Budget!!!

Drum roll please............... I have finally created what I think is a working budget!

Now sticking to it will be the hardest part. ( Don't look at me that way. I like to shop as much as you do.) (oh and I also like to stock up on items. I have this horrible habit of buying things when I'm only halfway out of the other package/bottle/case/barrel/trailer load that I have at home. Seriously, if a snowstorm or an atomic bomb happened and they closed all the stores for a month, a girl should be prepared. Not that a snowstorm would happen in August but where I live, it's ALWAYS a possibility folks)
Whew. That was a long side note there.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Here is the budget that I've created. The first column is what I've allotted myself per month to spend, and the second one is a weekly breakdown of what I will spend in each area. If this works I should get an award.

Weekly Bills

Eating Out	$60.00	$15.00
Entertainment	$60.00	$15.00
Gas	$150.00	$37.00
Groceries	$300.00	$75.00
Orion	$75.00	$12.00
Misc.	$50.00
(Unexpected expense)
Household expenses:	$50.00
				Total:	$745.00
				Overbudget:
				Savings:

Now this is a just the weekly bills section of my budget. I didn't include monthly bills, since those are not part of this experiment.  Although in that section I did include a personal allotment of money that my husband and I can spend on whatever we want per month. When it's gone, IT'S GONE!!! ( just a little tip for you gals who might overspend a little- ok a LOT while shopping, this is a great way to get it in check).

The unexpected expense area is where I will add something we didn't plan for...a FLAT TIRE, or something of that nature. I didn't budget it because unexpected means.....WEll, unexpected!
Household expenses include anything from cleaning products, personal care products, to things like mulch or sprinklers for outside.

Keep in mind that these are the MAX totals of what we should spend in each area per month. The goal is still to keep it as under budget as possible.
At the end of this month I'll fill in what we actually spent in each areas, and then see if we went over budget or had any savings!

What do you guys think? Is this budget realistic or to over the top? What kind of budget to YOU have?


***Went to the commissary yesterday......$13 over-budget! So that's $13 LESS that I get to spend next week. However, (and no, I'm not giving myself an excuse, this IS legitimate!) there were some sales on things we use on a regular basis that were 50% or better discounts, so I did get a few items not on my list. This being on a budget thing isn't going to be easy.....but POSSIBLE!***

60 day challenge: Part two!

Today is August 7th....which means that the first part of my own little 60 day challenge has come to an end! Let me just tell you.....the Horrors!!! You may honestly think you are being completely frugal with your money, but until you actually break things down and add up all expenses, there is no way you can actually know the beating your wallet is taking.
If you haven't taken part in this challenge with me over the past 30 days......get yo butt in gear and do it! I'm excited to see how much money I will have saved by this time NEXT month, but for now, the dreaded moment of truth. *GULPS* (Thankfully, my husband didn't kill me....He was as shocked as I am that we had actually spent this whopping amount of money IN JUST 30 DAYS.) I'm tellin ya, $20 here and there ADDS UP.

Here is a breakdown of what we spent in each area.


Groceries: $512.57   (for two people...WHATT!??)

Gas:  $192.02

Eating Out:  $215.51

Entertainment: $109.99

Shopping: $387.50

Orion: $237.07 ( We did have a vet bill, plus a fence to patch where he and the neighbors dog tore a hole through it, and those two totaled up to $150.00)

Household Items: $115.77

Misc. $101.84


Now, keeping in mind that these amounts don't include monthly bills, of which we have 6, (and two more that we will be adding next month) plus tithe, I'm thinking WE HAVE NO MONEY LEFT! (exaggeration, obviously, but you get my point.) Deployment money is pretty good, but it doesn't last forever when you spend it away. So, here is the total of money that we spent last month.

$1,872.27. Don't judge, I bet you spend just as much without realizing it.

So, the lowdown is that next month, I am going to cut that amount in half by at least 50%. I've been working on a master budget, and I will hopefully get that posted within the next few days so you can see how much I am allotting myself per area. that way, I can keep myself accountable, and give you guys an idea of what a realistic budget might look like for someone on a regular income.

What do you guys think? Have any of you ever given budgeting a shot?


****FYI, I've been budgeting since the second or third month of our marriage, but as my job has recently taken a new turn and put me in charge of money matters, I decided to take on some new approaches to budgeting and try and re-work a few things in hope of getting better at my job. ***

60 day challenge

I know it's been forever since I blogged! Funny thing is, I'm actually PAID to work on a blog, yet I NEVER post on my personal blog. I need to get better at this stuff!

Well, here's to kicking old habits and starting new ones. I am giving myself a 60 day challenge! And, may I invite anyone who dares to try it with me!

You have heard of the amazing Kendi Everyday, who has a 30x30 remix haven't you? Well, go check it out, particularly if you love fashion and have a problem controlling what you spend on it, or if you just want to see how creative you can get!

 Her blog inspired me to come up with this 60 day challenge. Only it's not fashion, it's FOOD! And frugal living of course.

Here is the basic idea. Keep track of how much I spend in the first 30 days, (starting yesterday) by saving ALL reciepts. I'm pretty sure I live frugally now, but what if I am spending money on things that are not necessary? At the end of the first 30 days, I will add them all up to see how much money it cost me, my husband, and our little dog to live for one month.

