I'm just starting out calorie-counting, using MyFitnessPal, so I don't feel like I have a lot to contribute yet because I don't even really know what works for me yet. But there is one thing I've gotten pretty good at, which I think might be of help to someone else: Getting my previously terrible financial situation in order. And as an added bonus, it now keeps me from eating out very often, which means it will be easier to lose weight. No more convenience food for me! (or not as much, anyway).
As a bit of background, I screwed up my finances around my first year of college. By the end of it I had three maxed-out credit cards, student loans, and I owed a friend money. I paid back the friend pretty quickly, but it wasn't until a couple years ago that I started dealing with my 5th-percentile credit rating. Yes, 5th percentile. Down there with dead people.
In the same way that no-one in my life taught me how to eat healthy, no-one taught me how to manage my finances. But now, along with my husband and various iterations of a budget spreadsheet, weekly meetings, sorting through piles of paperwork, talking to the bank, and so on; we have paid off all my cards, both his cards, his car, and most of my student loans. We've also gotten him residency in Canada (he's from the states), moved him up here, and just generally improved our situation. And now that we've begun losing weight, we've put some added precautions in place to ensure we can't splurge on food outside the house.
Here are the criteria that has made our method work for us:
1. There are two of us. There are SO many reasons this helps - not just the extra money. Sorry single folks; I don't know if I can give you any advice, because I didn't deal with my own problems alone. I bet you can though, if you set your mind to it!
2. One of us (me) is an organizer - I like to plan and organize stuff but I am not good at sticking to plans once I make them
3. One of us (my husband) is steady and sure. He's really good at sticking to plans but he doesn't especially enjoy making or implementing them.
Anyway, if it is of help to even one person, great! So I'll add another post to tell you guys what we did and what we're doing now. Given that this is a weight-loss support forum, I'll try to put a focus on how it's helping me (and my husband) eat less (and healthier) so far.
It'll take me a little while to get to how this is helping us eat less, so I'm going to breeze through the first steps we took to get our life in order. I can elaborate on any particular point on request.
1. The first step in getting your finances in order, no matter how much money you make or what your particular issues are, is to find out everything about your current situation. I won't go into detail here, but basically you need to find all your finance-related paperwork, and get a credit report pulled. Then you need to know your income and your expenses. Write EVERYTHING down (or better, put it all in a spreadsheet), so you can see it all at once. My husband and I sorted through everything together. As the organizer, I ended up doing the less monotonous stuff, like pulling credit reports and calling creditors to get more info about our accounts. My husband likes to be given specific tasks, so he did a lot of paper sorting, but I also gave him some phone calls to make and info to gather. Then I put all the info into a spreadsheet, without worrying much about the format. I just made a list of everything.
2. Make a budget. I think this is probably the most daunting step for a lot of people. I like to use a spreadsheet with pay periods along the top and expense categories along the left. A lot of people like to budget on a monthly basis, which would work just fine. We budget on a biweekly basis, so the dates on the top of our sheet are the Fridays my husband's paycheque comes in (I get paid weekly so I get two in that time period). Monthly is probably less work, but with biweekly accounting, we see accomplishments on a biweekly basis, and we can convene every other Friday to talk about them (more on that in number 3).
There are programs that will do all this for you. I've tried out a lot of them - Mint, for example, is pretty great (once you've got it set up so everything runs smoothly and automatically). But I've found that for us, it's still too easy to ignore the program and go over on personal spending because the money is available. With the spreadsheet, I can see how spending an extra $100 this month will affect our accounting 6 months down the road. I can share a generic version of our spreadsheet on request.
3. Meetings. My husband and I meet about our accounting situation now and then - usually every two weeks when he gets paid. But when we started out, it was really important for us to meet weekly. We had tasks to do, and we both needed to make sure we were doing our part.
