In spite of taking in a record-breaking amount of taxes in 2017, the US government managed to lose a whopping $1.2 TRILLION dollars, or $2.2 million—every single minute of 2017.
The post In 2017, The US Government “Lost” $2.2 Million—Every Single Minute appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
When is the last time you sat down and took a very close look at your budget? And by close, I mean an accounting of every single dime you spend, including that drive-thru coffee and the paperback you bought that you could have borrowed from the library. There’s no reason you shouldn’t run your home like a business, and that includes keeping detailed financial records and performing a personal audit of your frugal living budget.
Even the most dedicatedly thrifty people can get off track, particularly when times are good. You figure that you just got a big bonus check, so it’s not going to hurt to go out for ice cream. Then you go to the store and decide, you’ve got extra money, so maybe you’ll just buy whatever you want instead of adhering to your normal weekly budget. You decide to live a little, enjoy life, and the next thing you know, all of that extra money is gone and all you have left is a few extra pounds on your waistline or a new frivolous gadget.
And you’re right, indulgences are absolutely fine from time to time, as long as they don’t take away from your necessities. But instead of working the treats into their frugal strategies, many people get completely off track when a bit of extra money comes their way. If you aren’t careful, indulgences can become habits that can undo your progress towards a frugal, debt-free lifestyle.
As the economies of the world take hit after hit, it’s not a far stretch to believe that it could also happen here. Michael Snyder recently issued a “red alert” for the second half of this year with regard to our economy. We’ve been watching as the price of every single item in Greece has a 23% tax added to the top while wages and pensions are cut by as much as 40%. In Venezuela, basic goods like toilet paper and laundry soap are increasingly hard to come by and outrageously expensive if you can find them. While many believe it can’t happen here, we’d all have to agree that getting a job – a good one, not minimum wage – and keeping it, is far more difficult than it used to be. As well, prices are skyrocketing due to droughts on one side of the country, increased fuel prices everywhere, and floods on the other side of the country.
After moving and incurring some unexpected expenses, I had to sit down and take another look at my finances. My expenses have changed because I’m in a different house, so I had to take this into consideration and completely revamp my current budget. But it doesn’t take a move from the suburbs to a farm to change your expenses – many times, things start creeping up so incrementally we don’t even realize it’s happened.
It’s time to do a personal audit on your finances.
How do you do most of your spending? If it’s with your debit card, it will be pretty easy to get started immediately. Simply print out your records for the last month, and then move on to the next step.
If you spend a mixture of money from your bank account and cash that you have on hand, you may have to get a notebook and start tracking your spending, then move on to the next step in a couple of weeks.
It’s vital to note every single dime you spend. Like a leaky faucet in a bathroom few people use, it’s those tiny but consistent drips that add up to an astonishing amount of gallons of waste.
I use categories, then subcategories:
1.) Fixed Expenses:
These are expenses that don’t change from month to month, like: mortgage, rent, property taxes, cable bill, car payment, insurance.
You can then break these down into 2 subcategories.
2.) Variable Expenses:
These expenses can be adapted to fit your financial situation, and sometimes even eliminated if necessary (obviously the need for things like food can’t be eliminated, but you can spend more or less money when adjustments are needed): food, utilities, clothing, gasoline, entertainment.
Again, we can break these into subcategories based on how vital they are.
All of your spending will fall into these categories and subcategories.
Now please don’t misunderstand. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a little bit of luxury spending that you’ve budgeted for so that it doesn’t put you behind on necessary spending. We get new clothes, take vacations, and go out to dinner from time to time – you just have to make sure the spending works within the confines of your budget.
For this calculation, add up your fixed necessities. This is the amount you need to keep a roof over your head, your car in the driveway, and any other regular payments that you make to keep those two things going.
Then add up your variable necessities. There’s some wiggle room here, because we can always dial back our groceries, the amount that we drive our vehicles, etc., but we have to add some of this in to our calculations.
So in a financial worst case scenario, this is the minimum amount of money that you need to maintain some semblance of your current lifestyle. This amount needs to be set aside each month before another penny is spent Everything you have on top of this is gravy.
Oftentimes you’ll immediately identify numerous ways you can reduce your spending without making any major changes whatsoever. Perhaps it’s something small like taking your coffee with you in the morning instead of going through the drive-thru at Starbucks. Maybe you can switch from cable to Netflix. Almost none of these will change the quality of your life in any substantial way, but they can add up to a great deal of money saved over the course of the year.
One mistake I often see when people are taking charge of their budgets is that they discount the small changes as not worthwhile. But really, I believe it’s the small changes that can make the biggest differences because with consistency they add up to a pretty big sum. Check out this article on small changes that result in big savings.
