Good Morning Everyone.  It’s February 13^th and this means that some of us who hate the cold have been cooped up in our homes and apartments for almost 2 months.  I don’t know about you, but I am definitely starting to experience some anxiety from cabin fever.  The few months after the holidays can be a big strain on our budgets as we rebuild your savings and pay off our Credit Cards. We don’t want to be stuck inside because that can get very boring very quickly.  However, maybe our budget just doesn’t have the flexibility right now to spend money on having fun.

Here are 5 Tips on How to Have Fun Without Spending Tons of Money:

1. Spend those gift cards.  It’s a great idea to ask for Gift Cards as a Christmas, Birthday, or Graduation Present because we can enjoy them throughout the year.  We can save them in case of an emergency or we can spend them when retail stores are having various sales throughout the year.  Giving Gift Cards as a Present is also very economical because if we live in a city away from our family it doesn’t cost more than the price of a postage stamp to mail them.

2. Hang out as a group. They say that one is the loneliest number; I say that one is the most expensive number.  I agree that sometimes we just need to spend some quality alone time, but doing everything by our self can become very expensive.  If we want to go out we can call a group of friends, get together for dinner or something, and all split the costs.

3. Go to the movies. If we go to the movies on a Friday or Saturday the evening can definitely start to be very expensive with the cost of the ticket and the cost of the food and snacks. However if we go to the movies on a night when the theatres are offering a discounted price on the ticket cost and we skip the snacks we can definitely save a lot of money and still have a good time. Many movie theatres also offer clients the option to purchase their tickets in advance at a discounted price or as a package deal.

4. Cash in your rewards points. If we are a member of a rewards program maybe it’s time to check our rewards points balance and cash in our points for gift cards, coupons, money, and other rewards.  Maybe we can get a free dinner, maybe we can get a free flight, or maybe we can just go shopping and get some free stuff.

5. Get outside.  It is still a bit cold outside but the air is fresh and the sunlight will do us some good.  We can bundle on the layers and go for a walk.  As we walk around our neighbourhood we can discover new stores, restaurants, and other fun places.  I like walking around in winter as long as the sun is shining and there is not a snow storm. As I walk around I picture my neighbourhood in spring when all the snow has melted and the flowers begin to bloom; it gives me hope for the warm weather to come.

Photo by Eden Pictures

Good Morning Everyone. Today we are continuing on with another budget themed post.  Today we are discussing how to fit everything into our monthly budget.  Regardless of how much money we make we can always make room to fit all of our goals into our budget.

Some people don’t invest because they don’t know where to start.  Some people don’t save because they don’t think that they make enough money, and very often most people spend all of their monthly income.  It’s human nature; we can always find something to spend our money on. The key to sticking to our monthly budget is to spend what is left over only after we invest for the long term, save for the short term, and pay all of our monthly bills.

Saving and Spending with our Monthly Budget

As a general rule we should spend 70% of our salary and save 30% of our total net (after tax) monthly income.  I know some savvy savers who live on only 50% of their monthly income and they save one full pay check every month, however for many of us (especially if we are still in school) this is not possible.  Of course we want to have the least amount of expenses as possible each month, but we don’t want our lifestyle to suffer at the cost of trying to save money.

The key to smart budgeting is to make sure that when we spend money the cost is worth it.  If we overspend in one category of our budget then we have to save somewhere else.  It’s not important (and usually not efficient) to try and micro manage our monthly budget; we have to look at the big picture.  If we pay expensive monthly rent to live close to work or to live in a really nice neighbourhood for convenience then we may not need to have a car or to buy a monthly bus pass.

Our Budget Can Have Investing Too

The 30% of our net salary that should be saved can be divided between saving for the short term in case of an emergency, saving for our 5-10 year goals such as buying a home, as well as saving for retirement.  We should always be saving on a regular basis for the short, medium, and long term; however the percentages allocated to each time horizon depend on our personal goals as well as our age.

If we are very young we may not need to allocate a lot of money towards saving for our retirement, because over the long term even small amounts of savings can add up to large amounts of money over the long term.  We may want to focus on short term and medium term investing when we are younger because we probably have many other personal goals to achieve before retirement.

As we grow older and we start achieving our short term and medium term goals we can start to allocate more of our monthly savings towards retirement because for many of us retirement is our ultimate long term financial goal.

Photo by Borman

Good Morning Green Panda Friends and Happy First Monday of February.  It’s past the first of the month and that means that rent is due, and so are all of our regular monthly bills.  Today we are discussing why it’s important to pay our bills on time and how we can budget our income to make sure that we don’t miss any of our payments.

It’s important to pay our bills on time because our hydro, cable, and electricity bills are a form of credit.  If we miss a payment it can definitely affect our credit score in a negative way.  This past week I had a client come and see me who was retired and living on a fixed income.  He needed help with his budget because he doesn’t have enough income to cover all of his monthly expenses.

When I asked where his money was going each month he said that it was being spent on utilities and maintenance fees to keep his home in the suburbs up and running each month.  I don’t understand why one person who lives alone needs a big house with a pool and a double garage.  Extra space just means extra expenses for heating, cleaning, and up keep.  When I asked him if he wanted to sell his house and downgrade to a more affordable home he said no, he was very happy and did not want to move.

Keeping his home was putting him in debt, and borrowing to make ends meet is never a smart financial strategy.  If we can’t even afford to pay our monthly bills we are never going to be able to afford to pay our monthly bills and repay a loan at the same time. Budgeting is about making sure that we always have more income coming in than we have going out to pay our monthly bills and expenses.

3 Helpful Tips to Make Sure Your Bills Are Paid On Time

1. Make Payments Every 14 days. It is a lot easier to divide our bills into two smaller amounts than it is to make one large payment each month.  It is a lot easier for record keeping purposes to set up automatic payments each month and have our bills directly debited from our bank accounts. However it may not be what is best for our budget.  If we don’t have the money in our bank account to pay the monthly bill in full then our payment will be returned due to non sufficient funds (NSF) and that is very harmful to our credit score.

2. Check The Total Amount Due. Before we make any monthly bill payments we should always double check our last statement.  Even if we miss our payment by $0.03 our bill company will mark our payment as being late; and this will show as a missed payment on our credit bureau.

3. If We Can’t Afford It Then Make Cuts.  If we can’t afford our bills every month there are only two ways that we can fix this problem….earn more income each month or make cuts to our monthly expenses.

Photo by Camera Eye