Budget For 2004!!........

Most of us paycheck to paycheck people end up in slumps trying to balance our budget. I'm not an accountant, I am not a rich person but I have found a way that keeps me balanced so that my bills are paid on time and there is always money in my pocket. I felt that it is worthy of sharing with some others who may struggle with money. Please note that just 3 short years ago I was in debt and filed bankruptcy and have now recently purchased a brand new car and home. So I obviously did something right! LOL So, this may be worth trying for some.

I will use fake figures to demonstrate how I manage my household money.

In my notebook I make a complete list of my bills always rounding them up to the nearest dollar or two or sometimes even 5. For example my real cable connection for my computer is $46.85. I round this up to an even $50.

My notebook looks something like this:

$900 Mortgage $100 School $260 Car Payment $300 Insurance $24 Life Insurance $30 Water $200 Gas/Electric $80 Phone $50 Cable

Next to each I have a graph drawn with the months of the year listed across the top which I can't demonstrate on the computer. As I pay each during the month, I place a check mark to show that it is paid.

List every bill, even those that you pay quarterly or yearly. If your water bill comes every 3 months and it's $30, note that your water bill is $10 per month.

Total up your monthly bills the above totals $1944 in monthly expenses. Then figure how much your total monthly income is. For people that work varying hours it may be difficult to calculate how much your income is. However you base your income at the lowest possible amount of money you could bring in for the month. For example: I know that if I work at least one day at my part time (hour varying) job I will bring in at least $100. For my total monthly income I calculate $400 as what I bring into the household. If I work more than one day, which is more likely than not, that is considered extra money for that week.

For this we will use a total of $2600 monthly income. Take that $2600 you make for a month and subtract the $1944 from that total. This leaves $656 left over for the month. You then take the $656 and divide that by 4. You have $164 a week left over.

Now out of your $164 a week you live weekly. Grocery shopping, Gas, entertainment and anything else you need to get through just one week only. Pick one day where you make it to the grocery store and plan for all the meals you will need to make for those days. I do it very simply and don't stick to a schedule at all. I just know that one night we will have chicken, then pork, some kind of beef, a pasta ect. I buy only the things I need to prepare these meals and the "snacks" to get through one week. You will quickly learn that your shopping bill will go down when you aren't wandering around figuring out what you need to buy. Going to the grocery store without a plan of what you only actually need results in buying half meals, or in other words you have ingredients missing to make one thing or another. You don't even have to make a list. I never make a list, but I know in the back of my mind that I need to have enough to make 7 dinners and have everything to go with each one. You will get to know the approximate amount of what you will spend weekly at the grocery store and know how much of your $164 needs to go in this direction.

I have a family of 4 and I generally spend $60 a week on groceries. My husband also gets $30 for his gas tank out of our weekly spending money. The rest that is left over goes for anything else we may need or want. Such as spending $20 to order pizza and wings on a Friday night. We also use this for things like school pictures, birthday gifts, a pair of shoes etc.

In my personal budget, I include just about everything and use that extra that is left over for the above mentioned things. My husband and I are both smokers and the cost of our habit it part of our budget. We also have two monthly prescriptions that are listed and we have a set amount that goes into savings. We could very well not include our prescriptions into our budget and increase our spending money weekly by a few dollars, but then we are $20 short on the week that we have to pick one of them up. You have to budget those certain things in the way that fits you better.

Each week all of our money except for the set amount of spending money we have per week is deposited into the checking account. The ONLY thing that comes out of the checking account is the checks that are revolving through to pay the bills. We have our spending money for the week in cash in our hands and on that payday it is already divided up into where it needs to go. You will soon notice that you checking account will revolve at a continuous level balance that will be a LOT higher than what it normally does. Which looks better anytime you apply for something and they want to see a copy of that bank statement. I have been down the road to the days where the checkbook had $20 in it. At times it may still only have $20 in it, but your revolving statement will show that it has $500-600 maybe even $1000 in it on a regular and steady basis.

What you will also start to notice is that you no longer have to "wait" until payday to pay your bills or pick and choose which bills are going to paid this week and what will have to be late and paid next week. The money is there when the bills arrive and you are literally able to open it up, write the check and stick it back in the mailbox.

Your money headaches will go away, the fighting will stop, and you will learn how to live on what you make. You don't need credit cards. We haven't had one in 3 years and when the little disasters happens, they aren't so disasterous. You may think you don't have money left over to "save" each month. You do, and you will start to find that you do when you learn how to organize it all. The best part is when you are out shopping and you meet up with a friend that wants to grab lunch with you, you don't have to make excuses that you can't because you don't have the money to. If you say no it's because you don't want to spend the money, not because you don't have it.

Good Luck to anyone who gives it a try!

I haven't had to scrounge up change in a LONG time! LOL I think I am finally ready for one of those water cooler bottles to store it all. Hey my brother and his wife took their honeymoon with all their saved changed! It can happen! LOL..:D

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