Smoochiefrog is blogging about budgeting. Ugh, you say.
I don't see budgets like that. I think of them more like a dare. "I dare you to stay within this budget for food this month!". If I'm dared, I'll make it. If I just have good intentions, I won't.
She has some great links to Dave Ramsey's budget pages, and if you've never sat down and figured out how much you're actually spending, and how much you should spend, you really should. It can mean the difference between falling further and further behind every year and actually accumulating some net worth.
Anyway, I was thinking about what I find difficult about budgets. It's not actually the monthly amounts, like groceries. It's the yearly amounts, like clothing. If I have $600 a year for clothes, for instance, and it's only February, it's difficult. I don't find it practical to divide that $600 into 12, and make it $50 a month, because realistically you don't go shopping for clothes 12 times. You go maybe 3 times, and spend a lot more than $50 each time.
What do you find hard about budgets? Can you stick to them? April is beginning tomorrow so it's a great time to start! How much will you spend this month on groceries, eating out, entertainment, health & beauty, etc.?
I'm going to write my numbers here for posterity, and then at the end of April I'll report.
Food: $600
Eating out: $300 (I know that's way too much, but this is our weakness, and I'm trying to be realistic. This includes all those coffees, etc. that my husband buys)
Entertainment: $45
Health & Beauty: $80 (I'm due for a haircut, as is one of my daughters, and we're low on shampoo and other stuff.)
Okay, there you go. Let's see if I make it!Labels: budget, saving, spending |
Stumble It!
Oh, we love to eat out. Sadly it is totally out of laziness. Who wants to cook and do dishes on the weekend? I'm working on doing more crock pot recipies for the weekend to cut down on that. And, I am sad to say that health and beauty don't even make it into our budget at all! My hair can testify to that. Oh...one day! All the "extravagant" things I will be able to do...like get my hair cut! :) We are proud to say, however, that we do not use credit cards! We are working on our debt, but it is mostly student loans and such. Dave Ramsey would be proud of us for that at least!