New Month New Budget - Youtube

 

Hi!

I have shared on Instagram live how we have been doing our budget but I finally made a video for the blog explaining it.

We had our budget on a spread sheet on the computer but I think this way is more effective because you are putting pen to paper and seems more real and grounding when you do.

I was listening to a finance podcast from the Dave Ramsey people the other day and it had some eye oppening statistics

39% of americans can’t cover a basic emergency like car repair, tires, etc and even less a big medical emergency… make sure you have an emergency saving account you add every month to, Dave Ramsey says $1,000 but lets be honest emergencies are more than that so make sure to have more but at least that amount is something.

78% live paycheck to paycheck even those making over $100,000. The government shutdown sent about 800,000 people struggling to feed their families! What this shows is we are over spending and should have at least 3 month basic necessities saved in our savings account.

We had a few things last year that took us out and we had to rely on credit cards (it could have been worse but thank you God we were some what prepared with savings) including a funeral, unexpected surgery, home repairs, etc and we have been making paying debt and getting our budget under control a priority.

Did you know that 70% of Americans do not have a focused plan for their income like budget, debt payment, and future planning?

Budgeting is crucial! I wish they taught it at schools… how to handle personal finances 101… that would be so helpful, but since they don’t I am sharing what has worked for us and hopefully it works for you too!

We are in a short term sacrifice and strict discipline of debt payment in order to win long term… here are a few other tips that might be helpful

* track where every dollar is going!!!

* one thing when you make your budget is keep in mind what is something, a little luxury, that brings you joy And allow yourself that (me is flowers and my hubby is a haircut in a barbershop… for someone else will be a weekly coffee or manicure, it doesn’t matter what it is) if you don’t include that trust me life will feel like it sucks!

* differentiate between a NEED and WANT

* Also changing your mindset to ” I get to…” I get to cook more at home and enjoy financial peace.

* meal plan and shop your freezer, fridge, pantry and get creative! use your left overs or freeze them, take lunch to work, and say “we have food at home” when your tempted to eat out

* learn to do without and do a “no shop month” only necessities so you become aware of your spending habits

* unplug all electronics and find out your state’s high electricity peak times to make sure you do laundry and stuff in low times.

* use the credit card like a debit card make sure to pay it off fully after every purchase.

* learn how to do it yourself… for example I make my own nails (what is something you are outsourcing that maybe you can do and save the $)

* don’t beat yourself up when you go over budget or eat out it is a learning process.

Watch the video in the link below

https://youtu.be/WeibbDHU3-4

If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will answer in the comments, on a future post, or make a video

Luz

Popular posts from this blog

our new obsession

Image
I know I wrote "our" new obsession but let's be honest for a minute it's more "my" new obsession... dried flower bookmarks! Yes, I'm back to my school aged arts and craft years and loving it... honestly anything that can keep mama from falling into a depression stage because it's the end of Summer in the Pacific North West and that means we live in Mordor.  What do you mean? Well California, Oregon, and Washington catch on fire. This means we live in a depressing dreary constant gray existence, surrounded by smoke, we sometimes pretend is a hot fog that smells and play Christmas music. Because it's the Pacific North West and winter is gray,  another dreary gray existance but less depressing? The jury is still out on that but at least you can feel the cool crisp air and fill your lungs of pine beautiful clean air. We have not seen the sun in days and when we do is a Red ball, the moon was so eerie red last night kind of bea
Read more

Triumph Muffins

Image
Simple pleasures are the last healthy refuge in a complex world. Oscar Wilde I try to infuse my life with beauty and simple pleasures as much as I can.  Like my previous post where I talked about flowers by my kitchen sink add a touch of beauty and bring pleasure to a mundane and sometimes dreaded task. I think the world is just to full of yuck, hate, separation, stress, worries, pain, etc. And our home should be a refuge. A place where we can rest, breathe, find solace. When we are at home our souls should be at rest, or as much as possible, I don't think we'll ever be at rest until we're united with God like St Augustine writes in his confessions  “ You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You". But you get my point. One of the ways I like to infuse my home with beauty and make it comfortable to be in is by trying to always have baked goods for snacks.  Baking is something I find infused with pleasure from the moment I put
Read more

Rose Cake and some things I have been pondering lately...

Image
Sunday was Mother's Day, oh what a complicated day.  So many women experience an incredible amount of emotions on that one day... the loss of a child, infertility, loss of a mother, oh so many things and triggers that can come up in this one day. My prayers go out to all women on this day, I've known the pain of infertility, of miscarriage, and of not having my own mother on this day. It can also bring up the attack society places on moms. The feeling of not enough, of seing motherhood as a waste of your talents, time, and the saddest one it being a burden.  But it is not, How magnificent it is that as women we get the gift to work hand in hand with God in creating and raising inmortal souls! As a mother your body has at some point held two souls inside of it at one time (or 3 if you had twins!) What a gift! Knowing that and how God gave you those little souls because He thinks you are the best person to raise them, with your shortcomings and flaws, with your gifts, and how we
Read more