Pages and Pages of Budgeting Goodness or... Getting Used to Paying Cash
>> Monday, June 23, 2008
Our assignment from our FPU class for this week is to do our complete budget. This is pages and pages of info. This includes our consumer equity sheet (painful to do as our home lost about $20k in the past year!), listing our income sources and estimating our self employment income as close as I can, figuring our lump sum payment planning (for those things that aren't paid monthly), a 3 page cash flow plan and percentages of what we pay vs. income.
Whew! That's a lot of numbers!
We're also going to try the envelope system for things like groceries, haircuts, "fun money" and clothes. That's gonna take some getting used to...
This morning I went and pulled cash out of the bank for groceries. I was writing down the amount I was spending as we went along so I didn't go over my budget. I even skipped things on my list that I figured weren't absolutely necessary.
And came in under my budget. Woo-Hoo!
ButI gotta tell you, the habit of swiping the debit card is pretty thoroughly ingrained in my system... Because that's what I did! Luckily I was able to cancel it out before the total was complete and pay with the cash I had.
Getting out of the plastic habit (of the debit card!) is going to be tricky. One thing I did notice, though... I know how much I spent on groceries today. Usually I don't because I just swipe the card and don't look at the screen.
2 comments:
We do the envelope system, have for a couple years. It helps us plan the weeks, and save for what we want to do when Hunter comes. It was hard at first, but it works really well for us.
and because of that you will also know what you paid for a gallon of milk and a pound of sausage. I have paid much more attention to the details of the finances since doing Dave.
And now as I scope out all the fun die cut toys, I'm paying close attention to their prices so I can stay within budget [even though I really want the $549 one]
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