Putting Together a Budget: Part I

Salam 3alaikum sisters,

I had a request to show how I put together the budget for our house. A budget is definitely an ongoing process and needs to be adjusted each month. This first post is going to cover how I first developed the budget.

Step 1: I bought a ledger book to keep track of our finances. I bout the one called "columnar pad" from Wal-Mart. It is not available online but you should be able to find something similar in most stores that carry office supplies.

Step 2: Write down how much I THINK we spend on each category. My categories included:

• Rent: monthly for our apartment 
• Electric: our only utility payment, but you may also have water and gas 
• Comcast: internet bill
• Insurance: car insurance is required
• Phone: our cell phone bill
• Car Gas: gasoline, monthly average, you may have a car payment as well
• Food: include groceries and eating out, I keep note of restaurant amount as well
• Fun: like travel, movies, etc
• Netflix: monthly fee
• Gym: monthly fee
• Clothes: new clothes budget
• Laundry: detergent, dryer sheets, and coins for machine
• Heath and Beauty: medicines, make up, shampoo, conditioner, etc.
• House Items: organizational, decorative
• Savings: we are trying to save a certain amount each month

I put the name of the category in the first column then the amount I thought we would spend in the second column. You may have more or less categories than this.

Step 3: Track actual spending for a month. I keep all of our receipts together and every few days I update out budget. I separate each receipt into categories and keep a running total for each category. At the end of the week I check the bank statement online to make sure I didn't miss any receipts.

At the end of the month I will toss out all the receipts except those that I might need for warranty or return purposes. 

Step 4: At the end of the month, add up all your spending totals and compare to the predictions at the beginning of the month. This will give you a better idea of how you are actually spending your money versus how you think you are spending it. For example, we estimated the first month that we would spend $300 on food and we actually spent closer to $400. That is a big difference... 

Step 5: Use your actual spending to estimate your next months budget. Where can you add and where can you take away? For example the next month we set our food budget at $350 and made an effort to eat out less often. 

Note: Don't forget to add one time expenses into your monthly budget. For example you may know that this month you will need to change the car oil, maybe your husband needs a new pair of dress shoes, or you need to pay your zakat. Go ahead and add that into the budget at the beginning of the month so you can be prepared for the expense.

In part two, inshaAllah I will talk about some other budget options that may work better different situations.

Affordable Beauty Tips #4

Salam 3alaikum ya banaat!

see what you can do with that stuff piling up in your medicine cabinet or laundry room!


Beauty in the Laundry Room/Medicine Cabinet!

Ivory Bar Soap: Cheaper than liquid body washes and also great for hand washing delicates. Before you go out gardening, scratch your nails across your bar soap to build up a coat under your nails, put on your gardening glove, then when you get done just rinse out the soap. It will save you time having to dig all the dirt from your nails later inshaAllah.

Bounce Sheets: Rub a bounce sheet on the bottom of your dress/pants/abaya to avoid static cling. Keep bounce sheets in your clothes drawer to keep that "just washed" smell. Bounce sheets are also great to smooth out fly-away hairs!

Aspirin: Crunch up aspirin, mix with a little water and use on skin to reduce puffiness and prevent razor burn after you shave. If you apply a paste to a pimple it will also reduce redness and pain and help shrink it up quickly.

Baking Soda: I use it for everything! You can use it to exfoliate your scalp (just add to your shampoo or conditioner) to deodorize your shoes, add to bleach and make a scrub for the bathroom and kitchen, exfoliate your lips by mixing it will oil or vaseline and gently wiping away with a warm wet cloth. Add baking soda to your toothpaste for extra cleaning power and toss some in the wash to help whiten whites.

Epsom Salts: Great for adding to oil for an exfoliating scrub. Good for tossing in the bath instead of those pricey bath salts. Just add some body wash/essential oils/leftover perfume in the bottom of the bottle for a great smell.

Witch Hazel: This is another great antiseptic/astringent. It does amazing things for ingrown hairs and razor burn. Just put some on a cotton ball and swipe over the area. Follow up with olive oil/vitamin e/ coconut oil or your favorite moisturizer! Witch hazel is really cheap but I would spend the extra couple dollars to get one that doesn't have such a strong smell to it, because the smell is quite definitely an acquired taste... You can also try adding an essential oil to cover the smell, but shake the bottle each time before use. Witch hazel also helps heal bruising and sun burns.

Affordable Beauty Tips #3

Salam 3alaikum girls!

In continuation with the "affordable beauty" series, here are some tips for using what you have in your home office or at work!


Beauty in the Office!

Elmer's Glue: Use kids white school glue as a peeling face mask. Apply to skin, wait to dry, and peel off.

Liquid Paper: Use this white correcting fluid to fix a chip in your french manicure instead of going to get a fill in. It also works to cover up black scuffs on white shoes in a pinch!

