We have some fun goals for our house over the next year.  One of those goals is to replace our tired, energy inefficient front door

This door is most likely the original one that came with the house back in 1970.  It’s warped and poorly sealed, allowing air in from the outside.  It’s time for it to go.  After researching doors, their materials, and considering installation costs, safety features, storm/screen doors, sidelights, and curb appeal, we settled on $1,000 for replacing this door.  We’d like to meet this goal by September 2014, giving us 4 months.  Another way of looking at this is that we need to save at least $250/month from now till September.

Here are our plans to meet this $1,000 goal…

(1) Give ourselves a weekly food budget rather than monthly.

Aside from the mortgage, groceries are one of our biggest budget items. I’ve found that once-a-month grocery shopping doesn’t work for us and, when I have one lump sum per month, it’s easy to reach that last week and feel tempted to overspend.  Switching to a weekly budget will evenly split up that lump sum and avoid the end-of-the-month temptation to go overboard.

We also decided that we wanted to cut our grocery bill by by 20%, or $100/month.  That’s a reasonable, attainable reduction that we’re handling fine so far (at the end of the 1st week of May). It will save us $400 by September… nearly half of our $1,000 goal.  And over time, it’ll save us $1,200 per year.  Maybe it’s time to think about replacing that sliding patio door… 😉

(2) Lower our cell phone and internet bills.

We’re one of the small remaining percentage of cell phone users who rely on “dumb phones”, or phones with minimal internet capabilities.  We were in the process of considering a switch to a different company when our current provider did a quick retention spiel and offered to lower our monthly bill by $45.  Considering that the other company didn’t have as good of coverage in our neighborhood, we opted to take the lower bill and stick with our current provider… for now.  Saving $45/month will bring our total savings up from $580.

Now for our internet bill.  We pay $60/month to Cox Communications, which is the only provider in our neck of the woods.  We talked about lowering our data allowance and, while it would mean a big drop from what we’re used to, it would also save us $25/month.  I called Cox to see what they could do and, with one phone call, got them to cut our bill by 20% while keeping our data at the same level.  In other words, we now pay $48/month to have the same amount of data as when we were paying $60/month.  One 15 minute phone call has brought our savings up to $628.

(3) Shop around on car insurance.

We’ve always carried a high level of coverage on car insurance.  We don’t want to save on monthly premiums only to be crushed by high deductibles in the case of a major accident.  Thankfully we’ve never had anything other than small fender-benders due to icy roads, but you never know what the future holds.  As a result, our insurance is a bit higher than if we carried a bare-bones policy.

I’ve been comparing insurance companies, checking rankings to see which ones are high performers in terms of customer satisfaction, claim processing, etc., and found that we can switch to an equally respected company while saving $10/month.  If we switch our home owner’s insurance over, we’ll save more and, if we do a 6 month lump sum payment, we save more on top of that.  I know that $10 may not seem like much or might sound like too much hassle for what it’s worth, but it means we up our savings to $688 in 4 months, leaving only $312 remaining until we reach our $1,000 goal.

UPDATE: After calling our current insurance company and asking if there were any discounts for which we might qualify, I learned that we could lower our mileage.  I knew what our car’s mileage was when we bought it a year ago, and it was clear that we’d overestimated how much we drive.  Lowering our mileage by 2,000 miles saved us ~ $10 per month.  I also learned that while they don’t offer a lump-sum payment discount, we do avoid monthly service fees if we pay all at once.  The service fees aren’t a lot – about 2% savings annually – but it’s still something to keep in mind!

(4) Keep up our other money-saving behaviors.

Adding up all of the savings from the changes above, we still need to save an additional $78 per month over 4 months to get a new door.  I believe that this is achievable thanks in part to other money-saving behaviors that we’ve adopted (I’ll share about those in another post).  Still, I want to make a point of drawing my attention to it, and so I’ve designated another line item in the budget of $78.  At the start of each month, $78 automatically gets put into that line item.  In my world, once something has been “spent” in the budget, then it’s g-o-n-e.

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I should mention that there’s one line-item in our budget that’s non-negotiable.  Every month, we tithe 10% of what we earn to our church. I’ll admit that there have been months when I’ve hesitated before sending the check, thinking “I could use that money for…”  It’s tempting to put my trust in a job, my earning potential, our bank account, or our ability to stick with a budget rather than trusting God.  But I know that all things, even our front door, are in His hands.  Life can change quickly.  Finances can come crashing down, jobs can be lost, health can be ruined.  God remains the same.  I have to remember that when I start to fuss and worry.  God remains the same, and He is always good.

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We’re trying to be good stewards with what we’ve been given – our health, our income, our family – and hopefully we’ll meet our goal by September.  If that’s the case, I plan to get estimates from the 4 door sales/installation companies in town and see if we can find a deal.  Hopefully, we’ll get a front door that allows a lot of natural light and is under-budget, something similar to the door below, but we’ll see!  Regardless of what it looks like, I’m fairly certain that any decently made door that we get will end up saving us money in the long run in terms of heating/AC bills!

What about you?  Are you struggling with worry and stress over your budget?  Is there a goal that you have in mind, something that you’d like to save for?  What are some changes that you might be able to make to meet that goal?