Life after debt definitely hasn’t been exactly what I thought it would be (well obviously, I didn’t see a global pandemic coming at me). After paying off $26,500 of debt about a year and half ago, I thought we’d be saving more money than ever before. In fact we made a goal to save $10,000 last year and we fell terribly short, even though our income is higher and we have no debt. So what gives? We’re less motivated to save.

It seems to be a pretty common problem, after hustling to pay off debt, we’re likely a bit burnt out, ready to spend some money on ourselves and with the goal finally achieved, a little lost.

I thought I should go over WHY we need to save, and little tricks I’m using to make sure we save money in 2021!

Why You Need To Save Money

There’s 3 basic reasons you need to save money; an emergency fund, for a purchase or for wealth building. Let’s chat about all 3

Emergency Fund

An emergency fund is usually the next step after you’ve paid off your debt. Many financial experts suggest having 3-6 months worth of expenses in your emergency fund just in case you lose your job, or are unable to work (hello, pandemic!). You should be keeping this money in an easy place to access, like a savings account so that you don’t have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get money when you need it.

I keep ½ of mine in my regular checking account, and ½ in a TFSA. I also keep $1000 in a savings account for small emergencies. 

To be honest though, we have about 2.5-3 months of expenses saved, so we should be saving more. Although we could pull from our vacation savings in the event of a true emergency. 

Purchases

This type of savings is for planned purchasing, like a house, wedding, car, vacation, Christmas, etc. We use sinking funds and save every month for these types of expenses by setting up an automatic transfer. 

We currently have sinking funds for: travel, Christmas, utilities, and a new car.

For Christmas and utilities I added up how much we normally spent in a year and divided by 26 (the number of paychecks we get a year). For travel we have a set amount that goes in every payday, and for the car we were trying to save whatever was leftover at the end of the month. This is not a good strategy and it very clearly has not been working.

Wealth Building

The last reason to save money is to build wealth, which is usually done through investments. Usually you are building wealth so that you can retire, and possibly pass some wealth down to the next generation.

Wealth building takes time, but it’s so important. Who wants to trade time for money for the rest of their lives? Not this girl!

I’m not a financial advisor, so I won’t recommend WHERE to invest, but I definitely recommend finding an advisor you trust, so that you are set up for the future.

How To Stay Motivated To Save Money

Make A Goal

Just like when you were paying off debt, making a savings goal will help you stay focused. I remember feeling so motivated by seeing our debt payoff tracker on the fridge, so perhaps I should be using a savings tracker now! Use whatever motivates you.

Give Yourself Grace

I feel like I’ve written this a hundred times but giving yourself grace to make mistakes, go over budgets, and miss goals is so important. If you go over budget one month, stop using it as an excuse to stop budgeting altogether. Accept that it happened and go the next right thing. 

How To Stay On Budget

Ultimately, we aren’t saving money because we’re too busy overspending. Trying to save what’s left over at the end of the month won’t work most of the time (trust me, I’ve tried). Here are some tips to stay on budget & save money:

List Your Irregular Expenses

Irregular expenses will sneak up on you if you don’t pay attention. I keep a running list of all my bills and when they are due, including ones that come up once a year, or every 2-3 months. Don’t forget things like annual dues, water bills, pet annual exams, sports fees, etc.

Automated Savings Are Your Friend

I will never be able to stress this point enough. Set up automatic transfers with your online banking on payday. Every payday money automatically goes into our RRSP (for retirement), our Christmas savings, and our travel savings. I don’t even miss that money because we never really see it. It’s the easiest way to save and once you set it up you don’t have to do anything ever again!

Mix Up Your Budgeting Style

When I first started budgeting, I made monthly budgets, because I didn’t really think there was another way. Then I discovered budgeting by paycheck and that made things SO much easier for me. I am self employed and my paychecks vary. My husband is on a salary, so his stays the same every time. Budgeting by paycheck allowed me to budget money that we already HAD instead of guessing what I would make. That way if I had a month without so many clients, I wasn’t over extending my budget. 

Don’t be afraid to mix up your budgeting style: monthly, bi-weekly and weekly are all perfectly acceptable, find what works for you!

