Friday, July 20, 2012

Finances

Ok, so here's another contrast from Dallas to Houston. If an apartment looks nice in Dallas--it's usually nice. If an apartment complex looks nice in Houston that means squat. We live in a kind of ghetto area. I'm at fault for that. I didn't research what this area is like, had one day to drive the 4 hours here find an apartment and drive 4 hours back. Most importantly, I didn't know what we could afford. I kept making these small mistakes and apologizing to Isaac and saying, "I'm sorry I don't know how what we can afford." Well, I got tired of saying that. So, I did something about it. There is nobody that wouldn't benefit from doing this system on some level!

Where did I go first? Pinterest, of course! I found a blog that gave an example of a lady's binder she uses for their bills. So, I made my own. I'm about to be a Kindergarten teacher for a private Christian school. So, you can guess how much I love binders!


*I made the cover using Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio, if you want more info about that comment on this post. :)

I'm still working on this, but so far I have the front inside pocket finished:


In the front pocket I keep: Envelopes, pen, stamps, check book and 4 envelopes. The four envelopes are labeled- Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4. This way, every Sunday I look in the envelopes and see which bills have come in according to when they're due. If I don't get a paper bill I made a notecard with the name of the bill and due date.

Also, I put a checklist in my binder.


I made this list of all of our bills and months for the rest of the year and put a D for paying with Debit and C for paying with Credit. NOW LET ME ADDRESS THIS. I made this before I went back and researched Dave Ramsey. So, the new one has all D's.

I am so on fire right now for this process for our money. Before we were just throwing a random amount money at the credit card when we got paid and because we threw so much at it we had to use the credit card to pay other stuff. So, it was a 2 steps forward, 3 steps back kind of thing. We also had no idea how much we were spending on other stuff like groceries and eating out. I totaled it up for the month of June and I was appalled. Between Walmart, Costco and restaurants we spent about $1,000. I couldn't believe it. No wonder we didn't have any money!!!!! I mean can you believe that?! I still can't. ANYWAYS...

Dave Ramsey has a list of recommended percentages for how you should spend your money. This makes me happy. How happy? Happier than Gallagher at a farmer's market. :) THAT'S pretty happy.



Ok. So here are the percentages:

Tithe: 10-15%
Savings: 5-10%
Housing: 25-30%
Utilities: 5-10%
Food: 5-15%
Transportation: 10-15%
Clothing: 2-7%
Medical/Health: 5-10%
Personal: 5-10%
Recreation: 5-10%
Debts: 5-10%


The best part is that it doesn't matter how much you make! My husband is an auto body tech and works off of commission. So, his check varies. This way, no matter what his check is like we still make a dent in our debt AND get some money in savings, because like my dad says, "It's not how much money you make, it's about how much you can keep." Now, obviously you'll have to decide how much of the percentages you'll need to use because if you do all the highest percentages it's more than 100% and all the low end percentages total less than 100%. But, this helps you live within your means!!! And you still have personal and recreation money.

In my next post I'll include his worksheets so you can see EXACTLY what each category covers, i.e. transportation-car payment, gas, tires, oil change, money for a new car, etc...

And I'll also go over using cash envelopes!

Mimi are you proud??? ;)















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