This is a guest post from Kyle of Suburban Dollar. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.

Lets face it, one of our biggest expenses outside of our mortgages is the cost of keeping our bellies full. Unfortunately, eating is a necessity. We have to get food, and most of us aren’t willing to eat other peoples garbage.

There are tons of ways you can save money on groceries like growing a garden, clipping coupons, buying bulk, and tracking cyclical prices. While these are all great ways to reduce your costs they should all be parts of a bigger plan.

Plans are the keys to success in just about everything we do. Football teams plan for the next game, architects draw up plans to build a skyscraper, and you should plan your meals in advance to save you time and money.

Here are the steps you should take weekly or monthly to maximize your savings and save some time.

Plan your meals

This is the first and most important step. Sit down and plan out your meals for the next week, two weeks, or month. This should include both the main course and the side(s). If you make your lunches every day and cook breakfast, make sure you include those meals in the plan.

By the time you are finished you should have a list of at least seven days of meals that should look something like this:

Make a list

Now you need to sit down with your plan and write down every ingredient you will need throughout the week to make you meals. Be sure to include any staples you may need like bread, milk, orange juice, or cereal. This is why planning your meals in advance is so great. You can easily make a list of everything you need for the week and not have to worry about forgetting anything.

Check it twice

Now that you have a list the first thing you should do is go through the list and determine what you already have. Go through your fridge, freezer, and pantry. Mark off every item you already own and don’t need to buy. This will help you eliminate duplicate purchases.

Find the deals

For the remaining items on your list start researching the best prices available in your area. This usually means looking through the Sunday circulars to find the best bargain for your buck. Once you have located the best deals, circle them and stack your circulars up. You won’t need to drive all over town to get the best deals, just take the circulars to Wal-Mart and have them do a price match.

Hunt for coupons

This might take you a little bit of time, but coupons are free money so get to work. Online coupons are all the rage these days, and both stores and manufacturers are getting in on the game. I like to sit down with my list and find as many coupons as possible. I scour the internet for any coupons related to those products, print them off, and take them with me.

Go alone, shop swiftly

Now you just need to load up your coupons, circulars, list, and money. Head off to the store, but go alone. You already know what you need, and bringing another person will only distract you. Move swiftly through your list picking up only those items you have identified as needs. I say swiftly because the longer you linger, the more time you have to be tempted by ads and wandering thoughts.

Once you get to the checkout line, put your stuff on the belt, but leave anything you want to price match until the end. Put the circulars on these items so your intentions are clear. Finally, pay your bill and get out of Dodge.

Closing thoughts

If you actually take a bit of time to sit down and go through each of these steps, you’re guaranteed to save yourself both time at the store and money in your pocket. An added benefit is you get to prevent the inevitable question… “What are we going to have for dinner tonight, dear?”

Do you have any tips for planning meals in advance?

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Time = Money…

…so if you’re wasting time, you’re wasting money. Keep this old adage in mind as you read through this article.

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”

-Harvey Mackay

As you consider what I’ve written, please keep in mind that you can always earn more money, but you can never earn more time. From birth, the precious time each of us is allotted begins slipping away. Whether you are a homeless, alcoholic bum or the the President of our great United States, you only have so much time.

How are you using the time you have been allotted in this life?

Please note that some of these “pastimes” may be used properly and productively but, more often than not, they’re nothing more than time sucks. In other words, while they may be fun or beneficial in some ways, they’re far from being a necessity.

Top five time sucks of the average American

1. Watching TV

There exists no device or “leisure activity” that wastes more time than the old boob tube! Don’t believe me? The following breakdown lists the average number of hours that Americans spent watching television in 2007:

• Men = 4hrs 35mins
• Women = 5hrs 14mins
• Teens = 3hrs 21mins
• Children = 3hrs 25mins

Have you had a chance to see the movie Wall-E? Well… If we don’t change our habits, we’ll soon be a country of obese shut-ins just like in the movie.

Or are we there already? After all, we currently nearly double the television watching statistics of any other country in the world. Now that you know this, get out from behind that time sucking vortex and go do something productive!

