Blogging Away Debt

This week, I have officially declared a No Spend Week!

I get paid on Friday and, although it’s a 3-paycheck month (woohoo!!!), I’m really trying to tighten the purse-strings, in general. Also, the recent A/C outage made it painfully clear how close to the edge we’re living in terms of our finances and I am really craving the financial security of having a little Emergency Fund.

I just got back into town after being gone at a work conference. Luckily, all my major expenses were paid by work (lodging, transportation, conference fees, and breakfast/lunch were provided by the conference). But I still had to pay for my own dinners for 3 nights in a row and though I kept my spending pretty minimal, I was really hoping/trying to cut my eating out budget this month. Being gone and forced to eat out for 3 nights (plus airport lunches during travel days) puts a wrench in that whole plan.

Thus…..the impetus for a No Spend Week.

No Spend Week Rules

I am allowed to spend money to pay for our normal bills (e.g., electricity, water, etc).

I am also allowed to spend money to pay for our scheduled debts (e.g., our due dates are this week for the IRS, 1 credit card, and Navient).

I am allowed to spend money for required transportation-related expenses (e.g., I’m almost out of gasoline and will need to refill before the week is up).

I am NOT allowed to spend money on anything else. Period.

That’s easier said than done. Especially given that I’ve been out of town for 4 days now, and we could desperately use a trip to the grocery store. Even so, we have a lot of food in our pantry and freezer and I know that if I get creative I can piece together some yummy meals for the family.

Looking Ahead

This month is projected to be pretty good on the financial front. Not only have we gotten some of our spending in check, but we should even be able to save up a decent amount for an EF. The third paycheck certainly helps, too, but I’ve got specific plans for it.

I put together a budget for the immediate future/moving forward. I know it’s desperately overdue. But I’ll leave you in suspense for another day (or two) and just tell you to check back. It will be up soon!

~Ashley

Hope’s Fall, 2018 Budget

by Hope

I believe…and I say that cautiously that I covered all our regular monthly expenses in this budget. And that I can stick to it through this fall.

Tell me what I’ve forgotten…

Description	Monthly Budget
Rent	$650
Groceries	food stamps ($600)
Health Insurance	medicaid ($305)
Kids Activities	$250
Auto (gas & maintenance)	$300
Utilities (gas, electric, water, trash)	$290
Auto/Rent Insurance	$268 (Sea Cadet pays $100 of this each month)
Car Payment	$400
Misc - Entertainment/Clothing	$150
Life Insurance	$23
Total Personal	$2,330
Business Expenses
Cell phones	$286
Internet	$65
Annual Software Costs (Microsoft Office, Dropbox, Adobe)	$37
Total Business	$388
Total Monthly Costs	$2,718

Here are my thoughts with this budget:

The twins’ birthday is in October. I typically budget $50 for each child’s birthday + dinner out. I didn’t include it in the budget as I already have their presents and will use part of our entertainment money for the meal out.
Christmas…no idea. But right now, debt payoff is #1. I will revisit this in October when I’m planning to revisit the budget.
Kid’s Activities – I know this is still high. And we are not spending anywhere close to that right now. But I want to build some cushion. Anything not spent will be saved, designated as kids.
Same thing with car/maintenance. We don’t spend near that, but I don’t want to be caught unprepared. Whatever is not spent will be saved.
I broke out the costs covered by my business account just to make it a full representation of our monthly costs. I am still working on lowering our cell phone bill.
We are planning to go back to Texas for Thanksgiving. The only real cost will be gas money to get there and back. And my dad will help some with that, so right now I haven’t broken it out at all, but I may in October as it gets closer.

Because I have the $1,110 EF, I have not budgeted any additional savings right now. My goal is to get out of debt! My next goal is to put a preliminary plan together for all debts with anticipated pay off debts, a all encompassing plan as you have it. But I will probably continue with my baby step plans that have worked so well for me this past year.

All extra monies, because my income varies so much, will go to debt.

Give me your feedback, be brutal. What have I forgotten? Are there any other line items I should include that even if we don’t spend, we are designating money towards them?