Ideas from Others

As we prepare to embark on a REAL home ownership, there are many other expenses, along with a larger mortgage that we are needing to prepare for.  I was parusing through my regular regiment of blogs when I found a link to this blog. So far I am TOTALLY loving it.  I have been thinking ALOT about little ways to trim down the budget.  She has given me some good ideas.

As I have posted before our "Other" categories are as following

Groceries

Dining Out

Medical

Auto

-Shady

-Gifts

-Clothes

-house

-Personal

-Spending

-Boys

-Church

-Dates

I would like to say that we were on a RICE and BEANS budget, but we weren't So now we are SERIOUS! we need to be if we want to be successful!  Which we do ;) lol

We have our house staring us in the face.  Our current BI WEEKLY budget for those over the last 6 months have totaled up to about $1,500.  That is $3,000 a MONTH!! CRAZY!! What a waste of MONEY.
Now it is time to get serious! I would like to put our budget into a MINIMUM of 500 less per 2 weeks, to start out with, then drop it in half to $750

As I have stated in the past food is a rough subject for us and it needs to change. I have been buiding a meal plan and it has been working alright, I just need to be MORE aggressive.  Which I can do!  The other spending we do is superficial, it is nice to have the dog groomed, however, not necessary.
We do have a few required expenses.
AUTO: We have 2 cars because my hubby and I work each 20 min from home, in opposite directions. We spend on average $180 every two weeks on gas/maintenance. we also ALWAYS put away money for our boys savings at $45 every two weeks, and lastly we have medical expensise that come and go but average at about $20 every two weeks.
Breakdown
Auto: 180
Boys: 45
Medical: 20
      $245
Now we have $755 left for everything else. Seems simple dont you think?

I will keep you posted.  Today is Wed, and payday is Friday.  We are gonna try it this pay period and you can join me on my journey.