Where’s the Money?
People are always scratching their heads about where their money goes. I know because they tell me. And because I’ve only worked with one person out of 130 on the show who actually knew what she was spending. Imagine. That 0.76% of people who knew what they were spending. Astounding.
So, do you know what you’re spending every month? Guess what Statistics Canada says the average Canadian spends a month (based on 2005 numbers). Go ahead, guess. No, I’m not going to tell you yet. I want you to figure out what you’re spending first, and then I’ll give you the average, and how it differs for couples with children, lone parent female families, and one person families.
Don’t even know where to start? Grab your last month’s bank statement(s), credit card statement(s), and line of credit statement(s). Now, break every transaction into one of the following categories:
- shelter (mortgage, rent, hydro, heat, taxes, maintenance)
- services (cable, telephone, security, home-cleaning, cell, internet, childcare, health, pets)
- food (everything you put in your mouth and swallow, including restaurants)
- Shopping (any STUFF you bought for yourself and anyone else — EVERYTHING)
- transportation (car payment, gas, repairs, highway tolls, taxis, bus, train)
- entertainment (movies, books, magazines, hobbies, gym, club, sports)
- bank fees (service charges, ATM fees, NSF fees, DON’T INCLUDE INTEREST)
- interest costs (from everywhere)
- debt repayment (don’t worry about splitting out interest and principal, just add all your debt repayment amounts together)
- savings
Don’t want to be bothered spending the time figuring out where your money is going? Go away then. That’s right. Scram! Keep on digging yourself into a hole. When you’re ready to put some effort into making things right, you’re welcome to come back. I’ll be here, and I’ll be happy to help.
Of course, once people figure out how much they’re spending, they might find they’re just not making enough. Which brings me to my next point. I got a question this week from a woman who writes:
I would love to hear about people’s second and third jobs. I need to be able to work from home evenings and weekends as much as possible, but I want legit employment! I am not interested in starting my own business (I would need a really good idea; none yet). So I need options! I used some of my holidays for a second part-time and temporary job last year, but that opportunity may not present itself this year. I agree that if you want to spend it, you gotta earn it!
What a fabulous question. I’ve watched lots of people work from home in some pretty unique ways:
- medical or legal or other types of transcription,
- online data entry
- at home fast-food order processing
- sales: think clothing, toy and houseware parties website creation
- freelance writing
- dog-walking
- house-sitting
- meal preparation for shut-ins
- personal shopping
- on-line board hosting
Since I’m not the keeper of all the good ideas, I’m opening this one up to y’all. Write your best ideas for this chick and let’s see if we can get her some more work!
February 25th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Secret Shopper
Dental Office after-hours sterilizer
Small Office Clean-up
Bartender
Mobile Hairdresser
Gardening/weeding
House staging
De-cluttering consultant
…..
your imagination is the only limit!
February 25th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Another thing that goes along with not knowing how much you are spending is not knowing how much they get paid. As a salaried, professional employee who gets paid the same every paycheque, I notice when it’s off by a dollar or two! You wouldn’t believe the number of my colleagues who have no idea how much money they take home every month. How can you budget when you don’t even know how much you make?
February 25th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
What about waiting tables part time? You get paid minimum wage but you get tips, plus many chain restaurants will give you a discount on meals (usually 50% when you are working and 20% when you are off duty). Work an average of 6 hours a week and if you make $10.00 an hour in tips plus your wage it could be enough to pay for your groceries for the week. If you like clothes how about a working part time in clothing store that you love and save on your clothing budget. Hope this helps. As always your site rocks.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Part time jobs - I have had a full time job for 40 years and a part time job for 20 years.
cashier in grocery store
p/t work in the mall
overnight sleeper staff to group home
data entry for photo shop
acting as telephone receptionist for small companies from your home
seasonal work as receptionst for company that does tax returns
One of the most interesting at home jobs I see posted on bulletin boards is putting together people’s pictures and videos for powerpoint presentations at family gatherings, scanning in old photos on the computer, and preparing online scrap book, investigating peoples family trees, etc.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thankfully more and more companies are recognizing that great quality work can be done from home. Check out some staffing firms and ask them if they have work that can be done from home - recruiting can be done virtually - all you need is access to the internet and a phone - you can schedule interviews for consultants who are office-based and can do all of the screening, referencing and so on for the consultants. Most staffing companies have databases that can be accessed remotely, so you can check whether people are already registered with the company. If that is the case, you can also update files for the agency.
You can also approach your current employer or employers of people you know (family, friends) and ask them if they have work that needs to be done that you can do virtually - people will tend to trust you more if you are referred from a friend or family member and you can uncover work that would otherwise not be advertised.
I work in the staffing industry and I can tell you that abour 80% of all jobs out there are never posted externally, so open-up that network and get talking to people you know for options! Something WILL come about!
Other ideas:
- home based day care
- online auctions (eBay)
- meal prep business (homemade meals that are delivered locally)
- gift baskets
February 27th, 2008 at 1:40 am
I know what I take home and spend every month. I know other people who keep a budget, though not in as much detail as me.
