Apparently the best time to start a new blog is not right before you go on a cross-country road trip and then have family come stay for a while almost as soon as you get home. Blogging has taken a back burner, to say the least. I've barely visited any blogs for a few weeks, either, so I wouldn't blame any of you who decided to jump ship.
Spring seems to have finally come to Ohio for good! And with it a myriad of Spring Cleaning projects that beckon to be tackled. Not to mention the weeds that are breeding like rabbits in my yard that threaten to take over the whole dang thing if I don't start pulling them soon. They've had gallons and gallons of rain egg them on these last few weeks. Them and whatever else is out there causing my allergies to stand up and salute with about a thousand sneezes in any given hour. I am so tired of blowing my nose.
That being said! The Hubs and I finally sat down this weekend to discuss a budget system. This is about how it went down.
Just kidding! Though I can certainly relate. It actually went pretty well, considering a workable budget is about as foreign to us as Chinese Mandarin. We've pretty much operated on the philosophy of, "What do we need? Is it a good price? Then let's get it." Letting the chips fall where they may. Not to mention that pesky definition of "need".We looked at what had gone down in April, and we looked at what we can anticipate for May. We got interrupted by the clock that told us it was after midnight, but it was a good start. For now anyway, we're trying to use a budget format I printed from Dave Ramsey's site. I will still use Mint, but Dave's form (Dave? Can I call you Dave?) is about the easiest system I've seen, and it will help facilitate our discussions about anticipated spending on a month-to-month basis. It also operates on a zero-balance system which has you "spend" every dollar before the month even starts.
That is what you're supposed to do: sit down with your spouse and discuss upcoming expenses. Sounds easy, doesn't it? But that is the hardest part for us. Not necessarily the discussion itself (thank you, maturity) but finding the time and then planning ahead.
I have been learning so much from Dave Ramsey, about what it means to budget, and about my whole philosophy of spending in general. But I have come to realize that saying we're going to use his system is a bit misleading.
I believe his system would have you cut out all unnecessary spending until you have eliminated your (non-mortgage) debt, stockpiled your emergency fund, and dedicated at least 15% of your income toward retirement and savings. Maybe even until after you've paid off your mortgage debt, too. (Have I mentioned that I didn't discover Dave until fairly recently? I'm still learning.)
We're not willing to cut out everything. At least not initially. To me, everything would include the kids' activities, and I'm just not willing to go there. My kids don't need to go do everything they'd like to, but I'm not willing to say no to everything, either. So my daughter will continue to take dance, and we let her sign up for T-ball. And she and our oldest will probably take one of the summer enrichment programs that their school district is offering. Our oldest also wants to take tennis lessons, and we'll probably let him.
That being said, we are
Yes, we think we have found $2000 to go toward our (non-mortgage) debt. That is about $1500 above and beyond the regular payments. Woo-hoo!
That being said, I have just one final confession: The Hubs bought the grill.
And we love that grill.Baby Steps, people. I'm going to leave it at that.
1 comment:
I'm glad he bought the grill. Perhaps Dave wouldn't have recommended it, but you know what? You can have all sorts of wonderful family and friend BBQs with that thing, and fellowship is very important too!
Besides, it's not like you're not going to pay it off, with that much money going toward debt each month. Kudos to you!
BTW, yes I'm still here....
Post a Comment