Then, the real challenge is going to be the next 30 days. I am going to attempt to cut the price that it cost us to live the FIRST 30 days by at LEAST 50%. I'm going to give myself a grocery budget, gas budget, and an "entertainment" budget, which will include things like eating out, shopping, ect.
I'm going to post daily blogs with a breakdown of each meal and a total cost for it. By doing this, it will help to keep me accountable for sticking to my challenge.

The main reasons I'm doing this?

1. To prove that you CAN live frugally, even in today's economy.
2. To prove that you can live on less than what you think you can.
3. To save money by realizing the unnessesary things I spend it on.
4. To experiment with ideas for a running series for my position as editor for the money sub-blog at Allwomenstalk.com ( just in case you are a die-hard fan and would love to stalk me, you can follow me  here)
5. To give all of you guys ideas and ways to save $$$ for your own budgets.


Here are a few disclaimers. I am NOT including monthly bills, like phone bills, car payment ect.
I may offer a few tips that I've implemented in order to cut back on those expenses in the past, but for this challenge, monthly bills are not included. For the first part of the 60 day challenge, I probably won't post every.single.day. since the main idea is just to observe spending habits.
As far as rules for the second part of the challenge, here is what I'm limiting myself to.

1. I'm not going to set a budget for anything until I have a total for what I spent in the first 30 days.
2. After I DO set a budget, if I go over it in any area one week, I will subtract that total from the next weeks budget.
3. Things that I already have on hand will not count towards my budget.
4. I AM including household products, paper products, personal care products, and dog food as a part of this budget.
5. Any traveling that we do ( more than one hour away from home) will not count towards the budget.
6. I don't have any children....yet.....so if you want to attempt this challenge yourself, and you do have babes of your own, be realistic and add wiggle room.
7. During this challenge, anything that we spend money on that is something we couldn't avoid, or is not something we do on a regular basis will not count. I may include them in a breakdown, just so you can see a complete list, but I'll subtract them from the total budget of the month. For example, next week we have to buy a new tire for our car because ours got a leak. This is not something we normally buy every week, so it doesn't count. Also, my birthday is next week. Birthdays don't occur each week either, so whatever we spend on my birthday won't count.


I think that's about it! Get the basic idea? I hope some of you will join me on this challenge! I don't think it's going to be easy, but I think it will be rewarding.

Well......here goes!

Why I Had To Air My House Out Two Times Today.

OH. MY. FREAKIN. WORD. 

I have got to be the biggest idiot in the entire world. Seriously? yep, pretty sure. I had to air out my house two times today. Wanna know why? Keep reading as I share my humiliation for the world.

Being the bright, perfect, always-under-control wife that I am, I totally forgot to make tea for lunch today. Normally, thats fine ( we just drink something else) however, today it WASN'T ok because we don't have anything else to drink. Sooooo I hurry up and throw some tea in the microwave while Titus (my husband) is dishing out the soup. I'm busy putting some sugar in the pitcher when I start to smell this HORRIBLE smell......it was like burning hair or something. Well I asked Titus if he could smell it too and he said yea but it was probably just the soup he dribbled on the stove. So I go over to look, because we have gas burners and I though maybe some of the soup leaked into the little holes where the flame comes out.

There's a drop of soup the size of a pin head.

Meanwhile the smell has gotten worse but I decided maybe our neighbors were burning cake or something and go about making my tea. I open the microwave and IT happens. BAM with the force of 1000 armed men. I start to gag and then I start to cry and then I start to fume. So, here I am gagging, crying and fuming. Titus is about to have a panic attack wondering what is wrong with me ( ok, maybe not but it sounded good). 

What was wrong you want to know? Well, I already told you! I put some tea in the microwave. DUH. However, that was ALL I put in there. Yes, I forgot the water. It was ONLY the tea bags. 

( oh stop looking so angelic, like you've NEVER done anything that retarded before? ok, maybe not that retarded.)

The whole microwave was smoking and by now it smelled more like burning flesh than burning hair. I grabbed the jar and carried the whole thing to the sink and set it down. Well, no sooner does the jar make contact with the cold water than it just cracks and falls to pieces right there in my sink. How rude! 

 Now let me explain the crying part. If you were on a budget and you just wasted a whole gallon of tea, you would be crying too. Tea is expensive these days hun.

The worst part of this whole catastrophe? I just spent the entire morning cleaning my house with all the doors and windows open to let in the glorious fall air while burning candles and spraying all sorts of yummy-make-you-want-to-eat-them air fresheners so the house would smell great. Which, it did until I learned how to burn tea. Um, that was not one of the projects on my to-do list today.

So, now my house is getting aired out and "freshened" for the second time today. No, I don't think it's overkill.  (I may be OCD, but I have got to get these urges under control. Pray for me)

The moral of this story is: 

1. AWAYS use water when you make tea. ( it doesn't work the same way without it. Substitute if you have to)

2. Never forget to make sweet tea.

3. Keep lots of candles in the house. (if you burn the tea, you will need them)

Now if you want to know the reason why I posted this particular blog as my very first blog eva, it's simple really. So everyone can laugh at me and make sarcastic comments about burning tea everytime they see me from now on till the day I die.