My husband and I have been listening to Dave Ramsey for a few years now and I feel like we are both pretty good with money. So we have never actually put together a budget and stuck to it. We have done a spread sheet and watched where our money went and that made me aware of what I was really spending money on.
My brother has a few of his books and so I borrowed them and read them . I read it so fast, I loved it. It had some really good information in there that I learned from. We had already done a few of the baby steps he talks about so that was a boost to be able to start on step 4. It was motivating to start right there. We were both raised to not buy new cars or get into debt. So we don't owe on our cars or have any credit card debt, or student loans. We are very blessed I know. We are very grateful for that.
I have had a credit card for quite a few years and I have always paid it in time or before. My reasons for having a card is that we get money back and it seems to add up quick when we are doing house projects and making large purchases so I thought it was worth it. Then I listened to really why Dave says its not worth it even when you get money back. He says you still end up spending more money so really your not getting money back. I really truly evaluated myself and yes I do spend more.
Just last month I took my credit card out of my wallet and just kept my debit card in there and have been using just that. I spend less when I see the little amounts widdle away at our bank account. I really think this will help me spend less and so I am going to stick to it.
I also set up a budget in the Dave Ramsey app Every dollar and I love the set up of it but to get it to sync with your bank accounts you have to pay $8 a month and I just cant justify that. I think it should be free I mean its Dave Ramsey we are talking about, the King of Finance. Whatever, my husband found another awesome one.... mint.com and its free! It is pretty good online, then I downloaded the app and its so much better on the phone. I love it. I can adjust the budget pretty easy on there and then I can enter stuff in right away and know where I stand on the budget. This is the best part about it. They have it set up so you can roll over the money you didn't use last month. So in like the gift budget that will roll over so just every month we can just to $10 or something and then it will build up and we can use it for birthdays or Christmas. I love that option.
I have really been trying to save up so we can finish our basement and do other fun stuff in the back field next summer. We both have good jobs and we could be much better at saving up. It all comes down to what do you really want in the future. Do I have long term goals? Its easy to spend money now and be satisfied with what you get.
I also want to teach my kids about money. I was taught very well from my parents how to earn money and I have also learned some things about money the hard way. It really comes down to self control for me. I have always had a job since I was 13 or 14 I believe is when I started working for an older couple cleaning their house. I still work now too and so I have always had "my money" I feel like if I didn't work I would be better at not spending too because I don't have as much as a right to spend it on stuff I want. Does that make sense? Anyways I don't know how long I will continue to work. I hope it will work out to keep it until all of our kids get into school but family first so well just continue to see what happens. Its always nice to have that extra income.
So we we are one month in and Dave says it takes a few months for the budget to work and get fixed up right. Its true our first month didn't work. I had forgotten things that we would normally pay. Some of the budgets were pretty off, I didn't realize how much I actually spent in certain areas, like household items. Granted some of what we spent wasn't something we spend every month. Like Jared needed some new shoes, and I got some pants. This is why I love the roll over system, because some months you spend more in a certain budget area and others you don't spend any. So the overall amount is important I think. I feel like its a yearly budget because throughout the whole year you might even out in the different budget areas. So when we go over in an area this isn't just fixed by upping the budget in that area it's about evaluating, did I really need to buy that? Was it a want or need? Sometimes yes its necissary to up the budget and sometimes it means not buying things you "want" So this will be hard to do for me, I am very stubborn. So this next month will be better and the next even better. I am super excited to start really saving more and telling our money where to go and not having it tell me what to do.
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