I am trying really hard to get my shit together this month.
I’m working on being more organized.
And I’m working on my finances.
Now that my husband has a job with a weekly paycheck, it is a little easier for us to come up with a budget.
Along with the book I’m reading to help me improve my contributions to my marriage, I just finished reading Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace.
Now I know what I need to do in order to really take charge of my financial situation.
We have made quite a few changes already in the past couple years.
We got rid of cable, started meal planning, we pay cash for pretty much everything, get second-hand clothes for the kids, never go out to eat…
But there is still plenty of room for improvement.
I haven’t been keeping track of our expenses down to the penny. So while I have an idea of how much money we need to survive each month, I don’t know the exact number.
I’ve also been doing some other things I need to change.
We got rid of our credit cards a few years ago, but in the last year, we got one for, you know, emergencies.
The card I have gives me a small percentage of money back when I use it for gas and groceries. So I’ve been using it for those two things and then paying the entire balance off each month.
But you know what? The gas station I usually get gas at charges ten cents less per gallon when you pay cash. So I’d save more money paying cash than I do with that little rebate from my credit card company.
I also learned something when I was reading Financial Peace. My credit card might give me money back for grocery store purchases, but did you know that when you use a credit card at the grocery store you spend almost double what you would if you were paying cash? So that tiny percentage my card gives me back doesn’t come close to the amount of money I’d save by paying with cash in the first place.
So here’s what I did for January.
My husband’s income varies based on how many hours he works each week. So does my coaching income. Income from the blog and other sources is also variable. I estimated what our total income will be for January, but I have a pretty good idea of what we are going to bring in.
Then, in my bullet journal, I listed all of our expenses.
How did I come up with everything?
Financial Peace has a whole bunch of forms in it, so I copied one of those.
After that, I budgeted out every dollar that I estimated we’d make. There’s nothing left over. Every dollar is accounted for and “spent.”
(Blow money according to Dave Ramsey isn’t money you are budgeting to do lines of coke, by the way. It’s your spending money.)
Items that have a red star on them indicate items using the envelope system.
That means each month the money that is allocated for those expenses will be put into envelopes, and we will (hopefully) only take money from there as needed each month. When the money runs out, you need to wait until the next month.
Since this is the first time we are doing this, I know we will have to tweak the numbers. It will take a couple months to get everything ironed out.
But I’m so happy to finally have a plan, and for the first time in years, I’m really excited to be in control of my finances rather than feeling like they are in control of me.
I LOVE Dave Ramsey! I listen to him on the radio almost nightly….yah know when I am shuttling kids to and from different activities. He always says something that I can incorporate into my life.
I can’t let myself love Dave because my husband isn’t on board. 🙁 I keep telling myself, marriage is more important than money. What a humbling learning experience it has been.
I recently thought about doing something like this… so!!! Please, keep updating & posting about it!! Once you have it all figured out, I will just do what you do!! So, you do the figuring out part!! Thank you so much Susie for always writing what I am thinking!!