This is copied from LLNOE, so the judgement statement isn't geared towards my friends here... We are where we are. Getting ahead, but not quickly, and that is ok with me, as long as we are moving forward. It is good to know where you are and move from there, because if you jump too fast, you don't stick with it. I want to be in this for the long haul, and it means my families deprovation needs to come in steps. :lol: ;)

I would like to ask for no judgement on the way we live or what we spend our cash on at this point. Aside from ignoring Don's last (and recent) pay raise and putting that towards debt, I am not adjusting our way of life much yet. I am just doing what I normally do and writing it all down, trying to get it as static as possible so I can plan ahead. The more we get this budget thing streamlined, the more we can squeeze out of it to put towards savings and debt, so my goal is the streamline at this point...

So these are our outgoing expences at this point:

Monthly (give or take):
Rent
Water/Sewer
Garbage
Electricity
Van payment
Jetta payment
Auto Ins (4 mos on, 2 mos off)
CC (Discover)
CC (WSECU)
CC (City Bank)
CC (Best Buy)
Internet Access
Internet Subscription (WOW)
Entertainment (Blockbuster Movie Pass and eating out)
Groceries
Dry Cleaning
Homeschool (outings and supplies)
Gasoline (Van)
Gasoline and petty cash (Jetta and Don)
Phones
Tanning (4 wk clusters, I have SADD, it helps. Not an apperance thing.)
Clothing and shoes
Gifting and charity
horseback riding lessons (every 4 wks, starting again in Feb)
My petty cash

Bulk:
Diapers and wipes (8 wks)
Monsters (6 wks)
CSA (yearly)
Meat (yearly)
Chicken Supplies (6 wks)
Monthly stock up groceries (monthly bulk trips)


Yearly things:
Jetta tabs
Van Tabs
Tax accountant

Accounts that I fill and then leave unless they are used:
Boy Scouts
Oil Changes (we bought 2 years worth ahead last tax return... so we are good for over another year)
Car repairs


Anything I forgot? Do you guys set aside budgeting areas for copays (which for us would be about $5 a month... maybe. We don't do doctors.) or Date Nights (we usually do it when we have paid everything else and still have some left over after the snowball... lol)?

The reason petty cash and Don's gas is together is because that is all the cash I give him. Any thing else needs to be written into the budget. He needs a tank of gas a week usually (about $40) and so usually ends up with $20 -$25 for "petty cash" for his eating out, a monthly (about) cigar, etc. They are lumped together because it is money out of my hands and my control. lol... and they are always cash. No checks written for it, etc... so I just hand him $100 on pay day, and that is all he gets. Sounds militant, but it works for us. ;)



Any tips, or ideas?

Where's your petty cash mama? Some things that get me off budget (that you may or may not do) are : gifts b-day parties ect, school field trips and school pictures, and fund raisers, books and magazines for mom and dad, OTC medicines/supplements, out of town trips/vacations, vet bills and flea control, hair cuts, and my color 3x's per year, house maintenance, and or repairs, postage, thats all I can think of right now.
I thought of a few more :) YMCA, charity donations, lessons (which I budget for but then they have outfits shoes ect.., summer camp/activities, medical bills, scouts, car and house taxes, car tag renewal, the IRS, continuing education (if your dh needs that), and babysitters.

I should print this we are doing our budget in Jan., No wonder I can't make one work if I forget all this stuff!!

That is what I found too. And I also found that not every expence in a monthly expence, so I will add on Scouts, Horseback lessons (budgeted in homeschool, but not really), my petty cash (I don't get much... I don't buy much. But I should have something...),

Hmmm thanks! :)

Val

I would add a section for birthday/holidays. Do you all do haircuts at home? We have preschool, newspaper sub., vision (glasses), dental.
Do you budget separately for your garden or does that get lumped into grocery? I am thinking we will create a section for home and car maintanence--oil changes, tire rotation, (new tires may be required this year).

Hmm I do my budgeting way differently. I have the usual mortgage, taxes, utilities, investments, insurances, YMCA, savings, educational plan, and whatever is left over, we live on. I guess that would be called a zero based budget or something. Every month odd incidentals pop up, (BDs, etc) and whatever we have is what we use. Some months we have no extra $ and some lots. We pay ourselves and our bills first, and then whatever is left is what we cope with.

What I am trying to do is to judge what we "need" to live on, and then take only that out of the paychecks each two weeks... the rest can go to debt. So currently, every month, I have about 3,300 worth of static bills and expences. Then every few weeks we have about $100 worth of other bills. This is being VERY gentle, and with no deprovation at all (in fact, this is adding in a lot of "extras", and everything I can think of... and many of these are not that high every month, like our Car Insurence, we pay 4 months on, and then get two months off, and our electric is sky high right now (I actually put it in for more) because it is the dead of winter, so actually we will need quite a bit less than that.

But I want to see what we can comfortably live on and what we should be shooting for. We will eventually take more and add more on debt as we realise that a few things arn't needed, like quickly next year I will be gardening, and the tanning will not be needed (but garden supplies will be, so that may even out)... etc. I just want to have a base to work from. This is not how I will do my budgeting. My actual idea is to take everything above a certian amount out of each check and drop it in savings.

This has only been possible for the last 6 months. Before that we were making next to nothing... now, all of a sudden, we will clear nearly $50k this year. OMG. Two years ago we made $15K total... all year long. :drop:

Val

We do have medical copays and expenses and yes, I budget them. I also budget gifts including saving up for Christmas. I can't remember anything else. :)

I hope to have the same problem soon. ;)

do you have a light therapy lamp to use at home?

I have no clue how much tanning costs but if you don't have a lamp....it might be a good thing to save up for a lamp (if you don't have one) to use instead. Better for your skin health too?

I agree re: sun lamp - my dh actually was given a perscription to buy one - it is approved under his medical plan.

My tanning is also a way of getting out of the house by myself. I know it isn't as good as the lamps, but I spend about $30 per year on it (I have fair skin, so only go for 7 minutes at a time anyway, and I get 60 minutes for $19)... Anyhoo... it balances out for me.

Val