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Hello Blog. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual can address higher level needs. Our ability to give attention to creative outlets such as this blog ( Self-Actualization ) was trumped by the task of addressing logistics of a move to a new home ( Safety ). In a nutshell, that is the hurdle to many budget dilemmas - energy to control, especially if your foundation is shifting. When life gets hectic, it is more difficult to tend to the detail of budget on a daily basis ( Bob’s preference ) vs. blast a flash plan when new needs present and attempt an ‘auto play’ strategy, hoping it is executing well until you can tend to it again( Kristy’s preference ). When your foundation shifts (a move, your health, a new job, a relationship change), there can be so many unknowns that your historic estimates are thrown to the wind and you are overcome with a great sense of uneasiness over the lack of control. Decisions sometimes have to come f...

February always seems like the longest month of the year; all 28 days. This February seems longer than ever. We have had more snow this month than all of winter and the cold days are not going away. In fact, we are in the midst of another winter snow blitz as we post this blog. We are peppered with a warm day every now and then, where you can shed the winter coat, but it is just a tease of what is to come. Perhaps that is why it is such a long month. I’m also looking at seed catalogs and dreaming about a bountiful harvest from my backyard garden. I’m anxious to start to work in the dirt, plant seeds and see nature take its course. The taste of fresh tomatoes, sweet corn, lettuce cut from garden is something I’m longing for. A back yard garden is not only good for your health; it is good on your wallet. You can harvest loads of fresh fruits and vegetables for pennies comparatively. The sun is coming up earlier and setting later. In walking the dogs over the gardens in the snow, I can vi...

From Barbara Bogaev on Marketplace Money , “We're still fresh off of our love hangover from Valentine's Day here at Money this week, so we've invited a couple of personal finance experts to answer your questions about money and relationships. Bob and Kristy Walker ..." The show airs this weekend (2/15/13) on most National Public Radio Stations. If you don't find it on your local NPR station, here is a link where you can listen: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/your-money/letters-how-can-i-budget-when-im-self-employed It is a great show, regardless if we are on or not so we highly recommend you tune in weekly to enjoy and learn. -Happy Listening

As Valentine’s Day quickly approaches, I think back to the Beatle’s song “ Can’t Buy Me Love .” The Wall Street Journal was also thinking of the little things that show love in their article “ Small Acts, Big Love .” By putting the other person’s needs above yours, spending a little time, and being creative in your approach, really shows that you appreciate and care for them and you don’t take them for granted. Some key things to remember when you demonstrate your love through actions: • Don’t expect a pay back • Think about what your partner would like, not what is easy for you • Put your partner’s needs first • Show respect and appreciation Here are a few little things that say ‘ I Love You’ every day of the year: • On cold days, start their car and scrape the ice off the windshield • Make the bed • Pack their lunch • Open doors • Leave the toilet seat down • Leave the bathroom sink clean • Pick up after yourself • Empty the dishwasher • Make a meal • Say “thank you” • Anything that...

Have you ever thought about making your own laundry detergent?  The other day, we were shopping at our local farm/home supply store and found coupons that had all the items necessary to make your own laundry soap on sale.  The total cost to make the detergent for 288 loads was just under $15.00 or about 5 cents per load, about 3 times the savings over commercial laundry detergent. We tried the laundry soap and it works great!   Kristy is excited because she feels it works better and it is how her grandmother made laundry detergent. The directions: 2/3 bar Fels Naptha soap* ½ cup Borax ½ cup washing soda Grate the Fels Naptha soap. Mix in the Borax and washing soda.   Store in an air tight container.   Use 1 – 2 tablespoons per load.   Can be used in HE washers. * Freeze the Fels Naptha soap prior to preparing the mixture to keep it from clogging the grater.  Happy Washing! PS. We have had questions following this blog posting asking for the liquid...

As hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, with the flooding this past weekend on the West Coast and listening to the struggles of those affected by the disasters, I am wondering how prepared I am for a disaster. Living in the Midwest, I have to worry about tornados, floods, droughts, ice, snow storms, and straight line winds. Granted, we are not talking hurricanes, earthquakes, active volcanoes, forest fires, or tsunamis, but I still wonder if I am prepared to go a week or even a month without electricity or disrupted transportation. FEMA has at http://www.ready.gov resources and information to help you ‘ Ready. Plan. Stay Safe’ . It includes what to do before, during and after an emergency, how to prepare plan and stay informed for emergencies, how to build a kit for disasters to be prepared, ways to be involved, information for businesses and fun and games for kids. What would it take for you to be prepared for a disaster? We are not talking “ Doomsday Preppers ” mentality, but are you...

