Christmas Havic on your Budget

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!  Not only that, CHRIS loves CHRISTMAS!! Between daddy and I we are NOT a healthy mix.  We love to do lots of fun things for the holidays and make them fun and special.  We like to walk around, look at the lights, get hot coca, champagne, etc.  This makes for a very expensive time of year.

I have been trying to cut corners in our budget since we sold our house, however living in somone ease's home can make that hard.  Going out to eat sometimes is just a MUCH easier option then messing up the in-laws kitchen.


Chris and I originally planed out a budget  it was alittle on the thin side, but that didn't last.  Normally we wait until January and play catchup, but this year, I was determined to stay on top of it. 
All of the gifts have been bought, or planed I have a few last gifts to do, but it is almost done.  I have wrapped everything I have and am getting excited.

To make things even more fun around christmas, Chris and my anniversary is on the 17.  We have been MARRIED for almost 8 years!! YEAH!! So we add that to the mix and it makes things even more tight at times.

 

My 3 keys to saving your budget at christmas is....
1: Have a plan, write down what you will be getting people, and when you add items (cause come on most of us add items) put them on the list.  I used a google doc this year, I have blanks that just have mine or hubbies names, but we know what is for who, and how much we have spent.

2: Don't buy into the hype.  The last few years I have gone shopping on BLACK FRIDAY! It was really fun and exciting, but you can get sucked IN.... This year, I was already done, so I looked at a few websites to see if they had big sales and most did not, I only bought 1 item that was $20 off, online.  I would rather not "save the money" then be out and end up buying alot of garbage.

3: You dont have to buy for everyone.  This is the HARDEST for me, and has taken along time for me to get.  We have decided with family to stop buying for each other (my siblings and chris') we buy for the kids, but it is not a necessity.  I feel that it makes it ALOT less stressful, and really exchanging gift cards.

Baby steps

They feel like so tiny tiny steps. My baby Ewan is just about to walk, or stereotypically he is 14 months. And has NO desire to walk. He can crawl when he wants, but over all he is really content.

Welcome to society! We are all, me included, totally ok with being content. Going to work day after day, paying bills and just staying where it is comfortable. 

So how long will this last? 

 

Dave Ramsey says you have to be "sick and tired if being sick and tired" at that point you can start on your financial freedom. But what happens if you are content??? What do we need to do to motivate ourselves? 

I have posted before about our breaking point. Enough was enough, but we got the new credit card paid off, now we have the car paid off, and our house is sold. Now what?

-house hunting: yes!! However we are picky so nothing that meets our standards....

So now what?

We have our new budget all Google doc ready! We get paid on Friday, we will have a little to transfer to savings.... But then what?

I'm trying to get fired up, but this time it is annoying and difficult. 

I have decided to become EVEN MORE accountable for our money.
I have decided to make a list.  Starting Friday, I will list EVERYTHING!! Ive got a fancy little piece of college ruled paper waiting to NOT be written on! :) lol

HOUSE FREE!!!!

Not quite the same feeling of screaming "DEBT FREE" however that will hopefully come soon, now that we are NO LONGER home owners.

We are starting to build our new November budget with NO MORTGAGE!! it is INSANE to think about.
We will be getting the extra money from selling our house here in a few days where will then pay off our CAR!!  We then will start deciding what to do with our money next.  I would like to start building up a fund to pay off our credit card, however we are not sure if we will do that or if we will keep that money in savings so we can buy a home when we find it!

I am back to my budgeting AGAIN! :) Here we go

Bills:
Daycare:	600
Rent:	300
AT&T	150
Student Loan	130
Insurance	100
Netflix/HULU	20
Car	250
Visa	250
Storage	105
Tuition	380
TOTAL	2285

So here we are.  No still not as little as I would like, but it is what it is.  OH and THE CAR will be gone VERY soon!  Next section is on to other spending.
This is the TRUTH of the budget of the last 10 months.  I wish that they were lower, but they aren't.  My Goal with YOUR help is to lower that amount. 

Other:
Groceries	400
Dining Out	400
Gas	350
Shady	50
Medical	50
Gifts	75
Clothes	50
House	20
Dates	50
Spending	300
TOTAL	1745

So there you have it. We have LOTS of money going out :( The total outgo is just over $4,000. WAY MORE then should be.

So here we will be by the beginning of November.  Pay off CAR that adds $250, also Im working on getting some freezer meals together. My plan is to make some tonight and we will see what HAPPENS!!
I'll share once I get them done.

I will also share the tips that I have found and that are working for me!

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.

The WHOLE SHABANG!! Part 2!

I hope everyone got a good night sleep and DIDN'T think TOO much about how to break down the budget.

When we left off we had $695 per 2 weeks to use and divide up! for pay check 1 and pay check 2.
I just kinda played around with what I have, along with looked through what we spent on average and added that in.  Hoping for alittle left over in the end
Remember how I said this is a living document, this is where that comes in. BIG TIME

Food	Food	200
	Dining Out	50
Other	Boys	45
	Church	220
	Clothes	20
	Dates	50
	Gifts	20
	House	20
	Personal	20
	Shady (dog)	10
	Spending	40

The spending is $20 Cash each for myself and my hubby to do ANYTHING we want with. No need to report or explain.
The boys money is split into both of their accounts as an automatic withdrawal along with the church money that is just pulled out of our account.  We "don't ever see it".
The other ones are the hard ones.

