some simple financial advice from a grandma

I know this lady who happens to be a grandma of a handful of peanuts, and she is a very wise lady. When I think of a person who really understands money, I think of her. She taught me the value of a dollar when I was barely out of diapers. I can still remember sitting at her oblong wooden table eating donuts on Saturday mornings and have her unknowingly teach me how to be smart with money.

Sadly, I did not heed her advice until I met Tim and decided I didn't want him to know me as a financial disaster. I learned to budget. I learned to save my pennies. I learned to spend wisely. I will be forever grateful for the lessons I learned from this smart, little lady. I asked her to write a thing or two for you lovely readers about how she and my grandpa figured out the ins and outs of money while raising kids. Hope you enjoy it:

"At first, we didn't mange well.  We had credit cards up the ying-yang and Grandpa was earning $90 a week.  On Saturdays he did some refereeing for basketball games and umpiring for baseball games to bring in some additional money.  I had to go to work.   We sat down one night and cut up all of our credit cards leaving only one for emergency with $5,000 credit limit.  In those days the finance charges were low.  We started the green book listing all our bills on a monthly basis.  As we paid them, we highlighted them out.  This gave us an overview of our bills and what was outstanding.  I realize now, one uses Excel or something similar on their computers.  I personally don't put my banking info on the internet.  The green book is sufficient. 

We joined the 401K plans for retirement starting with the lowest contribution we could do.  It added up.  We put 10% of our earnings in a saving account for small emergencies.  Nowadays there is so many electronic gadgets that tempt the younger generation.  They always seem to want the newest thing. Thankfully we don't get involved with that. We stayed within our means.

I read your list and saw one item you were anxious to get: your income tax return.  We always looked forward to getting ours.  Every year we would pay a portion on the principal of our home, car, medical bill balances and any balance on the one credit card.

Now we sit back and enjoy retirement."

Note from me: 
I should keep a green book, but I usually write our budget on a piece of paper and hang it next to our a computer. I need a daily, visual reminder to help me stick to the plan.