Yesterday in the mail, we received a bill that always makes me want to lose my lunch:

Homeowner’s insurance.  Blech.

We pay our homeowner’s insurance twice a year.   I know it’s a necessity and there’s no way around having it, but it’s so dang expensive.

And the worst part about receiving that bill is that it serves as a reminder that the following month, our auto insurance is due.  Double blech.

So when it comes time to pay those bills, I reluctantly pull money out of our savings account (which about kills me because money in a savings account is meant to be SAVED, not spent) and send it off to the blood sucking insurance company.

(OK, insurance companies aren’t blood sucking.  Sorry for my little rant.  I know how important insurance is, and I’m VERY thankful for it, and I’m especially thankful that we have the resources to pay for it.  It just SOMETIMES feels like after the bill is paid, that money just vanishes into thin air.  Rant over.)

I stumbled across this site on Pinterest this morning that totally may make me change my attitude about writing checks to the insurance company…and those other “irregular” bills that pop up either unexpectedly or infrequently during the year, like car registration or random medical expenses.

The title of the series I stumbled upon is “Living on Less Than $28,000/year.”  Sounded interesting, so I clicked over to it and right away felt encouraged in the area of finances, which is typically my #1 enemy.

The blogger (Kimberlee at The Peaceful Mom) talks about her family’s system of covering those irregular bills.  They set up automatic deposits into a separate checking account every payday, an account that they ignore until one of those irregular bills come along.  The money is there in the account, waiting for an irregular bill, and it’s not a strain on their regular monthly budget OR their savings account when those bills finally do pop up.

You can read more details about her method here.  I highly recommend checking out what she has to say!  This is a blog that I’m going to be checking out frequently now.  I totally appreciate her perspective and values, and she has loads of information on getting organized (including printables! I love printables!), living simply, low cost meal ideas, and lots and lots more.

She also offers a free e-book (“Save More, Clip Less”) if you like her on Facebook.  I downloaded it, and it has loads of tips on how to have a manageable grocery budget WITHOUT couponing.  I’m all for using coupons, but “extreme couponing” just isn’t possible in our little town.  It’s kind of refreshing to hear some budgeting tips for those of us who don’t have the time or resources to do extreme couponing.

Totally excited to have stumbled across this site.  Thank you, Candice, for passing it along via Pinterest!!