10 Smart Money Tips for Anyone, Anywhere

1/22/2022

My quick money story. Everybody has one, right?

Some people are born into money, some are not. Some people make a fantastic income and still struggle to pay their bills. Others make an average income and live comfortably within their means. Not many people talk about money. It's a secret. It now comes and goes in several icons on our devilish palm-sized devices (see my love hate relationship with my phone here).

Anyway, my money story goes something like this:

- average childhood, that's my parents' story to tell, but I never really felt STRESSED about money as a child and I was taught some good sound financial principles (thanks Mom & Dad)

-got into > 40k in debt in my 20's by living above my means, keeping up with the Joneses and making poor financial decisions

-spent 4 years of my 30's GETTING OUT OF DEBT which looked like paying $1000 /month towards old credit card debt FOR FOUR YEARS STRAIGHT (ouch!)

-now I am in my 40's and focused on saving for retirement, paying our house off, and avoiding unnecessary debts

I say all of that to say: I am not certified in anything financial. I have read some books and followed some financial influencers over the years, and I am very entrenched in our family's finances. I am also learning from my retired parents about what it will actually look like to live on a retirement income. I am familiar with Medicare, pensions, social security benefits, Roth IRAs, and 401k/403b plans.

I am not a day trader or financial wizard. I'm somewhere in the middle, and I think that is probably where most of my readers are too. I have had to have very frank discussions about money with patients over the years (financial stress can GREATLY affect one's health and cause caregiver strain with children of elderly patients).

So I decided to write about it. Part of my passion for writing is speaking the truth and shedding light on everything that is making us all stressed and uncomfortable. Now that you know my purpose for this piece, are you ready??? Let's do this!

My 10 smart money tips for anyone, anywhere:

Send your paycheck to multiple accounts via direct deposit with your employer.
Eat at home. Take your lunch. Eat your breakfast at home or from home.
Plan your spending. This goes for Christmas, vacation, birthdays, and whenever you receive unexpected money.
Amazon subscribe and save, up to 15% off items if ordering 5 items per shipment.
Scan receipts into the Fetch Rewards app and earn gift cards or donations.
Stop drinking your money, and I don't mean alcohol.
Use the Credit Karma app.
Use coupons. I use digital and paper coupons. Crazy, I know!
Watch out for subscriptions and cancel what you are not using TODAY!
If you don't have money for it, don't buy it. Also crazy, right?

Let's go through each Money Tip in more detail so that we have a better understanding of them.

Send your paycheck to multiple accounts via direct deposit with your employer.
- I currently send my paycheck to 5 accounts via my direct deposit. My employer allows up to 10 accounts!
- My paycheck goes to: personal checking, Christmas Club account, personal savings, vacation account, and Mommy's Money.
- I do not currently send money to each of my sons' savings accounts, but I may start doing that again soon.
- We use our personal savings for big EXPECTED and UNEXPECTED expenses like new tires, a new hot water heater (that's coming soon), new appliances if needed, children's activities (baseball, theater, band), medical expenses that exceed my flex spending, insurance deductibles if emergencies arise - just to name a few.
- Let me add that BEFORE TAXES, my money goes to 401k, flexible spending, medical / vision / dental insurance, short-term disability, and a charitable donation through my employer. This LOWERS MY TAXABLE INCOME and helps me prepare for retirement.

Eat at home. Take your lunch. Eat your breakfast at home or from home.
- Husband, boys, and I all eat breakfast at home. Our boys are spoiled and we usually cook 4 pieces of bacon each morning, sometimes 5-6. We cook it in the oven on a baking sheet covered in foil for easy cleanup. One eats a fried egg, bacon, and toast or frozen reheated pancakes. The other eats that same meal minus the egg. We always serve fruit: grapes, bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, blackberries, whatever we have on hand. I eat one egg, one piece of bacon, and one piece of toast along with a pre-made fruit bowl (we make those at home once a week for the entire week) on my commute. Sometimes my youngest and I will substitute a homemade protein shake for the other items but we still include the fruit usually. Husband eats something similar to us.
- For lunch, we all take our lunches to school or work. It's cheaper and healthier than school lunch or dining out. Husband works at night so his is usually a plate of leftovers. Mine is often half a sandwich, pretzel crisps, greek yogurt, and fruit.
- I cannot imagine what our food budget would be each month if we did not eat breakfast or lunch at home. I challenge you to look at what you are ACTUALLY spending on food each month.
- I recently analyzed our food spending for 2021 and we spent around $1100/month on food with us eating at home for almost every meal- we dine out or grab fast food 4-6 times per month.