Final Thoughts

I hope this has helped you come up with some ideas to start saving again! Obviously we won’t always be motivated, but if we make saving a habit, it will happen anyway. 

Thanks for reading. I’ll chat with you again soon,

Let me tell you, this was an eye opening exercise.

Method

I budget biweekly, and so I got out my budget binder, and first I added up 6 pay periods of  pre-pandemic totals for income, fixed expenses, and variable expenses. I also pulled out the info for groceries, eating out & gas just because I thought the comparison would be interesting.

Then I added up 5 pay periods of during pandemic totals for the same categories. I created an average for each one to compare. 

Income

Thanks to my husband getting a raise right at the beginning of the pandemic, and the CERB government program, our income is only down 4% from it’s usual. Without the CERB our income would be down 30%.

Thankfully because we live within our means, we have been able to deal with less income and we haven’t had to dip into our emergency fund at all. 

It was announced this week that massage therapists will be able to go back to work in June. It may be awhile before I’m back at 100% of my previous income, but I know we’ll be able to manage until then.

Fixed Expenses

Being that these are fixed expenses they haven’t changed a whole lot. In fact the only thing that has changed is that I have stopped our automatic savings that goes into our travel account. While that was sad for me to do, reality is that we probably won’t be traveling for a little while, and we needed that cash flow for other parts of our budget.

Our fixed expenses dropped by 16%.

Variable Expenses

Wow, variable expenses have been a struggle! At first I thought we would be spending way less, because we wouldn’t be driving far, and we couldn’t go out shopping. 

I was wrong.

Our variable expenses have increased by 9%. I’m not surprised about this (just wait until you read about our groceries!). I have definitely been ordering online more than usual, and we’ve splurged on a few things to make our time at home more fun.

Here are a few things we’ve bought that we probably wouldn’t have normally:

• Deck chair
• Paint for downstairs bathroom
• Organization bins
• Alcohol
• Art on Etsy
• Ticket To Ride board game + expansion pack

As you can see, we’ve been playing a lot of games, and doing some organizing and redecorating! I actually don’t regret any of these purchases at all. 

Groceries

Within variable expenses, I picked out a few categories that I thought changed the most. Groceries have been a huge struggle for us since starting physical distancing. We are home all the time, and eating more. Plus I have been doing some baking that I normally wouldn’t have time to do. 

I’ll be completely honest that I have been struggling to get our grocery spending under control and we’ve ended increasing our grocery spending by 38%.

It’s not the end of the world, but it’s something I want to get a handle on going forward. 

Read More: Budget Recipes!

Gas

Of course, now that I am off work and that my husband is working from home, I thought it would be funny to see how much our gas consumption has changed! We decreased our gas spending by 91%! I guess that’s what happens when you hardly leave your house ;).

Eating Out

We actually don’t eat out very often. We only eat out probably once every 6 weeks or so. I miss restaurant food so much right now though! We’ve only gotten takeout once since the pandemic started. It was delicious but I definitely missed the magic of sitting in a restaurant, since we almost always eat out with friends. 

Our restaurant budget has decreased by 67%.

Budget Percentages

I also decided to take a look at our general budget percentages. Lots of interesting info here: 

Housing = mortgage, property tax and home insurance
Transportation = gas, bus tickets, parking and car insurance
Utilities = water, power, phone, internet, and Netflix
Food = groceries and eating out
Savings = retirement savings, car savings and emergency fund
All Else = clothing, gifts, pets, personal care, entertainment, travel & Christmas sinking funds, life insurance, charity, misc spending

Overall I’m pretty happy with how our percentages fall. 

I included the recommended percentages, but of course that is just a guideline! If you have debt you’d have to work that in by decreasing spending in other areas. As long as it adds up to 100% you’re golden!

Final Thoughts

This was definitely an eye opening exercise, and interesting to see how our budget has changed over the last almost 3 months while we’ve been home more (and working less in my case!).

You can’t make changes without data! We are committing to decreasing that grocery budget, I’ll give you an update on that soon! 

Has your budget changed over the past few months? Let me know!

Spring has sprung, and that always has me thinking about spring cleaning! Have you ever considered organizing your financial life part of spring cleaning? Finances can be overwhelming to most of us, papers can take over, and it makes us feel stressed and disorganized. I’m going to show you had to literally organize the mess, and how to set yourself up for future success! 

