This program allows 25 to 30 grams of fat per day with low carb and sugar intake.  Portion size, of course, is also important.  I am getting the hang of filling out my food diary.  Most days I am below my allowable fats, but there are days I go over the limits.  I already see and feel the change – my clothes fit better, I have more energy and I can walk several miles without being tired.  I do not get breathless going up and down the stairs.  Woowee!

To further motivate me to keep going, I will be posting my successes and failures (I know there will be those, but I hope there will be very few and far in-between).   Posting will get my motivation in check and I will have a record of what I went through.

Book Review: How to Make a Budget

Recently I wrote about how to create a simple household budget that will allow you to track where you are spending your money. Bryan Carr’s Kindle Edition e-book, “How to Make a Budget: Simple Budget Techniques and Tips on Saving Money” takes the realm of budgeting a notch higher. His book not only helps you see where you money goes, but it also features several money saving tips that are quite useful, as well as what to do with the money you saved following his suggested frugal spending.

His recommended budgeting strategy is to create a baseline budget using data from your recent three months statements of all your bank accounts and credit cards, including receipts of purchases. Although he added receipts of purchases includes cash, this is where I find the baseline input lacking. We usually do not get receipts for our cash purchases such as your lattes, magazines, parking fees, fast food and the likes. These could add up to a lot when we calculate how much these are costing us for three months. This flaw, however, is compensated by the free budget template that can be downloaded from his site. I always prefer digital recording of dollars and cents rather than paper and pencil that is so yesterday.

His money saving suggestions ranges from knowing the difference between your wants and needs to practical advice on slashing your household expenses and impulse buying.  I especially like his suggestion to consider switching to a prepaid cell phone services, which meant you only pay for the minutes used.  If I can just convince my husband to do this (LOL)

In conclusion, I recommend this book for the novices in budgeting and taking control of  their finances.  If you are in this category, I admit that it will take time to set your baseline budget.  All you need is determination, patience and practice.  Get yourself into action and follow the money saving ideas listed in this book and you will be well on your way to living within his means and saving money for your future.  Click on the image to go to the book’s Amazon page.

Note:  To satisfy FTC guidelines, I want to mention that this is an independent review of the book.  I was not compensated for the review though I received a free copy of the electronic book.

Uncluttered Room

I used to devote a day or two clearing my clutter and organizing my home. This usually happens either when I have company coming over or when I can’t barely move around the room causing me so much emotional stress. Yes, I dreaded those days so I procrastinated and did not do it often enough. When I finally committed myself to simple living lifestyle, I poured over magazines, books and Internet postings about how to declutter and get organized. I came to realize that clearing your clutter needs not only determination, but a practical plan from start up to maintaining the uncluttered room .

The best way to clearing clutter is to do it in baby steps, following a Kaizen way of personal life. This way, the task does not become overwhelming and it does not take all your time to create an organized, uncluttered room for your simple living lifestyle. While in the process of clearing your clutter, put your buying binge on hold. Do not go out and buy organizing tools like crates, shelves and the like (sorry, Container Store). I used to think that buying more boxes and shelves help me organize. Was I wrong! They add to the clutter if you have not yet managed your existing cutter. A cluttered room does not look clean no matter how much air fresheners or scented candles you have around the room to make it smell clean.

Here is the step-by-step method I used in de-cluttering my home inspired by a quote from William Morris:

 Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful
or believe to be beautiful.
- William Morris

Before you start, have the following at hand:

• Three (3) boxes or bags to hold items that need to be rid of – throw away (trash/recycle) or give away (donate) or sell (online or yard sale). It is best to label the boxes/bags so there will be no mix-ups.
• A laundry basket to hold items that belong to another room. It would be easier to cart around your displaced items to the proper room(s) using a basket with handles.
• A small box for “Not Sure” items; those that you can’t part with at the present time. This is for temporary storage only and we will deal with this box in my other post.
• Makers and labels to identify the contents of the bags/ boxes
• A timer set for 15 to 20 minutes

Once you have all the items above, you are ready to clear the clutter.

1. Pick a room to organize. This could be the one that you feel the most cluttered room or the one that is least cluttered. The choice is up to you.
2. Decide the function or purpose of the room. Identify what activities are performed in this room.
3. Take a good look around the room. Depending on your answers to Step 2, preliminary scan what stays, what needs to be rid of and what belongs to another room.
4. Focus on the room you chose to de-clutter. Visually divide the room into smaller areas and eliminate clutter one small area at a time. The size of the area depends on how quickly you can pick up and sort items within the time period you have set yourself (see #5).
5. Set your timer for 15 to 20 minutes. Start at any point in the room. Move clockwise around the room as quickly as possible, picking items one by one and decide which container they go in until your time is up. Remember where you left off. This is where you will start on your next de-cluttering day, preferably the following day.