Not only that, but getting into the mindset of choosing the most frugal option can go a long way towards changing your life. When you can make a game from saving money, you learn to reduce waste, be more creative, and think outside of the “normal” parameters. When my oldest girl was a newborn and my husband lost his job, I stumbled upon The Tightwad Gazette books at the library. Amy Dacyczyn’s common sense approach to frugality was a life-changing lesson that has stuck with me through 20 years of the financial roller coaster of life. (If you haven’t read these books, I strongly recommend that you do – her series has been combined into one giant compendium of thrift that every person should have on the bookshelf.)
Looking at your list of necessities, this baseline amount is for maintaining your current lifestyle. But what if things REALLY fell apart? What if there simply wasn’t enough money to keep living the way you have been?
That’s when you have to rethink your necessities. And if you have a clear picture of your finances ahead of belt-tightening time, it’s going to be a lot easier to do this when times are tough.
Here are some cuts to consider:
Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list – when you look at your personal expenditures, other ideas will present themselves.
Being frugal doesn’t have to be a sentence to a grim reality. When you relieve the financial pressure, you’ll be amazed at how much brighter your outlook becomes. When you “need” less, you will be happy with the simple things. The peace that comes from financial security can’t be matched by any number of expensive herbal calming teas, pricey gym memberships, tropical beach vacations, or meditation classes.
Money actually can buy happiness (well, peace of mind, anyway) – but it’s the money you DON’T spend that buys it.
The The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide to Whole Food on a Half-Price Budget
The post It’s Time For A Personal Audit Of Your Frugal Living Budget appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.
If your kids are enrolled in school, you know that back to school shopping can make this the second most expensive time of the year.
This year, the National Retail Federation expects back to school spending to reach $83.6 billion dollars. This is a 10% increase over last year’s spending. The average expenditure is $687.72 per child. (source)
Here’s the spending breakdown:
Ouch.
I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever spent anywhere near that amount of money on back to school stuff for both of my kids combined. It does not have to be this way.
When many Americans can barely make ends meet from month to month without any additional expenses, the pressure to spend money on back to school shopping can be the source of a great deal of stress. Add to this that now, many schools send home a list with kids requiring parents to supply boxes of kleenex, hand sanitizer, and other classroom supplies that can really strain a budget. It’s embarrassing to be put on the spot like that, but don’t be afraid to say no or simply ignore the request. If you can’t do it, you can’t do it.
While we, as adults, can tighten the budget relentlessly on items for ourselves, it’s can be a lot harder to enforce frugality on the kiddos. But by ignoring the financial restraints and spending with reckless abandon on our kids, I don’t believe that we are doing them any favors. The economic outlook doesn’t appear to be improving for many families, as jobs get cut and prices continue to go up. In a world like this, showering your children with false prosperity doesn’t prepare them to survive and thrive.
It doesn’t have to be like this. You can create a budget and stick to it.
First things first, a budget is a must. This is dependent on your personal means. There is one simple rule here: no matter what your children believe that they “need”, it has to fit into the budget.
For years, I have used the envelope method for things like Christmas and back-to-school shopping. It’s fair, it’s efficient, and it’s tangible. This way, I not only stayed within budget, but I taught my kids about budgeting also.
Both of my daughters are very financially responsible and handle money well because they have been making their purchases fit the existing budget since they were old enough to perform the necessary math to do so. There have been years that they made poor choices that they regretted, but by allowing them to do this, they learned a lesson that you just can’t teach with a verbal warning.
If your kids have summer jobs, then they will have the freedom to buy some of those expensive “want but don’t need” items. My kids always had jobs in the summer – they babysat, they did farm chores, and they did one time projects like cleaning out the garage, painting the fence, etc. While they were certainly allowed to supplement their budgets with their own money, quite often they saved for a bigger item or for spending money throughout the school year instead of spending their cash frivolously. Other times, they saved up for one big-ticket clothing item that they know I won’t be buying for them.
Here are some ways to stretch your back-to-school dollars.
Have you ever spent nearly $700 per kid to get ready for back to school time?
How do you get the most bang for your back-to-school bucks? Share your ideas in the comments below!
(RT) The Obama administration granted less than a quarter of public requests for government files in its last year in office and spent $36.2 million on legal battles to keep its files secret, according to a new transparency report compiled for “Sunshine Week.”
Having aspired to be “the most transparent administration in history” at the beginning of President Barack Obama’s first term, it instead set records for denying, delaying or obstructing requests for government records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing analysis of data provided by the US government.
The Justice Department spent $12 million on legal costs in fighting to keep its files from the public, with the Department of Homeland Security spending $6.3 million and the Department of Defense spending $4.8 million, AP noted. The three departments received more than half of the total FOIA requests made in 2016.
