Working with numbers is something I really enjoy, except when it comes to budgeting. Actually, I don’t even really mind setting up a budget and maintaining it. My problem is that there is always more bills than money. So even though I enjoy the numbers game and the challenge of improving our financial situation, this is a really big area of stress for me.  The stress usually outweighs the pleasure.  But it has to be done anyway.

One of the ways I’ve dealt with the financial stress is by creating “Financial Friday“.  I only deal with finances on Fridays, and once the routine financial chores are out of the way, I focus on improving only one line item of my budget.

Let me share with you a few of my financial victories in improving the more bills than money problem…

Auto Insurance: Focusing on just this one budget item, I started evaluating the best way to lower my auto insurance premiums.  I compared companies and rates.  I combined all family autos onto one policy in order to get a discount.  (You could add your homeowner’s insurance for an even better rate if applicable.) Then I started chopping off any coverage that cost more than the premium was worth and increased my deductibles. By the end of the day, I had cut my total auto insurance budget in half.

Cable/Phone/Internet: (Okay, so that’s more than one item, but they are now one category in my budget because I “bundled” them.)  I’m not afraid to play one company against another.  So when my cable company began offering phone service, the negotiations began.  I immediately called my phone company and asked them what they would do to keep me as a customer.  They offered me a pretty darn good deal.  Then I took that offer right back to the cable company and asked them to do better.  They did!  Now my cable/phone/internet bundle costs less than I was paying for cable and internet before.  And even after the promotional offer expires, the cost will be about the same as before, but I’ll now have free long distance, caller ID and call-waiting, which I didn’t have before.

One of the benefits of setting up a budget is being able to see everything in one place, in black and white.  Only once this is accomplished you can start conquering the more bills than money problem. 

If you need help setting up a budget, I recommend the Family Budget Guide Ebook.

I was considering blogging today about the cleaning I’ve been doing.  Then I got distracted by Twitter.  Then I got to wondering if I could use Twitter to notify my followers of my blog entries.  Then, like someone was reading my mind, appears an update from Nicole Dean about a blog post she just published.  She uses a WordPress plugin called TweetMyBlog.  

Nicole is so smart!  (And so am I for following her lead.)

Thanks Nicole!   (Again)

Increasing gas prices. Increasing insurance costs. Increasing everything. But stagnant income. Had enough yet? I know I have!

One thing in our favor right now is low mortgage rates. I decided to take advantage and see if we could help our financial position. We just refinanced our mortgage and got a much better rate. We even freed up a little cash in the process. It was really easy and only took a couple of weeks, tops. It’s certainly worth looking into.

Grab a good rate while you still can!

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