2. Internet

A close 2nd to TV, is the sometimes glorious, sometimes notorious World Wide Web! This is by far my biggest time drain. Yes, I use it for business, but I also waste a lot of time playing around with this virtual cornucopia of information.

Self-restraint and time management practices are absolutely crucial if you wish to utilize the power of this beast without letting it steal away untold hours of your precious time. I could go on for days about this, but a few of the biggest time sucks are social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Trust me, I know first hand.

3. Gadgets

• Mobile phones: These little suckers have been popular for less than 10 years, and yet they’re everywhere! Don’t believe they’re a huge time-waster? Next time you’re waiting in a public place, take a look around and check out how many people are staring into these hypnotic little electronic goodies just-a-wastin’ time away.
• Video games: If you’re not careful, you can spend 10 hours straight trying to “beat” or “solve” one of these little buggers. Sure they’re fun, but in the hands of the undisciplined soul… They can quickly become your purpose in life.
• iPods: From the first time you contemplate the purchase an iPod – whether you admit it or not – it sucks a ton of your time… And for what? You research the purchase, research the best price, make the purchase, read the manual, play with the device, install the software, play with the software, search through your worthy CDs, rip your CDs, download music… You get the picture. It may be fun… But this is a huge time suck.
• HDTVs: Like other gadgets, one can spend a tremendous amount of time researching, saving for, shopping for, setting up, learning, tweaking, and paying off this impressive piece of modern technology. At the end of the day, HDTVs are very nice examples of human ingenuity, but they do little in the way of helping us reach our goals.

4. Sporting events

Although I’m a huge football fan, I have to admit that watching sporting events is a huge time suck for the average American. One example is fantasy football. You would be amazed at just how much time one person can spend playing a fantasy sport!

I would have to say that I used to spend at least 10 hours/week setting up my team. I then spent another 10 hours per week watching games, checking scores, etc. What was in it for me? Nothing but entertainment — and bragging rights.

Do yourself a favor. Turn off the TV, put away your foam #1 hand, and go spend some meaningful, quality time with your family and friends.

5. Personal appearance

Yes, it’s important to be clean, presentable, and dressed appropriately, but…

Many people take their personal appearance to such an extreme that they spend the better part of every day consumed with how they look. This near obsession with personal appearance can, in many cases, be tied to a lack of self-confidence brought on by things like a constant barrage of advertising.

Our consumeristic society wants us to BUY BUY BUY, but what’s truly important in life? The 20 pairs of shoes and 50 different outfits in the closet? Do yourself a favor. Reduce, simplify, focus on necessities, and stop spending so much time trying to impress others with your appearance.

Unless you’re something like a fashion model, copious amounts of shopping, primping, and posing will not help you accomplish anything of lasting value.

In closing…

As I noted above, some (if not all) of these things can be used properly or productively but, more often than not, they are nothing more than a waste of time.

Less popular alternatives include: working, giving, volunteering, loving, reading, studying, learning, hobby-ing, journaling, goal setting, and goal striving. That said, it’s important to remember that nearly anything can become a time suck if you let it. Moderation and balance are the keys.

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The Pareto Principle holds that, for many events, 80% of the effects can be attributed to 20% of the causes. Also known as “the 80/20 rule,” or “the law of the vital few,” the Pareto Principle has been found to apply to a surprisingly wide variety of things in everyday life.

Examples of the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923), who observed that 80% of the land in Italy was controlled by just 20% of the population. Intrigued, Pareto looked to other countries and found similar ratios. More recently, a 1992 United Nations study revealed that 80% of the world’s wealth (actually 82.7%) is controlled by 20% of the population.

Looking more broadly:

• It’s been long recognized, or at least assumed, that 80% of sales come from 20% of clients (or 20% of salespeople).
• Microsoft has noted that, by fixing the top 20% of bugs, they could squash 80% of errors and crashes. (Note: I wonder when they’re planning on doing this…)
• In 2000, 20% of taxpayers paid 81.2% of US income taxes. (Note: This is perhaps not surprising given the large share of wealth that they control.)
• 20% of employees account for 80% of absenteeism.
• It appears that fellow blogger J.D. Roth wears 20% of his shirts 80% of the time (if not more).