With the exception of "Paper Parties" (we meet regularly to sort through paperwork and mail) we take these meetings out of the house, to the coffee shop down the street (PSA: Did you know a Venti Cool Lime Refresher at Starbucks has only 80 calories? And the Tall size has 38). This helped a lot because it can be really frustrating trying to dig yourself out of a hole, and being in public helps us tone down our emotions and work as a team.
We also have a regular "POOPS" meeting, which doesn't stand for anything... it's just a meeting to deal with our "poops" (or, if you prefer, sh#t). That's where we talk about our diet and exercise, chores, home repairs, and generally what we can do to fix our lives up. This second meeting at the coffee shop is also a good caffeine fix, since we don't own a coffee-maker. :P
Anyway, next, finally, I'll get to the rules we've set for ourselves which are what is really making us stick to our budget... it's one thing to make a budget, and a whole other thing to stick to it!
Here are the rules we have set, which are now forcing us to stick to our budget. Before we arrived at these, we tried some less effective methods, so I'll talk a bit about those as well in each section:
a) No matter what, all of my cheques go straight into savings.
When we started out, we tried saving a certain amount every month, putting our savings away before making other payments, and setting minimum amounts we had to keep in there. But inevitably this ended in too much "oh, we can't put the amount in since we're going to have to take it out anyway to cover rent" or some other nonsense. There are scheduled times throughout the year when we will need to take money out of savings to cover the stuff in our budget. However, we don't want to count on the money being in our main account on payday. We are living off my husband's cheques, and supplementing with mine. We want a house, goshdarnit!
b) We aren't carrying credit cards. (And I'm not carrying ANY cards)
This one was tough for me. I felt like I always had to carry a debit or credit card, if not for spending, then at least for emergencies. And anyway, it seemed logical to use the card instead of cash; I'd get points! Which I could buy more things with! Who doesn't want points?!
We tried to find ways around this. We sealed our cards up in little envelopes in our wallets, and checked them every week. But ultimately, we would open the envelope for a legitimate reason like buying groceries, then the floodgates would open. "Oh, I could go grab a sandwich for lunch. I've got the credit card open anyway." We are TERRIBLE, and I was the worst. I was eating out at LEAST once every day, stopping for sushi on the way home and buying (and eating) way too much of it. I'm talking $40 worth of sushi just for me.
Clearly, for me, having access to "infinite" sushi is a no-no. So we've put the envelopes at home, still sealed. But not only that! We've also removed every reason we would have to take the cards out of the house. Here's what we did:
First, we took a look at our budget sheet, to see what expenses we have that require us to carry a card. The interesting answer was that NONE of our expenses do, if we have cash on hand, and that most of our purchases out of the house weren't legitimate household expenses anyway. But what could we do to solve it? We still need to buy groceries, after all, and I can't carry hundreds of dollars of cash around. I'd spend it just like I spend plastic. So the next two points cover what ELSE we did:
c) We get allowances.
We've had allowances in our budget for a while, but it was beginning to seem like a bit of a joke since we'd only occasionally pay the credit card for the amounts we spent on eating out and other stuff. We were transferring money to our personal accounts every week, and using our own cards to either buy stuff or take out cash. We got $50 every two weeks (which I recently found out is LESS than one of my coworkers gives her kids as an allowance! Crazy!). But like I said, it wasn't working.
But now that we aren't carrying credit cards, or even our personal debit cards around, allowances are a necessity. We want to be able to eat out a little bit, and buy each other gifts, and feel like normal people. But we also don't want to have to independently stop at the bank every other week and take out our allotted cash, and honestly, I could see myself taking more than my allotted amount some weeks. I can justify just about anything to myself. So here's what we do now:
We go to the bank and take out allowances for the next 10 pay periods (well, the number isn't set - it depends on accounting because we want to avoid pulling out of savings, so at first it was only 3 sets of allowances each that we pulled out). Then we take it home and put it into little envelopes, and write a name and date on each one. My current one, for example, says "Fai - September 26" on it. We upped the amount to $60 (it's still a LOT less than we were spending biweekly on the credit card) and I carry the next sealed envelope in my wallet, which makes me feel like I can handle an emergency, like if I need to grab a taxi home or if I accidentally go over my budget at a restaurant or something. Interestingly, it hasn't happened yet. I don't open the envelope early because I know how much it sucks to have to wait EXTRA long for the next one.