Here are guidelines for the categories:

Throw Away – Items that no longer work or broken where repair will cost more than the value of the item. Also our “lazy clutters” – things that creep in our home that we do not have time to throw away such as old magazines, junk mails, etc.

Give Away/Sell – Items that you no longer need or like, but still in good shape or working condition. If the item can fetch you a good price and it is sellable, put it in the sell box/bag, else give it away or donate it to charity. More about donations in my next post.

Keep – Items you need, you like and/or you use. Make sure that they are located in the right place. For example, your DVD or Blu-Ray movie collections should be close to your DVD/Blu-Ray player.

Displaced – Items that you want to keep, but does not belong in the location where you found it. Put these in the laundry basket. Do not attempt to move them to their rightful place, yet. Remember, focus on this room and do not get distracted by bringing the misplaced items to the other rooms.

Not Sure – Items that you feel conflicted over. You are not sure if you should keep or dispose of it.  To help you decide, ask yourself:

When is the last time I used this? (if it is more than 12 months, get rid of it)
Do I have more than one of these? (If yes, get rid of duplicates)
Is this something I need to keep for legal reasons? (If yes, keep it)
Does this item add to the function and purpose of this room? (If no, discard)

6. If after asking questions like the above still did not help you to decide whether to keep the item, place it in the small box for storage.  These are “treasured clutter” which can be stored temporarily and we will deal with them later in my other posts.
7. When your time is up, toss out the garbage or put in recycle bins, if the items are recyclable. Return misplaced items to their proper homes.
8. Do not let the boxes for donation or for sale linger in your place. Get rid of them within a week or two or they will find themselves cluttering your space again in no time. Call your favorite charity for a “pick up” appointment or bring them to donation sites if they are in your way to work or close to you.
9. Designate a logical place for the items that stay. Remember the old adage – “A place for everything and everything in its place”. A logical place will be near where it is used.
10. Congratulate yourself and give yourself a small reward like a glass of cold, refreshing drink after all that work. Make sure you do not reward yourself by buying “things” that will add to your possessions until you have gone through de-cluttering your whole home. Yes, it will take time to clear the clutter, but it also took a long time to get your home and mine get cluttered. So be patient, but relentless in removing the clutter and maintaining a clutter-free home.

Photo Credit: Home Design Inspiration

Several weeks before we sign the listing contract, we started to prepare the house for sale.  It was quite hectic.  Firstly, we had to get rid of all our unnecessary “stuff”.   My husband and I have different opinion on how to handle this situation.  His style of getting rid of the stuff is to load them in a rented dumpster and let the dumpster’s company to deal with the stuff.  I did not want all the stuff to clutter our landfills.  I wanted to either sell the stuff on Ebay, Craig’s List or through a garage sale, and donate those that did not get sold.  We also did not agree on what is unnecessary.  Since we did not have a lot of time to agree on what to get rid of, we took the lame way – we got rid of those that we did not have any emotional  attachment or have served their usefulness.  These are the furniture including a TV set and sound systems, since we will not be needing them;  desk top computers, since we have our own laptops; books that were collecting dust in our book cases, (I found ordering digital books for my Kindle to be more efficient); magazines, old DVD’s and VHS tapes, paper clutter, old clothes, shoes, and other apparel, knick knacks, etc.  The stuff that we could not agree on, we boxed and kept in a rented storage room.  Yes,  I know, this was the period when simple living is still a struggle for me.  I’d say that after all the stuff were thrown, given or stored, I felt calmer.

The next step that we took is to “stage” the house for sale.  I learned several tips on how to do this by watching HGTV’s “Designed to Sell”.  I loved that show because they always remodel a house not only to make it sellable, but also to create comfortable and functional rooms.   Following their advise that first impression is important, I designed the front and back lawns that will give a warm welcoming feeling as one comes to the front door and a relaxing feeling while enjoying the spa and the covered patio in the back lawn.  To make my ideas on paper come alive, I hired a gardener (cheaper than a landscaper).  I also hired a pool guy to clean the outdoor spa and its filters and professional house cleaners to clean the house from top to bottom.  I displayed my treasured accessories and fine linens in appropriate places, uncluttered my counter tops and made the fireplace as the focal point of the living room.  The house looked so good, I was having second thoughts of selling it.