Clean Out The Papers

This step may be challenging, especially if you don’t have a filing system in place already! It is worth it to take a day and get your papers organized into a system that works for you. Once you do this, every other year’s Spring cleaning (and tax time) will be so much easier.

Shred Old Documents

Anything you don’t need, including tax returns over 8 years old, make sure you shred them! A lot of financial documents have personal information on them, and you don’t want that to fall into the wrong hands! Recycle the shreddings

Make A Filing System

We have a filing cabinet that I store all our old tax returns in, receipts for major purchases like appliances, debt repayment documents, and mortgage documents. They are all labeled in folders.

I also have a smaller file folder where I keep receipts for everything we purchase all year. At the end of the year I get rid of everything we don’t need for tax purposes etc. I keep all our receipts just in case we need to return something, or I want to cross reference with my online banking. 

You don’t have to use the same system I do, make one that makes sense for you!

Check On Retirement Contributions

Another part of your yearly spring cleaning should be going over your retirement contributions. Are you saving enough? Should you be saving more? And has your risk tolerance changed due to your circumstances? 

These are questions you should go over with your spouse and your financial professional to make sure you are on track to retire when you want to.

Update Your Budget

Or make one if you haven’t already. Budgets should be living documents, growing and changing to meet your needs. 

We have been budgeting biweekly for almost a year now, and we budgeted monthly for about 2 years before that. 

Read more about starting a budget.

If you’re looking for a personal finance organizer, check out The Budget Binder! It will help you make a budget, track your net worth, save money and be more organized. 

Get the budget binder!

Update Sinking Funds

When updating your budget, go over your sinking funds and set some up if necessary. We have sinking funds for our power bill, travel, Christmas and a new car.

Some other sinking fund ideas are: 

• Kids sports fees
• House maintenance
• Back to school shopping
• Wedding

Basically anything that will be a large cost in your budget!

Read more about sinking funds!

How To Organize Your Bills

Spending a little time organizing your bills will help budgeting go much smoother. 

1. Write Them Down

As part of your budgeting, you should have all your bills written down and their due dates. This will make budgeting so much easier, because you won’t forget them! Don’t forget irregular bills like annual dues.

2. Change Due Dates If Necessary

I have a lot of my bills come out of my bank account every 2 weeks on payday. By having them come out on my payday, I can’t accidentally spend the money on something else and then not have enough to pay my bills.

3. Automate Savings & Bills

We also have our retirement savings, and sinking funds automated to move into different accounts on payday. It is easy to set up in online-banking. By automating our bills and savings we pay ourselves first, to make sure we don’t incur interest on our bills (and/or debt) and we are saving for the future.

Make Financial Goals

I have been making financial goals either monthly or quarterly for the past 3 years. Making goals helps you stay focused, and helps by giving you a sense of accomplishment when you finally achieve your goal.

Here are some ideas for financial goals

• Pay off debt
• Make / stick to a budget
• Save for a large expense like a house downpayment or a new (to you) car
• Sell items you don’t use
• Build your emergency fund
• Have a no spend week/month

Make A Debt Repayment Plan

One of your financial goals might be to make a debt repayment plan. We paid off $26,500 in 21 months by doing the debt avalanche method. Meaning we paid off the highest balance with the highest interest rate first. 

Some people prefer the debt snowball (the lowest balance) method. Either way, make a plan that includes paying the minimum balance on each debt, and then paying extra on one debt until it is gone.

Read more about debt avalanche vs debt snowball methods.

Get the debt repayment tracker emailed to you for free!

Final Thoughts

I know this seems like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be done all in one day! Spread out the tasks, and you’ll be much better off in the long run! This system will help you organize and save money. Happy Spring cleaning!

Many of us are finding ourselves living on one income, or living on a low income right now. I have personally been without income for almost a month, luckily my husband is still working. This is not the only time we’ve lived on one income; I worked while my husband was in school.

Losing your income isn’t the only reason! Sometimes one parent is on maternity/paternity leave, or maybe you are trying to live on one income and saving the other. No matter what your circumstances, here are my tips for living on one income.

