Posted by Tim Stobbs on June 30, 2009
Ah, summer. The road trip season. So with that in mind, how do you take a vacation that is fun, but won’t break the bank. I typically suggest camping as a good option for some people, but if you don’t have the equipment try to borrow some and try it before investing too much money in supplies. Spending $500 on gear you don’t use more than once can turn a money saving venture into a money wasting one very quickly.
Even if you don’t camp, I’ve tried to make some of this tips generic.
- Bring you own food or buy it at a grocery store. Even backing a few basic supplies to do lunch/breakfast on the road can save you a lot of money over a two week trip. All it really takes is a bit of planning a cooler. We typically take things that travel well like harder fruits or veggies like apples and carrots over items like pears that bruise easier.
- Consider a shorter trip. People often underestimate trips that are closer to home. Beyond having more time to relax, you can also save gas and see explore places you never been and can get back to easily. We typically alternate years with bigger/longer trips every second year. That way we balance costs with enjoyment.
- Leave later and come back earlier. Want to have a really great trip? Then leave a day later and come back a day early. Having that time to unwind at either end makes things SO MUCH easier. You can ease back into your regular life without the shock of coming home at 6pm the day before you got back to work and having to buy groceries, wash the car, do laundry and unpack.
- Seek out the out of the way. People often travel to the big parks or cities as the main places to see and do, but going out of the way can often result in unique memories as well as cost savings. Camping fees, hotels attraction fees are all often cheaper in smaller centers so next time try out the smaller towns you might be surprised how much fun you have have there.
- Be flexible. I’ve gotten away from having a set schedule on trips and now more often than not wing it with nothing better than a vague plan of I want to see these things and be away for about 10 days. By doing that you can often find good deals at the last minute or linger in places you happen to enjoy more than you thought.
So there are my tips? Do you have some other ones? If so please share.
Posted by Tim Stobbs on June 9, 2009
So over the years I’ve realized that making things easier is often results in less frustration and more happiness. The classic: KISS (keep it simple stupid). I used to be a control freak and watch every penny with my money, but over the years I’ve been easing up on my control freak tendencies. For example, I’ve stopped balancing my cheque book weekly, now I just review my monthly statement for obvious errors.
My latest realization is I need to stop tracking so many sub-accounts in my savings. Currently I track several sub-accounts including:
- Christmas savings
- Insurance savings (house, car, life)
- Property Taxes
- Heating fund (I self equalize my payments)
- Emergency fund
Yet over the years I’ve noticed the account never runs out of money as a whole. Everything is spaced out during the year that the account always has a healthy balance into it. So I’ve decided to give up some more control over things that don’t matter that much and create the super saving fund. It will have one balance and replace all of the above sub accounts into one. I will also then put in an automatic savings transfer to avoid having to rebalance the sub funds monthly.
I will still track the invoive amounts of what I spend for each old sub account so I can review if the monthly contributions are enough annually, but otherwise I won’t be looking at it on a monthly basis. In addition, this means if I’m over saving I just end up with a larger emergency fund which I can remove any excess from on an annual basis.
Overall this should makes things simpler and reduce my time looking at numbers. How about you? Do you keep any sub-accounts in savings or just mash it all together? Why?
Posted by Tim Stobbs on June 8, 2009
Budgets despite being common in just about every business in existence seem to have problems being used by lots of people for their personal finances. People try them like diets over and over again and keep failing. Yet why do they fail? Well I’m not an expert on this but here are my thoughts of what I’ve seen go wrong.
- Too Much Change. People often try to go from overspending to underspending by huge amounts in record time and then get frustrated by the entire process and quit. It’s sort of like a crash diet. It doesn’t work that way for most people. Phase it in slowly. Stop over spending and break even for a month or two then start to devote a bit more to paying down debt. Slowly change your life and you will see results.
- Not Enough Data. Another major issues budget fail is people assign numbers with no idea with what they are really spending in a month. So instead of just trying to create a budget from a canned magazine article, make one based on how you actually spend. Just track your spending for a month and then use that as a template for a budget. It won’t be perfect the first time, but it will be closer than than a canned budget.
- Not Expecting Changes. Budgets are not static numbers in a sheet, especially in the first few months of using one. Don’t worry about having to change the numbers that is a normal part of a budget till you get a good handle on what your spending is. I track changes on ours and update the version number (eg: version 1.4). Minor changes only get a decimal number (like adjusting the power bill), while big changes get a major one version (the new baby). I’m currently on version 8.3.
- No Controls. Budgets don’t work unless you have some sort of controls on some areas of your spending where you know you are likely to go over. That is why I use cash for certain items in a month like spending cash. Otherwise I would have no idea what I’ve spent so far. Cash makes it easy to track those minor transactions and do some quick planning by looking at what cash you have left. For example, I’m going out on Saturday night and down to $40, I guess I shouldn’t go out on Friday as well.
- No Misc line or float. Life happens when you don’t expect it. It’s a fundamental rule, unexpected things keep showing up all the time and often with a bill. So rather than getting frustrated by it, plan for it. Keep a $100 a month or more around for those things that just happen. If you don’t spend it carry it forward, but often it will just get used up.
That’s my thoughts, if you have failed at a budget what went wrong for you? Or if it worked, what made the difference?