I did not want a “For Sale” sign on my lawn, but I agreed to have the house listed on Multiple Listing Services (MLS) used by real estate agents to search for house for sale with just a picture of the front view of the house.  After “staging” the house, my agent convinced me to add pictures of the “staged” house.  To her surprise, even before she was able to upload the pictures, my house was sold.  That took less than two weeks on the market.  That to me is not surprising.  I thank God for being on my side and with the inspiration from  “Designed to Sell” , it was a “no brainer”. : )

Kaizen’s concepts are real simple, yet it takes discipline, consistency and determination to be able to adapt them in our personal life.

They can be summarized as follows:

1. Make changes through small improvements that are easier to stick with
2. Eliminate waste
3. Monitor results and adjust, as appropriate
4. Standardize best practices
5. Reward accomplishments

You probably have been doing #1  – break the change (or   goal) into simple steps.  However, it does not stop there.  We have to be committed to move forward to the next step until we finally achieve our goal  or the change we want.  On the road to our goal, we need to check our progress, discard the unnecessary, repeat our steps (standardize) and finally give ourselves a reward at the end of each finished step.  The reward does not have to be expensive.  Usually, if people are motivated because of the expensive reward, the motivation disappears after they receive the reward.  Small rewards, even patting yourself on the back, are more effective motivators to push yourself forward.

When I finally became cognizant that I needed to change my lifestyle to pursue prudent living, I chose “living debt free” as my initial goal. Living debt free did not happen to me in an instant. It took planning, self discipline, and constantly reminding myself why I am doing this – the “reward at the end of the tunnel”, so to speak. Though debt includes all money owed to someone or to an institution, I focused on credit card debt since that is the one debt I seemed to lose control. This goal requires small action items, which I call stepping stones (SS), to get there. The following are the stepping stones I took and some suggestions for you to take if you are planning to live debt free:

SS-1: Stop Using Credit Cards

It was initially hard for me to do since I was so used to carrying plastics more than cash.  I think the reason why I loved to carry and pay with my credit cards is it felt like I was spending someone else’s money that was willingly  given to me to spend.  In more ways than one, that is true, except I tend to forget that the money, with interest, has to be paid at some point in the future.  With cash, payment is immediate.  I see how the cash flows out of my wallet to some cash register, which forces me to assess if I really need what I am planning to buy.  It cuts down on impulse buying.

SS-2:  Cancel Credit Cards

I cut up all of my credit cards except for my VISA card that charges the lowest interest and a AE Blue card.  I sent the cut up card back to the bank that issued them with a note that I want the credit report to show the account is closed.  If you do this, make sure you follow it up with a phone call to the bank to ensure that they did what you asked them to do.

I kept my VISA card just in case an unforeseen emergency arise that I am not financially prepared for.  With its low  interest compared to my other former credit cards, it would be easier to repay, if and when I had no choice but to use it.  I use the AE Blue card for travel expenses  (both personal and business) and for my online purchases  (mostly Kindle books and occasional gifts for relatives and friends).  I like this card because it is easy to dispute an unauthorized charge on my card, thus protecting my online purchases.  I pay my bill in full every statement so I do not pay any interest and at the end of the year, AE gives me a statement that I can use for my income tax preparation.

 If you decide to keep one credit card for unforeseen emergencies, make sure that you have the discipline to not use it for other reasons.  If, like me, you use a credit card for online purchases or travel, do not carry a balance to avoid paying interest fees.  It goes without saying that you should not use any credit card if you do not have enough money to pay the balance in full each month unless it is an unforeseen emergency that you do not have enough emergency fund to cover the expense.

SS-3:  Analyze Expenses

Recognizing that debt is a symptom of my over spending, I needed to find out  where my money is going (my expenses) before I can control my spending.  Everyone who wishes to live a simple life should be able to live within one’s means by sticking to a prudent spending plan.  However, to create a good spending plan, one has to first track his income and expenses.   My post on budgeting will show you how this is done.

SS-4: List Down Everything Owed

In your case “everything you owed” could be more than credit card loans. Loans include car loans, student loans, mortgage, etc. You can list them using pen and paper or you can use an Excel spreadsheet or some other spreadsheet. List the name of the debt, the balance, the minimum payment and the interest charged for each of the money you owed.

SS-5: Pay Down Your Credit Card Debt

Start with your credit card debts. Focus on the smallest amount and try to pay that off first while paying the minimum on the other loans. Use the money you saved from reducing or cutting your expense (see SS-3) as additional money for payment of your debts. Some financial gurus suggest paying the card with the highest interest first. Both ways have merit. The first one gives you a sense of accomplishment in a shorter period, enabling you to celebrate your success and motivating you to move forward. Choosing the latter will save you the extra money that you would have paid for the higher interest rate by paying it sooner.  Pick the one you are more comfortable with.