The numbers are out for the class of 2011 and two-thirds of the graduating class graduated in debt. If you are an average borrower, you owe $26,600, exceeding the class of 2010 by 5%, Was it worth it? In 2011, the unemployment for college graduates was 8.8% while unemployment of high school graduates was at 19.1% so the employment number would say yes. So you decide to go to college. How do you reduce the amount of money you will borrow, have a good time, and graduate? Here are a few ideas. 1. Graduate on time or early. An extra year of college can cost you can $50,000 or more. To calculate the cost of that extra year, add your tuition, fees and books to your potential starting salary. Say that your tuition, book, and fees are $20,000 and your starting salary is $30,000; that extra year cost you $50,000. This number could be higher or lower depending on where you attend college and your career. Just for fun, calculate your own cost of an extra year of college. If you were to graduate ...

It has been six weeks since we sold our house and moved into our motor coach. If you read our previous blog "Homeless" you know it was quite a shock moving from 3,000 to 300 square feet. The idea of living in our motor coach for 6 to 9 months while we build our next home was a great plan as we sat around the dining room table of our old house. The good news is that it gets better. To bring you up to speed, we now have electricity as of two weeks ago but still do not have running water. When we were showering in the motor home, our 85 gallon water holding tank would last us about one week. Tuesday was our day to take the motor home out to empty our tanks and fill up with fresh water. We changed our ways two weeks ago. We now get up at 5:00 am to head out to the Campus Wellness and Recreation Center (CRWC) for a work out and morning shower. We can now stretch our 85 gallons out for one month. Lessons learned over the past 6 weeks: 1. Running water and el...

This week we closed on the sale of what had been our home for 19 years. Going through a packing frenzy of moving life-long belongings and wanting to pass on a sparkling, clean adobe; the moment caught me completely off-guard. I am not an emotional person, but upon the final signature at the closing, I burst into tears and hugged the new owners of our home where we had raised our family. I was passing a part of us on to these newly-met out-of-towners. Over the course of the day, I went from exhaustion, -to tears, -to exhilaration. For the first time in three decades, we were mortgage-free. It felt gypsy-like. Think of how close the moment of being totally debt free. This summer, we purchased five acres out in the country, have our orchard started, a vegetable garden in, 41 grape vines underway and four hens laying eggs – but no house. Not wanting to risk two mortgages, we made the decision that we would sell our current home before building our next home. And in the interim? We would ma...

Sallie Mae just released a study conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs titled “ How America Pays for College 2012” . The burden is shifting to the student, up from 25% in 2009 to now 34% in 2012.  As a student, after you complete the free application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and send it to your school, the school will send you an award letter, stating scholarships, grantos, work study, and amount available through federal subsidized and unsubsidized student loans. As you start the fall semester, it is a good time to start paying on your student loans. How are you going to pay? If you borrow money for college, you should take advantage of subsidized federal student loans before unsubsidized federal and tap private student loans as a last resort. The difference between these options is that the interest of a subsidized student loan does not accumulate until you are done with school while the interest in an unsubsidized student loan starts to accumulate while yo...

Gaining weight? No fun. Not fitting into your clothes? No fun. Buying new clothes for a temporary larger size? No fun. Remaking old skinny-butt skirts into funky fun tops for the afternoon graduation parties? So fugal. So fun ! 

Yes, this is what Warren Sapp, former NFL player and Dancing with the Stars contestant did on March 30, 2012.   Mr. Sapp filed for Chapter 7 in South Florida stating that he owes more than $6.7 million to creditors and back-child support and alimony.   His reported assets are $6.45 million.   What does this mean and how did it happen? It happens because Mr. Sapp was spending more than he could afford, even more than his income of $115,000 a month.   Bankruptcy happened because of poor financial decisions, poor financial planning and thinking of the short-term, immediate gratification--not the long-term gain.   It happened because he was living life beyond his means. C hapter 7 bankruptcy is also known as “straight” bankruptcy or liquidation and allows an individual to keep certain exempt property.      Assets are sold by a bankruptcy trustee to repay creditors and many unsecured debts are discharged.   Florida does not allow the bankruptcy...

Spring is here in two hours. Spring cleaning officially starts in two hours. Do you share a household with others? Do those of the household not share an equal level of desire to maintain an orderly and clean environment? Whether a husband and wife or roommates, sharing this responsibility can be a challenging task. How do you peaceful resolve the differences? One option: the envelope . How much would it cost to have a cleaning service come in weekly and keep the home in a 'guest-ready' state? Each of you contribute proportionally to the envelope. Each of you record your contribution to the clean environment for the past week. If the effort has been equally shared then divide the contents of envelope equally back to all of you. Somewhat lopsided? You get that percentage of the envelope that equates to your percentage of exerted work. No one worked at it - you have the budget collected to hire out. Either way, the "envelope" method helps for everyone to feel fa...

