I forgot to post my original budgets for January, but I decided to post them here along with my progress so far.
I know there's room for improvement, and I want to make some changes, but I'm trying to focus on one goal at a time. I took all debt payments down to the minimum to try and get a better idea of how much money we actually have left. It's looking like about $500. This month will be the first month in a long time that we haven't actually added any credit card debt. The next two goals will be $1000 in the Savings account and enough in our checking to cover living off last month's income and a $200 buffer. I'm hoping to accomplish these things by March provided nothing comes up that we suddenly have to cash flow.
After that I have a card payoff plan, but I'm trying not to focus on that just yet.
Here's my budget snapshot. I get paid twice a month, so I assign bills to each paycheck based on their due dates. My student loan payments did go up a bit from $155.
Here's our joint budget snapshot. I'm on track to come in well under budget on the Entertainment category. The clothing purchases are documented under Miscellaneous.
Budget Check-In
January 11th, 2017 at 02:34 pm
January 11th, 2017 at 06:32 pm 1484159527
January 11th, 2017 at 09:47 pm 1484171257
'Rent' is now mortgage and that also has it's own allocations and maintenance like oil change each 'X' miles, tune -up seasonally, tire replacement, brakes and possibly cylinders if you procrastinate.
Here goes Ms Bossy Pants...please consider up coming spring yard care projects both time management and costs. You've mentioned fencing... 2nd is getting your Hot Tub repaired and operating + ongoing costs for chemicals and heat. it's truly cost effective to buy used garden supplies, hand tools, etc. but yard sales require cash and that requires planning...yikes
January 11th, 2017 at 09:52 pm 1484171530
January 12th, 2017 at 03:00 am 1484190018
Categories for two vehicles need sums for weekly gas , tires, tune-up and the like.
January 12th, 2017 at 04:05 pm 1484237143
Snafu, you're not bossy at all...I love getting feedback from you. I actually do have an interest column in my full spreadsheet. It's just completely mortifying, so I removed it from this showing. DH calls me out every single time I say that I have to pay the rent. I just need to get used to calling it mortgage.
Our cars are interesting. I keep all of my car expenses under my budget, while DH's are under our budget. It's the gas and fuel categories, respectively. One of those microsavings accounts is actually for my car maintenance. I pull from that and cash flow the rest as it comes up. DH's car maintenance is currently covered under his warranty, but for anything extra, we just cash flow that. I'd like to get to the point where we're putting aside a set amount each month, but that will come once a few more of the credit cards are gone.
January 12th, 2017 at 05:45 pm 1484243138
I forgot to add about lawn care. We were very fortunate in that the previous owners left us a shed full of tools and a push mower when they found out we were moving from an apartment and didn't really have any outdoor gear. I think we'll be able to make do with what they left us.