For years I have recorded virtually everything. One page of a steno pad per month, filling it up systematically from the top and bottom, inwards. Certain lines and spaces are reserved for regular expenses. I categorize the spending and transfer the information into electronic worksheets (monthly and yearly).
Out of habit I remember regular small expenses (e.g. Friday newspaper) and request receipts for everything else. No receipts available e.g. farmer’s market? I remember or write it down on a small notepad.
No I’m not trying to persuade a spouse to be so diligent about keeping track of spending.
It’s empowering to know where the money goes. It’s enabled me to travel extensively and make a career change. By today’s standards, I’m careful with my money, but not by my grandparents’ standards.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:44 am
Oh my GAWD, Gail I completed the challenge this morning and what a slap in the face and a huge wake up call. IN January my union was on strike and I luckily was deemed essential to the work place. However i had to pay 10% of my gross income to the union on top of my regular union dues. I thought I’ll borrow from my credit line ( I know I know BAD IDEA HIT ME WITH A WET TEA BAG>>>) I could not believe what I spent in January a whopping $3801.42.. How much money did I bring home TA DA $2125.61 leaving me with a deficit of 1675.81 . I an shocked at myself and when I looked at where I was spending my money, I realized that i spent a third of my food budget on dining out and I realized that I did not budget for snow removal this year, and in the month of January I spent 114.00 on snow removal ( and they only come when its 20+ cm) I’M NOT GOING TO BE AN OSTRICH ANYMORE, I”m made a commitment to myself and my family that this year will be the year that I will make a huge den tin my debt. I’ve made some small changes already and will be following my budget to a T… Wish me luck…….
February 27th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Sandra: Good girl for pulling your head out of the sand. That’s the first step. The rest is EASY-PEASY. Now you just have to do the detail.
To all the people who gave work-from-home suggestion, thank you. What a nice group of people y’all are.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
This is all great stuff!! I’m so glad you put this question out there because I’ve been trying to figure out what we can do for PT jobs.
We’ve done the calculations, cut everywhere we could cut (even more than “comfort level”), and have been living on jars for a couple of months now but our debt repayment is still way too high (35% of our income) and our bottom line number is still in the negative. So we knew that the next step is bringing in more cash but we didn’t know where to start handing in our CVs. Working from home would be perfect for us because we get home so late on weeknights.
These are all great ideas!! Thank you so much!!
March 19th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
“Don’t buy stuff” Video - this is so funny and sadly true. http://consumerist.com/consumer/clips/snl-skit-dont-buy-stuff-you-cant-afford-252491.php
If you want to have more money, don’t buy stuff.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Wow here in Australia a lot of those options are not available, however one of the things I have done is create my own business. And created my own additional work.
I have bookkeeping skills from study I did at a local community centre last year. I managed to change full time jobs earlier this year, to gain experience. Amazingly it came with a $7k per year pay rise. The disaster struck. My partner had a car accident. It was her fault. We had to use our savings to pay for the damage to the other car, and then get a car loan for her new car. One of the things we had cut back on was car insurance on our older cars. Our huuuuuuuuge mistake.
Because she drives a really long distance to and fro work (130kms each way) we had to get a really reliable car. And because it was on finance we had to insure it. Because she didn’t have insurance when she had her car accident, she lost her rating one, and is now rating 2. We are paying for this all over the place.
We got the car loan, and the bank wanted to give us $60K. We limited her to a $40K loan, and here we go. But it was going to take 7 years to pay back, and in that time accrue $43K in interest, making it an $83K car. I do not think so.
I spent several weeks discussing with our tax accountant what the implications of setting up a business would be, and how to ensure we cleared anough of our money without running up a tax bill, and still finding a way to get a tax refund each every year.
I started my business, which is bookkeeping, and I was going to just do the bookkeeping, but I kept getting asked by my firtst couple of clients if I knew anyone who could type their letters, set up spreadsheets etc. I am not proud, and they were not enough to clear what I thought we required. I looked at all of the skills we have both accumulated over the years. She is an IT professional, and I have done all kinds of office admin/sales/bookkeeping you name it. SO my altered business persona was created. I created a website, and I have listed with all the free directories. I followed the SEO (search engine optimisation) suggestions to ensure I get picked up by google etc. I have word of mouth. The best advertising in the world. I am proud of the fact, that I do not pay for any advertising other than my website, and that costs me about $100 per year.
I run a virtual assistants/bookkeeping etc business. Need a website, I can find hosting suitable. I buy domain names, we set up websites. I organised with a graphic designer friend som design work if need be. I still mostly do bookkeeping, but many of my clients are small business. I write basic copy, flyer type advertising, debtors letters, set up pro formas!!!
We will have all of our debt cleared within 2 years, including the car loan. We both have comprehensive insurance again, And I have gone from earning half what my partner did, to almost double.
The options are out, you just have to look at your skills.