Too many of these....

posts where I am apologizing for not posting. I think I mentioned a few months back my life would get crazy around this time- and I appreciate you all sticking around. We have been so busy preparing for my husband's election, planning alternate options for the future, and keeping the rest of our lives together! We graduated Financial Peace University, but unexpected expenses have come up that are depleting our Emergency Fund. We made no large debt payment in July. I am happy to report that over the course of the FPU class (13 weeks) we managed to pay off $2,000.00 in debt!

Now, it is time to get back on the wagon again! I have not been sale shopping, and my stockpile looks more like Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard! For the rest of August my goal is to survive! I will put the budget back down on paper for September, and get back to business. I hope you will be joining me...

For Motivation I'll be checking out Money Saving Mom's Month Financial Check-Up

The "B" word-Part 1

For over a year now I have been focused on getting deals, and saving money. The last 2 months we have been taking personal finance classes and we needed to budget. We sat down and figured it all out, and put it on paper. I am glad to finally have it done for two reasons: there have not really been many good deals, and I have been so busy that getting deals is on the back burner.

Before you disregard a budget, let me assure you that it was not as hard as I thought it would be. Basically, I reviewed the bank account for how much was spent on Gas, groceries, eating out, etc., and created the budget based on those numbers. It was out first month, and we went just a little over, and we wound up with enough money at the end of the month to pay almost an additional $1,000.00 on a debt!!!! You cannot take budgeting for granted anymore! It must be done.

The new budget works basically like an envelope system. First we put down all monthly bills, like mortgages, electricity, trash etc. Next, we took anything not paid monthly, like taxes for example. We pay taxes once a year. We divided that payment by 12, and that number goes into an "envelope" each month to be saved for when it comes due. Also, groceries were set at $50.00 per week, so that went into an envelope each week. When all was said and done, I went about $5 over budget. This month I will set the same budget, and if I still go over budget I will evaluate if it was me overspending, or if I set my budget too small. The class teaches that the budget should be done at the beginning of each month, My husband and I are going to sit down over today and tomorrow and work on the budget for July.

I don't want to relay alot of specifics about the class or the teachings, but I do feel that these are the basics of most budgets. I do however, want to leave you with one thing that I think I should share: You need to take care of the financial needs of your home and family first. That is, you need to pay rent, electrical, food & car payments before you worry about credit cards. You cannot go to work, earn money to get yourself out of debt, or just stay afloat, if you cannot eat, or shower, or get to work, or have a place to live. Those items need to be a priority in your life.

If there is anyone reading this that is struggling, realize that the Creditor will wait, the mortgage payment and feeding your family cannot. That doesn't mean you don't pay your debts at all, it means you pay what you can, after you have taken care of your basic comforts- Starbucks is not basic comfort people- and then pay creditors what you can.

A Different Way to Budget

The Family Financial Workbook by Larry Burkett

I came across this book about 2 years ago and have been trying to make it the only
budget I use. It has been difficult, but I always have an eye toward trying to make

this work for me. Let's jump right in. Basically, it works on something based like an emergency fund. My car lease (gasp!) requires oil changes every 5,000 miles, which I usually need four times per year. Two of those oil changes are about $80.00 and the others about $110.00. So I should budget $380.00 per year for oil changes. According to this book, I should divide that number by 12, and put $31.66 in savings monthly for oil changes. I really like this idea, because so many times these unexpected little non monthly expenses creep up on me and because of that, my monthly budget is thrown off.

This book has forms in the back that you can use to keep track of your budget, and keep track of how much you have paid out and put in to each category. The Monthly Income and Expense Form has categories that I often forget about-like renewing your license and car registration, co pays & prescriptions, and toiletries-wait, people pay for those? The book refers to those as Variable Expenses. It has some forms for Income Allocation & Budget Analysis, but my favorite are the forms for Individual Account Page. On this form I write the category on top- so Car Maintenance, and below it looks like a check register. Each time I transfer the $31.66 to the savings account I enter it there, and add it to the balance, and when I take it out for the actual oil change, I subtract it. Now, I know this is strange for a blogger, but I really love paper and pencil and writing, so this is so for me. You could probably put these forms online, and use them on your computer, or duplicate them in Excel if you are really good.

Another reason this would work for me is because I put all of my Emergency Fund Savings in an ING Account, and this way I could keep track of what the money is in there for, and the interest gained could be applied toward my main Emergency Fund Savings. I am not very creative personally that I could create these forms myself, so this workbook is perfect for me. Umm, how many times have I said that in this post? So what is my plan? To fill out the Monthly Income & Expense Form, and identify which expenses I can begin to add to my ING account and then add categories one by one, until I can get all of them funded. I realize they will never be fully funded as they will be used as needed. I would like to publish these forms online but I think that would cause some legal issues. The book is currently retailing for about $10.00 on Amazon.