You probably know by now that I am not the best financial planner in the world. That is why I have my "Business Manager" aka-Josh. (He really did graduate Cum Laude with a double major in Criminal Justice and Business Administration. Didn't know he was that smart, did ya?)
Anyway - since he is my favorite Business Manager, I asked him to help me write a little blog post about what we do for our budget. (It took me awhile to get him to agree, so this is kinda a big deal.)
Here we go:
Stephanie - When is the first time that we came up with a budget?
Josh - We basically set one up when we were first married. I always have had a calendar that I wrote our bills on. At the end of each week, I have paid them, and then we have lived on the rest.
Stephanie - Tell me exactly how you organize our budget now?
Josh - Our budget is organized weekly. I get paid a different amount each week, and our bills due for each week are different. Because of this I have taken the average amount we owe for each of our bills and have divided it into a weekly amount. (For example: If our Water bill is going to be $36.78 a month, that would be about $441.36 a year. So then each week we will budget $8.49 for our Water bill.)
Stephanie - I am confused, but ok....
Josh - It sounds complicated, but really the bottom line is I just want to know what the is the average amount of money that we will need for bills each week. I write the check for our tithe. I pay the bills for the week. Then we live on the rest. Some weeks we may have a little more. Some weeks we will have a little less, but it all works out. When we have a surplus, it goes into Savings.
Stephanie - What do you think is the biggest "waste" of our money?
Josh - Going out to eat. Impulse shopping (Target, a quick trip to the grocery store for "one thing I forgot", etc.) Those things add up.
Stephanie - What do think is the key to our budget?
Josh - Knowing how much we have for the week. Also, we try to use cash so we don't go over. It is easy to not really know what you are spending if you are using a debit card. When you have cash, you know when you are running low and when it is gone.
Stephanie - What is the biggest goal we have when it comes to our budget/debt?
Josh - To pay off the rest of our debt. We have come a long way, but we still have some stuff to get rid of. Also, to put more into Savings.
Stephanie - Thanks, Baby! Love you!
Josh - Love you too!
Our budget can be very stressful for me. At times Josh would try to talk to me about it and I would just stare at him and pretend that I knew what he was talking about. However, I know that we are a team and that we have to work at this together. It doesn't matter how much planning and budgeting that Josh puts on paper if I go out and spend a ton of extra money on things.
Over the past 2 years, I think we have finally got it more together. NO it isn't perfect. Things can be a tight around here, but I never have ever worried about that our bills aren't going to be paid.
Sometimes Josh and I have to sit down and really talk about our spending. We have to evaluate what we want and what we need. A lot of times we have to cut things out for a week or two. (For example: for the month of November we are on a spending "fast". I have committed to staying home as much as possible to save on gas, not going out to eat, no little trips to Target or other stores, only getting what I need for specific meals at the grocery store, no clothes or toys for Alyse, etc. We are hoping that at the end of the month that we will have saved enough to help pay for some of our Christmas presents.)
One thing that I have really learned when it comes to money issues is that I just need to be happy with what I have. Sure I would love to have a bigger house and a nicer car. I would like to travel around Europe or go on a big shopping trip, but I don't think that living on one police officer's salary is going to do that.
I have also learned that we need to take what God has given us and be faithful with it! God is never going to give us more if we just waste what He has given us. (Matt 25:14-30)
