I have had this blog for 3 or 4 years and I can’t believe that I never wrote about my relationship, (is that the right word), with money and finances. To start, I am very good with money and budgeting. I get that from my mother, that and yelling. Growing up we were not aware of the finances of our parents. Bills were never discussed. We always had a nice house, 2 vehicles, and food on the table. I understood us as being middle class. I was never given an allowance, or money for my school lunches, or given any lunch to take with me. If I wanted anything I had to make money myself. I started babysitting at 12 years old. At that time we made fifty cents an hour no matter how many kids. I was out on my own at 18, understanding that I had to work. There is one thing that I can still hear her everytime I shop, “Is it a need or a want”. I was constantly shut down. My mother only bought us what we needed.

Learning how to Budget: She taught me a very simple way to budget that I’ve used my entire life and have tried to teach my kids. Add up all your monthly bills and divide by 4, (4 weeks in a month). Then you will know how much you need to take from your paycheck to cover your bills. To start, put in a little more, 50 to 100 dollars. After that, you’re all set, you will have enough to pay your monthly bills. There are several months that there is an extra week, leave the money there and you will always have extra. Being married young and being a single mom for 15 years, I’ve always stuck to this budget.

My way of saving usually came down to getting another job, at one point I had 3 jobs. I was able to work off the books at several jobs and only went on the books when I needed health benefits for all of us. My favorite extra job was waitressing. Great money in your pocket the same day. Until I got MS I would always pickup a side job being a waitress. I loved it. I had a checking account for the biills. I didn’t have a savings account, BUT I did have stashes, (I still do). I would start envelopes and put in extra money for any specific purpose. Once it was for a china closet, another time for a guitar just like James Hetfield from Metallica for my son, or a prom dress, limo, hair for Jen. There was always an envelope for vacations too. Every year I used my income tax refund to take them to Wildwood, NJ for a week. That paid for the hotel and the envelope was for spending money.

Shopping for Bargains: Since I was in my 20’s I was determined to save money. I always used coupons when grocery shopping, (I still do). At that time there was something called “extreme couponing.” People were walking away with hundreds of dollars of free groceries, they even had shows about it. So no, there were no extremes here, but I did save a lot of money. How? By combining what’s on sale with your coupons and always making a lsit. Today I save at the least a thousand a year, plus get money off per gallon of gas. I use the app Ibotta, to get money back from my weekly trips. It’s so easy. I have gotten over 300 dollars that I can apply towards a gift card for hundreds of stores. I mostly use it for Amazon. My Citicard points I have set up to use on Amazon too. I like to use another app, Rakuten, for shopping online and sometimes in store. That is when I remember. I have gotten 60 dollars in gift cards from Driscoll’s. All you had to do is fill out a survey for every berry package you buy, (for me that is a lot). You get points that you can apply towards gift cards. In this case I opted for Marshall’s.

I look at saving money as a challenge. It used to be because I had to, now its to see how much I can save and getting great stuff for pennies. I will continue to post about my savings because I get really great things that I want to show off. I love Clearance sections, if you need to find me, look there. Upon a lot of junk, you will find treasures.