Our $400 spending budget has to cover all groceries, household supplies, clothes and other shopping purchases, as well as home improvement and entertainment. It’s about a 30% reduction to our spending budget. My goal is to save enough to cover a trip to Disney World in the spring (essentially we only have to pay for airfare and 1 child’s ticket). It’s the best time for our family to go educationally and financially, but I only feel comfortable doing it if we can {Read More}
From Eating Out 3 Times a Day to Nearly Debt Free in 4 Years
July 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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This guest post is from my dear friend Julie who writes over at Pary Moppins Perfectly Practical. My husband and I have made a lot of stupid (this is basically a dirty word in our house but it is so appropriate here) financial decisions throughout our thirteen years of marriage. Some choices were based on keeping up with the Jones’ and others were to keep our heads above water for a short time, but all could have been avoided. For {Read More}
QuickRewards – No Minimum Payout!
July 19, 2012 by
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QuickRewards is a new to me rewards program and I’m signing up right now! Here is the info I was just given about it: Founded in 2002, QuickRewards.net is a rewards program like no other: What Makes QuickRewards Different:– No minimum required to cash out and PayPal payments are processed daily– Cash out at any time, as often as you’d like– Fast, personal customer service– Optional “Big Buddy” program matches you up with a veteran member to help you start earning fast!How to {Read More}
Finding Peace in More Than Just Finances – Guest Post
July 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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This is a guest post from my sweet friend René . 3 years ago my husband and I realized we had a problem. We were living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet. It was a cycle that we had repeated throughout our marriage. Our first year of marriage we were both working, had a small amount of savings and just spent whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. A month after our first anniversary our daughter was born and I decided {Read More}
Becoming Debt Free June Budget Totals
July 5, 2012 by
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Last month I set a new monthly goal for spending at $400 to include all groceries, health & beauty products, decorations, gifts, clothes, entertainment home improvements, etc. Basically anything that isn’t a billed item. The only exclusions are gasoline, childcare while I’m working and home repairs. This was a 20% or more cut to our budget. My goal of course is to pay off both our homes quicker. In July we spent $400.51 of the $400. It looked like we {Read More}
Cheap Shreveport Mini Vacation
June 30, 2012 by 2 Comments
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At the end of last week we went to Shreveport for a couple of days. It wasn’t a scheduled vacation so we really didn’t have a budget for it. The idea was to get out of the house for a bit, so we chose to keep our activity/eating out money at a minimum. We stopped in to visit with Pary Moppins on the way. Little One had slept from our house to hers. When she woke up in the driveway {Read More}
Overheard Conversations About Debt and Money Management
June 28, 2012 by 1 Comment
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This week I thought I’d share with you (with permission) what some of my fellow bloggers from the Dishing It Up Recipe Hop group have said about debt and budgeting. It’s funny how money comes up in our conversations from time to time and how passionate we all are with our different perspectives Mama Does it All said about a recent vacation: “We’re able to do it because we’ve been using the envelopes and really paying attention. Plus I convinced my {Read More}
Becoming Debt Free – Budget Update
June 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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I didn’t have any new steps for this week. My goal was just to keep being intentional and purposeful about staying within the new lowered monthly budget. As of last Thursday we’d spent about $144 of the $400 budget. This week the total has risen to $200.03, putting us on track to only spend $300 of the $400 budget for June. That would give us $50 to roll over to next month’s budget and $50 for my husband and I {Read More}
Becoming Debt Free Step 4c – Budgeting Step 4
June 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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We now have a revamped budget with 4 categories: Shopping, Entertainment, Eating Out and Home Improvements – $400/mo Bills, Gas, Tithe – $$.$$/mo Home Repairs – as needed from savings Gasoline – unbudgeted Extra non budgeted money from our paychecks at the end of each month will be put towards the mortgages.Any budgeted Bills etc. money left will roll over to the next month. Texas electric bills are higher in July/August. Half of the budgeted Shopping etc. money will become {Read More}
Another Dave Ramsey Success Story – Guest Post
June 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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This guest post is from a friend of mine back home that introduced me to the Dave Ramsey concept. Something about living on a small income and realizing you were spending $200 more a month than bringing in? How you dealt with it etc. ? We went all out for a year & paid off all of our “consumer” debt and built up a baby emergency fund ($1000). For the last couple months we have been spending quite a bit {Read More}