Mini Challenges: Determine Your Food Storage Needs

Food storage (or Home Storage) is often a tricky subject. The LDS Church guidelines recommend a year's supply of food for you and your family. Some resources suggest less. Space is often an issue, and depending on where you live, laws may prohibit you from storing very much. If you live or work in the military community, you know hauling all that food to different duty stations can be difficult. So what is one to do? The answer is: Do what you can.

Well, since you generally can't rush out and get a year's supply tomorrow, we're going to start small...baby steps. Our December 15th Mini-Challenge is to calculate your family's food storage needs and make a food storage plan.

This exercise will involve a few steps.

1. Determine your family size...don't forget pets!
2. Pick a time frame. I would suggest starting with 72 hours. Then you can also calculate needs for 1 month, then 3 months, then 6 months, and then a year. This will help give you an idea of the different goals you can set, and the amount of food each period would require. If space is a concern, this could help you gauge for what time period you could store food.
3. Using some guidelines or calculators (Long Term Food Storage Calculator or General Food Storage Calculator), determine what the recommended amount (and types) of food are for your family. Don't be afraid to find a subsitution that works for your family. Food storage won't help if you won't eat it. ...just make sure you are covering all the essential categories.
4. Determine what types of special needs your family would have. You'll need to keep in mind items such as pet food, diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, medicines, vitamins, and personal sanitary items. Try to figure out how much you use during your selected time period and make sure you include those things in your list.
5. Make a list of all the items you would need, including quantities.
6. Make a trip to your local grocery or discount store and "shop" your list. This doesn't mean you have to buy anything...in fact DON'T buy anything yet. Just look for the items you've identified, and get an idea of what they cost. Add up the total cost (cost of each item x quantity needed) of each item and then the complete total for your entire list.
7. Make a goal of when you would like to have your food storage in place. Keep in mind the longer the time period you have chosen, the longer it will take you to aquire.
8. Take your total cost and divide it into increments based on your pay schedule or shopping schedule, to determine how much money you will need to spend each week/pay period to reach your goal. Say you have decided you want to have your food storage goal complete in three months. You shop every week. Your total is $300. That means that you would be spending roughly $25 a week on food storage in order to meet your goal.
9. Determine how you will finance this goal. Do you have a budgetary category for food storage? Will it come out of your normal grocery budget? Do you have a chunk of funds set aside in savings you want to use? It doesn't have to be complicated, but you should know how you will finance it, since food storage shouldn't put you into debt.
10. Share your plan with your family and ask for ideas on completing the goal together. You never know, you may find a co-worker or friend that is giving away an item on your list. Your children might want to "donate" to the goal from their allowance. You may be able to can some items yourself (if you have the resources and know how). Get creative.
11. And finally, don't despair or become discouraged. It will take time and effort, but it WILL be worth it.

It is hard to reach a goal, when you don't know what that goal will entail. That is why it is so important to do the planning. Take some time out to assess your food storage needs and set some goals. This is a very important part of Provident Living, and in these uncertain economic times, Food and Home Storage can be a great comfort.

Monthly Focus: Budgeting and Financial Communication

Our focus for November and December is on budgeting and financial communication.

Keep in mind that the word "BUDGET" means something different to everyone, and that that is okay. They way that you choose to budget may not be the same as your neighbor, or even your spouse.

BUDGET is not a bad word! The goal of a budget is not to restrict you, starve you of fun, or make you miserable. The goal of a budget is to help you be in control of your money, to be responsible with your stewardship.

While the execution may vary, the basic principle of a budget is to help you spend less than you earn. There are a multitude of ways to do that. I have heard ideas ranging from envelopes of cash for expenses, to complicated accounting practices involving electronic tracking of expenditures. No way is going to be the right way for everyone. You have to find a way that fits your finances, your lifestyle, and your knowledge....and keep in mind your way may change as those factors do!

