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mommy4ever
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| Posted: Feb 18 2012 at 6:18am | IP Logged
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tonight, I decided to sit down and figure out why I'm not making a lot of head way with the bills and savings. Now the savings IS growing, but it's like a treadmill with the bills. Not owing more, but not making any headway, or minimal.
I don't think I spend a tremendous amount, yet maybe I do?
I pulled up a favorite 'guru' of mine. Gail Vaz-Oxlade, her blog has great info. I used her monthly planning. 
NO wonder. There are things I wasn't building into our budget. She has a great work sheet on this page. Gail's Budget sheet
I was trying to put as much to savings and debt repayment, without taking in to consideration all our monthly needs, or the yearly things that need to be planned for. Allowances, pet needs, piano lessons, repair money, schooling funds, bank fees. None are huge expenses, but they can sabotage a budget in a hurry. All these things need to be planned for. She insists everyone needs an entertainment budget, without it, she feels you can burn out. If all you can do is $20/mo, so be it. It can mean a special treat, or used to make a special in house date night. In her show she challenges couples to find date nights that are free if the budget is really tight.
I feel a lot better. I have 2 savings accounts set up. One is Emergency fund, the other is planned savings - yearly expenses, ie - house insurance and registration fees.
I am moving away from debit cards as much as possible. I know how much cash to take out weekly. What is allocated where. I am putting away the credit card. Whatever good intentions, I'm not disciplined enough for it. There i admitted to it. I had for it. It'll be used for reserving hotel with(for dh, then he pays for the room cash). And if we travel, in an emergency we'd have ready access. I do most of my banking online, so it's easy to track my progress and success of not using it. I plan to pay that bad boy off asap.
I'm going to an envelope system. I've failed at this in the past as I kept all of them with me all the time. now, I only plan to bring what I shopping for. Groceries, grocery envelope. B'day gift, birthday envelope. Etc. Technically, I should end up with left over cash, this will build to save for the next month a bigger item, ie. dd12 b'day is 3 months away, so 3 months of budgetted gift funds will make for a nice gift, and planned, and not over done. We don't need any clothing until June, so by then we'll have enough to make some nice planned purchases, no cc. Since we started re-fashioning, I think we'll be able to do very well at a thrift store and still have money saved toward the fall.
I'm feeling more positive about this, dh figures 2 years before the company shuts down, I can handle that, i have time to focus. Be more grounded. I know things happen and the budget gets ruined for me. IE dh hours cut. BUT we have been saving, and for that month we'd not add to savings, it wouldn't be the end of the world. We know where the money NEEDS to go, we can cover it all, and not be drowned, at least not within the first 1/2 year. We have a buffer. I also know what can go at a glance. We could free up some resources if we had to. I'd like to go bare bones now, but I'd have a revolt on my hands. So subtle cuts. I reduced the satellite by $10, I don't think anyone will miss that. I'll be pulling out my tightwad gazette and see what little things can be done. I'm up for the challenge.
If the company doesn't shut down this plant, he gets a good severance package, he's been there 11 years. It's a global company as well as fortune 500, so we know that we'll get it. The basic would be 7 mo. The enhance would be up to 9 months. Which would give some time to find a new job, or start training on a new trade and use the severance to off set the lower wage.
I wasn't looking at the whole picture. I was feeling panicked.
So if dh took a 30% pay cut. If we would do some cut backs so we could work it out at say 80% without really freaking everyone out, supplementing a little bit, 10% of his currently monthly from the severence and saving the rest just in case it took longer to get back to earning full amount, as the economy is unpredictable, we could stretch each month to supplement 10 months at a lower wage. Meaning, if we're diligent, he could attain his new ticket, and not touched our current savings, even built it up some. If he took a 50% cut, we'd have to trim the budget more, I think we could likely still do with supplementing no more that 20%. And stretch it out.
I think we'll be ok. I haven't slept yet.. my brain is on overtime. I needed the quiet to thing and pray about this. I'm likely missing some things yet, but the budget is in pretty good form :) I'll go over it tomorrow again. Add any forgotten items. But other than little tweaks, I have a much better picture of where to put the money.
Now I need to recenter and get some sleep..lol
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Bridget
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Joined: Feb 07 2005
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| Posted: Feb 18 2012 at 8:26am | IP Logged
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I am all about budgeting and frugal living right now! It sounds like you are on top of things and being very wise. Thanks for the link! Off to read!
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God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
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elynnmom
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| Posted: Feb 18 2012 at 10:07am | IP Logged
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I'm going to check out that link, too. My husband and I are planning some time over this long weekend to sit down for some budget planning. We were so good about this when we first married, but then we had a child, then another, and another, and another, and our filing system/budget plan/etc, hasn't been attended to very much for the past 12 years  . We've always had a modest amount to work with, so we're frugal and don't over-spend, but our budget isn't intentional and I look forward to getting it to that level. Thanks for sharing your process. We have a budgeting book from when we married by phil Lenihan. Has anyone used any of his online tools at Veritas Financial Ministries?
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ShannonJ
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| Posted: Feb 18 2012 at 5:30pm | IP Logged
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Sounds like you've got a great plan! We went to an envelope system last year. Dh loves to cook, which is wonderful, but was running to the store 2 or 3 times a day! And since I handled all the budgeting he never realized how much he was spending on food each month! Once we switched he really started to think about how he was spending that hard earned cash!!
You may want to wait for a while before checking them out, but we just started using EEBA for tracking our purchases so we can use our credit card and get some reward points too! Works so wonderfully. There are other electronic envelope programs out there too, but this is the one I really like!
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~Shannon
Mom of dd 12, ds 9, & dd 5
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: Feb 20 2012 at 5:34pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for sharing!  We are on the rice-and-beans budget right now and I'm always looking for ways to carve out more pennies.
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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: The 'B' word...yeah budget
