I do the budget in our family so I feel that if there is a problem it is my fault. We have been very lucky in that my husband has a stable job and makes good money. I just wish we would have been wiser over the years with our money decisions. I bet most of us could have written the previous sentence.
It seems like we can never get ahead; we get one thing paid off and something else comes up. We tried following Dave Ramsey's Plan and we could not stick to it. Over the years I have tried babysitting and getting a job. Babysitting was ridiculous because people want you to watch their children but they don't want to pay you. Any jobs that I could find did not make me happy because I have always been happiest as a stay-at-home wife/mother.
I have always done our budget from the time we got married. Toby says "he makes the money" so I can do the budget. I get so anal about the budget that sometimes I will do budget projections a year or more into the future. That is where I get frustrated because things don't seem to be getting paid off as fast as I would like. It was my idea to cut Cable from the budget and I was the weakling who couldn't handle it and we got it back. I'm sure if we got rid of some of our pets it would help the budget but when you love your pets how do you decide who should go?
I want to do better with our budget so that Toby and I can realize our long-term goals. We had hoped to move South after Travis graduates from high school but I don't know if/when we will be able to achieve that goal.
What ways are you "tightening your belts" to help your budget?
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1 year ago
I usually only buy second hand clothing (I still have little kids and that helps) I shop at Aldi's aLot, we have learned what foods you can buy the generic for. I try to always buy the generic, except for a few things. I buy toothpaste, toothbrushes, pens and a lot of other things at the Dollar Tree. I don't eat out much, maybe twice a month. I am lucky that our cars are paid off, but when they break down, which seems to be often, we have to scramble to find money to fix them. I pay that extra $15 a month at Family Video each month so that we get all of our DVD and Game rentals half off. And yes the pets can be expensive, so for you, you have to decide what is worth it and what isn't. Good post!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input Mandie.
ReplyDeleteWe quit eating out and I started once a month cooking. Eating out was killing our budget. I also rarely buy things at full price. Have you tried mint.com? Its so easy and it pretty much does everything for you! You just check it every once in a while to make sure everything is as it should be and its free. It's tough to stick to a budget but what you need to do is make sure you give yourself some "blow" money. That will help that "budget crunch". Also, have you tried going with satellite instead of cable? I know dish right now you can get it for $24.99 a month compared to almost $100 with cable (at least in my area). What about your phone? Do you have a cell phone AND a home phone? Can you get rid of one? I actively search every month for a way to save money or cut our bills. What does Toby do? Have you called your phone company to see if there was a discount for what he does? We learned after calling Verizon that because Shawn is EMS we could get an 18% discount off our bill! I cringe every month when I have to get stuff for our animal but we chose to get a pet so we knew there was an extra cost in that. I definitely know and understand the whole "never getting ahead" thing because we always feel that way! You aren't alone in that one!!
ReplyDeleteTabatha, we just have cell phones and we do get a discount because of who Toby works for. We had satellite before and were not really happy with it. I am having the guilts right now over going on vacation and I promised Toby that I wouldn't. We used almost all of our baby emergency fund towards our vacation.
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