Good News!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Good News!
2
Mon, 05-15-2006 - 9:01am

This might not be great news for everybody but I'm pretty happy about it. DH and I sat down with all of our spending records (DH does a great job with Quicken) and made a budget that includes pretty much everything except for super luxuries. It ends up that we have a little over $100 available every week. I have to buy our food and toiletries out of that money . . . and of course anything extra that hits (dr's appointments, meds, etc.) but we were both pleasantly surprised the money broke out the way it did. And we have a medical spending account that still has close to $1500 in it for this year so it will be a little while before medical expenses would even hit our budget ~ if they ever do this year.

I've also been playing The Grocery Game and plan on starting Angel Food Ministries next month (the first month it's available in my area) and have no doubt I can keep our grocery bill well under $400/month ~ and much closer to $250. Oh ~ these budget #s include our children's preschool tuition and they aren't in school the next 2 months so we have a couple of months to make sure the budget truly works and we haven't overlooked anything.

The budget also doesn't include any income from my business. Right now I'm working on replenishing our EF with my company's money (it's around $520 right now). I hope to finish that in the next couple of months so we'll have that money available in the Fall. The Fall through Christmas is always super busy for my business so I'm sure I'll have alot of money to contribute.

The only downside is that we do owe our church our tithing money. We don't see it as a downside of course but we have to figure out where to get $750 by the end of the year. We have a few places in our budget targeted that we think we can skimp here and there and get the amount paid off.

AND . . . we're so excited because DH will get a bonus at the end of the year as well as a raise at the beginning of next year. So we should be able to start paying down debt at the beginning of the year. It will be slow at first since we won't have very much available to snowflake but we'll actually be doing it!




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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2005
Mon, 05-15-2006 - 9:41am

Mary, that is GREAT news!!!

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Mon, 05-15-2006 - 9:47am

Thanks Aravis! Yes ~ we have the children's birthdays and Christmas budgeted. Well, I guess I should say that we have a plan for Christmas gifts. I'm going to make artwork for most of the people on our list and I'll also contribute some of my company's income (I make abot 75% of my year's income between September and December) to the cause. We were able to pull off Christmas last year without debt and I'm almost positive we can do the same this year.

The other exciting thing I forgot to post in my original thread is that DH is totally on board with all of this now. He was before but now he's "into it" and coming up with ways to save money too! Now if I could just get my children to clothes the doors behind them, turn off lights and stop wasting food! LOL!




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"Once we discover how to appreciate the timeless values in our daily experiences, we can enjoy the best things in life."

Harry Hepner


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