by Heather D. Reese

I live in a smaller town in North San Diego County... with the recent disasters here I understand the importance of shopping locally and supporting the local businesses. As such I've decided to start my own "financial challenge", everyone is welcome to join in! Please be sure to email me or add a comment about your experiences.

Here is how it started. My daughter was bored and needed more books. Off to the library we went. If I had to give you all a "guess" as to the amount of money the library saves us weekly, it would be around $110. We borrow 20 books a week at around $5.50 a book, yikes $110! Not to mention the even bigger benefit, we are all reading!

Although I consider this a money saving moment, I'm working towards saving money AND supporting the local economy. We'll see how the next week plays out. I'm not going to distinguish too much between a mom and pop place and a corporate owned place as they both offer jobs to the community but if I can I'll go towards the mom and pop place!

Hopefully our local farmers market will be back on soon too, this would definately help my challenge. Latest info. looks like we lost over 22,000 fruit trees in the area due to the fires, so I'll definately want to help by buying up whatever is available.

Please share your ideas on supporting your local economic communities!

It would have seemed foolish to care about money at a crisis moment, but looking back there are lessons to learn from.

Monday started like any other day until we got the call to evacuate. I consider myself a planner. I planned as best I could for this type of event. I had all of my important documents packed and ready, gas in both cars, and a plan to get us all out... this included 2 cats, 2 dogs, 2 kids and us 2 adults. We grabbed clothes and toiletries and a few cases of water and we were gone. Although we were told to leave we had enough time to get these things. Had it looked worse we would have grabbed the kids and animals and gone.

I soon learned that there were "missing pieces" to my evacuation plan.

#1 If you have pets, include their vaccination records in your important paper box. We ended up staying the first night in a hotel that was pet friendly, however at over $400 a night we only stayed 1 night until we could come up with a better plan. The next morning I secured them a spot at a boarding facility. They were understanding and waived our proof of vaccinations but we ended up having them vaccinated any ways to the tune of over $200 because I wasn't sure if I could find another understanding boarding facility at the next stop and I didn't want to risk having no place to take them. Had I had the record, that $200 would have been saved. For the record, the place we had their shots done at was also evacuated so there was no way to get their records.

#2 Plan your evacuation routes to the east, west, north and south. Imagine a scenario that would have you traveling each way and were you would go. Had I had a list of pet friendly hotels I most likely could have found a cheaper hotel for that first night.

#3 Take whatever help is offered. People have been great around here. I was really worried about a "Katrina" like response to this disaster that we stayed away from any actual evacuation centers. Once we returned I was given a tour of one on the evacuations centers and I was beyond surprised! There were no needs or wants forgotten... Quallcomm stadium even had people giving free hand and arm massages!

The most important lesson I learned is that lives are the most important thing. Money may come and go, but you only get one chance at being alive!

My husband and I have been trading shifts helping the local fire department answer phone calls from residence about re-population and emergency needs assistance... I am so proud of our community! My thoughts are with those that are still in a state of evacuation and loss.

Now I'm no hypnotist, but these two "tricks" work. One of the keys to living on a budget is to not overspend on "wants". It's such a great feeling to make your money work for you... by putting it towards your "needs" and building your savings up for your future.

Trick #1- When you see something you want determine if it is a "need" or a "want". A need is something that you have to have in order to survive. Some peoples "needs" will actually surprise others. One person's view of a need might be strictly basic, like housing and food. Another persons "need" might include housing, food and coffee. You need to determine your "needs" and when presented with a purchase, really evaluate if you need it, or if it would be better to apply that saved money from not buying it towards savings. If you would have to use money that is supposed to be used for another item on your budget, do not spend that money!

Trick #2- Determine how many hours you would have to work in order to pay for the proposed purchase. I was talking to a bank teller once. She really liked having a cafe mocha every morning. After determining that she would have to work 25 min. (after tax's) to pay for her mocha, she decided that flavored regular coffee was a better long term choice for her. She only had to work 3 min. to pay for that!

Today's Question- I'm sure alot of you have tried these tricks or other variations of them... what are/were your favorite tricks to get you into the budget/saving mode?

First, I'd like to thank a reader (SallyC) from my website http://www.noexcusebudget.com for sending me over here! Now I'll be posting my blog here too!

I talk a lot about really taking a hard look at your spending and then cutting back. It seems to be the hardest thing to actually do, but when you actually start doing it it's actually easy. Simple things to save on gas is to group trips. When it's time to go pick up the kids from school, do your banking and go to the post office. When you are out and about remember to keep a mental note of gas prices till you have a feel for the station that has the best price. When you are getting low on gas and you are in that area of town fill up. Make saving money a regular part of your life style.

I've read so many styles of saving money... from extreme to hilarius. Some of my favorite advise (for humor value) suggested saving money by making your own lemonade at restaurants (ask for lemons and sugar) and rinse out potato chip bags, turn inside out and use as a gift bag. I'll never do either of those, first of all buying potato chips will cost you in the long run with medical bills, secondly making your own lemonade at a restaurant is just plain cheap. There is a difference between being cheap and saving money. I do recommend saving money by just ordering water at restaurants. Around here it costs about $2.50 for a drink, with 4 of us that's a $10 savings... about the same cost as the kids meals. But even more importantly water is so much better for you. How much water do you drink in a day? The recommended amount is about 8 glasses a day. Most people don't even come close. So please.... drink your water! Be healthy and save water!