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The secret to financial success?

Have a budget and stick to it! Sure, more money might be nice, but if you don’t know how to budget you’ll never have enough! (I speak from experience. When we’ve had a budget on paper, but not follow through we wasted money and spent more.) 

Why Budget?

Sometimes it can feel like a drag being limited by the cash in your envelope system when you really want to eat out instead of cook or buy the new piece of furniture for your house. It’s important to remember the big picture when you feel those thoughts of remorse and woe is me. You don’t have to say no forever to buying something for your house. Just wait until you have the money for it. You can go out for dinner sometimes, but when the money is gone, it’s gone!

Keep in mind the bigger picture – remember why you are doing what you do.

Budgeting reduces stress! It gives you a freedom you wouldn’t already have. Telling our money where to go and being able to put money aside in savings has been such a blessing over the 8 years of our marriage.Without budgeting and being careful with our money, we wouldn’t have an emergency fund built up. When life happens, as we know it will, we’d be sunk.

As I think back, our marriage started off with immediately paying off my husband’s school loans and car. After that we started saving for purchases and building the savings account for those unanticipated costs.

Over the past 8 years we’ve been thankful for a job with great health insurance. But still, without our savings my 9 day stay in the hospital with severe double pneumonia could have sunk us anyway. When our second car had officially fallen apart, we wouldn’t have been able to purchase a new (to us) vehicle. We had enough for a large down payment on our home and when the foundation needed piers, we were able to have them put in.

Being able to encounter most of what life throws at you without being stressed and worried about where the money is going to come from to pay for yet another thing is so worth it!

Start Today!

Even if you have debt and feel overwhelmed, today is the perfect time to start taking baby steps! You don’t have to stay burdened by money forever. Sit down and go over your expenses and your income. See where you can save, what you can eliminate entirely to free up even $10, $100, or $1,000 a month. Use that money to build an emergency fund and pay off the debts. It can be done!

Your stress will go down and your happiness will increase as you start living the New American Dream!

Does the idea of budgeting give you a sense of freedom or does it make you feel tied down? I’d love to know how budgeting has been a blessing to you over the years.

I love buying used clothes! Often you get items like new for a fraction of the cost and sometimes for less than a dollar! I have a put together a great list of where to buy used clothes that I use when needing to add something to our wardrobe.

Thrift Stores:

After my daughter was born I stocked up on clothes for her first year at the thrift stores. Babies wear each size for such a short period of time, you normally have a lot of options. When you get into the preschool and elementary aged sizes you tend to find less selection as they tend to put a lot more wear on their clothes. Check each item for rips and stains. Thrift stores don’t have a screening process so you will want to do so carefully. Call and ask about sales. Most of our local thrift stores have a different deal each day of the week – fill a sack for $5, half off children’s clothes, half off yellow tagged items etc. Know what you want to buy and go the day you can get the best deal.

Garage Sales:

These are another great way to build up wardrobes. It requires a little more research and time as you have to look over the classifieds each week to see where you want to go and then drive numerous places but when you hit a house getting rid of clothes the size you wear or your kids are going into, you won’t beat the prices! Don’t forget to look for shoes and jackets as well as regular clothing. If you are buying a large amount, be sure to ask for a little discount. Last year we picked this winter coat and a pair of Converse for my daughter for a $1 each:

Consignment Shops:

You know you can find end of season clearance deals at retail clothing stores, but don’t forget to check out local consignment shops. I love shopping our town’s consignment shop. Everything is organized by size and color and each piece has already been looked over for stains and tears. Sure, the regular prices on a shirt are more than a thrift store with most between $4 and $15, but if you wait until the end of season you can get a bargain. Ask your store when they swap the clothes out. At our store the kids clothes switches over the beginning of August so families can do their back to school shopping. So you’ll want to look for deep discounted children’s items in July. The women’s clothes are switched over later, so I went in the middle of August and the summer shirts, dresses, shorts, and some pants were marked down – most 70%. I bought 6 shirts and 2 dresses: Guess what the total was? $19! You can’t beat that. Even if I just wear the shirts for a year or two. It was worth it. It’s also a great way to try out a style or color you normally don’t wear. If you love it, you know what to look for more and if you hate it, no biggie. Just pass it on.