d) My husband carries one debit card. (For the joint account)
I think I've made it clear that I'm the untrustworthy one in my relationship, but there's more to it than that. You see, I'm the organizer; I know what's going on with our accounting. My husband has access to the spreadsheet, but he trusts me too much and never looks at it (which I've told him, but I guess his laziness plays a part as well). End result? I know what we can get away with, and he doesn't. And we can use this to our advantage.
Since my husband doesn't generally have an idea of what's going on in our accounting (which account has money in it for groceries, for example), he's the perfect one to carry the debit card around which we use for grocery shopping. We don't want to carry that kind of cash around (we already have our allowances in cash, and bringing $250 extra for our stop at Costco would probably make me nervous) so we make sure we go grocery shopping together. He carries the card, and I keep track of the shopping budget. Occasionally I might ask him to stop at the store and pick up something particular for dinner, but there's communication, and we both know the card is ONLY for use at the grocery store (we also buy our transit passes with it, but we get those at the grocery store).
e) We moved all our recurring expenses to the credit card.
This probably isn't a necessity for anyone, but you know what? I really like points. We get quite a few free payments on our card every year just from using the card. If you're not paying any interest, that's free money! And on top of that, it's good to use your credit cards regularly (again, as long as you're paying them in full every month) because it makes them show up as active on your credit report.
So we have moved all of our recurring expenses, like phone bills, netflix, utilities, etc. to the credit card. They still go on our budget spreadsheet (we keep a separate section of the sheet for our credit card, then just have a line for the total credit card payment on the main part of the budget sheet), and they get paid in full every month. The best part is, they're relatively predictable amounts, so our budget is never stretched too far because of unexpected credit card expenses.
END RESULT
Anyway. I know this is a lot of stuff to read, and a lot of you probably already have your financial lives in order, or have a different kind of lifestyle that calls for different arrangements.
But for me, this has already helped me stick to home-cooked food. If I don't make my lunch before work or the night before, I go hungry. And when that happens, I sure don't forget to pack lunch the next day!
It's also had an interesting side-effect. Now, when I use my spending money to go out for sushi, I buy a really reasonable amount of sushi (sometimes just one roll, and never more than a simple 3-roll combo). Of course, this is because I know I'll want sushi tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that (I seriously never get tired of sushi). I have successfully tricked myself into eating small quantities!
Just yesterday I stopped at the place down the street and got a house roll. That's it, just one 300-calorie roll instead of a whole tray of them. And eating it right after work meant I was relatively satiated before I ate a smaller meal later, at dinnertime.
It's a big roll and it costs about $6.50, but I just got the one. After all, I can't open my next allowance envelope until the 10th.
You're not alone, many of us were suckered in college! Boy I remember there were stalls set up all over campus offering free t-shirts and other free goodies if you signed up for a credit card! And then those credit cards were free money (or so my young little brain thought). I believe that those free give aways on campuses are not even allowed now, oh I hope so!
After I paid off my credit cards I felt amazing. But it was when I paid off my student loans that I was finally able to breathe again. In order to pay off my credit cards I trashed them, cut them up and threw them away. I have not used any credit cards AT ALL since 2002. I do use a debit card but my logic is that it's real money, not money I ever have to pay back. So if I can afford something I can buy it.
My husband has his credit cards and he's very responsible about it so no change there. A few months ago we decided to open a joint credit card. I was scared at first but I'm so used to not using a credit card and my fears about being in debt are too great to abuse it. So I use it for specific things like gas and cash back rewards and that's it.
