Friday, July 20, 2007

Where does it all go?

"I'm not fat. It's all this hair. It makes me look poofy.  Fine. You have fat hair, but when you're ready to talk, I'm here."


“This movie has been brought to you by the letters W and B.”-Follow That Bird 


Well lately David and I have been trying to figure out where exactly our money goes.  One day we'll look at it and we'll have like $200 and then a couple of days later we're down to like $50-and the crazy thing is we're not sure where it al went.  Now before any of you say anything we do keep up with our checkbook but sometimes we both sit there and wonder how we spent it.  Am I making any sense here?  Anyways his dad gave us this book to read it's Dave Ramsey: The Total Money Makeover


And I can't believe it but David actually read the entire book and his been telling me how I need to read it so we can both be on the same page.  **Now here's some background:  I'm usually the one who budgets and gets all freaked out about money and I'm trying to get him to learn how to save.  And now here he is wanting to budget and get things under control-Praise God!**  So I've started reading the book again and believe or not I have mapped out all of our monthly bills from now to Dec. and have even budgeted in food, gas, and yes even Christmas.  So as soon as he comes home today I'll show him what I did and see what he thinks and if we need to tweek it a little.  So here's my question how do y'all budget your income-do you use spreadsheets, the enveleope system (which we're going to do for food and gas).  I'm just wondering what works for you.  Hope y'all have a fun weekend but as for us down here it looks like nothing but rain all weekend.

6 comments:

Catwoman said...

I guess I should go out and get that book. Our strategy has been spend money, hubby realizes we're in overdraft three days before pay day, stop spending, get paid, start again! ;)

Yeah, it's working out great for us, not! ;)

Melanie said...

I am an organized, spreadsheet budgeter with every penny accounted for but being a mom of 4, nothing can ever be completely planned for! I have heard great things about that book so now I guess I must go and get it! :) Liked your blog as I was passing by. Will definitley come back to read more! Have a great weekend!!!

MGM said...

I started out by recording every little penny spent and on what. I did this for a full year. I then developed a quarterly average via spreadsheet. In the meantime, Husband and I committed the first three years of our marriage to getting out of debt and living below our income, which was absolutely pitiful 10 yrs ago when we first got married. Probably close to poverty level. But we still lived cheap and paid off thousands of dollars of debt. We never borrowed money since we got married, including not borrowing money for our wedding. Everything is paid cash, including cars, and the only exception is our mortgage. Over the years our saving account grows and grows and grows because we simply don't spend and don't feel the need to buy even more and bigger than we can afford. We don't pay ANYBODY interest or finance charges except our home lender. We don't budget anymore, we simply live like I described. Everything extra goes into savings, including raises, bonuses, gifts, etc. until we decide it is worth spending it on something we really want or need. It really accumulates in time, especially if you also invest. Enough to pay cash for a nice car or put 20% down on a nice home. I think we actually save MORE this way than if we decided on a number or percentage to save and then felt free to spend anything else.

Janne said...

I think I need to get this book as well.

slackermommy said...

No spreadsheets but I do all my banking and paying bills online. I keep us on budget by putting a specified amount of cash each month in a bowl. We use it for gas, eating out and entertainment. When it's gone it's gone. Most of the time we make to the end of the month. Sometimes we don't.

Jesse said...

Well I've started reading the book again and I'm really inspired to not live in debt and to really budget ourselves and live below our means. I know living below our means will be the hardest but hopefully after a few months we'll be used to it.