Plan your spending. This goes for Christmas, vacation, birthdays, and whenever you receive unexpected money.
- If your family goes to the beach every year, look at what you spent last year on that trip. Include lodging, gas, meals, activities, and souvenirs. Instead of putting those items on a credit card every year, try to PLAN and SAVE for that trip. You will enjoy the trip so much more!
- I send $100 a paycheck to my Christmas Club account. This allows me to pay cash for Christmas which makes Christmas STRESS-FREE!
- If you spend $400 on your child's or spouse's birthday each year, plan for it. There's the gift(s), cake, party decorations, food (or eating out). That $400 is not in your usual budget unless you PLAN AHEAD. It's easy for that to end up on a credit card, but the birthday is going to come every single year. Try to plan for it.
- If you receive a tax refund or bonus from work, WRITE DOWN how you plan to spend it before you spend a dime.
  - It's easy to mentally say "This 5k is going to 1k savings, 1k Christmas, 1k vacation, and 2k debt." What usually ends up happening though (and I speak from experience), is that you treat the family / friends to dinner, go shopping, make some online orders, pay your regular bills, and before you know it that 5k is down to 3k and you're frustrated and ashamed.
  - It doesn't have to be that way. I have learned to write down WHERE I want that unexpected money to go and as soon as it hits my account, I send it to the appropriate places. Is that as fun? NO. But it will help you reach your long-term financial goals.

Amazon subscribe and save, up to 15% off items if ordering 5 items per shipment.
- I plan to do an entire post on this, so I will keep this brief.
- If you already order items regularly on Amazon, check out the Subscribe and Save. I am sure that I have saved hundreds of dollars per year by doing this.

Scan receipts into the Fetch Rewards app and earn gift cards or donations.
- This is one of my FAVORITE apps. Props to my nurse Lorie for turning me onto this!
- We shop and buy things anyway, right? Why not scan your receipt into an app and get free gift cards?
- You can link your email to it so that your Amazon, Chewy, Kohl's, Bath and Body (whatever you order online) also comes through.
- You can scan a $3 receipt from Dollar General and get just as many points as a $250 receipt from TJ Maxx. (those are my spending habits 😜 💰👗).

Fetch lets you use rewards towards gift cards OR charity donations! Pretty cool!

Here is my last Fetch Rewards gift card I used. Proof that I use it!

my fetch rewards referral code

Stop drinking your money, and I don't mean alcohol.
- I mean, alcohol is expensive too, but I'm talking about COFFEE, SODA, and DRINKS FROM A GAS STATION.
- I love a Starbucks like the next girl, but it is a rare treat. I just looked at my Starbucks app and I have ordered it ONCE in the last 120 days.
- I have a Coke Zero vice, but I order them on my Kroger ClickList when the 12-pack cans are 4 for $12 or the 6 pack bottles are 4 for $10.
- Same with Gatorades, Powerades, and Body Armors for my baseball player. I buy them from Kroger.
- We make our coffee at home and I have several stainless steel mugs that work just fine.
- Call me cheap or call me smart. I'm okay with both.

Use the Credit Karma app.
- It's free and available for any smart phone.
- IT DOES NOT LOWER YOUR CREDIT SCORE to use it.
- It alerts me if I (or someone fraudulent using my identity) apply for credit.
- It tells you what you're doing right and what could use improvement.
- It tells you what your cars and house are worth.
- I plan to do a full post on Credit Karma but here is a SNEAK PEEK at some of its awesome features.

Use coupons. I use digital and paper coupons. Crazy, I know!
- I make a nice income, but I still have scissors and a ziplock bag of coupons in my car at all times. My parents subscribe to the Sunday paper, so they give me the coupons.
- I also use digital coupons for groceries and ALL my online or in-store shopping.
- Does it take time? yes
- Does it take planning? yes
- Is it worth it? YES!!!!

Watch out for subscriptions and cancel what you are not using TODAY!
- This goes for TV channels, apps on your phone, magazines, and memberships.
- My kids are notorious for adding some channel on our streaming services for a show or movie they want to watch. What I thought was password protected is obviously not always protected so look at your accounts!
- My little 2 don't have phones yet, but I know parents who have found hundreds or thousands of dollars spent on iTunes without them realizing it (especially if it is linked to a credit card and not a debit card).
- If you are not using it, or if you are trying to get out of debt and it's not a necessity, CANCEL your subscriptions!

If you don't have money for it, don't buy it. Also crazy, right?
- Want the newest phone, TV, or vehicle? I hear ya. Is the money in your budget RIGHT NOW? Could you make that payment TODAY without putting anything else on a credit card?
- What about that boat? Camper? ATV? Motorcycle?
- Can you pay for that trip to the beach, Vegas, NYC, or the mountains without putting anything else on a credit card?
- Is the money sitting in your account RIGHT NOW for your child's new Xbox, iPhone, $250 baseball bat, or $500 school shoes and wardrobe? Clothes and shoes are going to be needed every season, but did you plan for them?
- We have 3 paid-for vehicles. We are considering replacing one of them, but we want to pay off the basement floors we financed before we add a payment to our budget. We want to know that whatever we buy is within our budget RIGHT NOW without using a credit card for any routine or even unexpected expenses. Would we have been this smart 15-20 years ago? NO! But we have learned, and we are making better choices.

PRO TIP: The pictures below are just an example of using my banking app to monitor my spending.
You can see the pie chart is for ALL of my 2021 spending. Since I don't have a car payment, I divided my auto expenses by 12. That came to around $392. Since I know car insurance makes up around $200 of the $392, I calculated that I am spending around $172 / month on gas.
This is just an easy example of using your banking app to see what you are ACTUALLY spending on categories in your budget. What you think you spend and what you actually spend are often 2 very different amounts. So do your research! It costs you nothing to look at your spending and it will give you so much insight to your financial health!