Being Bossy!

As of Sunday Josh and I officially have a BUDGET!! Scary word huh?! We are both very excited about this! When we first got married I didn't understand why we didn't have an emergency fund of $5,000-$10,000 in the bank...I thought it was just there! So, as we began our lives together we began thinking af ways to save money...for emergency, taxes, vacation and so on.

First, we tried the 'cash only' approach because we knew we spent less that way. In addition, any time someone handed us a $5 back in change it automatically went into a savings envelope. Very quickly (about 2-3 weeks) we had over $60! We were so excited!

Second, when we moved to Jacksonville we decided to do our own "round up" program. Anytime we used the debit card we rounded up to the next dollar in the register. This also worked well...but it was hard to keep up with what was left over. Also, at the end of EVERY pay period (every 2 weeks) we would zero out the register and start with our new check...the leftover went to savings. This also worked well and we used it, well the zero out part, until last week.

NOW....Some good friends of our here in TX let us borrow to FPU kit. (Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey) It is WONDERFUL! We sat down and listened to the cds and did a budget. We started by writing down EVERY bill that was paid monthly and how much each one was. Then we budgeted in food....for us we only need $50/week that includes toiletries...we harldy ever spend more than that! Then calculated in gas. Now, with what was left we decided how we wanted to split it up for savings...Emergency, car tags, car repair, vacation, clothes, furniture, taxes and so on. We made a spread sheet to keep up with each catergory and we put a little in each one every month. Also, for groceries and 'play' money....we use cash becase it is harder to spend. Once it is gone...it is gone, unless you take it out of another cash category...but you can't replace what you take unless you replace with money from another category.

The key lesson is to tell your money what to do!!! Leave yourself a little cushion in the bank....but Once we budgeted everything out there is nothing in our bank accout because it ALL has a place to go! I told it what to do. We have the cushion there but it is not in our register. It feels amazing to have a GOOD strategy! We are so ready to see the results! I would highly recommend this to EVERYONE who wants financial peace!

We are so pumped about this and I couldn't help but share! ENJOY!

PS if you don't want to go buy it...check you library or give me a call and I will walk you through he basics!