Scotch Tape: Removes powdered eye make up really quickly if you want a change or if you get extra powder all over the place. Just press the piece against the make up you want to remove and it will lift away!

Magnetic Paper Clip Holder: Holds all your bobby pins in one easy to access place.

Post-It Notes: Use small ones under your eyes to catch any loose falling eyeshadow, fold in quarters with the sticky side facing out and use to clean under your nails. The sticky catches the dirt.

Paper Clips: Use an unfolded paper clip to make polka dots with your nail polish.

Circle Paper Hole Reinforcements: Use to make a clean curve with your nail polish during manicures, like the "half moon" manicure and french manicure. You can also use cut up strips of blue painters tape to make straight lines!

Affordable Beauty Tips #2

Salam 3alaikum sisters,

This is a continuation of my "Affordable Beauty Tips"!
There are many ways to make what you already have in your bathroom work for you in many ways to help stretch out the life of your beauty products. Its all about the multi-taskers!!

Beauty in the Bathroom!

No More Tears Baby Shampoo: Great for removing make up and cleaning make up brushes. You can keep a small bottle with a few drops of shampoo mixed with water to use as a make up remover and brush cleanser.

Tinted Moisturizer: Mix your favorite moisturizer and foundation to make a lighter feeling "tinted moisturizer" and stretch your bottle of foundation! I use this one from St Ives that you can get pretty cheap at walmart. The tub lasts forever and is really light. I can reapply every time I make wudhu without feeling too greasy. It is made for reducing wrinkles, which to me is totally off the point since I just like the weight of it, but I guess an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure inshaAllah!

Left Over Lipsticks: That small amount of lipstick in the bottom of the tube can be gently melted in the microwave and added to moisturizer to make a cream blush. You can also use lipstick and gloss leftovers as a light cheek stain in a pinch. Also you can try mixing colors if you get tired of a certain lipstick color. Mixing with vaseline will make a less intense color as well.

Vaseline: Vaseline has so many uses I might be able to make a whole post about it... I especially like the new vaseline with cocoa butter. Use it to protect eyelashes at night, as a cuticle cream, on rough skin patches, as chap stick or gloss, mix with eye shadow to make a cream eyeliner and apply with an angled brush, vaseline and kool-aid make flavored lip gloss, use to tame eyebrows, apply to cracked feet and wrap with plastic wrap them put on socks over night.

Conditioner: I use one conditioner (Suave Naturals, Tropical Coconut) to cleanse my scalp (instead of shampoo) and as a shaving cream. You can get a huge bottle for just a couple of dollars at walmart! I like this one because it doesn't have any silicones in it that require a harsh shampoo to wash out, plus it smells great.

Affordable Beauty Tips

Salam 3alaikum sisters!

As a newly married lady, I am always on the hunt for affordable beauty tips and tricks. I thought I should share the wealth! I'm hoping this will be an ongoing project inshaAllah.

Beauty in the Kitchen!

Sugar: Mix granulated sugar with your favorite body oil or honey and exfoliate. Add used coffee grounds for a great smell and caffeine that helps firm skin!

Corn Starch and Cocoa Powder: Mix a small amount of cocoa powder with corn starch to make a cheap "setting powder" that reduces shine and is SUPER cheap! You can adjust the amount of cocoa powder to match your skin tone. You could make a slightly darker version to use as a bronzer, and try adding cinnamon for a little more "rosy" hue. Be careful to apply sparingly so as not to dry out your face too much.

Rose Water: Dilute some rose water with a few spoons of water to make a great facial toner. Its affordable, natural, and smells great! Keep only a few ounces mixed at a time in a tightly closed bottle to keep it fresh.

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil: Great skin and hair moisturizers and great for use on dry cuticles and cracked feet! And its something you probably already have in your house. I also sometimes use olive oil to remove waterproof makeup.

DiY Blush: Mix a couple drops of red food coloring into a couple spoons of water. Add baby powder or corn starch until it makes a powdery paste. Add more or less food coloring to adjust the color. The color of the wet paste will be darker than the dry paste, so don't freak out! Press the paste into an old clean empty blush compact.

InshaAllah the next installment will be coming up soon!

A New Method

Salam 3alaikum ya banaat!

I decided to try out a new method of cleaning in the kitchen and alhamdulillah it has really helped!!!

When I begin to cook, I fill a side of the sink about half way with hot soapy water. As I am cooking and I finish  using something like the cutting board or a pot, I throw it in the water. This keeps the food from drying or getting stuck.

When I have a few minutes between steps while cooking I can just wipe the thing down with a sponge or rag, rinse it, and leave it to dry.

source

It is so much faster and it really helps me avoid being discouraged by the huge heap of dishes in the sink after eating a meal at home... That was the worst part before. The pile would just build up and it was so difficult to get myself to actually start washing something!

I know it seems like such a small thing to be excited about but alhamdulillah it feels like a really great victory for me. I conquered my fear of dishes!!