04.06.07
Posted in Debt Reduction, Finance, Food, Musings, Work at 12:41 pm by trueepicure
Packed lunch is going pretty well. Since I received my Mr. Bento
lunch container on March 21, I’ve brought lunch to nine out of the ten days that I was in the office.
Some pretty basic math suggests that, based on our monthly grocery bill, we spend the approximately $3 per meal per person, each day (and no, I haven’t figured out what it is when we use leftovers from dinner or what we’re actually spending on food and not cleaning supplies, etc.). If I eat out for lunch, I spend about $10 on average. So, if you take the amount I would have spent on lunch ($10) and subtract what it costs to bring food from home ($3), I’ve saved $7 each of the times that I’ve brought lunch to work. Multiply that $7 nine times, and I’ve saved $63! Whoot!
That $63 represents a good chunk of change towards the debt reduction, which makes me regret not eating with my work friends less. If I save $30 per week, that’s and additional $120 per month towards credit card debt, which means that one of my credit cards balances will be gone in four months at the most. If that’s not incentive, I don’t know what is!
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03.21.07
Posted in Debt Reduction, Finance, Food, Musings, Work at 10:56 am by trueepicure
I’ve been fascinated with Obento lately, so I’ve been much better about packing lunch. Not only do I find myself thinking of new and interesting ways to pack things, I’m eating better and saving money!
I figure that if I bring my lunch one day, I save about $10 on average. Assume I bring my lunch to work 3 days a week on average, and I’m saving $1500 a year!
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03.08.07
Posted in Debt Reduction, Finance, Musings, Soapbox at 12:45 pm by trueepicure
I’m really happy to see that in this age of massive credit card debt, that the topic is being brought out of the closet more and more. I read recently in Michelle Singletary’s “The Color of Money” column in the Washington Post, that:
The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. personal savings rate for all of 2006 was negative 1 percent, the worst since the Great Depression.
From July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006 there were almost 1.5 million personal bankruptcy filings.
Credit card issuers have increased the number of mailed credit card offerings sixfold since 1990, from just over 1.1 billion to a record 6 billion in 2005. [The Census Bureau's 2006 estimate of the total population of the U.S. is just under 300 million.]
Revolving credit card debt, the amount you don’t pay off every month, increased 6 percent from $827 billion to $876 billion in 2006.
Low- and middle-income households have, on average, $8,650 in credit card debt. [I'd be interested to know what the actual range is. My guess is that there are some pretty high numbers at the top end.]
There is a movie opening this week, called Maxed Out, that has a lot of people talking. My impression is that it is Debt a la Supersize Me. I think it’s great that people are talking about what has been a taboo topic for so long. I mean, check out all of the blogs that talk about personal finance and debt!
I wish someone had started me thinking about budgets and personal finance when I was in high school… or even earlier. If I had thought about what credit cards could do to my financial life a little bit more, I would be in MUCH better shape now. It makes me think that I should put together a presentation and start knocking on school doors. I’m serious!
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02.15.07
Posted in Debt Reduction, Finance, Musings at 10:38 pm by trueepicure
I decided today, that my freeware spreadsheets weren’t cutting it. I just can’t sit there every month and enter all of my bank transactions into the spreadsheet. Even importing a comma-delimited file of my transactions was too much formatting and fixing. I just don’t have time for that!! So, I bit the bullet and purchased Quicken Basic 2007. $29.95, and it’s all mine! I didn’t even have to leave the couch, thanks to the download option. I am such an instant gratification kind of girl.
So, I’ve spent the evening setting up my personal banking account (and getting ready to set up our joint account), and my “cash” account where I keep track of all of the cash that I use. I try to use my check card for everything, but it sometimes isn’t convenient, especially when eating out with a group. I’m such a nerd. I love spreadsheets and things like that, so Quicken makes me happy. 
Now, I just need to reconcile all of my accounts!
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