Thanks for visiting Ultimate Money Blog! If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. As I mentioned the other day, we really don’t have a rhyme or reason when it comes to grocery shopping.  I prefer to shop once a week or so and plan meals, and Mr. Money goes the fresher route and wants to shop every day.  I’m a little type A, so that doesn’t fly well with me.  I’m trying to come up with a grocery budget and meal planning solution that makes both of us happy.  Here are some of the things I am doing: -Set a certain amount of money each month aside specifically for groceries and specifically for eating out.  This is something we don’t do and probably would benefit us greatly.  We just fly by the seat of our pants when it comes to the amount of money we spend on food, and food is one of those categories that I won’t sacrifice quality on.  I want good quality food, and I know that is going to cost [...]

Last year, the goals I set were purely financial. It was hit or miss on whether or not we actually met them, but overall I’m happy with our finances and we’re debt free so that’s pretty much all that matters. This year, instead of making the goals all about money, I decided that I would set some different goals that included life experiences. After all, that’s the real reason we spend our money wisely: to enjoy life. With that said, here are some goals I’d like to work toward this year. 1. Keep up with the clutter and declutter 365 items from our house this year. I won’t be alone in this challenge, so that’s good to know! I’m a little intimidated by the number, but I am thinking once I get started it really won’t be too bad. 2. Pay at least $3,000 down on the principal of our mortgage. The mortgage is a debt that doesn’t hang over my head quite like the student loans did, but it’s still debt nonetheless. It feels really good to see the [...]

For the longest time, I avoided budgeting because I hated not knowing exactly how much each bill was going to cost me. The biggest problem for me was that each month I had no idea how much our electricity bill was going to be. Of course, we do the best we can to ensure that it’s not too expensive while maintaining our comfort, but it could range anywhere from $80-$180 each month, depending on our usage. My number one irregular expense was our electricity bill, but yours may be something totally different, like daycare, so apply this to whatever bill it is that you have that’s an irregular amount each month. I decided I had a few options to budget for our irregular expenses. 1. I could call the electric company and get set up on their budget plan that basically takes your annual electricity bill total and divides it by 12. They then bill you that amount each month so that in the winter your bills aren’t astronomical while you’re loving it in the summer. This is a great [...]