While I have been learning about ways to lose weight and eat healthier I really came to understand how one’s physical health has a parallel existence to being fiscally healthy.

-The Parallel Bars of Fiscal Training-

Lose the Excess Weight
Just like excess weight puts an added burden on my joints and heart, so too does the excess stuff in the house; to keep it up in usable condition, to find a place to store it and to dust it. Eventually that adds a burden to my budget and to my psyche. Declutter and get some money in the process.

Gain Muscle 
Through the process of gaining muscle I'm losing weight and firming up my existing muscles that will help me later in life to overcome obstacles. The same is true in the financial gym, when I gain a savings or pay off a credit car I also realize that getting rid of my debt will help you save even more. This savings bulk up will also help later in life or through an emergency.

Develop Your Core
It is hard to do basic things around the house when my body’s core is weak. If I have that balance under control, then I will be able to handle the money I am putting away and increase or decrease it with a plan. This means that I need to know what is coming in and where it is going.

Go for the Gold
When I start to see that physique in the mirror that I have been dreaming about, I start to build confidence that moves me to loftier goals; and with finances I will also find this to be true. I have found a way to train that will shape me into the image I long to see (with little tweaks here and there, no one is perfect!) and as my financial life grows, so will my ideas for retiring early, cutting back to one job, buying a half ton of gold or saving 3 million dollars for retirement.

-Putting Power Into the Plan-

Lose the Excess Weight
Stop overspending - Cut up the cards. if you maxed them out, you can’t use them anyway.
Spend within your means - Moderation is key. Don’t let your eyes grab a hold of what your wallet can’t handle
Pay off debt - Put in a little extra. If it is rounding up your minimum from $37 to $40 a month or paying min on all cards except one.

Build some muscle
Improve your credit score - Since this is a new year, it is a good time to get your free reports at Annualcreditreport.com and take a look what needs to be fixed.
Improve your emergency fund - If you have nothing, get it to $100, $1,000 or save 3 months expenses worth
Start a 401K/IRA - Hide today’s money away for yourself in the future.

Develop Your Core
Differentiate Needs/Wants - Obviously you can’t have it all now, or you can, but there is a great debt to pay for it. This is where procrastinating is a good thing- when you spend money.
Understand Income/Outgoing - Sit down and work out a balance sheet, set up a budget, find ways to cut back so you can increase it in other, better areas.
Balance Value – Cheap isn’t always equal to value. Sometimes you have to delay in order to get a good value.

Go for the Gold
Save even more - If you have a robust 401k/IRA and savings, start expanding
Keep yourself Informed - Make sure you are keeping yourself informed, it is your money and under your control
Avoid scams – Don’t fall for get rich quick scams, keep your finances safe and secure

Spring is around the corner which inevitably leads to spring and summer weddings. Guest Writer Lina Zussino presents her personal experience saving money in three areas of the wedding process.

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Creating a budget for wedding takes planning and knowing your priorities.

Being recently married (July 2009) I have had the opportunity to perfect the budget for wedding favours three (3) times. I am Portuguese and my husband is Italian. Both our families live in two different parts of Canada and we live in Victoria, BC. We chose to have the wedding in Victoria where we fell in love. We had a wedding reception in Thunder Bay, Ontario where my husband is from. We also had a wedding shower in Cambridge, Ontario where my family is from. Each celebration had approximately 70 guests.

Wedding favours were important to us. Our wedding theme was simple at a winery so the favours needed to reflect that. We wanted them to be memorable and classic. My husband and I both love chocolate and wanted to include chocolate in the favour.

Wedding

We purchased 70 boxes from a local chocolatier, Rogers Chocolates, that were beautiful and cost approx. $4.00 / box and it contained 2 types of wrapped chocolates. They were attractive and the chocolates were delicious. There was not much stress involved other then the pickup for our order. The flowergirls ate all their chocolates before the dinner was served!

Approx cost: over $300 with all the taxes.

Wedding Shower and Wedding Reception

After receiving the feedback from guests on how lovely the packages were and based on how much we paid per wedding favour we decided to see if we could make similar packages on our own.
It was a great DIY project for my husband and I. There were several steps involved:

1. First, we needed to find nice chocolate that would fit perfectly in the small favour boxes. On a trip to San Francisco after our wedding, we found a great deal at the Ghiradelli chocolate factory in San Francisco. The chocolates were individually wrapped and had assorted flavours. We purchased over 150 chocolates at a price of almost $40 Canadian.
2. The next important step were the boxes. We purchased these at the Michaels arts and crafts store. Using a printable coupon for Michaels found on our website, www.groceryalerts.ca, we saved 40% off the regular price for their small favour boxes. This cost approx. $15 dollars.
3. We used the professional Avery labels in our laser printer to rival the purchased boxes. We were pleased on how professional they looked. Below is a closeup of the type of boxes we used.

Approx cost: $55 and approx 3 hours assembling the boxes.

Final thoughts:

Prioritize what is more important in your wedding. My husband and I would rather spend money on the food and venue versus spending it on items like chair covers or fancy limousines.
We were glad we went down the do-it-yourself route when it came to the reception and shower for the wedding favours. We would recommend to anyone getting married to consider making their own wedding favours.

What is the most interesting wedding favour you have received at a wedding?

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  The author is Lina Zussino, Co-founder of Grocery Alerts Canada, home of grocery deals and money saving coupons. She enjoys teaching group fitness and saving money in beautiful Victoria, BC with her husband Steven.

Have I told about the project I am so proud of, yet it was so simple? I have a secret stash of silver coins and found gold rings hidden away in a hollow book that I made. I'm not crafty but I had always wanted one so I sat down and made one, one bright afternoon.

I bet you can't even tell which book it is on the shelf that holds my found gold rings and silver coins. But I keep the book on the shelf with the others and I love taking it down and adding more items to it, putting it back in with the other books and being so proud of myself. I think I could make 10 more of these.... hey, maybe I will make them as Christmas gifts!

I pulled out the box cutters, glue and a thick book that wasn't of interest to anyone and started cutting a square center out of the pages. If I ever do this again I will make sure I don't glue the pages together as that beautiful square starts looking pretty cruddy along the inside edges and not much like a square any longer. But lesson learned and we move on.

I also learned quickly that putting glue on the inside of the pages was good so that coins didn't slip in-between the pages and get lost. I just used Elmer's glue on the inside pages and on the outside pages and cut right from the first page down. Though if the book was even thicker, I could see starting about 10-15 pages down so you have a cover over the storage and not just the outer shell of the book.  Maybe even add Velcro to the outer book cover to keep it closed if it falls over... but then maybe that would make it stand out with that extra Velcro material.

I always liked those spy-like hideaways and this is something that allows me to re-use a book as storage and fulfills a second roll of a 'safe' for valuables. I like a 2 for 1 deal just as much as the next guy. It will also make a great gift idea because large books are cheap and the time it takes is just a few hours of work, so easy in fact it could be done with kids... who are safe with box cutters. 

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Again I wanted to bring your attention to the wonderfully creative, frugal and finance related ideas over at the Festival of Frugality 218 - If you are looking for more to read and get ideas, this is a great place to start.

If you like more personal experiences, Katy asks her readers, "what are you doing to live cheaply?" and gets quite a few responses that are from the common to the unusual.