If you’ve been around this space for a while you know we live by a budget. Bryan does all the monthly work and I try to keep us on track each month. (Haha, and by try I mean I help him by trying to pay attention to spend.) He tries to track spend halfway through the month so we know what we’ve got left. Last week he was working on tracking and sent me a summary email. The message included notes about categories that we had used up and how to deal with checks that are cashed months later. It was riveting for him to write and me to read.
“See that food is busted. Your dinner Thursday will have to come out of another category. It’s pretty much Abees that killed us this time. We need to stay out of those places that have waiters and waitresses.” Good call, sorry to those who serve food. It’s not worth our spend at this point in our life. We can make food that tastes just as well if not better. And we pay you more.
He signed his name and included a new signature.
Husband, Family Financial Tracker, Dish Washer, Lunch Maker, Dream Killer.
My husband is a funny guy. If you can’t laugh with him you’ll cry about all the dreams that he’s killed. 😉
In all seriousness, budgeting has saved our life. We spent a few years throwing away a lot of money on food and fun. At the end of the year we didn’t have anything to show for all the money we’d lost. Yet, we had all these goals for big items that we wanted to buy and felt like we couldn’t because somehow we didn’t have any money. So we started following Dave Ramsey’s plan and we’re in control of our money! It takes away the stress of finances. (Ok, for the most part. It can still be a little stressful when we want something and are putting our money elsewhere.) If we’ve learned anything about marriage, it is to remove as many stressful obstacles as possible.
I need you to become my money BFF. I want to do Dave Ramsey, but don’t know where to start!
I can be that! 🙂 We took a class through our church. I highly recommend that route if you have something available in your area. Dave has some good books that help get you motivated and on-board with his approach. I’m going to send you my favorite one!
I love Dave Ramsey. We have been working towards being debt fee and should be by next Spring! I am the dream crusher in my house, but at the same time I am the dreamer…so I have to tell myself no even when my husband says yes (he always says yes.). Eating out can definetely be a budget buster. We just recentley added a small purchase and large purchase to our budget. So we know we can get one item on the small list and when we meet certain goals we can get an item off the large list. It has helped us stay on track. Those $5-$10 items can add up!
That’s so awesome! Good job on your journey! The painful no’s are so worth it when you become debt free!! That’s a good idea to build in some fun into your budget. It can be very draining sometimes. I often feel like we don’t have any money and want to get all whiny about the budget. In reality, it’s just that I don’t have money to blow on random things. It makes more sense to budget, even if I want to be irresponsible sometimes. 🙂