With that said, there are a few things to keep in mind when making a budget:

1. Know what your expenses are. You can't budget for things you don't know about or acknowledge. Keep track of what you spend for a time (most appropriately for a month), holding on to receipts can help. After tracking your expenses for a time you will have a better idea of where your money is going.
2. Be realistic about your expenditures. Make sure your budget realistically reflects your needs. Budgets need to cover not only your bills, but also your expenses. So, if you buy that latte or donut every morning but don't have it as part of your budget, you could get derailed pretty fast. You have to be honest with yourself (and your partner) about what you spend and where you are spending it.
3. Know what your income is. This seems pretty easy, as we all generally get paystubs or some other document telling us how much money we are receiving. Make sure you know how much you are getting, especially keeping in mind things like taxes, fees, retirement, etc that may be automatically removed from your pay before it gets to your bank or your hands.
4. Make sure your budget doesn't exceed your income. When you match your expenditures up to your income, make sure that they are at the very least the same, but preferrably having expenses lower than income. If you find that your expenses exceed your income, it's time to do a financial inventory and see what can be cut or at least cut back.
   
5. Remember budgets are dynamic. What your budget looks like today will likely be different than it will look in a year or two. Make sure to periodically review your budget to make sure it continues to meet your needs. You may find expenses that are new that need to be added, old expenses that no longer exist, or amounts that need to be adjusted. You may start out with a simple budget which may become more complex as you learn more about your money and budgeting. Don't be afraid of the change!
   
6. Share the budget. If you live with other people (like children or a spouse) make sure that they know what the budget is....especially if they spend money from that budget. This can also be a useful teaching tool for your children.
7. Don't be afraid to get help. Budgets don't make themselves, and financial education is not generally prominent. Don't wait to make a budget simply because you think you don't know what to do. There are plenty of resources (many of them free) to help you get started. Look online (see the sidebar for some links to financial resources), you can find free worksheets, budgeting tips, even forums for people to discuss budgeting. Ask friends and family for suggestions or help. Make use of community resources available. Don't be afraid of budgeting, learn, get help, and get started!
   

While budgeting will certainly help with gaining control of your financial help, if you have a partner, financial communication is another vital aspect of your financial health. Your finanical health is a joint venture between you and your partner, and you both are stewards of that financial health, responsible for its condition.

Just as there are a variety of ways to create your budget, there are a variety of ways to divide responsibility and facilitate communication. Regardless of how you choose to budget or divide the financial responsibility, good commuinication is essential.

Here are a few ideas on how to facilitate financial communication, and keep everyone in the loop, that were shared at our monthly meeting, and elsewhere:

1. Hold regular "financial" meetings. This was the most stated suggestion. Frequency varied from weekly to quarterly, but most suggestiosn were for monthly meetings. You and your partner can go over your budget, discuss expenses for the month, discuss future expenses, and share your experiences with your financial responsibilities.
2. Be financially honest. You shouldn't be afraid to share your financial concerns, successes or failures with your partner. It may not be easy, but financial honesty is essential for good financial health and a good partnership.
3. Have some place where financial health is documented. These suggestions ranged from a checkbook ledger to electronic logs (such as money management software). Having this information written down can help to facilitate communication, and help you both keep a handle on your financial health.
4. Be involved. While one might be responsible for paying bills, and the other for buying groceries, you should both be involved. You may choose to divide financial responsibility in different ways, but make sure you both participate in this important aspect of your partnership.
5. Take a money day. We all take sick days, vacation days, even holidays, but how many people think to take a money day? Take a day, sit down with your partner, and talk about your money. Take your monthly meeting to a new level. This can be done as often as you want, but is recommended that you do it at least once a year. Set financial goals, review your budget and make any changes needed, take stock of your financial health. Discuss your financial responsibilities with your partner and make changes in that if needed. Don't want to pay bills this year, well maybe you can trade responsibilties or adjust your range of responsibilities to what suits you now. Give your financial picture a good looking over.
6. Make your plan together. While, on some level, this may be best done before your partnership begins (in fact experts recommend you discuss finances before getting married), sometimes we get started late in the game. You may have missed the pre-marital window, but that is no reason to not have a plan. Discuss with your partner your expectations for your finances and for each other. Very rarely do two people with exactly the same financial ideas get married. You'll likely have to compromise, but if you sit down together to make a plan, it is more likely to work. But dont' forget, even the best laid financial plan needs to be dynamic. Life changes and so will your plan!
   