I recommend starting with the ENVELOPE system. IT IS HARD!!! trust me it is, but if you want your money to grow on tree's it takes some work.
This is where you need to break them down, put the correct amount in each and see how it goes.
BEFORE you decide to take money from one category to the other you MUST talk to your spouse.  You MUST take your envelopes with you when you are spending money! WATCH IT LIKE CRAZY!!!
Find out what you need to barrow from where and build your next budget.

I choose to use the system and breakdown what is being taken out, and it is hard, really it is.

I will attach my docs that I use.  I choose to use Google docs, because I can view them on my phone, on my computer at home, at work (during lunch), or anywhere else there is the internet.  But I will be adding them as excell Docs.

This budget gives me an extra $250.  I choose to keep that in the account, because this is just a GUESS I have no idea how the budget will go, and hopefully it is left over and that goes STRAIGHT to debt!!

Well HONESTLY this is my favorite thing.  Building my budget working with it and addressing it.  Hopefully you all agree and can learn from this!

The WHOLE SHABANG!!

 There are MANY different ways to build a budget.  I have shown already my 3 basic categories!
Bills 
Food
Other

Now we have a few steps we should take.
Something to remember: a BUDGET is a living breathing document.  It changes more then anything else out there.  It is necessary to work on it, and there is no such thing as a perfect budget, because it CHANGES!
 
1: Get rid of the Credit!!!
When working on a budget you need to take a Leap of Faith.
-Hebrews 11: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I will discuss a few things in the future about His money Her money, but NOT today!! So stay tuned.  The readers digest version I DO NOT believe in separate money.

With this leap of faith, it is time to cut up all the cards. EVERY ONE OF THEM, even if it saves you 2%.  YOU NEED THEM GONE!!!

2. Have everything in ONE account.  It is really easy to lose things when there are many accounts you need one.

3.  Now you need to decide a time frame.  There are a few options

   a. Monthly

   b: 1st and 15th

   c: weekly

   d: biweekly

   e: MIS.

This is how you will break down your budget.  For my family for all of 2012 and prior I did it monthly.  While working on our budget for 2013 we decided to mix it up.  We have changed our budget to biweekly.  My husband and I get paid every other week, so we used that as our framework.  The once a month budget wasn't working so we needed to change it.  

4. Decide what form you will use a spread sheet, a Google doc, or a plain peace of paper.

5. Now the fun part :) Well if you are me.  

Start by working with your time frame.  If you choose 1 month, put all your bills and the dates they are due.  

I do mine biweekly (since my bills are due the same day every month, but my paychecks are not on the same days)

 This is MY budget for Aug 2013

We get paid on 8/2, 8/16, and 8/30 (a 3 check month!) 

Bills

Daycare (1)

HOA (1)               Check 1

Power (1)

Mortage (15)

Gas (23)

Cell Phone (23)

Insurance (24)         Check 2

Student Loan (25) 

Internet (26) 

Netflix (28)

Debt

I have 2 debts take those and split them in half.

Now that I know what bills go where this is what I do next.

 

	Check 1
	Income
Bills	Daycare
	HOA
	Power
Debt	Car
	Credit Card
Food	Food
	Dining Out
Other	Boys
	Church
	Clothes
	Dates
	Gifts
	House
	Personal
	Shady (dog)
	Spending
	Check 2
	Income
Bills	Mortage
	Gas
	Cell Phone
	Insurance
	Student Loan
	Internet
	Netflix
Debt	Car
	Credit Card
Food	Food
	Dining Out
Other	Boys
	Church
	Clothes
	Dates
	Gifts
	House
	Personal
	Shady (dog)
	Spending

Build this!! Now we need to put money into it.  

This is REALLY the hard part!

	Check 1	Money	Amount Left
	Income	2200
Bills	Daycare	600	1600
	HOA	110	1490
	Power	100	1390
Debt	Car	133	1257
	Credit Card	125	1132
Food	Food		1132
	Dining Out		1132
Other	Boys		1132
	Church		1132
	Clothes		1132
	Dates		1132
	Gifts		1132
	House		1132
	Personal		1132
	Shady (dog)		1132
	Spending		1132
	Check 2
	Income	2200
Bills	Mortgage	1200	1000
	Gas	100	900
	Cell Phone	25	875
	Insurance	120	755
	Student Loan	130	625
	Internet	100	525
	Netflix	9	516
Debt	Car	133	383
	Credit Card	125	258
Food	Food		258
	Dining Out		258
Other	Boys		258
	Church		258
	Clothes		258
	Dates		258
	Gifts		258
	House		258
	Personal		258
	Shady (dog)		258
	Spending		258

From here you can see we have quite a few blanks, ALONG with having an extra amount. 1132+258= $1390 to still work on. And this is the challenging part.  We have all the food and others to break down now.

This is when I recommend you pull out your previous bank statements and find out an average of what you spend, or just break it down.  Take what we have and use your best guess as to where to put it.  For ME I would take the 1,390 and divide it by 2.

Giving me $695 for 2 weeks.  Then time to break down.

Time to continue to think about this.... This is a LONG Enough post for one day.  We will meet back here tomorrow to finish building this budget!