Once the loan with the smallest amount (if that is what you choose) is paid off, focus on the next one and repeat SS-5 until all loans are paid off. Always watch your spending and stick to your budget. If you over spent on one category, you will need to adjust by cutting down on a different category to even out the expense layout. For example, if you bought more food than what your budget planned, you will need to cut down on entertainment or dining expense by the same amount.

Since I do not have any car loans, student loans or mortgage payments, once I paid off my credit card debt, I am debt-free. I would also add that I have a good credit history, so living debt-free has no negative impact on me. For people who still have not establish a good credit record, foregoing debt may not be beneficial in the long run should you decide in the future that you would like to buy a house or a car the conventional way, by mortgage or car loan, respectively. See my post on establishing credit history.

SS-6: Pay Down Your Fixed Debts

If you have debts that require you to pay X amount every month for Y number of years, you have fixed debts.  Example of these are installment loans, car loans, student loans, and mortgage. Pay them in that order. The interests from your student and mortgage loans in your tax returns ( which is still allowed at the time of this writing), thus, they are the last debts you pay.

How do you pay all those debts? It could mean foregoing some of your expenses that are not life-threatening like frequent dining out, buying the latest gizmo or trend and the likes. Some more ideas:

• getting a second job without damaging your relationships with your family and God
• selling one or more of your high-value assets like your car or home and using the proceeds or equity to pay off as much debt as possible
• using your creativity to make products, like crafts, paintings, sculpture, etc, that you can sell and using the profit to pay your debt

If you have a story on how you succeeded in living debt-free, I would like to hear from you, please send me an email at bellabene[at]gmail(dot)com (sorry for the format, this is written for real people not for auto-generated spam mail)

Do you know where your money goes?

Budgeting is for everyone – rich or poor alike.  It is a useful tool for tracking where our money goes.  It helps us to live within our means and get out of debt.  It can also help us save for the future.  Budgeting, simply put, is a spending plan.

However, before we can accurately set up a household budget, we need to have a good understanding of what we’re spending our money on.

 Here are the stepping stones  on how to create a budget:

 SS-1:  Keep Track of Every Penny Spent for the Next 30 Days

Buy an inexpensive small notebook and list every expenditure you make however small it may be.  If you put a quarter into a parking meter, write that down, too.  This is the best way – writing it down right after you spend.  If this is too tedious for you, the next best thing is to recount the expenses you made throughout that day at the end of the day.  This will require a good memory and not more than 15 minutes each day.  Because I tend to forget small purchases, I simply tote around a notebook and a pen and jot down the expense as it occurs.

 At the end of the month, write down all your expenses in categories on a spreadsheet or piece of paper.  Use general categories like dining out, food, entertainment, parking fees, etc.  I use an Excel spreadsheet, but if you do not have this software, you can use a free  Google spreadsheet.

(Note:  Other alternatives to pen and paper  for tracking your money are  free management software or inexpensive paid budget software like “Pear Budget“.  I have used Quickbooks for personal budgeting since it is the accounting software we used when we had our accounting business.  However, I do not recommend it because it is quite cumbersome since it is really for businesses and the learning curve is steep for beginners.  I recently took advantaged of the 30-day free trial offered by Pear Budget and I am liking it.  As of this writing, I still have a couple of weeks to decide if I want to continue using it and pay $4.95 per month subscription.)

 Once you have your list, share this list with your spouse, if you are married,  and decide which of these listed expenses can be eliminated or at least reduced before going to Step 3.

SS-2:  Keep Track of All Your Income for the Same Time Period

Income can be derived from salary, bonus, hourly, self-employed, passive or investment sources. In some cases, you can control your income, i.e. working longer hours or a second job, taking on additional clients, or choosing investments that provide higher levels of income. In most cases, control is limited.

This is a simple step if your income does not vary, whether you are a family with dual income or if you have multiple streams of incomes.  All you need to do is to add the annual amount and divide by 12 to get to the monthly amount.  If you have a variable income, you will need to determine the average of your annual variable income, then divide by 12.  Use this as your monthly income.  Do not over-inflate your average variable income.  It is better to err on the safe side than to use the inflated amount giving you false security that you can spend more with this bigger amount.

 SS-3: Make A List of All Monthly Expenditure

We have two different types of expenses -  fixed expenses and variable expenses.

Fixed expenses are those that we pay a set amount every month and are usually long term.  Examples of these include: mortgage or rent, car loans, student loans, taxes and life, medical or dental insurances (if these were not taken out before you receive your income).  Remember that fixed expense is a debt  that you agreed to pay your debtor X amount every month for Y number of years.  You have limited control over fixed expenses.

