Portrait of A Large Family

If you are like us, getting everyone in the family ready for a  portrait is no easy task.    First you have to get everyone dressed and ready.  Then you you have to get everyone ready in their pose.  Then you have to get them to stay there and pay attention so you can get the picture.  Sometimes I feel like I ran a marathon when I am done. Although, I don't really know what that is like because I never have or ever will run a marathon!


It is a good thing that photography is a hobby of mine.  A real photographer would take one look at my family and automatically triple his price!  So yes, I save a little extra money every year by doing this myself.  Every year we try to get a picture in Eden Park in Cincinnati, OH. This is one of my favorite places on Earth.  Here is one of my favorite pictures of this kids that I took there.   Do you have any other ways you save money with your family?   Any good stories from your family photos?  Please leave a comment below...

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What is Frugal?

I write a lot about cutting expenses and being frugal.  I have never thought that frugal was a negative term at all.  It has always been more of a compliment to me. Frugal is not really just about finding ways to save money, it is more of an attitude or a lifestyle choice.  People choose to be this way for whatever their reasons are. I have my reasons, as I am sure you do yours.

For example, frugal is not about getting things at a deep discount all of the time. Or even about completely not spending money.  Right now to me, it is also about when to know not to buy something.  It does not do us any good to accumulate a lot of things we don't need or won't use just because we got a good deal on it.  

I can't help it, I think I must have been born this way. (This is not a Lady Gaga reference). It has always been an interest (note financial pun) of mine. From the time I was very young I have always been a saver more than a spender.  I love to watch my money grow and also love to get great deals at the same time.  As I grew older I began to realize that the great deal is not as important as the need of the item to purchase. 

There are so many things that compete for my attention, do I really need this new thing (whatever it is) or will it just complicate my life more? Will I throw it away within a year or will I use it over and over. I think I look at purchases now as more of a long term investment.  I guess I am at that stage of my life where I am trying to simplify things.  

Maybe I will break down my stages of frugal-ness in future posts.  The problem is, I probably have not gone through them all yet!

Enjoy your families and have a great weekend!


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Still Have A Land Line?

Many people still have land phone lines to their homes.  Depending on the way you use it, this  can be a real expense.  The phone companies toll costs have not caught up with the rest of the world.  While I do admit it is nice to have the security of a land line when the power goes out, it is not a good way to make toll calls.

Most people use their cell phones to make long distance or toll calls because they are free or included with their minutes.  If you don't want to use your mobile or only want to use it for business, then there are some other options.

One option is an IP phone service.  With this option, you have to have high speed internet service.    The IP phone company will send you what is called an ATA adapter.  You hook this up to your home network and to your internal home phone lines.  You then can make free local and long distance calls for free. All you do is pay an annual fee for about $20 per month.  With this service, you can often transfer your existing home number to the new service and get free voice mail to email service.

Also, if you only occasionally make long distance calls, you can get a service like Magic Jack.  Magic Jack is a low cost service that hooks to your home computer to make phone calls.  Now with Magic Jack it costs money to transfer your existing number and there is also a yearly fee assessed when keeping it.  Also, Magic Jack has come out with a service called Magic Jack Plus, but it costs about the same as the IP phone service.

All in all, it is almost never cost effective to use your home phone land line to make long distance calls.  Consider other options and save some money.

Here are some common IP Phone Services:

Packet8

Vonage

Lingo 

Do any of you use other methods to save money?  Please leave  comment and let us know.

If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks --Rick    http://gplus.to/rickbolt

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Budgeting=Boring! 5 Tips to Help You Budget Better

Everyone wants to get your money, it is up to you to decide where it goes. Here are five basic budgeting tips to help you keep more of your money.

1)  Sit down and create a very realistic budget.


You really just need to devote the time to this.  One easy way to get started is to take a month and save every receipt that you get.  I mean every single receipt.  Be diligent! It will pay off!  ( A little budgeting humor)  This will help you track where every penny of yours goes.  You can then sit down at the end of the month and make realistic budget categories.  Avoid categories like miscellaneous, or extras... they show no detail of where your money is going.  Do this and apply it to your real take home income.  Prepared to be shocked at how much money you are wasting.

For some free budgeting spreadsheets, check here.



2) Be realistic! 


I know this sounds like a recurring theme, and it is.  If you are not realistic about your budget you will never stick to it.  You need to be realistic about cutting and spending.  Assign realistic amounts to each category.  You will always have emergencies that pop up.  Try to account for these in your categories.  For example, automobile repairs always seem to pop up when they are least expected.    If you don't have any automobile repairs this month, put that money in your savings and save it for when you do have to have your automobile repaired. 


3) If you have trouble, use an envelope system.


The envelope system is a cash system.  You assign categories to envelopes and when the money is gone out of that envelope, it is gone for that category.  For some examples of envelope systems check here and here.





4) Commit to sticking to your budget.

No matter what budgeting system you use, commit to stick to it. It will pay off in the end (there's that humor again).  You will never know if it works if you don't stick it out.



5) Evaluate Constantly.

Stay on top of your budget and review it often.  The more often you do it, the easier it is to stay on top of it.

You can do it, go out there and take control of your financial life!


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