Our budget Dave Ramsey

Someone asked us about our debt snowball, budget plan etc. If you have read total money makeover this will make sense, if you haven't go get it!

It takes 3 months minimum to get a budget that even comes close to working so dont beat yourselves up. Our budget has evolved over time we have had a huge variance on our amoutns we set over just the past year. We have decided we are DONE with debt and we are as lean as we can get. We now value being free and clear more than our comforts and frivalities that we can add back later.

So the only frivalities we have in our budget is my gym membership which for health reasons is a necessity. We do not feel constrained or stressed, we are actually happier than we have ever been. We started out with alot other funds and as summer approaches we may re-visit having a tiny vacation fund and as the year progresses we will start a small christmas fund ---keeping in mind we got super intense in the fall08 and our christmas budget was $200 total.

We have cut out: xm, more expensive internet (we still have to have high speed for our work), home phone, all extras on the cell phones (Dh's work pays for most and we end up paying like $20 to have mine added on), and cable.

Envelope System All Cash Basis ($ listed per week):

$110 Household (this includes all food, household consumables, HBA, cleaners, lightbulbs toilet paper what have you) It was too much hassle to have it separated out IMO. The 10 actually goes to savings for our 'meat' fund and I put 100 in envelope.

When we started getting serious DH would work overtime and take side jobs. I was kind of let down since I am salary so I started looking in to ways to trim our household budget. I found I could cut out equivalent of a part time job from my budget by couponing among other things. So my budget for this is pretty low. I am working on getting it lower in the spring I had planned to be down to $85 and $10 but I have recently went green on cleaning products and some health beauty aids so that ups the cost a bit so for now I am just shooting to maintain this level.

People assume because I coupon that we must eat like crap, we dont! We eat almost exclusively whole grain, lots fruits veggies, I buy beef and hog from a farmer and chicken some organic some not when it goes on sale I buy ALOT. I used to buy organic milk but now I have found some cheaper ones that are BGH free so that is 'good enough' for now. I have slowly found subs for our budget busters. I cook, I dont use ton convenience foods, we rarely eat out. Anything like 'stopping for coffee' comes out of our spending money. I stockpile when things are cheap, plan weeks meals around veggies that are on sale when I can, we have learned to adapt to more bananas and apples and less raspberries and melons etc. I use dried beans, buy rice in bulk that isnt instant etc etc etc.

I also try to buy any 'kitchen items' out of this for instance I just had to replace my george foreman grill ( a must for me), a large pan, a large measuring bowl, and a collander. I went lean on grocery budget planning around mostly things I had and buying bare bones and managed to scrape buying these items out of grocery budget but if I couldnt have done it we would have used 'home improvement' budget.


$30 'spending money' We each get $15, this used to be significantly higher but we got more intense and cut it down from $30. I pack DH's lunch and coffee each morning and he has almost stopped going out to eat etc. For first time ever I see him saving his money when he wants something its amazing! I always pack my lunch and dont buy sodas etc so the $15 isnt as hard for me though I used to augment my clothing or entertainment money with spending money I would save up so that has been an adjustment.

$30 Clothes (separated by me, dh, DD) This also included at times diapers, wipes though alot times I bought that with grocery money. It also for DD pretty much includes everything for her whether its a new toy, shoes, etc. Yes this clothing budget is hard for me!!!! And I did get $400 last fall before I lowered my clothing money as I needed gym shoes, bras, etc so the $10 week is purely maintenance for me right now.

$10 Entertainment (we rarely do eating out but when we do sometimes I go from grocery if I have the extra, other times from entertainment. Depends on reason why too if I just dont feel like cooking then probably groceries but if we are 'going out' then entertainment --if that makes sense). We have gotten creative with things to do for entertainment that are cheap or free, we visit family more too. We may double this at summer time since there is more to do etc not sure yet.

$20 Charity. This is a source disagreement for DH and I. I would like to do more charity DH does not. Deal is once we are debt free I can tithe and do my charity soooooo right now I still do give a signficant amount to charity via my grocery fund to woman's shelter and food bank when I get good deals via my couponing hobby.

$5 Gifts. Last year we had alot weddings etc and I had to up this. Not expecting that this year. How $5 you ask? For instance, my birthday was in Jan we did $20 spending cap but DH had been saving his 'blow money' and added to this. We got our niece and nephew that live in town a small birthday gift. We just dont do alot gifts. For xmas I made alot 'food' gifts for family, we spent $100 on charity and included what we had done in lieu of gifts in the letter. DH and I did not exchange gifts this year but we had a blast buying and giving the gifts to charity, I didnt feel 'down' at all. DD got $50 spent on her from us and a significant amount for grandparents, I used that $50 and bought her a little tikes kitchen off of craisglist and clearance shopped like crazy--she actually got ALOT stuff too much with all grandparents added in there!

For house and car repairs we have a $50 fund that we keep for small this and that items. DH does most all of our repairs so we can keep it low. We used to do $50 week for each when we had some things we had to have worked on. Now if we have a large expense coming up (we had to buy new tires) we will budget for it and save additional. Or this week we had to buy part for exhaust fan in bathroom so whatever DH used out of the $50 we will bump back up to the $50 next week. This summer we have to buy gutters (not a want long story LOL) so we are figuring out how much that will cost and will start setting it aside bit by bit.

Ok that is probably more explanation than you wanted but that is where we are at and yes it is GAZELLE but it is great! Goodness this took forever to explain I hope someone finds it useful and you're not all thinking I'm nuts LOL!

Nicole & Jared
debt free date: Apr2010 or SOONER