 For fixed expenses that you pay quarterly, semi-annually or once a year, calculate how much is the expense for a full year and divide it by 12.  This will be your monthly expense  per year that you need to track and included with the other fixed monthly expenses.

Notice that food, though a necessity, is not a fixed expense.  It is a variable expense.  The amount you spend fluctuates from month to month where you can make a choice of spending less or more .  Thus, you have more control over variable expenses.  Examples of variable expenses:  food, utilities,  entertainment or recreation, clothing allowance, gifts, and others.

SS-4:  Compare your Income and Expenses

Compare your total monthly income with your total fixed expenses. If your income is less than your fixed expenses, you have a problem.  You will need to either increase your income or  decrease your expenses or  do both.

 If your income is more than your fixed expenses, compare the excess income with your variable expenses.  If you do not have enough income to cover the variable expenses, you will also need to decrease your expenses or increase your income until it all works out.

SS-5:  Set  Up an Emergency Fund

An emergency fund is your  “safety net” from unexpected financial misfortunes such as losing your job or source of income or a big hospital expense due to an accident or an unforeseen health problem.  The amount you need to save should be at least equal to 3 months of your expenses.

Gradually build your emergency fund by depositing the same amount each month and add this as part of your fixed expenses.  If your income is just enough to cover your fixed and variable expenses, you can use a “windfall” (receipt of unexpected money, examples: tax refunds, cash bonuses or gifts)  to build up your emergency fund.

Does this sound overwhelming? It could be, but with a little practice, patience and time you will feel comfortable with tracking where your money goes and how to control it’s outflows.

Happy Life Simplified

 Does simple living = a happy life? Yes!  Does happy life = simple living? Not necessarily!

Happiness, like simple living, differs from one person to the next.  Most people equate happiness with pleasurable sensations such as owning things his heart desires or even creating chaos in someone else’s life.  It is not wrong to be happy, unless the happiness is disruptive to someone else’s life.  Happiness brought about by focusing and doing what is important to you and purging the unnecessary is the foundation of a simple, prudent living.  Our value system plays an important role in assessing what is important to us. Our inspired passion moves us along the way to fulfilling what we value.  Thus,

inspired prudent simple living = value + inspired passion

Here is a list, though generalized, that I compiled for an inspired prudent simple life

1. Determine what matters most to you based on your values and passion
2. Determine what are unnecessary
3. Decide which will you act on first :

• what is important to you, or
• how to get rid of the unnecessary

4. Prioritize  your choices (goals)
5. Focus on one goal at a time
6. Break the goal down into smaller doable task
7. Act on the step starting with the easiest
8. Reward yourself each time you accomplish a step
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 until you have fulfilled your main goal
10. In each step assess if this is really what you value and passionate about, if not, restart the list.

Prudent simple life is not a simple process. It never ends and we have to be vigilant to ensure that we are always in the right track to living an inspired prudent simple  life.

photo credit: Simple Humble

Goals are deceptive– the un-aimed arrow never misses.
- Author Unknown

According to famed blogger, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Ms Minimalist author,  Francine Jay ,we are limiting ourselves with goals and that living without goals is incredibly freeing.   The latter is a personal sentiment that they are entitled to and I respect that.  However, I firmly disagree with the former.  A goal is what we want to achieve, an aim, a destination.  It could be so simple that there is no need to write it down or so multifaceted that we will need to break it down into simpler actions in order to achieve it.  Additionally, doing things that we are passionately about is also a goal, whether we are aware of it or not.

 “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
- Jimmy Dean

Goals do not have to be so stringent that we are not allowed to deviate from it or make corrections.   A well planned goal will have contingencies on how to overcome difficulties that one might encounter along the way.  Yes, there will be times that we will not be able to attain our goals.  But, won’t that be because we either “bit off more than we can chew” and/or we are not motivated enough to have a burning desire to go for it?  Skills, either inherent or acquired, and self-motivation must go hand on hand in order to succeed in our endeavors.

Maybe some people are limiting the definition of goal as something that will leave them unfulfilled or unhappy if they cannot attain it.  I submit that this is not what a goal should be.  A goal is way different from new year’s resolutions that most people break within the first 3 months of the new year.  A goal needs to be well thought, well planned, motivated by our strong desire to achieve it. Once we have identified that goal, we can break it down into manageable tasks so we can move towards it one step at a time.  If we cannot perform what we thought was the basic step, it means, we still have some more  ”fragmentation” to do.