September Expenses – $2421.86

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household

$871.88
Entertainment

$30.00

Transportation

 $805.55

Food

$344.92
Cable/Internet

$93.77
Phone

$97.78
Electric

$75.05
Medical/Dental

$102.91

Total

 $2421.86

Expenses in September were way higher than I prefer.  The household budget was high because there were $261.72 spent on gifts.  There were several birthdays in September.  We also spent a little money on clothing which we don’t do most months but it is necessary sometimes.  The transportation expense was the other big expense.  We had a $294.86 repair bill for getting our brakes fixed and some gaskets replaced.  There was also a $196.90 bill for getting a new windshield.  The windshield has had a couple of cracks for a few months and last month they started getting even bigger so we decided it was time to get the windshield replaced.  We also spent about $250 in gas, not counting the gas used for business.  All of these expenses should be lower in October although there will still be some gifts bought and car repairs made.

I’d really like to get our food bill under $300.  I think it is a reasonable goal and we can make it if I cut back on eating out.   All the other expenses should be roughly the same in October.  My goal for October is to get our expenses back under $2000 again.

Saving Money as a One Car Family

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My wife and I are a one car family. When I met my wife last year she didn’t have a car and it was easy for us to stick with just one car after we got married. Since I mainly made my money from blogging I didn’t usually need to be anywhere at a particular time and could take my wife to and from work. Since then we have started working together which makes it even easier for us to be a one car family. There are both benefits and drawbacks to being a one car family though.

The main benefit to being a one car family is saving money. We only have to pay car insurance, registration, licensing, and personal property tax for one car rather than two. We are able to avoid taking out any car loans that might be needed to purchase a second car. Having just one car keeps our automotive expenses at roughly half what they would be if we had two cars. You don’t have to have an aat qualification to see that this is a good deal.

The main drawback to only having one car is when we need to be different places at the same time. This doesn’t happen too often though and we’ve always been able to plan ahead so that we can both be where we need to be. Another drawback is when we need to take the car in for repairs. Then we need to either borrow a car or hang out at the repair shop. The repair shop we usually go to has wi-fi and has pretty quick service so this hasn’t been too much of a problem either.

Most families don’t have as ideal of a situation as ours when it comes to being a one car family. It is worth examining whether your situation would allow you to be a one car family. The large savings are worth the few drawbacks.

Some Thoughts on FINCON11

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I was fortunate to spend this weekend at the Financial Bloggers Conference in Chicago. I had a great time and got to meet lots of fellow bloggers. There are a couple of things I wish I had done differently though.

I arrived at the hotel on Friday a little after noon for a meeting with an advertiser. I spotted a few bloggers in the lobby already. Crystal of Budgeting in the Fun Stuff was easily identifiable since she had a BITFS tote bag so I went over and introduced myself and my wife. She then introduced me to Jesse of PF Firewall. Then the guy across from her and introduced himself as J.D. Roth. I was so surprised that I barely managed to introduce myself and forgot to introduce my wife. I wanted to talk to him but was afraid of saying something idiotic and looking stupid so I ended up saying nothing and looking stupid. I am an introvert and have trouble coming up with something to say on the spur of the moment. Before the next conference I have got to be prepared with something to say when a blogger I admire talks to me.

I did recover from that and managed to meet lots of other bloggers. From the Yakezie I met Len Penzo, Barbara Friedberg, Jason from Live Real Now, Suba from Wealth Informatics, Travis from Our Journey to Zero, Ashley from Money Talks, and more. There are too many to list them all.

I also managed to introduce myself to some of my favorite bloggers such as Pat Flynn, Adam Baker, and Donna Freedman. They were all very approachable and I hope I didn’t bore them too much. I didn’t have an agenda that I wanted to talk about. I just wanted to thank them for their helpful and enjoyable blogs. And lastly I was able to meet Phil Taylor of PT Money and thank him for organizing the event.

Here are a few links to more posts about the conference. Thanks to Lazy Man, who I also got to meet at the conference, for putting together the list. I’ve added a few more links to it.

Financially Consumed
Smart Passive Income
The Jenny Pincher
Get Rich Slowly
Cash Money Life
Consumerism Commentary
Wise Bread
Free From Broke
Live Real Now
Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
So Over Debt

How to Pay Cheap Rates, for Not-So-Cheap Coverage

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Cheap insurance can come with a cost. Even though you may not see the cost reflected in your premium, chances are it will catch up with you down the line when it comes time to file a claim. Sometimes having cheap insurance means being underinsured which exposes you to financial risk in the event of a claim. However, that doesn’t mean you have to pay an arm and a leg for insurance. Here are the top two ways to pay cheap insurance rates without getting cheap insurance coverage:

Take advantage of discounts:These days insurance providers are offering discounts for all types of things including deadbolts, security alarms, smoke detectors and more. Ask your insurance agent to qualify your for every discount they can and you could save 20-25% on your home owners insurance premiums.

Package your home and auto:Many insurance providers will reward policyholders who bundle their home and auto insurance policies with them. Homeowners have reported savings of up to 20% on their homeowners insurance by packaging their auto with the same company. Ask for a home-auto quote to see what you could save.

For more information on how to save wisely on home insurance, visit the Insurance Information Institute.

Investing with Credit Cards

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A few years ago you could easily make a few bucks by getting a 0% credit card deal and putting the money in the bank at 5% but those days are gone. You are lucky to get 1% on your money now. And the credit card companies seemed to catch on to this trick and now have uncapped transfer fees of 3% to 5% to get your 0% money. I recently received a deal for 0% money for one year with only a 2% fee and decided that was good enough for me to make some money. Please note that I’m not recommending that anyone else do this.

The cost of the credit was $160 for $8000. My plan is to use about $3000 of this money to take advantage of bank bonus offers. I’ve already made $115 from a local bank bonus offer. I’ve also received the $25 Betterment.com bonus. A US Bank $50 bonus should be arriving shortly and I’ll receive another $50 bonus in one year. A $100 Sharebuilder bonus and $25 Discover Bank bonus are in the process of being earned. I still have about $1000 left to take advantage of other bonus offers. The bonus offers by themselves will cover the cost of borrowing the money.

Another $3000 of this money went into the stock market. I’m not a market timer but with the stock market dropping so much Thursday it looked to me that I could get some dividend stocks cheap. I put about $3000 in three stocks today and the stocks are already up. My plan it to keep the stocks and pay off this portion of the money from my monthly cash flow. If that doesn’t work out I’ll just sell one of my losing stocks for tax loss harvesting.

I’d like to use the remaining $2000 to buy another website. That might be a little crazy since I’m having trouble keeping up with the blogs I already own. Websites can be one of the best investments. When I bought MyRetirementBlog.com I was nervous about the amount of money I spent on it but I made about 75% of the purchase price back in the first year. The earnings have gone up since then and I’ve probably made more than the purchase price this year alone. If I can’t find a reasonably priced site I’ll just pay down the credit card loan or look for other investment opportunities.

If you have a personal finance blog or related website for sale or know someone who does please contact me.