Obama’s final year: US spent $36 million in records lawsuits The Non-Transparent Administration https://t.co/wBYrUBgFp7
— John Fund (@johnfund) March 14, 2017
The Obama administration set many FOIA records last year, from the number of requests received (788,769) to the amount spent on answering them ($478 million). There were 4,263 full-time FOIA employees across over 100 federal agencies, 142 people more than in 2015.
Other achievements were less flattering, however – such as breaking its own record from 2015 in telling citizens, journalists and others who made FOIA requests that they couldn’t find a single page of the requested files, AP reported without citing the number of such cases.
READ MORE: Sports Fans Freak Out Over "Rigged" NBA Finals While Elections Are Openly Being Stolen
The previous administration also set records for denying access to files, refusing to quickly process requests described as particularly newsworthy, and denying requests for waivers of copy and research fees.
In 77 percent of the cases, people who asked for records in 2016 received partly or fully redacted files, compared to 65 percent in 2009.
The acknowledgement letters to all the #FOIA requests I filed in 2016. pic.twitter.com/b8qBdzAqZF
— Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) December 31, 2016
AP’s revelations come during “Sunshine Week,” an event organized in March each year by the American Society of News Editors to educate the public on the importance of open government.
Under the 1966 Freedom of Information Act, individuals can request copies of federal records for free or at a nominal cost. The government is obligated to hand them over, unless the disclosure could harm national security, violate personal privacy, or expose confidential decision-making – exemptions that authorities often abuse, according to critics.
“I will hold myself as president to a new standard of openness,” Obama said upon assuming office in 2009. “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”
During the 2015 Sunshine Week, the White House exempted itself from the FOIA.
His abuses of power include trillions of dollars for militarism and endless wars, thirdworldizing America, running it under a police state apparatus, while costing US taxpayers nearly $100 million for ultra-luxury vacation and unnecessary political travel during his tenure – unrelated to official government business.
Candidate Obama vowed to forego vacations if elected, saying
“(t)he bargain that any president strikes is, you give me this office and in turn my fears, doubts, insecurities, foibles, need for sleep, family life, vacations, leisure is gone.”
“I am giving myself to you,” the public. Like virtually all his other promises, he said one thing, then did another – a deplorable con man throughout his public life, notably as president, serving as America’s deep state front man.
On December 29, Judicial Watch (JW) published his vacation and unnecessary political travel expenses, amounting to at least a whopping $97 million, including the cost of Secret Service protection and use of US air force planes – information obtained from two FOIA lawsuits. Here’s what JW reported:
“Secret Service records reveal that Barack Obama’s April 22, 2015, Earth Day trip to give a global warming speech in the Florida Everglades cost taxpayers $145,752.36, which brings the total cost of the trip to at least $1,012,367.76.
The Secret Service records for Obama’s October 2015 fundraising travel to San Diego reveal expenses totaling $180,187.09. Including the US Air Force expenses, the total cost of Obama’s San Diego trip was at least $2,181,655.99.
Michelle Obama’s February 2016 ski trip to Aspen with her daughters cost taxpayers a total of $222,875.58. The Secret Service expenses were $165,806.78.
Judicial Watch previously obtained records from the Air Force revealing that Michelle Obama’s weekend trip to Aspen, Colorado, last year cost American taxpayers $57,068.80 in travel expenses alone for the 7.4-hour round-trip flight.
Judicial Watch obtained records from the US Air Force and the Secret Service revealing that Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba and Argentina in March 2016 cost taxpayers $7,146,015.18 in Secret Service and Air Force travel expenses.
Air Force records regarding Michelle Obama’s trip to Morocco, Spain and Liberia with her daughters in June 2016 revealed $450,026.40 in flight expenses alone. A C-32A was flown for 28.4 hours.
Judicial Watch recently obtained Air Force records which reveal that the Obama’s August 2016 vacation to Martha’s Vineyard cost taxpayers $450,295 in flight expenses alone.
Judicial Watch also recently obtained records from the Air Force showing that in July 2016 taxpayers paid $360,236 for Hillary Clinton to accompany Obama on Air Force One for a campaign trip to North Carolina.
Also, in October 2016 Michele Obama joined Hillary Clinton in North Carolina for a rally reportedly to ‘encourage early voting in North Carolina.’
Documents regarding this trip have been requested but have not yet been received. The First Lady typically flies in a C-32A so the 1.8 hour flight can safely be estimated to have cost taxpayers $28,522.80.
The Obamas’ notorious abuse of presidential travel perks wasted military resources and stressed the Secret Service.
‘Judicial Watch estimates that the final costs of Obama’s unnecessary vacation and political travel will well exceed $100 million,’ said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.
‘President-elect Trump can immediately save taxpayers money by reforming presidential travel.’ “
