Create a budget, and stick with it

I am so proud of myself! It’s been about 4 months now and we are thrilled with the results. We don’t even need to make a budget in advance now; our payments are so regular that I automatically know what money needs to go where. I feel like a real grown-up now! I can’t stress how important this goal is, or how worth it it is…it will change your life. In today’s world money is so important, and having control of yours makes a huge difference in every aspect of your life.

Good luck 43Ters!

CNN Money… On the Money 101 page, which I’m including a link to, there are “Lessons” about basic money issues. A good starter/refresher course…There’s a whole bunch of info about creating/sticking to budgets, buying a vehicle, all sorts of stuff about buying a home, plus checking and saving account info. Love it! I spent hours on this bitchin site…

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/

We’re ending our 10th week on our budget and so far so good! I used Microsoft Excel for it and went week by week, since we both get paid weekly. I also keep track of what we pay, so we’re not wondering if we paid the credit card bill. I’ll share some of our lows and highs:

• One week we had no food because groceries were seriously the least important thing in the budget. And I mean no food. None.
• Hubby had to find random rides to work because we had a surprise expense and thus no money for gas.
• We missed doing laundry one week because hubby had a few holiday days off of work, so his paycheck was smaller. I had to wash in the bathtub, which made for some stiff-dried clothes.
• We had to pay the phone bill in four $30 increments because we just didn’t have the money.

And now for some highs:

• We paid $500 toward our credit card, paying it off completely.
• We haven’t been late on rent once since the budget was made.
• Utilities hasn’t been late either.
• We’re making serious progress toward paying off our closed checking account. It sucks but hey, at least we’re taking responsibility for it, right?
• We managed to celebrate my 21st birthday (at a casino, no less) without blowing the budget. And we had a blast!
• I paid off my clinic bill, back from before we had insurance.
• But most of all, we feel good. It’s nice to look at a piece of paper and know that if you just follow what you’ve written, everything will be taken care of.

I can’t imagine living without a budget. Call me a control freak, but I love this. Now if only my hippie parents would make a damn budget and pay their bills on time!

Well, we’ve been sticking to our budget pretty well. We have our days—like when I bought my dad a BBQ roaster for his birthday…but overall, we’re doing great! For those of you who use the Envelope Method (or is it just me?) I suggest buying one of those coupon book things, with the plastic dividers and a nice sturdy fabric cover. It’s cheaper and lasts longer than flimsy envelopes. We take it with to drop off bills, too, since it looks like a purse. We have every section filled: utilities, phone, rent, gas, laundry, groceries, credit card…I mean every.little.thing!

When we get paid the first thing we do is divide the cash into each section. Some weeks we don’t need groceries, so that’s extra money to pay another bill early or to just spend. It works soooo good and I don’t ever want a checking account again. Handling cash makes us more responsible with our money.

About.com, as most of you know, is an awesome site. I found a page that has a bunch of links about budgeting: a sample budget, how to make your own, and living below your means. It really helped me… Take a second and check it out!

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/makeabudget/Make_a_Budget_and_Make_it_Work_for_You.htm

so i made a budget for each week, good until june 1st. i love microsoft excel…spreadsheets make a big difference; now i can literally see where our money will go. woohoo!

we’re slowly climbing the hill. soon we’ll be all caught up with our bills. yay!

$130 phone bill (my parents ran up the collect calls)
$25 oil change for the car
$10 towards huge hospital bill
$15 laundry (less if we go wednesday, it’s only $1)
$40 groceries
$10 to checking account (toward overdrawn amount—YIKES!)
$20 to lady who drove my hubby to and from work all last week
$40 to save for gas
=$290

we’ll pay rent, the utilities, and credit card with hubby’s state tax returns and my tuition money in about a week. our landlords are awesome and they totally understand what we’re going through. i love them.

i’m so happy today! our budget is about to be overhauled…we went to H&R block today and we’re getting over $1,000 back as a return. now, it doesn’t sound like much, but we have no kids, own nothing, and my hubby was unemployed for half the year. plus with state we’ll get another $600…my tuition money will be about $950…so we can get a car (ours exploded in flames), plus pay off the credit card, catch up with the utility company, and still be a little ahead.

you have no idea how good we feel. we’re not drowning anymore.

Well, I talked with the bank and they’re going to close our checking account and let us pay it off each week. There won’t be any courts or collection agencies involved. Yes! I’m so glad! I’ve always heard how much US Bank sucks, but they’re really working with us now. They’re even going to let us open another account once this one is paid off.

We’ve also been sticking to a very strict budget, which is hard because our truck exploded in flames a week ago. Now we have to borrow my brother’s car and find a new one. Plus my dad is hospitalized in the Mayo Clinic for seizures. AUGH!

Wish us luck, we’re going to need it…

My hubby and I need to stick to our budget…we live so cheaply! There’s no reason we should be broke. We spend $300 a month on rent (a cute place, too!), $250 on gas for our pig SUV, $300 on groceries, and $80 on laundry, for a total of $930 a month. We have one credit card to pay for and no kids or pets. I never go shopping.

Our check register tells us we’re negative by a thousand dollars.