How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions?  Did you decide to make a budget?  Having a hard time sticking to it?  Here is a short video that we hope will help.

Okay, so you have been tracking your expenses and you are getting ready to set your budget based on your values. Now I want you to consider incorporating some values into your budget, such as 100% or 90/10 or 80/10/10. Goal of a budget is to spend less than you have coming in. The old rule of thumb is to save 10% of your income and live on 90%. This is great advice given our economic time and job uncertainty. You should be putting at least 10% of your income into retirement savings, and then you need to have an emergency fund as well. The key to savings is to PAY YOURSELF FIRST! Treat your savings like a bill that you would never miss. With each pay check, transfer money into your savings account. Even if you have other bills to pay, I feel it is important that you save on a regular basis. This gets you in the habit of saving, even if not at 10%. Now the challenge is to reflect your values. The 80/10/10 rule is where you live on 80% of your income, save 10% and give away 10%. Personall...

2012 and the New Year’s Resolutions are two weeks old. So how are you doing? Did you make a commitment to finally make and follow a budget? If you did, you are not alone. Budgets seem to be easy to make, but really hard to follow. If this sounds familiar, here are a few pointers that may help you stick to your budget. When you think of budgeting and making a budget, first take a moment to reflect on your values. Money is just a resource and using this resource should be a reflection of what you value. I’ve always thought that if you want to see what people value, look at how and where they spend their money. A budget should allow you to express what you value and help you from running out of money by planning out your known expenses. Do you know where your money is going? To make a realistic budget, first track where you spend every penny, --yes every penny, for two months. At the end of the first month, review where you spent your money. Keep going for another month to catch all of yo...

Have you planned your New Year’s celebration yet? A little short on cash? Consider giving a last minute shout out to friends and acquaintances --The more random the better. Those that accept, have them pair up to provide a course of the meal. Each take turns serving, with one pair volunteering to do dishes. What you have is a gourmet evening with good company for the cost of making one dish at home. The entree to our last impromptu gathering this week was a hit ( Chef Daniel Boulud's  Pork Shoulder with Guinness, Dried Cherries, and Sweet Potatoes ).  All in all, it makes for a very frugal – very fun evening out.  Hope you are gearing up to enjoy wrapping up 2011.

Every year, in place of buying gifts for one another, we take a family vacation for Christmas. This year was an exception. The year got away from us. With no extra funds set aside for travel, we decided to spend time together at home. To compensate for not traveling, we  exchanged gifts with one another. We made many of the gifts, but we still felt like we needed to buy everybody something. This was way more work than we remembered. Spending money in such a short window of time for so many people, and not knowing if it is something they would like, need or want --is stressful. It was joyful being together and has been a very laid-back week. But we all agreed that from now on: 1) each Christmas, we will start planning for the next year's trip. When everyone is together, it is easier to negotiate the dates and destination selection. 2) We will budget a savings plan for the trip that stretches over a 12-month period. The ultimate gift you can give yourself is to pay for a trip out of ...

As we rush around getting last minute gifts, we should also be mindful of the end of the year for tax reasons. Here are a few items to check off your list before 2012 rolls around. - Last Minute Charitable Contributions: Time to get in the last minute charitable contributions for the 2011 tax year. Is it time to clean out your closet and make a donation to Good Will? Can you afford to give a little extra to a charitable cause? It has been a rough few years for a lot of people and your donation may be just what your favorite charity needs to help those in need. -  Unreimbursed Medical and Dependent Care Accounts : These are your "use it or lose it" accounts. You have to use the money by the end of the year or you forfeit your balance. If you have money in these accounts, maybe it is time to get your eyes checked or a new pair of glasses. Make sure you have paid all of your dependent care expense and that your balance is zero.   - 529 or Educational Savings Deposits: In some ...

It is the holidays and in the spirit of gifting and the joy of creating, make useful and fun things for family and friends this time a year. Tis the art of Upcycle : To make new from items that have lost their usefulness or value. A few flavors of the day: Paper bag stockings , perfect for gifts of movie passes, lottery tickets or gift certificates:         Covering an old canvas so to gift a new painting : Piecing together old jeans into a cozy blanket : Everyone has a little elf inside them. Get out the glue and glitter and release your inner elf . Very fun. Very frugal.