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The Budget

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I have to apologize for not getting this post up sooner, we had a stomach bug ravage the house, and I have been behind ever since!

I have told you about our debt here and now it’s time to reveal our budget!  Honestly, I really don’t know how doable this budget is.  I know that we typically eat out a ton, but I am planning to cut that out completely for budget and health reasons.   I also have cut back on what we typically spend on groceries.  I think with some careful planning I can make that one work.    This projected income also does not reflect what we save in the 401k or HSA every month.

Projected income:  3800.00

Payments:

December budget
Mortgage850.00
Electricity (equal payment)192.00
Natural Gas (equal payment plan)44.00
Water/trash68.00
Internet95.00
Phones92.00
Amy student loan
(income based)
0.00
Hubby student loan (income based)25.00
Amy Student loans (income based)187.00
Hubby student loans (income based)124.00
Big credit card (27%)150.00
small credit card (7%)75.00
Appliance card (0%)175.00
Groceries300.00
Petrol150.00
Savings200.00
auto insurance150.00
Auto loan141.00
Personal spending (split between Hubby and I)80.00

If my math is right, that gives us about $700 to put into debt this month…..except for the fact that we are not done Christmas shopping!  I think that we should be able to finish all the holiday shopping for about $200, which leaves us with some money to put towards debt.

After the Christmas season (possibly before), I will be looking into cheaper phone and internet plans as well as cheaper auto insurance.   Thoughts?

 

 


23 Comments

  • Reply Walnut |

    Have you tracked your spending before to know exactly where you are spending every penny? I’m a little concerned that your budget is just some idealist numbers thrown against a wall.

    From my own experience, you’re not going to be successful with cutting all eating out AND reducing your grocery budget in the first month. You’re best off concentrating on one or the other. Once you get into the habit of eating the majority of your meals at home, then you’ll have more success being crafty at reducing your grocery budget.

    • Reply Walnut |

      I just noticed the $200 savings line item. Is this money you are tucking aside to build up an emergency fund or is it more of a savings account for irregular expenses? What is the balance in the savings account? How much are you hoping to save up? (Btw, you can answer this in a future post, since I assume there’s a lot you’d like to chat about on this topic.)

  • Reply Teri |

    Petrol? Do you live in the UK by chance?
    Agree, $300 seems….a bit low but if you’re at home and planning on doing cooking from scratch, etc. it would be do-able. Except…..Christmas cooking or Holiday meals? Are those included? Good job for first budget!

    • Reply Amy |

      Nope not in the UK…just raised with a great granny that hated the word gas! lol
      As far as cooking at home, I agree that typically this would be a hard budget, but I am determined to make it work for this month! I have quite a bit of food storage (wow that totally is another hint to where I live!) and would like to work through some of it.

  • Reply Shauna |

    I would like to second Walnuts thoughts on cutting both your eating out and grocery budget. I think breaking the habit of eating out is the hardest, and will make the biggest impact financially and health wise. If you can tackle that the other will come over time.

    Without going back to look at the balances on the credit cards it’s harder to see how your splitting out your debt repayment. Like are those all minimums listed in your budget, or do those numbers also include paying off larger amounts of one or more cards.

    It does look like you have a great starting point to go from!!

    • Reply Amy |

      Those items were all the minimums except the appliance card. I really want to get it paid off before the 0% interest is up, and have divided it up accordingly.

  • Reply C@thesingledollar |

    I also wondered about the “petrol”!

    Like Walnut, I also think it’s a good idea to track your spending down to the penny for the next couple of months. The odds are that you will be very surprised at what you’re spending on.

    Is your husband also really committed to the new food plan? It’s going to be somewhere between “hard” and “impossible” to stick to this if he’s not.

    Lastly, a tip: When I was paying off debt, I found that it really helped to allocate debt payments *first.* Instead of “whatever’s left over I’ll put on debt.” It’s too easy to slide into “well maybe a slightly smaller debt payment this month….” and buy the whatever-it-is. I’d pick a large but achievable number — sounds like maybe $500/month is appropriate to start with — and START with that, if I were you. If your budget is running monthly, then the first thing you do, at the same time you pay your rent, is pay your $500 towards debt. That way the $$ isn’t sitting in your bank account practically begging to be spent.

    • Reply Amy |

      I agree with tracking spending to the penny would be helpful for the next few months! However, I believe that I will start in January because the Christmas season has a lot of odd costs associated with it, like extra petrol for visiting family, special foods, etc.

      • Reply Walnut |

        No time like the present to start tracking. Every month will have it’s special variety of one off expenses.

        • Reply Amy |

          You’re right! I know it needs done, but it seems like such an onerous task. Thanks for keeping me on task…I’ll start now!

  • Reply Maureen |

    Thanks for sharing the budget. It helps to paint the entire picture. A few things in the budget stand out to me, as already indicated in your post and others’ comments. The first is car insurance and internet seem really high, especially if you are driving an older car. Is the $150 in car insurance only for one car? Does Internet include cable or is that just internet?

    IMHO the “big CC” at 27% has to be the first to go. Pay the minimum on the lower bills, enough on the furniture loan to make sure you are covering how much you need to pay it off each month before 0% expires and everything else goes to the big CC.

    Have you accounted for irregular expenses in the budget? Annual home maintenance that comes up? car repairs?, etc. Maybe that is what the $200 is for.

    • Reply Amy |

      Our auto insurance is for two vehivles…and unfortunately hubby has a poor driving record. This makes our insurance higher than it would be otherwise. I do have a plan for irregular expenses, ir is part of the $200 of savings each month. I will chat about it in my next post.

      • Reply Greetje54 |

        Hey Amy,
        in an earlier post you say you can’t work “because driving is a bad idea” with your eye-issue. That makes me wonder why you own 2 cars ?

  • Reply Laura |

    Your internet seems high but I know sometimes that also comes with living in a rural area.
    It will be very difficult from going to eating out a ton to not eating out at all, especially if you are cutting groceries at the same time. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t make the $300.
    Is this the first time you’ve done a budget? I echo everyone who said track expenses first. When I first started tracking I was surprised to find spending in some categories higher then I thought, and some lower.

  • Reply dh |

    You really need to post the entire amount you owe.

    27% is insane. Can you get a better rate elsewhere, maybe on a new card?

    I asked in your first post (very nicely) whether you would be able to work part time, even if your health issues prevent you from working full time, but that post was never published.

    • Reply Jenna |

      dh before suggesting that Amy hasn’t covered all her details – perhaps you should read all the information she has provided us with. In her “hello there” post November 25th she identified she does make side income babysitting and by renting out a room in their home. She also wasn’t against working outside the home but does have some medical issues.
      In her “the debt” post of November 28th – she provided the detail you were asking for regarding amounts and percentages.

  • Reply dh |

    Since you seem serious about tackling your debt, I think it would be very beneficial to you to post the total amounts you owe for every debt, and not just the interest rates and monthly payments. There are a lot of savvy posters here who have either gone through it themselves, or are going through it now. The more you disclose, the better advice you will get.

    It’s hard to get the total picture otherwise … that 27% debt is insane but maybe it’s a small amount you could knock out in a couple of months. We have NO idea of the total amounts, it would be good to have it all in one place: amount owed, interest rate, and monthly payment.

    Best of luck to you!

  • Reply Amber from Red Two Green |

    You should post how you keep your grocery budget at $300! Haha. I have seen lots of folks recently posting about their $200 or less grocery budget and honestly it blows my mind! In our house, its just me, hubby, and a toddler and its practically the hardest thing I’ve done to keep our grocery spending under $400. 🙂

So, what do you think ?