can stock up on, like chicken quarters for 17 cents a pound.

Luxuries: Dh and I have started having a twice-monthly date night. Well, it's supposed to be twice-monthly, but it comes around more like once a month. But we do budget for it, and so far I have not borrowed from that money for anything else. We won a $40 gift certificate to a steak house at a raffle (for our neighborhood block party--we didn't pay extra for raffle tickets), so that'll probably be our next date. We also have high speed internet and cell phones, but we have no land line, and I need the high speed for my business. Dh's cell phone is paid for by his company. So it's actually not much more than having a land line and high speed Internet. We also each get a $50 allowance each month.

Last time I used a credit card: Well, there are two answers to this question. I used a credit card check yesterday, to pay my dad back for the loan he gave us when we were down-and-out. But it's not new debt--and it's a lower interest rate than we had with my dad. So it doesn't qualify, in my mind, as actually using a credit card. The last time we incurred new debt was when we borrowed the money from my dad that we're now paying off with a credit card. That was July 2003. We had had our wake-up call with debt and were moving to a cheaper place and the loan was the last bit of money we needed to get ourselves set for a new budget, two new jobs, and a new life of striving toward debt-freedom.

I now regularly use credit cards for convenience. For instance, I helped a friend out by taking her to the doctor and paying for the visit (she is a recent immigrant and can't yet be put on her husband's health insurance because of her visa status, and she can't start working yet because she's waiting on her work permit, so they're strapped for cash). They will pay me back in two installments each on a payday, and both before the grace period runs out on my credit card. I will pay it back when she pays me back. Dh uses a credit card for business expenses, which he pays back when he gets reimbursed. And I use a credit card for convenience for things like when we were on vacation--I charged all our expenses and then paid them all at once when I got home. The money was already set aside to pay it, but it was easier to pay it all at once rather than having to account for it all separately in Microsoft Money.

Great Thursday questions. Thanks for asking. :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-10-2003
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 6:39pm

Increase in gas prices: We have changed our weekend plans quite substaintially for hte last few weekends. It was just too expensive to go. Other than theat no real change.

Grocery Budget: Yes, I do. I usually come in under budget, my downfall are the extra trips to the stroe to pick up buns or milk, that end up costing $ 30-40. (Especially if I send my husband!!) I am trying really hard to plan better ahead and limit these trips.

Luxuries: We occasionally buy treats for ourselves or the kids. We have rented a few movies lately, $1 for a kids movie is a great time out for Mom! LOL. We also went a way for the weekend for our 10th anniversary, and we had a great time. (All cash!)

Credit card: I had to think long and hard about this. It has been well over two years since I had charged anything. However, I did use out line-of-credit debit card to pay for gas a couple of months ago when my husband had car trouble and was stranded wiht the kids, and I had forgotten my bank card at home to pay for gas... I use debit, which withdraws the money automatically from our bank account all the time. This is the easiest way for me to track our spending. I can see everything we are spending by looking at the bank statement.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-08-2003
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 6:42pm

1. I bought a monthly bus pass. I have a really short commute and only usually fill my tank every 2 or 3 weeks anyway, but if I can get it down to one tank per month I'll be sitting pretty. If worse came to worse, I'm about a 20 minute walk from my job.

2. My set grocery budget is $25 per week, but I almost always go a little over. Not by too much though, and if I go over it comes out of my fun money, so I try very hard not to.

3. Wine, lunches out, soy lattes, dahlias. I don't splurge much any more. I have to stay out of REI and bookstores.

4. I just used my credit card to buy a laptop and ran up about $1300 total. I'll have it paid off by mid-November. Well, that's the goal anyway. I didn't follow my plan exactly, but I'll still be able to get it paid off pretty quickly. Still have $2000 in the emergency fund.