So last night dh and I put down our budget on paper. This was no easy task because a)I have a cold that makes everything seem pretty darn fuzzy and b)things are tight. I mean, really tight.
But, we did it. We successfully made a budget.
The bad points:
- there isn't much wiggle room in this plan - as in once all the had to be paid bills were paid, there was hardly anything left at all to even discuss
- I feel really poor today
The good points:
- we did not argue about the budget (you might assume that since all the money is spoken for, this doesn't matter, but I think it does)
- all the bills that need to be paid, will get paid
- Starting in October things will be looking much better
- October is a good month because we have bonus income coming in for both of us which will be nice.
We opened a second savings account last night as well. (The first one we have isn't actually for savings which would make complete sense if I typed up a 1000 word essay on it, but I will spare you the details and just ask that you trust me LOL!).
We figured out how much to save per month for the items that are paid only yearly (or twice yearly). We made a list of big purchases we would like to make at the moment and ranked them in order of importance. At the moment we don't have extra in the budget to start saving, but as soon as we hit baby step number 1 (saving 1,000) and are able to add to that on a monthly basis, we can start saving for them OR if we get some lump sum of some sort, it can go towards those items.
It feels good to have a plan. I just wish the amount of money we were basing that plan on would increase LOL! But we are getting there ... it may take us a while, but we can do it. I was thinking last night it would be so neat to look back in 3 years and sort of laugh about where we started today.
*FPU Stands for Financial Peace University. Click here for more info
I feel poor every time I get a statement from Social Security or our family's accountant!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! The budget is the hard part....our friends now ask us "is it in your budget"....humbling but when you have no more debt! You can smile and say "why yes it is!"
ReplyDeleteI'm doing the same thing. I wrote out our budget and realized just why we are always dipping into our Money Market. For about two months I've been watching our finances, and last month I started restricting our purchases and collecting receipts. The receipts serve two purposes--1) they are a reference point when I'm looking at my account online and 2)they are a physical reminder of how many times my husband and I have spent money on any given day. The goal is to reduce the amount of receipts I'm collecting! My greatest weakness is grocery shopping, so I've been making out a menu for the week, making a grocery list based on the menu, and STICKING TO IT. Another trick to focus me--bringing a calculator to the grocery store. Again, I need to see how much I'm spending, because I am NOT a good judge of how much the food in my cart is going to ring up. I think I'm doing great then realize I've overshot my budge by cough$100cough. I'm getting better, though. I've found that saving money is actually a lot more rewarding than spending it. It's like a game, almost.
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