Budgeting 101

Hello one & all…have been working on the budget for our household for the New Year. Listed ALL expenses and income. Every time I look at the paper I seem to come up with a new, unavoidable, expense to figure in. Chicken feed, dog food, shavings for the coop…all are necessary and must be budgeted for. School lunches, gas for the vehicles, homeowners insurance…the list goes on and on. Strangely enough, the income column stays the same…hmmm.

First list all fixed expenses. Those are the totals that are non-negotiable; mortgage, electric, insurance, etc. When all of your fixed expenses have been accounted for, subtract that total from your income. This leaves you with your “disposable income.” This total represents all the money that you have available for groceries, gas, habits, and spending sprees. Whatever!

When working your numbers jot down EVERY little thing that you regularly need money for. Stop for coffee every morning at the AMPM? Write it in. Have a newspaper subscription? Write it in. Have habits…i.e.; alcohol and/or smokes? Put it in the budget. Put Christmas in there and be prepared come next December! And be HONEST about your totals.

I work my numbers based on 48 weeks pay. This is easier for me as I simply take the hubby’s pay and multiply by 4 to represent the month’s cash. Those extra 4 weeks pay become savings (if all goes well!), unexpected expenses (our chicken waterer needs replacing this week…$30!!) or for a fun treat (dinner out, a movie, etc.) Any overtime, bonuses or money I earn (egg sales, babysitting, cleaning, EBay sales, etc.) gets treated the same way. We have a running, written list of needed items that get listed by priority. When there is money, we buy. If there is no money, we do not buy. (We do carry a credit card or two for times when spending and money available do not equal out…$800 car repairs for instance.) We try very hard to curb our spending impulses. Are we always on budget? No. But more often than not, we are. If I am going to continue to stay at home, we need to be.

When you first work the numbers, it is a little scary. Told my husband last night that we seem financially fine…as long as we never need new underwear or eat more than one meal a day! But it always works out in the end. Keep crunching. Can you cut your cable or satellite expense? Can you decrease your cell phone expense? Call your carrier and have them review your account. You may be able to use a smaller minutes, less expensive plan. Turn off lights, unplug remote controlled devices when not in use, make coffee at home instead of stopping. It all adds up…or subtracts down!

Have a great day…supposed to be a little warmer today! Blessings, Eve