The Trick - Successful Household Spending

Caught in a financial spider web?

It was the worse day of my life. I had to tell my husband that I had bungled our finances so badly that our 'bank' was in need of a bailout. It was not a good day. 

But from that really bad day, came some surprising blessings. My husband and I started talking about money, instead of hiding from the topic. We attended a Financial Peace University course. And we found the Trick to successfully managing our household spending. 


Mrs. Lynette Trick, to be exact. 

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Now you know me - I can't keep a good thing to myself. My goal is to share what works for us, in the hopes that I can encourage you. And Lynette? This woman is a really good thing. 

Lynette is a sweet woman, with short grey hair, a compact body, and a no-nonsense manner. Her God-given gift is financial counseling and she operates from such a state of humbleness that every conversation is about how to improve our financial situation - never judging our past decisions and actions.  This woman is the safest person I know of to talk to about finances. 

She's a certified financial counselor with Financial Peace University (a Dave Ramsey course), and offers Financial and Personal Spending Counseling. 

Since this month is all about finding financial balance, I asked her: 
What are the top four things people can do today to improve their financial situation? Her reply:

1. Create a spending plan:
   
   - Make a list of all the fixed bills.
   - Save receipts/track discretionary spending - gas, eating out, groceries, kids, household - and use them to create a plan for the next month.
   - Work down to a zero balance, all your income should be assigned to a category.
   
   
2. Compare to spending plan to monthly income:
   
   - Need to make some fast money? Start brainstorming ways to make money: Ebay, part-time short term job, cut discretionary spending.
   
   
3. Review your paycheque:
   
   - Are your tax deductions calculated correctly?
   - Are you withholding TOO MUCH money? (Lynette's suggestion to us was to lower our yearly refund. She increased our monthly income by 15%. Her comment was this: who is more qualified to manage your money- you or the government?)
   - Do you have some short-term financial emergencies? Consider pulling your 401K contribution until you get it under control. Why?: You have a credit card that is charging you 21% interest. Your 401K contribution is costing you money every day you don't use that contribution amount to pay off that card. This is just a short term solution - don't do this without a plan.
   
   
4. Spend Cash:
   
   - Are you over-spending because it's too easy to whip out your debit or credit card? Consider stashing the card and working out of envelopes. Each category is given it's own envelope with a certain amount of money in it. When the money is gone, it's gone. For us, we use the card for gas purchases, but spend cash for everything else. 
   

If you're struggling with managing the finances, if you're worrying constantly, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, and waiting for the other shoe to drop - it's time to approach your money the same way you approach your other 'farm girl' tasks: You. Can. 

Start small and work your way up to forecasting expenditures and saving for long-term needs. Build up a savings fund so when you have an emergency, you don't have to throw your plan out the window. 

I don't know about you, but we needed help to get that all under control. Having someone experienced, caring, and committed made all the difference. Having a mediator to sit down with my husband and me to work through the spending plan was simply brilliant. 
 
What do you think? Are you ready to live with one less thing to worry about?


Contact: Lynette Trick, Williamsport, PA 570.327.9460/[email protected] 
Lynette makes house-calls, will work via phone calls, or will host you in her own home office. She'll work with your family one-on-one, she'll come and talk to your community group, your small group, your sunday school and your group of best girl friends who are sick and tired of feeling frustrated about finances.  

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