Monday, June 4, 2012

The "B" Word

BUDGET.

Ugh. Who else hates this word? I am pretty positive that it is the most hated word in the English Dictionary. If I knew how to say in Spanish, French, Chinese, ETC. I would say that its the most hated word in their dictionary too.

SO, with that being said. I am going to let you in on my budgeting skills. Seriously, its a skill. Husband calls me Hitler, and makes a stupid stache with his finger and everything. I am THAT strict on our budget.

A few embarrassing things about me and budget:
1. I do check my account EVERY SINGLE DAY! (which is a good thing because a few weeks ago there were charges on our account that neither of us made, which means someone hi-jacked my card number and were having a all out shopping spree. Luckily for me, I am a Nazi and check my account every day. So they only made it 2 purchases in.)
2. If I check the account and husband has spent one cent on something that is outside of our budget you better believe I call him up and yell at him.
3. Because I run a Budget Nazi Camp House, I cant even remember the last time I bought an article of clothing for myself. Like I said, embarrassing.

There are millions of ways to budget your money. The best way that has helped Husband and I, is the "Envelope Method". Have you heard of this?

This is how it works.

Step 1. Write down ALL your expenses, and discuss what fits your life/ style with significant other or with your own self:). My list is below so you can see what I mean. These are not my exact amounts, but you get the idea. Note: I do not include things that are automatically withdrawn from our account like mortgage, utilities, and insurance.
Gas $200
Food $150
Personal Both $50
Personal William $25
Personal Tere $25
Pets $25
Bike $20
Yard/ Garden $20

Other things if you don't do automatic withdrawal like me (because I cant pay a bill on time to save my life or credit) will include Utilities, Car payments, Mortgage, Gas/Electric bill, Internet bill, Health insurance, Home insurance, Car insurance, Kids, etc.

Your "FUN" money is what the Personal envelope will be for.

Step 2.  Write each category with the amount on an envelope. Each category will have its own envelope.

Step 3. Total up the whole amount for all categories. This is what you will take out of your bank account at the beginning of each month.

Step 4. Go to bank. Make sure to get SMALL bills. I usually get a ton of $20's, 10's and 5's. I don't even care how many odd looks I get from the Tellers at the bank. If you don't mention small bills they will give you large ones and then it will be hard to divide up all the money per envelope.

Step 5. Put exact cash in each envelope. This is all you get for the month. Try it for the month if its your first time and then decide if you need to add more money or if you over budgeted for a certain category. Then alter it for the following month.

Step 6. NEVER for any reason go outside of this budget you have set for yourself. No matter how cute those shoes are. Its not worth it! Some times I understand that things happen, doctor visits, sickness, just don't budge for the shoes.

Notes:

IF you pay for some bills with checks, have the checks pre-written with no amount and in the envelope, that way when the bill comes its already written and all you need to do is input the amount. Make the budget work for you.

Don't over due the Personal envelope. $25 is pretty low, but when you think about it how much are you spending on your own personal self. The personal envelope includes your food if you go out with friends, your clothes shopping, those cute shoes, etc. STAY IN THE BUDGET. You will be amazed at how much you are actually spending on just your self. On just food, seriously add it up one day. You will die! Husband and I used to spend a fortune on food.

Husband: Food money is not your own personal food money. It is grocery money. He always forgets this.

With that being said, if you do decide to budget this way, let all those who are members of the family know the rules of the envelopes. That the money in the specified envelope is for the specified purpose. If you have kids maybe give them their own envelope rather than keeping it with the rest and let them know that, that will be all they will get for the month and to use it wisely. Stick to your word. I don't have kids, but thinking back my parents were always giving me money, don't just give and give. Teach your kids the importance of budget at a young age, and the importance of saving money for future.

At the end of the month if you have left over money, you can choose what you want to do with it. Whether that is recycling it and putting it back into the envelope, leaving it there and adding the full amount for the next month in case you need more the next month, or taking it out and putting it in a "Vacation Fund". This is what husband and I do. We put all the left over money in another envelope (or in the bank and keep track of the amount in the envelope) and use it for vacation money. That way when you go on vacation your using all the money you saved from the budget rather than digging out more money to use.

If you know your going on a trip, make another envelope that says trips. Say you want to save a $1000 in 10 months. Instead of pulling the full $1000 out at the time of the trip budget it out each month. So you have 10 months, you want to save $1000 that means you will need to pull out an extra $100 a month for the trip envelope. You can do this with as much money/ month ratio as you need. This has really helped us out. If feels like your not draining your account for the trip, rather just pulling little by little.

So I hope that this helped some of you. If you have any further questions on how this works, or what I do to apply it to our lives please feel free to comment and ask:)

Also if you have any other tips/ tricks let me know! I am all about saving and budgeting money. Just ask husband.

XOXO, Tere

16 comments:

  1. I haven't been able to fully commit to the envelope method... I just NEVER know how much to budget for groceries! Seriously... that's what keeps me from doing it, ha ha! Also gas. I just don't even want to think about how much we spend a month in gas. Living in the middle of nowhere does not help that cause.
    But we are pretty dang strict with our money spending!
    And I check our bank account almost everyday! It's worth it to know what's going on!

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  2. I just book marked this. GREAT tips! Thank you for being open and sharing this with us.

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  3. Oh my gosh, we totally did the envelope method when we were first married! This motivates me to start it back up again! Thanks for sharing! Love your blog.

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  4. I am horrible at budgets. I hope my husband never subjects me to the above mentioned form of torture. I just love shopping too much. But at least I discount shop and thrift? That's worth some budget points right? :)

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    1. Ha hey what ever works! You so get kudos for thrift and discount shopping!

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  5. Mitch and I really need to do this. I think about it then think its too much work and it wouldn't last a day with Mitch. But I do try to use coupons when we eat out (sometimes they determine where we eat) and I always shop the sales rack. And Mitch makes fun of me for these things. Why?

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    1. You would think he would be grateful your saving money! Coupons control where we eat as well.

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  6. We used to be super strict on this, lacking just the last two months. It works wonderfully! It has helped south with grocery money and not spending nothing's I really don't need AND has forced me to have menus planned out! Love you girl!

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    1. I want to start doing freezer meals! But I'm too dumb to figure it out. Ha bad wifey

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  7. hey there fellow budget nazi.
    yep, me too. I have countless excel spreadsheets and our checking account is number one in my favorites. And if I don't recall a transaction, I WILL not sleep until I figure it out.
    there is no way dan will ever be able to have an affair. well, he could. but he won't be able to buy her anything nice. ;)

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    1. That is how I am. Update the worksheet monthly;) how do you budget? Share!

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  8. This is so inspirational! We are always adjusting the way we handle our budget to see what's best! I agree with Brenna, in order to stick to a grocery budget meal plans are a MUST!

    But it's such a relief knowing all your expenses are covered if you stick to a plan! Nothin is worse than the uncertainty of how you'll pay the bills.

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  9. oh yes!! we use the envelope method all the time. we love it!

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  10. Dang Nazi! I bet you have the best budget in the world. This is one of the hardest things about getting married. I am sure of it. Jared and I both budget our own ways. Both ways work great, but I don't want to use his and he doesn't want to use mine. So basically we sit down and figure out all the bills, and which accounts they need to come from (we both have salary jobs so it's a given how much will be where). Then we have a savings account that we contribute to for vacations, and things we want, like new floors. It's weird, but it works! I used to use the envelope method too, and it works really well to get you in the budget mindset!

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  11. Ahhhh I hate budgeting!!! I wish I had you to budget me! I need someone to wip me into being a better spender! Haha!

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