Consignment Sales:

This is another option a lot of people love. To be honest, it’s my least favorite way to buy used clothes. I find the prices to be more than thrift stores and garage sales and the items aren’t looked over and carefully selected like they are at the consignment store so you have to carefully look at every item for stains and rips. If if checked out the other options, though, and you still need clothes, you might want to check for a sale in your area. Some one puts one on in our city twice a year. For the best selection you can bring your own clothes and help set up so you can shop early. Or if you are wanting a great deal, wait until the last afternoon and some consignors will allow their items to be marked down 50%.

Online Stores

Did you know there are online stores you can buy used clothes from? Pretty cool, huh? Shopping the in convienence of your home, while and kids are napping or playing sounds about perfect. Here are three places you’ll want to check out:

ebay

I’ve been looking on ebay so soft soled shoes for my toddler. Great way to get shoes and other clothing for a fraction of the cost and still have it be in good condition. You can also find a good selection of maternity clothes on ebay.

Like Twice

If you are looking for gently used women’s clothing, Like Twice has free shipping over $49 and $4.95 on smaller orders. If you purchase something and you don’t like it, you can use a prepaid return label if you want store credit or if you want the refund in cash a $4.95 shipping fee will be deducted from your returns. If you have women’s clothing, check and see if it would be worth selling to Like Twice.

If you sign up through my referral link  –  liketwice.com/eciEm – as a new customer, you’ll get $10 off your first order! If you like them on Facebook you’ll get a 15% off code as well.

Thred Up

Another store that has women, kids, shoes and handbags is Thred Up. They also have free shipping over $50 (or you can pay $19.99 and have free shipping for the entire year on any size order). Returns can be made within 30 days with tags still on but you do have to pay return shipping until you purchased using their app. You can also send your items to them so see if they will purchase them. If you sign up using my referral link, you can get $10 off your first purchase.

What’s your favorite place to buy used clothes from? Do you have any tips to share?

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Staycationing can be much easier (and more budget friendly) than a full fledged vacation. What happens, though, when you live in a small town that doesn’t have any of the big attractions or activities of a city?

We live in a small town in Northern Oklahoma. The places with zoos, large amusement parks, shopping malls etc are all almost an hour and half away. That’s still doable for a day trip, but I certainly don’t want to make that drive everyday of our staycation.

These are all things that we can do in our town:

Local Library

We love to take advantage of story time and the play center in the children’s area of our library. My kids don’t ever want to leave. In the summer there are other fun activities for children during the week. My kids would be happy to know an entire afternoon was going to be dedicated to the library and they could leave with books and movies.

Free Movies

Our historic theater downtown shows free family friendly movies every Thursday. We rarely go the the movies so this is a fun treat for the kids.

Water Fun

The key here is to avoid the hottest (and busiest) times of day. Go first thing in the morning or in the evening for a more relaxing trip and you won’t have to worry (as much) about your children getting sun burned.

• Splash Pad
• Pool
• Beach

Miniature Golf

Miniature golf is something we only do when on a trip. What better time to check out your local course than your staycation!

Dinner at your favorite restaurant

Growing up we seldom went out to eat. Going to a restaurant was a treat and something we looked forward to doing on our vacations. Plan a meal at a favorite restaurant (or maybe one you’ve never tried) in your town.

Ice Cream Shop

So many touristy towns have ice cream shops lining the streets of downtown. One afternoon, visit your local ice cream shop as a special treat. This would be the highlight of my 3 year olds day!

Picnic

Picnics and vacations, they just seem to go together. Whether hiking in the mountains, a trip to the lake or beach, or in the car while on a road trip a picnic seems to happen at least once. You could have a picnic in your backyard, living room floor, local park, or a pool.

Stay up late

Rest is important and I definitely wouldn’t want to keep my (fairly young) kids up late every night of our staycation. Pick a night or two and let them stay up – plan a fun activity that will go past their bedtime. Maybe the trip to the beach or splash pad or an after supper ice cream excursion.

Crafts

Take time to make a mess and get creative. Go to Michaels, Hobby Lobby, or your local craft store and add on to your craft supplies and have a family art session. Maybe you could all decorate shirts or design wood plaques. If you aren’t creative (goodness knows I need all the help I can get), you can also find kits with instructions for some great projects.

I think that the key to making these seemingly little and normal things fun is to turn them into a big deal – combine ideas and splurge a couple of times on things you normally wouldn’t. After your afternoon at the library pick up pizza and continue with a movie night. Head to the beach in the morning and finish the trip off with a picnic. Evening miniature golf followed by a stop for ice cream.

What things do you like to do on a staycation when in a small town?

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