STOP right now. Where are your finances taking you? What is the road ahead for you? Will you have to work for the rest of your life? Will you be prepared for Retirement? Do you see yourself getting ahead financially? Financial Freedom is just ahead. Are you willing to take the exit??
Get your pencils and notebooks out! For one month I challenged you to write down every expense. The truth is in the numbers! It’s time to make a BUDGET!! I know it is such a scary word. I remember it well. I did not want to BUDGE on what I was spending when we began our financial journey to becoming debt free, but what I did not realize is the FREEDOM that comes when you control your money versus your money controlling you!
Here is the way we began our budget. First what is the actual income for your household. If we do not learn to live on what we actually have right now, we will never have enough. Do not live on the next raise or what ifs. Add up the total of your expenses for the month and compare it to your income. If you are overspending—don’t worry now is the time to turn that around. If you spend every penny and break even, let’s work on savings.
When we first began our budget, we had to cut out quite a few of our expenses. Here are a few examples:
- Taking Bob’s shirts to the dry cleaner for 28 dollars—I ironed them myself until we were able to purchase No Iron Dress Shirts.
- Renting Blockbuster videos. Now is that aging us or what? That saved us a whopping 18 dollars a week.
- Less eating out and more shopping sale items at the store. That saved us 250 dollars a month.
- Buying greeting cards at the grocery store. I figured out I was spending 22 dollars on greetings cards at the grocery store every month. It was just so much easier to grab birthday cards or Mother’s day cards when I was at Smith’s. NEVER AGAIN. I will only buy greeting cards at The Dollar Store—50 cents each. I go monthly and buy all the cards I need for that month. For instance, May—Mother’s Day cards, Graduation cards, birthday cards, etc. So for my 4 to 5 cards I send out a month it is 2 dollars instead of 22 dollars. An immediate 20 dollar savings per month and over 200 dollars per year. And, the cards are just as nice and exactly the same as you get at the grocery store.
Just the few changes I mentioned (plus other changes I will tell about in future posts) saved us over 500 dollars a month. We put the 500 dollars every month towards our debt. Do you get the picture??? Our debt was getting smaller and smaller every month. We all tend to do things so quickly for convenience that small and simple changes will make a huge difference over time for all of us. Start looking at the little changes you can make that will make a huge difference as time moves on. Pennies do turn in to dollars!! Be creative! Put what you save from your budget directly to debt and watch your debt get smaller and smaller. Get going!! It’s easier than you think!!!
Next and this is HUGE! Housing should NEVER go higher than 30 percent of your monthly gross income. Bob and I tend to be super conservative so we never went over 20 percent. Here is the percentage Budget we used when making our Family Budget.
20 percent Housing
12 percent Bills and Debt
10 percent Tithing
10 percent Food
10 percent Insurance
5 percent Cars—we always paid cash for our cars or very small car payments (this also includes oil changes and maintenance).
5 percent Utilities
5 percent Utilities
5 percent Giving to others—birthday, Christmas, etc.
5 percent Personal Spending
5 percent Savings
5 percent Miscellaneous
4 percent Clothing
4 percent Recreation
After we figured out our budget for the month, we went to the bank and got cash. YES WE WERE A CASH ONLY FAMILY!!! We labeled all of our envelopes and put the cash inside each envelope. We went week to week because it was easier for us to track that way. At the beginning Bob and I met every Sunday to see how we were doing. I have to hand it to Bob—for decades he has read something about finances every single day—and now I do too. We wanted to not only be debt free but have savings and prepare for retirement. Now we only have one credit card that we pay off in FULL EVERY SINGLE MONTH! Yes, it took us awhile to get to that point but we did. It takes a lot of discipline but the more and more debt you pay off, the easier it is. And, you will be so excited as you see the debt diminish and your savings increase that you will do whatever it takes. You will be so excited and wish you had started earlier on this path!!
Now that we are debt free, we save 20 percent of our income and put 15 percent into our Retirement fund monthly. It is such a peaceful feeling knowing that when things come up you can rely on your savings instead of going in to debt. I promise it will add up and you will see such a huge difference. As months and years roll by, you will be surprised at how far you have come. It might hurt a little now to change our routines or habits, but it will become easier. You will love the FREEDOM IT BRINGS………..
Ways to SAVE on your BUDGET NOW!!!
Search for FREE entertainment
Stop Collecting and Start Selling
Buy Used
Drink more water—no more soft drinks
Buy generic
Make shopping lists
Wait before you buy. Let the instant gratification pass.
Plan creative dates.
Make your own gifts.
Buy greetings cards at the Dollar Store or make your own.
Repair clothing instead of tossing it out.
Don’t spend big money entertaining your children. Children want your time not stuff.
Clean out your closets.
Turn off the lights.
Give the gift of labor.
Do holiday shopping right after the holidays.
Stick to reliable, fuel-efficient cars.
Avoid the mall.
Cancel all magazine subscriptions.
Shop case lot sales and meat sales.
Eat breakfast.
Use leftovers.
Picture yourself debt free in 5 years or less.
Yummy Inexpensive Recipes
Chicken Pillows
Dice 4 cups cooked chicken
1 8 oz. cream cheese softened
4 Tbsp. butter softened
1 can sliced mushrooms
Mix above ingredients
put spoonful into 16 unrolled crescent rolls and roll up and pinch together
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes
Make a chicken broth to go over cooked pillows
Chicken broth:
1 cup water
1 chicken bouillon cube
boil together add flour stir until thickened
Chicken Casserole
2 cups cooked chicken
1 cup carrots cooked and drained
1 onion cooked with carrots and drained
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
Mix above ingredients and pour into 9x13 inch pan.
Make one box of Stove Top Stuffing and put over top of ingredients.
Cover with aluminum foil and Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour
Taco Soup
Brown 1 pound hamburger and drain. Cook with 1 chopped onion.
Put in large pot with the following ingredients.
16 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid
16 oz can kidney beans drained
16 oz. can corn with liquid
2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
Simmer for 45 minutes. Serve with Fritos and sour cream.
Chocolate Frosted Rice Krispies Bars
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
1 (6oz.) pkg. milk chocolate chip
1 (6oz.) pkg. butterscotch chips
Put sugar and syrup in pan and cook over moderate heat until it begins to bubble. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Add mixture to cereal and stir until blended. Put in 9x13 greased pan. In microwave melt chips together and stir. Spread over Rice Krispie mixture.
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