Simple Budget

February 15, 2013 by

Simple Budget

 

Simple Budget

Have you ever noticed that all financial gurus have one thing in common that they recommend?  Guess which one thing.  A Budget!

Budgeting is key to keeping your finances under control and it’s by far one of the most hideous thing to do.  I personally dislike the budgeting forms that require you to budget out every single penny towards items such as clothing, future medical and so forth because that doesn’t happen each month.  I’ll budget for it when I need it.  If I did it every month we would have no money left to do anything with.  I follow a simple budget and let me show you how I do it.

What I do first is pay all of the bills currently due:

Paycheck +$2000
Less Tithe – 200
Less Mortgage -700 (Half of the mortgage)
Less Power – 200
Less Insurance – 200
Less Cable – 125
Less Baseball Registration -100

Total Remaining $475.00

This $475 has to get me through the next paycheck.  I have to buy groceries, gas and etc.  As you can see I personally don’t have the funds to save 10% to go toward my savings from the top of my paycheck.  So what I do instead is I take 10% off the remaining amount left and I budget from there, which makes it simple.

$475 Remaining
Less $48.00 for Savings
Less $100 for Gas
Less $150 for Food
Less $40 for Date Night
Less $40.00 for Kids Shoes (Kids need new shoes this week)
Less $25.00 for Dr. Appointment (There is a doctors appointment this week)
Less $50.00 for Blow Money

Oh Wow.. I have $22.00 left… I’ll use this extra amount and pay it towards one of my credit cards.

Balance is $0 (You must assign every dollar you have towards something)

The final thing I do is strive to spend less than the amount I budgeted for and if I can do that, I apply the saved amount towards something else.

This is what works for me.  I’d love to hear what works for you?

Simple Budget

 

Gina

Gina is a lifestyle & money blogger dedicated to helping women manage their homes and finances. She is a mother of 4 children which includes twins. When she's not chauffeuring her kids to school and their activities, she finds her sanity though this blog and through social media. Her journey would not succeed without remembering to put Faith first, Family second and Work third.
Filed Under: Money Management
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Comments

  1. Sandra @ The Sensible Mom says:
    February 16, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    Hi Gina! Thanks for sharing with us how you budget. I’m thinking about trying to do an all-cash budget type thing this year. I just have to choose a month and put it into my calendar. Although our credit cards are paid off, I do use them frequently, and I definitely agree that using credit cards makes it way easier to overspend.

    I’m going to talk to my husband about choosing a month to try an all-cash budget and see how do. :)