In the 5 years we've been married...we have literally NEVER had a budget. Our approach to money has been spend as little as possible, save as much as possible....and never spend more than we make.
A lot has changed this last year... we went down to a 1 income family, we had a baby, we bought a new home (with a larger mortgage). And we've decided to give old fashioned budgeting a try. This was made very apparent with our No-Spend month last month, where we became much more aware of what we had previously been spending money on.
What has helped me get in the budget mindset is Rachel Cruze (daughter to Dave Ramsey). She is self-proclaimed spender and said she loves the budget because it gives her PERMISSION to spend.
Here is what our budget looks like for February (I've blocked out the amounts, but you can see percentages)
Notes: Housing includes everything from utilities, mortgage, our extra mortgage payments, cell phone bills etc. That is part of why it is so high. Also you will notice we do not have anything put aside for savings. We are seeing about budgeting only my income from my primary job, as our goal has always been that Etsy and Photography income would go directly into savings. I'm also only budgeting my take home after the automatic with holdings of health insurance, retirement, life insurance etc. that comes directly out of my paycheck. I didn't see the point in budgeting that since it is all taken out before I even get my check.
What I loved about Rachel's discussion on the budget is that you should expect to fail your first three months. Its going to take some adjusting to the budget and learning your spending habits.
I was also surprised to find that our last 3 months of spending really does have a trend. We spend the exact same amount (within $10 give/take) on gas each month for example. The same with groceries.
We actually budgeted out clothes for Lorelai, clothes for me and clothes for Kevin. It hopefully will help me cap Lorelai's spending and allow us to feel like we can spend on ourselves as well...which has always been a hard thing for us. Kevin wanted to point out that his budget on clothes was $40, as was mine...but that Lorelai got a budget of $45 :) Obviously that is because I love her more.
We are using Everydollar.com as a way to budget!
A lot has changed this last year... we went down to a 1 income family, we had a baby, we bought a new home (with a larger mortgage). And we've decided to give old fashioned budgeting a try. This was made very apparent with our No-Spend month last month, where we became much more aware of what we had previously been spending money on.
What has helped me get in the budget mindset is Rachel Cruze (daughter to Dave Ramsey). She is self-proclaimed spender and said she loves the budget because it gives her PERMISSION to spend.
Here is what our budget looks like for February (I've blocked out the amounts, but you can see percentages)
Notes: Housing includes everything from utilities, mortgage, our extra mortgage payments, cell phone bills etc. That is part of why it is so high. Also you will notice we do not have anything put aside for savings. We are seeing about budgeting only my income from my primary job, as our goal has always been that Etsy and Photography income would go directly into savings. I'm also only budgeting my take home after the automatic with holdings of health insurance, retirement, life insurance etc. that comes directly out of my paycheck. I didn't see the point in budgeting that since it is all taken out before I even get my check.
What I loved about Rachel's discussion on the budget is that you should expect to fail your first three months. Its going to take some adjusting to the budget and learning your spending habits.
I was also surprised to find that our last 3 months of spending really does have a trend. We spend the exact same amount (within $10 give/take) on gas each month for example. The same with groceries.
We actually budgeted out clothes for Lorelai, clothes for me and clothes for Kevin. It hopefully will help me cap Lorelai's spending and allow us to feel like we can spend on ourselves as well...which has always been a hard thing for us. Kevin wanted to point out that his budget on clothes was $40, as was mine...but that Lorelai got a budget of $45 :) Obviously that is because I love her more.
We are using Everydollar.com as a way to budget!
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