I’m working on the big “B” word-our budget

The weather is just awesome here in South Florida! It is 52 degrees and we aren’t running our air conditioner again. That helps the electricity bill out for sure.

Speaking of electricity bills, I sat down and did our budget today. When we have zero credit card payments being made and just the basics really, why are we having such a hard time getting by? The only thing I can think of is because we have been behind for so long we have not been able to catch up. Top that with budgeting around my husbands pay that has been so sporadic-it has really screwed us up.

This month we are caught up on everything except our car payment. That is the only thing that is past due. I will be able to pay that this week and then we will be 100% caught up. The only thing that has not been paid is the lawyer and we owe him $100 by the end of this month.

Since health insurance payments are no longer getting taken out of my check every week, I am bringing home a little more income each pay period. What we have decided to do is budget around my income only for now and see where we stand. Once my husband starts getting paid steadily or finds a steady part-time job at night, we can start adding his pay into the budget. I tried figuring out how to budget using his income and it is just so darn hard.

They say to get a “guesstimate” for people with fluctuating income or for people that work off commission, total your monthly income for the past 12 months and divide it by 12. You will get an idea of your income. I don’t want to have a guesstimate-I want to know what I have to work with every month so for now-we will need to make due with my income and and if we can do it-than his income will be our extra for savings. At least for now. If anyone knows a better way-please let me know.

The hardest thing I am finding sticking to a budget is: FOOD. I can’t seem to stick with a budget for food. What I am aiming for is starting next week-taking $50 out for groceries and only spend $50. If I know we only have that-I will make it last. I think we will need to be creative but it can be done.

The 2nd thing that is just way too much is our rent. I have been all over Craigslist and the paper and I can now find something in our area around $300 cheaper a month-some even cheaper. We only have 4 more months left on our lease so once that is up-we are outta here.

Other than that-I can’t negotiate our electricity or water but I can get back on the phone with all of our other utility companies like cable and cellphone providers and see if we can knock it down somewhere-somehow. I am on a mission to lower my bills and get on track.

Just for the heck of it-I posted my budget here for this month. As you can see-I should end up with about $6 left over for the month. Again-this is just counting my income not my husbands. I plan on lowering everything red and our food budget so we can actually start saving.

I usually use Excel but decided to try this that I found on Dave Ramsey’s web site. If you want to try it-it is free-here is the link to the Gazelle Budget Lite.

***Apparently when I went to save this-it reminded me that I didn’t have a “zero based budget”-which is a reminder that every dollar should be accounted for. So naturally, I would take that $6 I have left over and put it towards savings.*** Remember, this is just my income-naturally when my husband gets paid we have more left over but this is how I am doing it for now.