April 2017 – little money bee

credit, debt, frugal, military life, our budget, our life

how using cash back cards for expenses gave us $300 in 6 months

April 21, 2017 No Comments

extra money monthly with credit card cash back

Well, it seems obvious, but I know so many people who haven’t learned this yet. I add about $50 a month to our budget by using a cash back credit card for our bills and expenses. I still track my budget as normal as if I had paid with a debit card. When the due date comes, I pay the statement balance in full. (I always pay around the due date, never really early, because I’d prefer to leave the cash in my checking account to earn a few extra days of interest.) By paying the statement balance in full, […]

debt, finance quotes, military life, our budget, our life

spending money you don’t have yet (seriously, don’t do it)

April 19, 2017 No Comments

Before I start this post, I know you’re reading the title and saying, “okay, duh,” but I feel like it is so much more than that, and I need to write about it to have somewhere to go back to as a reinforcement next time the temptation comes. In the military life, there is a lot of income that is reasonably expected without a timeline. There are a lot of things you can expect to get reimbursed for, bonuses you may receive, special pays that will kick in at the next duty station, and allowances that may increase due to […]

goals, military life, our budget, our life

budgeting – don’t forget the annual & infrequent expenses

April 5, 2017 No Comments

This seems like a silly post to write, but when budgeting, it’s really easy to give yourself exactly enough to spend and pay your bills, and forget about something major coming up. I’ve finally gotten to a point where I’m putting money away for all these so they don’t sneak up on me and ruin a month. It’s also a good reminder that these are things you may not see if you are budgeting based off 1-2 months of your last statements. Car registration. Duh. Yeah, this gets paid every year (or two years, depending on where you are). Our […]

goals, meal plan, our life, recipes I love

weekly goals + meal plan

April 2, 2017 No Comments

Aloha money bees! I know I just posted my goals for the month of April and our budget recap for March, but it is Sunday, and last weekend I had a little too much fun and didn’t get to sharing my meal plan. I know I’m sharing a lot of goals for the month and the week and it may seem like I set too many goals. I encourage you to set big monthly goals, and small weekly goals that can keep you on track to meeting your bigger goals. At the end of the year, I also set yearly […]

goals, our budget, our life, retirement accounts

March Recap / April Goals

April 2, 2017 2 Comments

Well if I thought February flew by, I definitely wasn’t prepared for March. The Bee family financial goals in March were: Find a way to share our budget more effectively. Hmm. I don’t think I did well on this. I actually liked last month’s format, and I might keep it. When I write a full-on budget post, I think I’ll share all of our categories, but to be honest, a lot of them just collect money and go up until they get used, like car registration or our renter’s insurance. Reduce restaurant spending to under $300. Holy guacamole, am I […]