That’s Swell

More money talk. I seem to be on a roll today! As I have said before, if money talk makes you uncomfortable, you might want to skip this post. I started this blog as a way to tell other’s about my quest to be green, and share simple tips that I have learned. But now I am evolving it into basically being an open book of my life – as I have learned more about living a simplified & frugal life, I want to share with you what has been happening in my life to make these things happen.

So today I though I’d share with you our budget for this paycheck. We find it is best to adapt our budget for each paycheck – some things stay the same (such as the internet bill/rent) but other things are always changing. New needs are always coming up (such as oil changes, not always a budget need). We also use cash whenever necessary. So this is our budget for this paycheck.

Take home after 401K, Flex Spending, Tithe are taken out: $880

Debit Expenses/Online Payments (usually necessary bills, not changing)
We Energies:     $66 (last month’s auto pay didn’t work, usually only $33)
Student Loan:   $82 (all our student loans consolidated, would like to be paying $100)
US Cell:               $77 (we never go over, never changing, pay by phone)
Internet:              $44 (never changes, auto pay)
Doct Bill:            $15 (get reimbursed from Flex Spending, not normal expense)
Book:                  $6 (used free $10 for signing up for Google Checkout, free shipping)
Gas:                     $75 (approx, use debit instead of cash, easier to pay at pump)
D Photo Equip:  $50 (he now needs $30 more than he thought, find extra money)
Savings:               $150
Total Left: $315

Cash Expenses (we use cash for everything, makes budgeting much easier!)
David:                     $40 (for new wallet, slippers and gloves)
Megan Haircut:     $25 (was scheduled, don’t need one, may move to next paycheck)
Grocery:                 $150 (also includes supplies, shampoo, TP, candles, etc.)
Allowance:             $50 ($20 D, $20 M, $10 for date night)
Laundry:                $30 (in quarters, should last rest of month, not on next pay period)
Thrift Money:        $20 (for me to go thrifting, for whatever I find, clothes, etc.)

Extras: $200 (unexpected, friend of David’s owed him from 4 years ago, dropped it off Monday)
Wireless Router:     $50 (our old one didn’t work after the move, also used $20 gift card David had left from Christmas)
Trip to Pekin:         $150 (going home this weekend, money for gas, eating out and for an allowance for each of us – ie David going to a show, I’ll go shopping with my mom)

$30 (selling my film from photo class to another student, I dropped the class)
Not sure what we’ll to with the money, maybe for more of David’s photo equipment.
A Few Notes
There were a lot of unexpected expenses, or unusual expenses in this paycheck. All of our main bills always seem to “hit” during the first month’s paycheck, so maybe I will try to move some pay dates to later on, but this makes it easier to pay rent with the 2nd pay period. Our tithe was also double this month, I forgot to pay it last paycheck, so that was an extra. And all the little things, ie David’s new wallet, slippers, gloves, photo equipment, a new wireless router – those are all things we won’t have on next paycheck. So that cuts out nearly $150 right there. And next week is Spring Break, so gas money is less this paycheck.

And I have about $150 to turn in to Flex Spending – we then just put it right into Savings, since we already spent the money, we didn’t miss it – so we can save that money immediately. And we have our old rent deposit (nearly $300) coming back to us, so slowly but surely we will be having money trickling in that we can put into savings. I can’t imagine if we had a mortgage or a car payment right now! It’s be crazy! Feel free to ask me any question you may have, I want to be open because I hope this will help others in realizing how easy it is to budget – it isn’t a traumatic experience at all!