And the list goes on.

Why the Pareto Principle matters

To see how this principle can help you in everyday life, it might be best to turn it around…

What would you do if I told you that 80% of your efforts are (in many cases) largely wasted, producing only 20% of your results? I’d be willing to bet that you’d take a closer look at how you spend your time and make some changes.

While it’s arguable whether or not the numbers really work out to 80/20 in any particular case, the larger point still stands… The majority of your productivity typically comes from a minority of your efforts.

By looking critically at how you spend your time/effort, you can dramatically improve your productivity. Try to identify the things that produce the most results and focus on doing them. Likewise, try to shun (or at least streamline) activities that don’t produce much in the way of results.

The same principles can, of course, be applied to things like spending. While you may have certain critical things that are indispensable, yet only used rarely, I’d bet that you only regularly use a small fraction of your “stuff.” If you can learn to look at your purchases with a more discerning eye, your money will go further, and you’ll wind up with far less clutter.

Have you ever evaluated how you spend your time/efforts/money in this way? If so, what did you find? And what (if any) changes did you institute?

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The idea of creating a paperless personal finance system has always appealed to me. Try as I might, I’m hopelessly behind on filing our mountains of paperwork, and I’d be hard-pressed to quickly lay my hands on a number of important documents.

While I realize that we won’t be able to go completely paper-free (e.g., what about things like official birth certificates?) I’ve been gradually working to create a (largely) paperless system in our household. We’ve transitioned to e-statements for as many of our accounts as possible, we rely heavily on our bank’s online billpay system, etc.

My efforts have also been helped along by the addition of a Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanner as well as my iPhone. When these tools are combined with services such as Qipit, Evernote, and DropBox, I can rapidly capture, archive, and synchronize all kinds of information.

Given the above, I was thrilled to read Gina Trapani’s “Complete Guide to Going Paperless.” It’s chock full of great tips and links on topics such as:

• Reducing unnecessary postal mail
• “Printing” and scanning to pdf
• Digitizing your signature for e-mailing documents
• Bypassing paper entirely with electronic information capture
• Organizing what little paper you have to keep

It’s definitely worth a read if you’re interested in this sort of thing. Beyond that, if you have any tips of your own for implementing a paperless personal finance system, please don’t hesitate to share them in the comments.

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Earlier this week, I ran across an excellent talk on time management by Randy Pausch. If you’re not familiar with Pausch, he’s a former Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who died of pancreatic cancer this past summer at the age of 47, leaving behind a wife and three young children.

Pausch delivered this talk just over three months after being told that he had “three to six months of good health left.” As such, he’s a self-proclaimed authority on talking about “what to do with limited time.” Certain parts of his talk really resonated with me.

The time/money relationship

Pausch’s talk spanned more than an hour, and covered topics including how to set goals, how to avoid wasting time, how to deal with a boss, and how to delegate to people. But a recurring theme was the relationship between time and money.

He argued early on that, while Americans are accustomed to dealing with money as a commodity, we’re not good at dealing with time as a commodity. As such, we do a very poor job of equating time with money, and are far too willing to waste the former while keeping track of the latter.

Turning money into time

Near the end of his talk, Pausch revisited the time/money point when he argued that people should go out of their way to turn money into time. That’s right… Rather than using your time to earn more money, you should use your money to free up your time. He went on to argue that this is especially important for people with children and/or other family commitments.

This really hit home for me, as we’re constantly short on time. Between working a full-time job, managing our business endeavors, and raising four kids, we’re swamped. While we’re now in a position where we can afford to “outsource” some of our less desirable tasks in the name of creating more time for ourselves, it hasn’t always been this way. On top of that, my wife and I are both do-it-yourselfers by nature, which makes it very hard for us to let go.

