Money and Finances: How To Budget

(Previous post found here)

Wouldn't it be nice if there was some trick to magically make your money multiply, or some cash fairy to hand you wads whenever you needed to make a purchase?

Get. Real. People.

I'm sure we have all day-dreamed about a money-tree, or a lottery winning. I have, and I don't even play the lotto.

The TRUTH {and we are going to be talking about the truth} is that getting ahead takes effort, planning, and for some...a little sacrifice.

Getting started is the most important thing that you can do to help your financial situation. Stop sleeping as you swipe your ATM card {which might cost you now} and pay attention to every dollar. Yes. Every Dollar.

What my budget looks like. 

I don't get fancy.

I don't break it down into a million categories. 

Simple Works.

Salary

Tithing & Fast Offering

Mortgage

Health Insurance {people, we are self employed and this one hurts}

Life Insurance

Utilities

Spending {Groceries, Movies, Shopping, Dining, Extra Stuff}

Now your Categories might look a little different. So fit in the ones you need. We don't have car payments, cell payments, or cable etc, so yours could look quite different.

Here we go...

1. Get a piece of paper and write down your personal categories
2. Fill in your Salary {total Net income. Your net income would be your full income after taxes}
3. Subtract your Tithing (10%). {I recommend that you pay tithing on your Gross income. Your Gross income is your full income before taxes}
4. So now you have a dollar amount for what money is actually yours to do what you want with
5. Write the Dollar amount for the categories that are a set amount each month {mortgage, car etc.}
6. Take a look at the categories that change each month. Figure out if there is a way to cut back or do without any of these extra expenses. Write the amount that you think you can get by on for each of these categories. Challenge yourself in these area's. Set a goal to stick to a smaller amount than you are use to.
7. Is there any money left after you subtract all of your expenses?
8. If there is money left I want you to circle how much is left and then I want you to write TRANSFER TO SAVINGS right next to it.

Remember, if you don't even save a dime, you didn't make a dime. You only earn what you save!

Before my next post I want you to seriously start thinking about how you spend money. It doesn't matter if you are broke or rolling in dough, we all need to be accountable for our income.

Are there any places that you can tighten up? Are there any things that you can go without?

Budgeting isn't comfortable. But I'll tell you what is comfortable...Having money in the bank.

It really is nice, and you can enjoy that peace of mind by starting small and starting TODAY!

Now go figure out your income and your spending and meet back here in one week!

Go!

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And don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY! It is FREE people, and that keeps more money in your pocket!

Money and Finances: The Beginning

When I married Scott I had no idea what I was in for. We had shared idea's about money and future goals, but we still were not on the same page. I totaled up the money from all of our generous wedding gifts and told Scott that I was ready to go shopping. I wanted a couch, a Kitchen Aide, some new dishes, and some cute decor for our apartment. Imagine my surprise when he looked at me straight in the eyes and told me to  pay off my Student Loan.

Scott has taught me everything I know about Money, Finances and Savings. From the first month of our marriage he has had a goal and a vision for our family; and that is Financial Freedom.


I remember at first, I had a really hard time with this. At twenty-seven years old, I was in a habit of spending the money that I made. Scott wanted to keep track of every dime and talk about all of our purchases, even just grabbing lunch. By the second month of our marriage we had a baby on the way and it was easier for me to see that we really did need to start to prepare. But, it was really hard for me to have a vision of saving money when we barely even had an income.

One day Scott asked me to open up an OFFICIAL savings account. In order to open up a savings account we had to have a minimum of $300.00 in our account at all times. I didn't see how we could scrap up enough money to open a savings account, let-alone keep the money there. But somehow we did.

Scott taught me that "if you spend what you made...you never made anything." This made sense to me. He told me that someone could make $300,000 dollars a year, but if they spent all of it, they never made any money.

The only money you make 

is that which you save.

So, we started saving our money. It was small amounts at first. I think we made $17,000.00 dollars the first year we were married and $5000.00 of it went to pay for the birth of Dylan. So you can see that we lived very humbly.

I was amazed at how quickly our Savings Account started to grow by living frugally and by saving our money.

And now, 8 years later, I think that Scott's vision has become OUR vision. I have learned a lot along the way and I am going to share it with you. It isn't rocket science, but for those of you who might need help in this department, I'm here to help where I can. I always seem to have people asking me about how we have "Gotten Ahead", what we do to save, and how we organize our finances.

The answers are simple.


We have Paid The Lord First.
We have lived Within our means.
We have gone without some of our Wants.
We have had a plan and a vision and we have Stuck to it.
We (Scott) has Worked Really Hard.
We have been on the Same Page.

I am going to break these down over the next month and elaborate on each of these topics.

I hope it helps.

Credit Card Fraud = Horror...American Express Blue = Love.

Last month Dominic Cifarelli  and Morokath Redman used my credit card to rack up over $6000.00 dollars in Airline tickets. I'm sure you can imagine the anxiety and the panic that I felt when I opened up my credit card statement.

Oh.
My.
Word.

It amazes me that people are okay with being so dishonest.

It totally blows my mind.

Maybe they didn't have a good mom like I did who made them walk back into the grocery store at the age of six and return the stolen candy-bar. Or maybe they just need a Bishop that looks them in the eye's every year and asks them if they are honest in ALL their dealings.

I just don't get it.

Needless to say I felt violated.

So I called up American Express to try and resolve the issue and their customer service was EXCELLENT.

Not only did they treat me like I was the victim, they didn't blame me or try to ask me a million questions. They just thanked me for my ongoing membership and took care of it all for me.

Took.
Care.
Of.
It.

People, this really happened. Like, in real life.


They just took care of it for me.

What?

Amazing. And I promise that this is not an advertisement for American Express. But I will be a Member for Life.

AmEx = Love

Liars = Stoopid (with two o's)

PS. I found this crazy lady picture on the web, but I think it kind of looks like me if you don't look to close and if you blur your eyes a little and if the room is dim. ;)

I wanna be debt FREE!

Today I am:

PAYING OFF MY CAR!!!!

There is not a better feeling than calling the bank to get the payoff amount for my car and the guy on the phone tells me $3,500 less than I was thinking it was. How did I miss that? Who cares...sometimes LESS IS BETTER!!!

So I'm paying off my car. YIPPEE!!! And that stupid $400.00 payment is now going on top of my monthly mortgage. This makes me so happy too.

FREEDOM FROM DEBT!!!!

I shall scream one more time and kiss my UCCU car payment goodbye!