Our 'lab rat' checks in on her finances
Gail George signed up to have us track her finances for 30 days. She talks with Tess Vigeland about what she learned in Week 2.
Gail George (Gail George)
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Tess Vigeland: We're checking in now with Gail George, our Marketplace Money lab rat, who's agreed to track her spendings this month and tell us all about it. Hi, Gail.
Gail George: Hi, how are you, Tess?
Vigeland: I'm good. I suppose I shouldn't be calling any human being a lab rat.
George: No, no that's fine. I work with 30 of them every day.
Vigeland: So how did it go? I know last week you had a couple of unplanned-for expenses and that made things a little harder. Was it any easier this week?
George: No, I had more unplanned expenses this week.
Vigeland: Oh my.
George: I had two tires from my SUV. So yeah, I was debating whether I should make that a line item in the budget or whether I should just have car maintenance. So it's good. It's forcing me to think more creatively about how to get the budget working. But I didn't get it on paper. I ended up going out of town. And gosh, I thought, "How do people do this when they have to plan this on a regular basis."
Vigeland: Yeah, it is almost an extra job. Especially if you're tracking every penny. That's a lot to remember.
George: Yeah.
Vigeland: Well, so you're in the home stretch, only one more week to go. Any big insights you'd like to share?
George: Always make sure you budget your public radio membership.
Vigeland: I like that one. Good one. Everybody needs to remember that one.
George: I thought that might work for you.
Yeah, make sure that you've got your emergency expenses. I think I'm going to try and go for four months of emergency expenses. I know, at its best, from listening to your show a lot, that four to six months, they really would like have saved. But I think in the beginning, if I could just go with four months.
Vigeland: Hey, if that's going to make it so that you can actually do it and feel good about it, I think both Chris Farrell and I would agree with that.
George: Well, good.
Vigeland: Well, last week you agreed with our suggestion that you try to do some of this tracking on a computer instead of a pen and paper. Did that work for you?
George: It will work for me. It did not work this past week. I think I will get to it this week for sure.
Vigeland: Well alright, we'll look forward to that. Gail George, nice to talk to you again.
George: Thank you so much, Tess.
Comments
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From monterey, CA, 05/18/2009
It's good to see people are trying to budget. I work for the bank and I would say that 1/100 of our customers actually keep track of their spending and blame the bank for overdrafts. I like to keep track off all of my wife and I's bills and keep a checklist. As I pay the bill, I check it off. Unexpected expenses go on the credit card. That gets paid off with leftover money at the end of the month.
From Salt Lake City, UT, 05/18/2009
Last year I made a resolution to go on a budget and spent the first few months tracking my expenses. I lumped all the car expenses together, and found that I averaged $240 a month on gas, 6-month insurance payments, and vehicle maintenance. My car is used and purchased with cash representing 5 months worth of savings. I save about half of my income, for the car last year and 20% down on a house this year.
From Willmar, MN, 05/17/2009
I love Dave Ramsey and his teaching. Now I don't follow it to a t, however all of the advice is very good. I am speaking as a graduate of Financial Peace University. We live within a written budget and have walked out of debt and only have a home mortgage for debt. You would not believe the freedom that it offers. Someday I will have the freedom of not having a house payment and then the kids will graduate. But with the plan I am saving for retirement and the 4 kids' education expenses. Not all the college will be payed for a pittance is more like it but it is a plan and a plan we can stick to. Also, With tithing a tenth of my income one might wonder where all the money comes from but we are a 1 income household on an RN wage with four young children. The only thing left to say is Thank you Mr Ramsey.
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