Tips For Living On One Income

Budget

If you’ve been around here for a while, you had to know this would be tip #1! Budget the income that you have. Start with determining your income, and then determine your fixed expenses. 

Hopefully you will have some wiggle room for the variable expenses like groceries, and entertainment. 

We are still following the zero-based budgeting method that we’ve been doing for the last 3 years.

The first thing I did when I had to stop working due to the current pandemic was make an “emergency budget”. This budget is a bare bones budget compared to our usual, we are not saving as much as we usually do, and will have to cut back on some “wants” but it will get us through until I can start working again.

Reduce Your Expenses

If you are used to living on 2 incomes, and now you are living on 1, then you’ll likely have to reduce some expenses in order to live within your means. You may have to downgrade (or cancel) your cable, gym memberships, and any other subscriptions. In some cases you may have to think about moving to a less expensive home if the situation is permanent.

We have cut back on eating out and entertainment to help make up for the difference in income.

We are also focusing on reducing our grocery budget, since that is the most expensive line in our variable expenses! 

Check out our Budget Bites Recipes!

Decide On Your Lifestyle

Personal finance is personal, so this looks different for everyone. Deciding on your lifestyle will help you (and your partner, if you’re sharing finances) figure out what is important to you. For example my husband and I will still be saving some money for future travel, because that is important to us. 

Pay Off Debt

Living on one income with debt will be challenging. If possible, pay off as much debt as you can before going down to one income. If you’re living on one income because of job loss, you might not get the chance, but still make payments on your debt. 

Find Cheap / Free Hobbies

Living on a lower income doesn’t mean you have to give up fun completely! Finding hobbies and activities that don’t cost a lot will help you stay sane. Things like:

• Reading
• Gardening
• playing board games
• Running
• Baking
• Writing
• Yoga
• Painting

You get the idea! Maybe you bought some craft stuff a while ago and never got around to doing it, or maybe you have a bicycle in the garage! There are always things to do!

Check out these ideas for free date nights!

Barter

Everyone is skilled at something, and you may be able to barter with someone else! See if you can barter with your friends to save money on things you would usually pay for. This will help you (and your friends) save money.

Final Thoughts

Living on one income can be scary, especially if you are used to two. I won’t lie, it has been stressful for me too. I hope these tips will help you prepare for living on one income!

PS. Now that you’re living on one income, when you’re back up to two incomes maybe you can save the other one! That’s a great way to start your journey towards FI/RE (financial independence,retire early!)

Groceries, and food in general, are no doubt one of the largest parts of our variable budgets. Everyone has to eat! 

Right now our grocery budget is $150 every 2 weeks, for 2 adults. That includes household items like cleaners and toilet paper. We often come in under budget, but sometimes we go over too! 

I want to show you how we save money on groceries and eat healthy, and we do it without coupons!

How To Save Money On Healthy Food

Meal Plan

Meal planning is a great way to save money and avoid the “what’s for dinner” conversation. When I make a meal plan I first look at what I have left in the fridge to use up before it goes bad, and make a plan to use that soon. Then I plan other meals after looking at the sales flyer. Don’t forget about breakfast, lunches and snacks. Plan to make extras at dinner so you have leftovers for lunch!

Meals With Fewer Ingredients

The fewer the ingredients in a meal, usually the less it will cost to make. Look at simple recipes without a long list of ingredients. Also meal plan around meals that will use many of the same ingredients. You can use that baby spinach in a salad, then a pasta recipe, and in wraps. That way you are buying one vegetable and using it all up!

Buy Whole Fruits and Vegetables

Precut vegetables and fruits, and premade salads are definitely convenient but they always cost a bit more. Buying whole produce will help you save money (plus then you won’t be buying it in plastic packaging!)

Buy In Season

Buying produce in season always helps you save money because it is not shipped from far away, therefore costing the supermarkets less to stock that item. “In season” will depend on where you live!

Check Out Farmer’s Markets

To buy what is in season, check out your local farmer’s markets! Usually you can get a cheaper price buying directly from a farmer. 