But guess what? Our kids are getting older every day. I know that this sounds a bit melodramatic, but… Bit by bit, our time with them is slipping away. It’s not really something that we notice on a daily basis, but it only takes a quick glance through a photo album to see how fast they’re growing up.

Putting words into action

If we want more time with them while they’re young, then we need to change our mindset. I’ve argued in the past that it’s okay to spend money — and not just on needs, but on things that you want, as well. That’s the whole point of having your finances in order, isn’t it?

Well, I want a less hectic life. I want more time with my family. I want a better balance. And I’m willing to pay someone to help out with some of the more mundane tasks around here in order to achieve these things.

If you’re curious about Pausch’s talk, you can view it below. Note that you can safely skip to the seven and a half minute mark if you’re not interested in the introductory remarks. Also note that Pausch authored a book called “Time Management” that was published posthumously.

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This is a guest post from Mike of CleverDude. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.

Back in college, I had one W-2 each year, no investments or additional income, and I just took the standard deduction. I didn’t really need to think about taxes until tax time came around. But now that I’m older, things are a bit different.

We still don’t have the craziest tax situation, but I do have at least a dozen different pieces of paper that have important numbers, not counting receipts. I run two businesses, and both my wife and I have day jobs. I’m not the best organizer, and it’s beginning to show. And that’s why I want to share a little tip with all of you this tax season. Begin filing your tax-related documents NOW rather than waiting till next year.

Step 1 – Set up a filing system
For us, I have a single folder called “Tax Documents,” and whenever I get anything that could be considered income or a deduction on next year’s return, I stick it in the folder. For instance, receipts from business meals, website hosting, malpractice insurance premiums, and anything else that probably won’t get mailed as a single statement early next year go into the folder. Last year, I found that a single folder worked fine for us, but this year I’ll have to revise the system.

Since we’re now launching a third business (a nutrition consulting business, as my wife is a licensed and registered dietitian), and we’ve already had some expenditures, I need to begin splitting personal expenses from business expenses. That means a few more folders, and maybe some envelopes for the smaller items like receipts. There are pre-made systems for sale out there, but a manila folder will do just fine.

Step 2 – Create a reference sheet
It’s great that you’re filing all your stuff into one or a few folders, but how do you know what’s in there? Last year, since we only used a single folder, I just wrote what I added to the folder right on the front of the folder. I actually made categories like income, expense, investments, etc. and would just write in the document name or description in the appropriate category. Next year, I’ll probably do the same. But for those of you with more receipts and documents than us, you may want something a little more complex than a marker — but don’t think that you need to spend money on something! All you need is a sheet of paper or maybe a spreadsheet application to keep track of your documents.

Step 3 – Uh, I don’t think there is a step 3
The system you use doesn’t need to be overly complex. Actually, the simpler, the better. The goal here is to keep track of your records as soon as you receive them rather than letting them float around and potentially get lost. Keep everything tax-related together throughout the year and you’ll find tax time much less stressful each year.

So this year, if you found yourself scrambling to find all those receipts from last January, try out this method. I’ve learned that we each have our own ways to organize things, but the important thing is to at least do something!

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Now that I have a Treo smartphone, I’ve been exploring ways to take advantage of having the internet in my pocket. Since I have a strong interest in personal finance, that seemed liked a logical starting point.

What follows is a list of ways you can use an internet-enabled phone to help you manage your money when you’re out and about. To be fair, some of these things can be done with a regular phone, or a simple PDA. That being said, a smartphone lets you combine all of this functionality into one handy little package.

» 1. Online Banking - An increasing number of banks are offering mobile-friendly web sites that allow you to check balances, transfer funds, and pay bills on your phone. For example, Bank of America (our brick and mortar bank) offers mobile banking at http://www.bofa.mobi/ (they also have a demo).

The biggest surprise here is that online-only banks aren’t really taking the lead on this. In fact, of the three banks where we have online savings accounts (ING Direct, HSBC Direct, and Emigrant Direct), ING is the only one that offers a mobile-optimized interface. While ING’s interest rate has been slipping, this is a pretty compelling feature.

