One of my goals was to pay for all vacations and trips out of our household account so that our savings can continue to grow.  We’ve taken two trips and have paid for airline tickets for two children and three grandchildren to come visit us.  We have been living tightly enough on our budget that I’ve been able to pay for all of these from our household budget and not dip into savings!

 

We also use a variety of money saving techniques while on vacation.  My previous column, Enjoying Vacations without Breaking the Bank provides many ideas for savings.  We have learned to split meals all the time on vacation.  We both get plenty to eat and it saves a lot of money.  We use this same technique when we are invited out with friends and family to save on the dining portion of our budget. 

 

With gasoline prices going up, I’m a little over in that category of our spending plan.  But we have implemented a lot more days of keeping the car in the garage if we don’t need to go out.  I anticipate this summer we will have more opportunities to save on gasoline as we won’t be enrolled in classes.

 

Our natural gas heating bill is somewhat over budget since it has been an extremely wet winter for us – lots of rain and snow.  Because we live in the mountains it has been pretty cool, but we use a lot of techniques to minimize this bill such as dressing warmly and wrapping ourselves in blankets in the evenings.  Now that the weather is starting to warm up, this bill is starting to decrease and I anticipate we will be right on budget, if not under, by the end of the summer.

 

I’m still using food from the freezer and pantry and have a lot left to use up so we’re way under plan in the grocery budget.  I haven’t even spent $300 in groceries this year because our freezer and pantry were so full!  Once in awhile I will take advantage of some loss leaders and stock up on items I run out of that are staples for us, such as boneless chicken breasts.  That way the freezer continues to remain full, but I have enough to feed us for a few months without having to buy more groceries.

 

When I’m at meetings where food is served, I often bring home leftovers rather than let them be thrown away.  Then I divide and freeze in dinner size portions.  When friends offer to send home leftovers, I happily accept. Since there are only two of us, we might eat a meal for a couple of nights and I will divide the rest into smaller portions to freeze. It’s convenient to have these frozen dinners available when I don’t have time for cooking.

 

I’m way under on our clothing budget.  I received a couple of gift cards over the holidays to Target and Sears.  I also earned gift cards to J.C. Penney’s through My Bonus Points.  I’m using the cards when I need to pick up an item of clothing, socks, or other necessities.  I take very good care of our clothes by not putting them through a dryer and using a pill remover.  This way we are able to keep our clothing looking like new for a very long time.

 

I discovered another trick a couple of days ago when shopping with my sister.  We were in a shoe store that was offering buy one, get half off on the second pair.  I really needed a new pair of walking shoes.  We each bought a pair and they split the discount between both of our payments.  All it took was a simple question to the cashier – she was happy to find a way to make it work out!

 

I’m way under in the gift category of our budget.  I’ve been making gifts since the beginning of the year for birthdays and Christmas.  I regularly receive the 40% off coupons from Joann’s and buy material to make ponchos, themed blanket and pillow case sets, etc. I love to bead jewelry as a hobby.  I regularly check the sales after holidays to pick up gifts at 50% - 75% off the original price.  I go to garage sales and thrift shops and find gifts in new or ‘like new’ condition (I also find lots of great stuff to sell on Ebay).  I already have been wrapping and sorting gifts for Christmas so that I will be ready by July!

 

We are on track with our recreation budget.  We spend a lot of days and evenings enjoying time with friends.  We get together frequently to share dinners, movies, play games (Cranium is great, by the way!), and go hiking. 

 

I’m staying under budget in the miscellaneous category of our spending plan.  We constantly ask ourselves questions to prevent us from unnecessary spending.  Do we really need this?  Is there something else that will work?  Can we put the purchase off for a month or two?  Is there some way to fix this or adapt this?  My husband is incredible at fixing things – so if I balk long enough about replacing something, he will often look at it and find a way to make it work again!

 

I’ve also managed to sell enough on Ebay to continue making our car payments.  We bought a Mazda 2003 MPV in August 2003.  So far we have made all payments through Ebay sales, and have enough in the account to cover payments half way into September.

 

I’ve added an additional challenge to my savings goals.  We have been invited by friends and family to join them on four different vacations later this year and through 2006. We’re looking at going to Disneyland, France, Disney World, and a tour of National Parks in Northern Arizona and Southern Utah.  I’m working very hard to find more things to sell on Ebay to save enough money to cover these trips.  

My husband thinks that it’s an impossible dream for me to sell enough to cover the expense of the trips.  That’s all it takes for me!  Tell me I can’t do something, and I will find a way to make it happen!

 

The purpose of this article is to have you check in on your own goals, efforts, and results.  Maybe I have been able to give you a few new ideas to help out.  More importantly, make sure that you are on track with where you wanted to be by the end of April.  If you are, take some time to celebrate and reward your success.  If you’re not – don’t spend a lot of time beating yourself up.  Begin immediately to refocus and make the changes necessary to get back on track.  If you are reading the helpful articles on this site then you are obviously interested in achieving your goals.  Remember – you can and will achieve what you dream if you stay focused.