Reduce Food Waste

Reducing food waste saves you money because when you throw any food away, you’re also throwing away the money you spent on it! Try to use all parts vegetables, save peeling to make broth, you can even use broccoli stems in salad! My friend over at Stop Trashing It made pesto with her carrot greens, there’s lots of ways to use food.

Eat less Meat

I’ll be honest, we don’t eat a lot of meat at our house, and I think that’s one reason our grocery bill is lower. If you’re a big meat lover try adopting meatless Mondays to slowly reduce the amount of meat that you buy. 

Drink Only Water

Drinking water is not only better for you, it’s way healthier! Don’t buy bottled water either unless you live somewhere where the drinking water is unsafe. We have a Brita filter, but you could drink straight from our tap as well! Pop and sugary drinks are way more expensive, but if you miss the bubbles consider a SodaStream. We’ve had one for over a year and one Co2 canister lasts us 2-3 months. 

Cook And Bake From Scratch

When you cook and bake from scratch you control what ingredients go in, and it will be so much cheaper than buying pre-made! You can make bread, pizza dough, soups, spaghetti sauce and more very simply!

Read More: How To Budget Biweekly

Food Shopping On A Budget

Choose Your Store Carefully

The store you choose to shop at can make or break your budget. I live in Canada and we usually shop for groceries at Walmart. No Frills is another great grocery chain for cheaper prices. 

Calculate As You Shop

To stay on budget, you may want to calculate as you shop. Use your phone calculator to add up the prices, and if you are going over budget then you might need to put something back. Adding as you shop keeps you from having to figure out what to do at the check-out. 

Consider Grocery Pick-up

I just used grocery pick-up for the first time this past week, and it was great! I knew how much my groceries would cost in advance, and was able to compare prices online. Although there can be a fee for this service, it can save some time and may help keep you on budget by helping you avoid impulse purchases.

Bulk Bin Shop

Shopping from the bulk bins can help you save money in 2 ways – sometimes it is cheaper to buy an item in the bulk bins, and sometimes it helps you save money because you can buy only what you need. For example I needed only ¼ cup of flax seeds for a recipe, so that’s all I bought and it cost me $0.13! A bag would have cost a few dollars and may have gone to waste in my pantry.

Read More: Can Going Green Save You Money?

Get Rainchecks

When an item is on sale, and there’s none left on the shelf, head to the customer service desk to get a rain check! That way you can still get the item on sale when it is back in stock even if the sale has ended.

Store Food Properly

Learning how to store food properly will help extend the life of your food! Love Food Hate Waste has a great resource section on how to store all types of foods.

Bring Your Own Bags

Here in our house we focus on saving money, and the environment and bringing your own bags accomplishes both! Most stores charge you to use their plastic bags, and some stores here don’t even have plastic bags for you to use! I know it’s usually only a few cents but it does add up.

Buy Generic

Generic or store brand items are usually the same quality as the brand name ones, but much cheaper! It’s an easy switch.

Shop The Sale And Clearance Sections

Don’t forget the sale sections for food that is close to it’s best before date. Things like meat or bread you can freeze. 

Look At Unit Prices

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what item is the best deal because the sizes aren’t the same. That’s when the unit prices come in handy! As you can see below, one box of spaghetti is twice the size so you might think it’s a better deal, but when you look at the unit prices, you are better off buying 2 of the smaller one!

How To Save On Household Items

Consider Making Your Own

There are a ton of recipes out there for homemade cleaners! We tend to use a lot of vinegar for cleaning.

Don’t Buy Disposables

Another one that saves money and the environment! We limit the use of paper towels to really gross stuff, and try to limit things like plastic wrap and tinfoil. We bought prep bowls with lids for storing food without plastic wrap, and use dish cloths to wipe the counters instead of paper towels.

Shop At Wholesale Stores

Places like Costco can be a great place to buy household items like toilet paper and laundry detergent. We usually buy laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent and paper towels here once every 9 months to a year or so, and it lasts us that long!

Subscribe and Save

Amazon offers a subscribe and save program for household products. You can save from 5% up to 15% off the price of the product!

Compare Products

Always remember to compare generic to brand name and check the unit prices!

Final Thoughts

Wow! That was a lot of ways to save money on groceries! I hope that helps you when you are trying to stay on budget with food.