Porter woke up at 4:53 this morning. Not cool. So, I came up with a possible reason and that he might be really cold at that time of the morning. So, I bought him blanket sleepers in the hope that he will sleep in longer (oh yeah, and be warmer!). I just can't keep doing this before 5:00 thing...yesterday, it was 5:03 am. Too early. Plus, he doesn't even take a nap until like 11:00 or even 1:00 so it just makes for a very long day...
I am 98% done with Christmas shopping!! I just need to get three more things, and I will be done! What a relief. I love Christmas, but I am just not into it this year. I am glad that it didn't cost me an arm and a leg this year. I decided last January to start saving $75/month to go into a Christmas fund so that we wouldn't be "surprised" when that time of the year came around. So, I have been able to pay everything out of that fund. So, that is good!
I went to Ulta today to look into getting some hair stuff for my new haircut. I have a cheapo, crappy hair straightener, and my haircut now requires straightening for it to look right. After talking to the most amazing sales lady (who spent 15 minutes showing me different things to get and actually cared about my price limitations), I bought a new hair straightener that was on sale for $29.99 from $110! And, I had a 20% off coupon too! I also bought the CHI IronGuard to prevent damaging my hair. What a treat it was today! I even worked it into my budget!
For those of you who know me, I am hardcore about my budget. I have broken down everything into little different categories, and I have figured out a good estimate of how much should be spent in each of those categories. I have gas, food, dining out, wal-mart, target, entertainment, hobbies, car repairs, house repairs, atm, clothes, diapers/baby supplies, and Porter's clothes. Those are our variable expenses. Then, I have my student loans, an spot for putting extra money on the student loans, mortgage, water/trash, electric, phone/dsl/cable, cell phone, alarm company, car payment, investments, christmas fund, emergency fund, down payment on car, and Porter's account. And, now, since Joe is deployed, I have extra categories like postage, care packages, Joe's ATM, communication, extra on car payment, extra on student loan, save for upcoming moves. I have it all on an Excel spreadsheet, and I update it everyday. There is a column for every day of the month so I can put the total in each category according to that day. It adds it all up for me and even will do a (-) if I went over. I do not allot roughly $200 to go anywhere each month so that it will cover if we had to buy something bigger that month. On the second to the last day of the month, I add up everything and figure out how much I have left to spend. Then, I will take some of it for fun money for Porter and I and then split it up into the different savings that we have. We are putting a buttload extra on my student loan so that we will have that paid off in May. I just don't want to see it anymore. Then, we will start paying more off on the van and putting more into savings. Joe does not understand my methods, but he is happy that I am not stressed anymore about not knowing where the money goes. Plus, I can pull it up at any time to show exactly where it is going. Yes, I know that there are easier programs, like Quicken, but this is easy for me.
So, that is how we control our finances in our house. How do you do it in your home?
4 comments:
omg robin! we do the excel thing too, but you have such cool categories for your budget. i am so going to have to talk to rich about adding things like "hobbies/crafts" or separate categories for kids clothes! haha!
Omg you are too cool. I am crazy about our budget too. I love being able to track everything in our bank accounts online and by hand (I have major issues with excel....). We want to save $20,000 this year for a house, so things are sooooo tight at the end of the month. But, well, we are making it work somehow. Christmas gifts are going to just be a tad less extravagant!
I also do everything in cash. I find that I am saving over $700/month that way. How insane is that??? It's just all of those little things that seem to add up on our credit card.And I don't feel like I am missing anything, either!
AHHHH. I'd love for your help with this stuff! I've been so stressed about money and I think if I did something like this it would def help. Especially with E deploying soon. We have a bunch of loans and credit cards to pay off- and I find we are paying the minimum each month and I'd love to pay them off quicker! Plus we really want to save also during this deployment! So what's your advice?
Well Robyn,
There is no such thing as budget in my house. Everything is behind and I pay what I can when I get my paycheck every two weeks. I desperately need to sit down and figure one out but I don't know where to begin. LOL. But, we survive regardless.
Post a Comment