If you're interested in tips about how to cook and save money I have plenty of those, as do many of us here. Here's my chicken tip. I buy a whole chicken. Roast it in the oven with veggies for a proper roast dinner. Remove all the meat and serve. The next day I put the carcass in a pot with veggies and make a stock which I then section into quart containers and freeze. I use the stock to make soups, risottos, gravy etc. as needed. Then I use whatever meat is left over from the chicken to make a pot pie, chicken salad, quesadillas, top salad, make croquettes, whatever you can think of.
PS - I don't diet so I'm allowed to eat yummy things like chicken pot pies and croquettes and risottos
Ahahaha.... you're probably right on that one. We're not there yet, but I'm sure finances will be a whole new experience. I bet it's a lot harder to eat well once you have kids, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wannabeskinny
After I paid off my credit cards I felt amazing. But it was when I paid off my student loans that I was finally able to breathe again. In order to pay off my credit cards I trashed them, cut them up and threw them away. I have not used any credit cards AT ALL since 2002. I do use a debit card but my logic is that it's real money, not money I ever have to pay back. So if I can afford something I can buy it.
My husband has his credit cards and he's very responsible about it so no change there. A few months ago we decided to open a joint credit card. I was scared at first but I'm so used to not using a credit card and my fears about being in debt are too great to abuse it. So I use it for specific things like gas and cash back rewards and that's it.
If you're interested in tips about how to cook and save money I have plenty of those, as do many of us here. Here's my chicken tip. I buy a whole chicken. Roast it in the oven with veggies for a proper roast dinner. Remove all the meat and serve. The next day I put the carcass in a pot with veggies and make a stock which I then section into quart containers and freeze. I use the stock to make soups, risottos, gravy etc. as needed. Then I use whatever meat is left over from the chicken to make a pot pie, chicken salad, quesadillas, top salad, make croquettes, whatever you can think of.
PS - I don't diet so I'm allowed to eat yummy things like chicken pot pies and croquettes and risottos
I'm really focused on rebuilding my credit rating, so although I did essentially the same thing (chop up the cards), the advice I've been given is to NOT pay off my other loans before I have to - just keep making the regular payments. It's frustrating, because I want the last $3k in student loans paid, but I trust my credit union and they say just pay the minimum. >.<
Great idea with the chicken! I used to get the already-roasted ones from the store (which cost the same as raw ones), but my husband won't eat them. Maybe if I make it at home it'll be more palatable for him (he's weirdly picky about some things - he won't eat salmon at all, bread with seeds in it, chocolate with nuts in it... frustration!!!).
I'm terrible with soup - both making and eating it. That's probably something I should work on. I think if I was better at making it I'd eat it, but I never feel like I know what to do. If I wasn't going to freeze stock (I don't have the freezer space), do I just simmer the chicken carcass with veggies, then...? I guess stray meat will still come off the carcass into the soup? I'm totally lost when it comes to soup. Sounds ridiculous, I know.
If you don't like soup don't make soup. I was trying to illustrate that a little bit can go a long way. I enjoy cooking a lot and so I have constant need of chicken stock, I do this roast chicken about once every couple of weeks.
But since you asked I'll tell you. Malik chicken soup is simple. Take the carcass an put it in a pot with water. Add onions, carrots, celery chopped up or whole. For even more deliciousness I add a garlic clove, a tsp of tomato paste, fried thyme and a bay leaf. Cover it and when it comes to a summer lower the heat to the lower temperature. Let it "steep" for 4 hrs. Strain and discard the carcass and veggies. Now you have stock which you can use to make soup or add to dishes that call for it.
To make chicken soup sautée diced celery, carrots, potatoes, whatever veggies you like and then add the stock. Add noodles or rice to make it more hearty. Voila, beautiful homemade soup.
Fai, this is an absolutely wonderful checklist and game plan. I know a lot of people struggle with credit debt; it's a national epidemic, and not just because of college. I've had my own challenges with it and am veeeery careful with credit now.
Interestingly enough, I find that my finances and eating are closely connected. Whenever my eating is disordered, so are my finances. And as soon as I pull my eating in check, my finances fall right in line, too.
Finances, and not eating out so much