» 2. PayPay Mobile - Did you know that PayPal lets you send money on the go? Simply send a text message PayPal (729725) saying something like this:

send 10 to 2025551414

or:

send 10 to name@domain.com

You can also call 1-800-4PAYPAL to send money, which you can do even if your phone isn’t capable of texting. This is a pretty cool application of mobile technology, and I think this sort of thing has the potential to revolutionize the way people handle cash transactions.

Think about it… The next time you meet a stranger in a parking lot to buy something off craigslist, there’s no need to carry a wad of cash in your pocket. Rather, you can check out the item in person, then whip out your phone and text the money to their account.

» 3. Check Prices - Have you ever been out shopping and wondered if a certain price is actually a good deal? Well, wonder no more. Simply hop on over to Google Product Search for Mobile and check out what it would cost you online. Alternatively, you can shoot a text message to Google (466453) saying something like:

price nikon d80

or:

ipod nano price

» 4. Track Your Finances - Software packages such as Pocket Quicken or MS Money for Windows Pocket PCs allow you to carry your entire financial history around in your pocket. Also not that online financial data aggregator Yodlee offers a mobile solution.

» 5. Manage Your Passwords - Last but not least, recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of usernames and passwords that we have to manage. And what good are uber-convenient mobile financial services if you can’t remember the access information? Fortunately, there are a number of password-managers out there that allow you to encrypt your private data on your phone or PDA. The best of these apps allow you to synchronize your data with your computer, such that your login information is always at your fingertips.

Being a Mac user, I’ve used Web Confidential for years, and have also dabbled with their Palm version (which works great, by the way). More recently, I’ve been playing around with SplashID which likewise offers computer and handheld versions that can be kept in sync, and also offers a more flexible interface with fully customizable categories and fields.

So there you go… Five tips to get you started managing your money on the go.

If you have any of your own, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

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After an on-again-off-again relationship with a variety of different PDAs, ranging from a Handspring Visor to a Handspring Treo 90 to a Palm Tungsten E, I’ve finally decided to return to keeping track of my life on paper. Things are just so crazy in my life these days, and I’m far too visual to be able to keep track of things on a tiny LCD screen. I need to see my entire week laid out in front of me. So…

I’ve reverted to my trusty Quo Vadis Trinote Weekly planner. This is actually a planner that I stumbled upon at a mall calendar kiosk shortly after New Year’s a number of years back. I picked it up for 50% off and rapidly fell in love with the format. The problem was that I couldn’t find refills for it. That is, I couldn’t find refills until I found TheDailyPlanner.com a couple of years ago. But now I can, and all is (once again) good in the world.

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Well, I spent two or three hours this afternoon sorting through my e-mail inbox at work. It had somehow swollen to 678 (!) messages. I used to be in the habit of sorting out my inbox – filing, deleting, and and trimming things back down – every Friday (at worst), but I’ve recently let that slip. When combined with my apparent inability to delete even the simplest, most inane messages, it got ugly. And fast. I’m not done yet… I’ve still got about 50 messages left to handle, but it’s now back down to a manageable level. If I can find a few spare minutes this weekend, I’ll be back on top. While I was at it, I also got myself off of a few extraneous mailing lists. This won’t completely stem the tide, but it should at least slow things down just a bit.

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Awhile back I picked up a fax machine, and I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. To be completely honest, I don’t send personal faxes all that often, and I almost never need to receive one. But when I do need to send a fax, there’s nothing better than dropping the form(s) to be faxed into the slot, punching in the number, and hitting that little green button.

Sure, my computer has a fax modem. But it’s a pain in the butt to get it working, and I’m always left wondering whether or not the fax went through. And if you need to sign or annotate the pages that you’re faxing, then you need to scan it first, adding to the inconvenience. As an added bonus, this particular fax machine (along with many others) can make photocopies. Granted, the copy quality isn’t that high, but it’s a heck of a lot easier than scanning and printing when you need a quick copy.

All in all this was a great purchase. I’ve already used it a few times for faxing in paperwork for some medical reimbursements, and I’m hooked.

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