Marla the Blogger

Like most people, I'm always looking for ways to save money. But sometimes I get so busy with life that I don't stop to reassess where our money is going to see where there are potential cost savings. This month was particularly tight for us because it's a long month and both my husband and I only get paid monthly (and sadly, at the same time) so I went through our monthly expenses and found a few places to save a little money. Here are a few ways I've been able to save some money in the last few months:

• Watch out for service increases - because promotional offers we received expired around the same time, both our Internet service and cable bill went up around the same time. I called the cable company to see what we could do to get our bill reduced, and they offered me another promotional deal if we bundled our Internet service with them. So we switched it over and are now saving $40 a month (and locked in the price for 2 years).
• Pay only for what you use - we had a family gym membership that I used occasionally and my husband rarely used. I canceled it and starting using the workout facilities at my office for free, but my husband wanted the option of using a gym every once in a while. So he bought a punch card. That way, he's only paying for the times he actually uses the gym.
• Ask for a better deal - like what I did with our cable service, sometimes you can call and negotiate better rates, especially if you tell them you're thinking of canceling your service. Even credit card companies sometimes will give you a better interest rate if you are a good customer and you call to ask. Is your car insurance bill high? Call your agent and see if there are any discounts or savings you are eligible for. Or maybe you're paying for extra coverage that you don't really need.

Our home computer died suddenly this week. I took it in to have it repaired because we were having problems getting it to power up all the way. I had assumed it was just a problem with the power supply that could be fixed, but as it turns out, there are other problems with it as well and the cost to repair would be almost as much as a whole new computer. Really, I shouldn't have been that surprised; that computer is over five years old.

However, I hadn't planned on extensive repairs or a whole new computer, so now we need to figure out how to deal with this unexpected expense. Both my husband and I (and our son, for that matter) use the computer on a daily basis, so it's not an option for us to just go without one.

• Don't make any snap decisions - because I had initially taken the computer in to be repaired, my first impulse was just to pay them to do all the repairs. However, that probably isn't the best use of our money in the long run, as other components are bound to fail on a machine that old. But if we get a new computer, we're not sure exactly what we'd want to get. So, we're having the data from our old machine saved so we can take our time and figure out exactly what we want to do.
• Ask for advice, but with caution - since we weren't prepared to make the decision on what to do/get, I asked some friends and co-workers (especially those who work in technology). We received some good advice to consider, but we also have to take our own needs, lifestyle and budget into consideration. My husband and I try to be thrifty, so we wouldn't be happy if we spent a lot of money for the "latest and greatest" when we could have spent less and still got something that was good enough for what we need.
• Consider all of your financial options - we have more than enough money in our savings account to pay cash for a new computer. However, I don't like to use that money because it's our "emergency" fund for what I would consider a "real" emergency (like a job loss). We recently applied for a new credit card with no interest for the first 6 months, so it might be better to use that and pay it off over the next few months so we don't have to dip into our savings.

It's never easy to deal with an unexpected expense, but I think if we take our time we can handle it. It also helps that we try to live well within our means on a day-to-day basis. Because we're not maxed out financially, we can find ways to cover surprises like this. Sometimes living within our budget means that we don't always have everything we want and we make due with what we have. It's worth it, though, to not be constantly stressed about money and to be able to handle unexpected expenses.

The holiday season has hit the stores full force and it's time to start thinking about my budget for gift giving. It's not exactly a fun exercise; I always end up wishing I could spend and give more this time of year. But I've learned the hard way from past experience that if we don't come up with a budget for what we can afford to spend, we'll regret it in January. Here are a few things we typically do when coming up with our holiday budget:

• Agree on what you're going to spend total and per gift BEFORE you start browsing. I've found we set a more reasonable limit if we haven't already started picking out presents in our head that are on the more expensive side. If I've already seen the "perfect" gift for someone for $60, I'm less likely to agree to a $30 limit.
• Keep and log receipts as you buy. It doesn't have to be a fancy spreadsheet, but at least right down the total cost of each gift when you buy it and document what the subtotal is for everything so far. This definitely helps with inching over the limit on individual gifts because you see how quickly the overages add up.
• Don't forget the "extras". Your budget should include everything you'll need to buy for the holidays: decorations, wrapping paper, charitable donations, food outside of your usual grocery budget, etc. That way you won't have any surprises when the bills come in January.
• Speaking of bills, keep the credit card use to a minimum. It's tempting when money is tight to just charge it and worry about it later. I know first hand, though, how tough it is to have to pay those bills off. At one point my husband and I had quite a bit of credit card debt. When we finally realized we needed to stop charging and pay our balances down, it took us almost 2 years to get everything paid down. Those bills weren't exclusively holiday related, but our spending during the holidays definitely contributed.

The first few times we did a holiday budget, my husband was resistant. Like most of us, he enjoys buying nice things for friends and family to show how much he appreciates them and felt restricted working within a budget. But after a few years of us overspending, he saw the benefit of budgeting in advance. Now he helps me set the budget and stick to it; it definitely makes January more enjoyable for both of us.