Our budget, is as you may of noticed our bare minimum, very basic budget. It provides for immediate necessities like rent, car payment, car insurance, gas for car, electric, phone, propane, groceries and online service.
But what about everything else that comes up in the course of a day, quarterly, or annually? What about all those little extra things that make life juicy? What about so many other categories that you typically see in example budgets or other budgets online?
We all know the adage of spend less than you earn if you ever want to reach true freedom and financial Independence. Currently our budget allows for $1100 while leaving the remaining $300 for investing and savings. Not Bad, if I do say so myself, this is something I never thought I really would ever be able to do on this kind of income. Yet still, there is so much more...........
Our budget is straightforward, simple and what I call our immediate SURVIVAL budget. $1400 is what we can actually expect out of any given month and our survival budget reflects this. However income is not anything set in stone and in fact we can not count on an exact same amount every payday, the fluctuate in great numbers based on how many hours were actually worked in a given pay period. Many times hubby brings home an extra $20 or even $50 or more some weeks, others well he brings home less than the budgeted $450 bi-weekly paychecks.
So I have started an envelope method for all those lovely extras we would love to cover and anytime we go over $1400 in a month for income, the extra gets put into the envelope funds.
Remember the sealed jar? All pop bottle return money goes in there along with 60% scrap metal money and we have gave that jar a destination.........a Hawaii Vacation!
But extra income goes to fill in the gaps that a survival budget just simply can not cover and I must tell you, for a juicy life I will admit to having quite a few envelopes to fund!
But money is in each on now and will be built upon throughout the year and I hope I remembered most things! We have envelopes for educational expenses, both my daughters future weddings, our new car fund, car maintenance, fairs, dining out, garage saling, haircuts and clothing.
I have envelopes for our horse trip across America, entertaining guests, barbecues and picnics and one for pet care/vet expenses.
I have envelopes for business, video games, holidays, yard care, investing (extra or other avenues than stocks of course) medical and dental.
You get the point, the little juicy things of life we would like to enjoy but living pay check to pay check never allowed.
Money with a destination can be a powerful step towards a juicy life full of simple joys and pleasures with a grand one thrown in here and there for good measure :)
But what about everything else that comes up in the course of a day, quarterly, or annually? What about all those little extra things that make life juicy? What about so many other categories that you typically see in example budgets or other budgets online?
We all know the adage of spend less than you earn if you ever want to reach true freedom and financial Independence. Currently our budget allows for $1100 while leaving the remaining $300 for investing and savings. Not Bad, if I do say so myself, this is something I never thought I really would ever be able to do on this kind of income. Yet still, there is so much more...........
Our budget is straightforward, simple and what I call our immediate SURVIVAL budget. $1400 is what we can actually expect out of any given month and our survival budget reflects this. However income is not anything set in stone and in fact we can not count on an exact same amount every payday, the fluctuate in great numbers based on how many hours were actually worked in a given pay period. Many times hubby brings home an extra $20 or even $50 or more some weeks, others well he brings home less than the budgeted $450 bi-weekly paychecks.
So I have started an envelope method for all those lovely extras we would love to cover and anytime we go over $1400 in a month for income, the extra gets put into the envelope funds.
Remember the sealed jar? All pop bottle return money goes in there along with 60% scrap metal money and we have gave that jar a destination.........a Hawaii Vacation!
But extra income goes to fill in the gaps that a survival budget just simply can not cover and I must tell you, for a juicy life I will admit to having quite a few envelopes to fund!
But money is in each on now and will be built upon throughout the year and I hope I remembered most things! We have envelopes for educational expenses, both my daughters future weddings, our new car fund, car maintenance, fairs, dining out, garage saling, haircuts and clothing.
I have envelopes for our horse trip across America, entertaining guests, barbecues and picnics and one for pet care/vet expenses.
I have envelopes for business, video games, holidays, yard care, investing (extra or other avenues than stocks of course) medical and dental.
You get the point, the little juicy things of life we would like to enjoy but living pay check to pay check never allowed.
Money with a destination can be a powerful step towards a juicy life full of simple joys and pleasures with a grand one thrown in here and there for good measure :)
We used envelopes when we first got on fire to live on less years ago, it really does work. We have been at it long enough now that we don't do it anymore, my money is on you!!! You can make it work.
ReplyDeleteThankyou Debby, your encouragement is nice to hear and really means a lot, a great motivator :)
DeleteI never used the envelope system, but my hours were always pretty much set in stone. Now may be a different story -- thanks for the tip!
ReplyDelete