Caitlyn Judith Laubach - Money Mentor

03/16/2021

Birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, vacations, baby shower, clothes, electronics, bike repairs --- all of those are "funds" in our monthly budget. We think about when they are in the year and how much we need to save and then we break it down month to month. Examples: 1. Christmas - we know from past years how much we spend on Christmas gifts for our families so we are setting aside $60/month from Jan to Dec. 2. Clothes - it's inevitable that we may need to replace clothes we have. We decided to see aside $20/month for new clothes. 3. Bike repairs - we don't own a car so we use our bike a lot. We will need to repair it eventually so we set aside $25/month for repairs and $10/month for a new bike (that can replicate into car maintenance and a new car fund).
**And if by chance an event does come up unexpectedly you can just set up a budget line item for that month or you could have an "unexpected event fund" and save all year long!
I have 2 different savings accounts in my bank account. One called Big Purchases and the other being Repairs. I transfer money each month between our checking account and those savings accounts to keep the money separate. That helps us not spend it :) I then keep a simple spreadsheet of our funds.
hope that helps!
Feel free to ask questions below!

02/02/2021

Dan's thoughts on grocery shopping and budgeting are here! Check it out: https://www.cjlaubach.com/post/grocery-shopping-and-budgeting. Let us know if they are helpful and if you have any specific questions to your current circumstances - we would love to try and help!

As the head chef in the Laubach household, Judith asked me to write a blog post describing how I plan and finance our meals each week.

01/24/2021

Do you have financial goals this year that you are trying to accomplish? Paying off debt? Saving for a car? Buying a house? Going on that awesome vacation? Us too! We would love to someday live on land with our friends! So to do that, we have to live on less than we make, put a majority of our income into saving for a place to live (tiny home, yurt?) and prioritize our savings goals over all those other things we could spend our money on. You won't be able to reach your financial goals unless you take a serious look at your budget and take stuff off or spend less money. It's difficult - I get it but it's even harder to realize you are STILL in debt or go into MORE debt. I also guarantee it's possible to get out of debt if you have a plan and stick with it. You can do it!

01/23/2021

Debt shouldn't be normalized and it should be talked about. Most people have it or have paid it off. Let's not hide it but support one another through the journey. It's not something to be ashamed about. But it is something that needs to be taken care of.

I'm inspired by the people I've already met and talked about their finances with. I'm a financial coach because I have the experience of being in $80,000 of debt, paid off all my debt and know I can help you actually achieve your financial goals.

I know you can do it too. If you need help, a little inspiration or a coach to cheer you on, I'm here for you. I don't charge because even though I think what I give is valuable, I want to help people get out of debt and not spend money doing that.

01/20/2021

As many of you know, Dan quit his job at the end of last month. We budgeted what he was getting paid so we wouldn't overspend. We were pleasantly surprised when an extra $250 direct deposit came last week into our bank account! It's easy to think we could just use that money on something we have "deprived" ourselves from or a big purchase we were hoping to get. Not us! We are going to use that money to increase our smaller savings funds (ex: clothing, electronics, bike repairs). Budgeting helps us enjoy our life more because we aren't controlled by our money but we control what our money does in our life. I wrote about it on a recent blog post here: https://www.cjlaubach.com/post/budgeting-to-enjoy-life-more. Enjoy :)

01/15/2021

Summer of 2018: lived in VT and lived 1/4 mile from work - drove our car up and down that hill.

Fall of 2018: lived in Columbia, PA and lived 25 min from work - had 2 cars and drove them everywhere.

Spring of 2019 to Fall of 2019: started dreaming of living closer to our jobs, dropping down to 1 car and biking most places.

Fall of 2019: moved to Lancaster, PA, had 1 car for me to get to work and Dan biked. I had the goal of biking to work 3 times a week (and never on a Friday 😂).

Summer of 2020: sold our only car and use our bike for our main source of transportation.

Winter of 2021: biking to work on a FRIDAY and loving it 😁.

You might not be a bike-to-work kind of person but I encourage you to be a growing-self-aware-intentional kind of person. You will be pleasantly surprised who you are in 2 years and what you are capable of 💪.

01/13/2021

Paid of debt, now what?! We are saving for a house so we can own land with our friends. It will be sad to someday not live near the city and not be able to bike or walk everywhere but it will be a good switch to own land and be able to love more sustainably. We already saved $10K since we paid off our student loans Oct 9, 2020 with an income of around $4700/month! How did we do it?!

5 ways we did this:
- we lived on less than our income
- we knew where our money was going from the beginning of the month to the end
- we budgeted the month before it started so we CHOSE where to spend the money
- Dan and I worked together to accomplish this goal
- we put the savings in a different account than our checking account so it was more difficult than to access
I love to help people talk about their finances and see if there is any way I can help. Fill out my Money Mentor Questionnaire here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXC3GCe7g0qiMOHILVkXQHaKEHX7xL8a8uPZ_4cezd-kgCCg/viewform?usp=sf_link if you are interested. Oh, and it's all free help :)

01/10/2021

Is it possible to spend spontaneously if you have a budget?
Question of the past two weekends - do we pay for someone to deliver us sushi OR do we go to the grocery store, buy the ingredients and make sushi together? We chose the 2nd option - 1. We didn't want to spend all of our "fun" budgeted money in the beginning of the month and not have any leftover 2. We decided to do something fun together 3. Sushi making is fun and easy!
It is possible to spend money spontaneously and to do that I always encourage a "fun" budget item or a separate "personal" fund. Our "fun" budget has $60 in it for the month. We use that money for anything we want to do together (ex. Eating out or buying a new boardgame). We currently don't have a "personal" fund but I have seen them range from $50-$200 a month (ex. Forgot to pack your lunch for work, you can just buy lunch out or buy a coffee or buy a new shirt).

See more on my blog cjlaubach.com!

01/07/2021

Some people may call me crazy that I spent a few hundred dollars on this tattoo. I'll never tell you what you should or shouldn't spend your money on. I'll only advise you to spend your money on your basic needs until your outstanding debt is paid. I spent a couple years thinking and planning this tattoo while we were paying off our student loans and then after the debt was gone, I saved up money for the tattoo. That was freedom in my book - paying for something with money I actually have on something I've look forward to for a couple of years!

01/05/2021

I've been talking a lot about finances and budgets on here lately. I also love talking about minimalism and how it's changed my life in the last two years. This year I'm taking it a step forward and challenging myself to not buy any clothes! I wrote about it on my blog - go check it out on cjlaubach.com or the link in my bio. Are you challenging yourself to anything new this year?