The process of having a workable budget and good financial communication will take time....nothing that important happens overnight! Don't be discouraged if the process seems to take longer than you would think or like. By taking the first step to create a budget and share financial communication with your partner, you have done the hardest part.

Financial responsibility, living with in our means, and being financially healthy are important aspects of our lives. This is made even more poignant by the recent economic crisis sweeping across the world. Some times it is hard to think of the "lean" times when there is plenty, but the lean times will come, and having a handle on your finances will make those times much less scary and stressful.

Resources and Articles:

Happily Living Within Our Means

Family Finances

Where does the money go?

Five Steps to Financial Well-Being

Know Where your Money goes

Make Marriage a Partnership - Couples Counseled at Fireside

Mini Challenges: Make a Financial "Rainy Day" Plan

It's that time again, a new month has begun and it is time for a new mini-challenge. Keeping in line with our monthly (or in this case bi-monthly) focus of finances, our December 1 challenge will be to create a financial rainy day plan.

While this will take time, experts recommend having at least 6 months, but preferably a year, of your expenses set aside in case of an emergency (such as a job loss, disability, accident, etc). You can start out small (say one pay period) and work up slowly (say the next step being 3 months) toward whatever level you have decided on. A little savings is better than none.

While this doesn't mean that you have to rush out tomorrow and have all your rainy day money set aside and every contingency taken care of, you do have to start somewhere.

Here is what it does entail:

1. Review your income. Determine how much you have coming in.
2. Review your expenses. This ties into our mini-challenge for the last period of making a budget.
3. Determine what your expenses would be for a 6 month period. Assume that for this 6 month period you have no income coming in.
4. Now you know how much you need to save.
5. Determine a goal length for saving your total. Consider saving it over a year, two years, 6 months, whatever you think your income will allow and what fits your needs and wants.
6. Decide on a way to break down the total into manageable chunks, whether that is by week, by pay period, by month, etc. In whatever way fits with your timetable and income.
7. When you have determined how you want to break down the total, make a plan for saving it. There are plenty of ways to find the money.

• Add it as a budgetary item, which is easy if you are breaking the total down by weeks or pay periods.
• Consider assigning "excess" funds, such as tax refunds, pay bonuses, or gifts to meet your total.
• Save your spare change from cash purchases, and after a set time period, deposit the total towards your goal.
• Have 26 pay periods a year instead of 24? Consider budgeting using the 24 and deposit the "extra" 2 pay periods into your rainy day fund.
  

After you've made your plan (and don't forget to include your partner), think of ways to keep yourself on track.

1. Consider making a chart that will allow you to mark off as you contribute to your rainy day fund. Think of those giant thermometers that help us see how much we've contributed to various charities. This can help motivate you as will have a visual reminder of your progress.
2. Think of a reward for when you reach your goal. Maybe a dinner out, a new movie, something to look forward too....just make sure that you have set aside funds for that too :)
3. Keep a "checkbook" ledger to help you track your savings.
4. Consider adding all the dividends and interest from investment and bank accounts.
5. Consider giving up a vice or luxury (such as the morning latte, cigarettes, candy bars, etc) and putting that money toward your goal...it could not only make you richer, but healthier too!

Now, you are on your way to having a rainy day fund! Remember this is meant to relieve some of your financial stress, and give you some security.

As time goes on, your expenses and savings may change. Remember to review your "rainy day" plan and adjust it as is necessary for you.

If you have any easy or cool ideas on how to set aside those pennies, or success stories on how you have saved, please post them! Even if it is just a little at a time, you can do it!