Lisa and I are tightening our belts in 2009. Considering the current economic turmoil and the changes in our own financial environment over the last year, it's the responsible thing to do.
I downloaded the last two months of spending data from our bank and assigned each cost to a major category. Then I handed the computer over to Lisa and she performed all of the analytics (she knows her way around Excel!).
We are going to sit down today and establish a budget. At the end of each month, we will review our budget compared to our spending and set the next month's budget.
We have already purged some of our major non-essential bills (housecleaner, lawncare, internet service on cell phone, etc.). I have been taking my lunch to work and Lisa is going to make a weekly meal plan.
If you need a little kick in the pants to do the same, I would suggest reading "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. He takes the hard line, but the book has some really good principles.
I'm really excited that we are starting to tell our money where to go, instead of wondering where it went!
4th of July
11 years ago
4 comments:
Give me some money!
I'm working on in right now!
That's great! Sounds like you two have a good plan set up. The majority would rather whine, do nothing to solve it, and then asked to be bailed out.
Robert and I went through that the first couple of years in our marriage. It isn't always fun.... but it ends up blessing your marriage more than you think it would. Now we can look back and smile when we think of those days.
Brian and I love that book and with him being a financial planner he makes sure we live by it! It makes a huge difference!
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