As I am reading through the alphabet I am following Booking it over at Life as Mom. Booking it is an online book club that each month we link up a selected read. This month was the Money Saving Mom's Budget.
I think only Crystal Paine, the Money Saving Mom could make budgeting inspirational and exciting. I have been reading her blog regularly for a couple of years now. When I saw she had a book coming out I said to myself "I should read that."
But THEN I saw she is donating all of her profits to Compassion International and I thought. I'm going to preorder that book instead of waiting for it from the library.
I did enjoy the book and found it was easy read. Yup, an easy read on budgeting. She really is a great writer. Who can make such a dry subject of budgeting interesting?
I though I would know most of what was in her book because I do religiously read her blog and usually do pretty good with finding deals/coupons but I did learn some things.
Some things I did love:
"Saving money is going to take time and hard work. If living beneath your means or saving sixty-five percent on your grocery bills were effortless, everyone would be doing it."
"Contentment is a state of the heart, unaffected by outward circumstances."
Things I am implementing. Shopping every 2 weeks. I have already failed implementing this from the get go but I'm going to try it for at least 3 months and see how it goes.
Things I already do: Coupon, meal plan around the sales ads/what we have on stock, we never spend more than we have, we have small savings accounts set up for non-monthly expenses.
I coupon by the whole insert technique. I do miss the occasional amazing deal but it takes WAY less time and time is precious when you are a full time working mom with an infant.
Things I want to implement: Creating a realistic budget. We have one but we don't greatly stick to it. Decluttering. The time budget.
Things I don't think would work for me: Envelope system & Garage sales. I fear I would blow the money in the envelope system and fall back on the credit card. Since we live so far out I'm not convinced that we would bring in much money from a garage sale. I'm not 100% I might not try it this year but I'm on the fence.
Why I like this book: Makes budgeting interesting. Is there a drier topic? All the proceeds go to Compassion International.
If you have considered wanting to budget but feel overwhelmed this book combined with a couple of the coupon blogs are a great place to start.
I'm also working my way through the Happiness Project on my own and Home Vegetable Gardening -a Complete and Practical Guide to the Planting and Care of All Vegetables, Fruits and Berries Worth Growing for Home Use
I haven't finished either yet but will report back when I do.
My first thoughts about The Happiness project are it's a good read but she basically did CBT on herself to boost her mood.
The vegetable gardening book is SO dry but I am learning a lot and it is very helpful with setting up my garden (and it was free!)
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