After realizing that we had spent well over 1200 bucks on restaurants and food last month alone I realized that we needed to rethink our so called budget!
I've done this before. I have a great excel spreadsheet to keep track of where we spend our money. Problem is it take a lot of time to enter in everything we are purchasing into their proper categories.
The bottom line is we know that we are spending more on STUFF than what we actually need, so do we really need to track every penny that way?? I wonder.
Gail Vaz-Oxlade (book) has us tracking everything to see where it is all going. But I already know where its going...and that doesn't come as a surprise to me. We need to stop shopping without purpose. Just cause I want it is the problem we are having.
So with a list of the things we are going to need to buy for car and home maintenance is going to help keep thing into perspective. Not to mention the damn condo board is going to have us paying for more assessments to fix something in the next few months.
I made a list of all our non-negotiable bills and expenses and a list of the income we have. (well I had to average this because it isn't always the same in dollar amount) and realized that we actually do have enough coming in to pay for these bills, but the problem is that the money isn't always around when the bills need to come out.
I wish our pay would be as predictable in dollar amount as well as expectancy date as our bills are. I always know what dates the bills are due, but the pay is always off. That is why we are OD'ing our bank account. How in the hell does one fix that??
I think for the next month or two, we are going to have to cut out all non-essential spending to keep more in our account to catch up and then find out what can be paid with an extra dose of money to get rid of it faster.
so armed with that and a grocery budget of $500, we'll see what we can accomplish. Miracles I hope!
it would help of course if i could make money from home, but I am not interested in doing another party based business. One car is not able to be used right now, and the other is used very often by hubby for his two jobs. I am homeschooling, so being home is imperative. american opportunities are just that- american. so what now!
1 comment:
If you could be disciplined for a couple of months you'd have a cushion for the bills to prevent the over draft. A time without might also make the treats more appreciated so that you need less of them (that or make you binge, how have you been with diets?). I have always been good with money but find it more difficult now that I am in the city. I try to stay home and avoid commercial areas, beyond that I just tell myself no. One thing that has helped is that I view every item as hours worked. Ex. say you make $15/hr and a take out meal will cost you (i don't actually know I don't eat that stuff) say $10. Is it worth working most of an hour for a crappy burger? Best of luck, money is the only thing I have discipline in. If you know how to control your temper with your kids, not binge eat, drink enough water, eat your vegetables, stay away from the computer, and not disappear into books for hours at a time, please do advise me.
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