The Budget

Here is the blog I have been dreading the most. So far it has been easy to write and not very revealing about how we are going about paying down this debt and how we are spending our money. Sure, I wrote a self-deprecating blog about how I suck at spending money and wasted way too many dollar bills on energy drinks and eating out. But that was "the past" so it makes it sound like I am great at, now, spending money. I'm not. Stephanie has to always remind me that "Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean you should buy it." So here is our budget. We are both working jobs that have semi-fluctuating schedules so we will each work between 30-40 hours every week. So, while that makes budgeting a little more difficult since we can't write down an exact amount for month's worth of income, we are still going to do a budget. It's our first REAL budget so I'm sure we will be changing it around and making it better as time goes on.

Our combined income is $660/week BEFORE taxes. That is with us working 30/hours in the week as that is the least amount we usually work in a given week. So, we will multiply 660 by 52 weeks and find out that we make a WHOPPING $34,320 (that "whopping" part was a joke). Just in case you were wondering, you want to make more money in one year than you owe back to someone or something (unless it's a house). We will take that $34,320 and divide that by 12 months to come up with an income of $2,860/month. Now, remember, this is before taxes so lets just say we make $2,500/month so we can have a nice round number. Remember, that is with us each working 30 hours/week so that number will probably be more on a regular basis.

Okay, here are the bills each month:
Tithe - $250 (10% of our take-home pay so this will change each month depending on our income)
Rent/Utilities - $900-$950 (we will use the higher amount of $950 for budgeting purposes)
Internet - $20
Gas - $250
Student Loans -$300
Health Insurance - $200 (this number will change, but not sure if it will be more or less)
Car Insurance - $150 (this number is also going to change)
Cell Phones - $100
Netflix - $8
Groceries - $100 
That's right, $100/month for groceries. I was talking to a friend about that who has a wife and 2 kids and he was shocked that we would try to only spend $100 on groceries. We don't have a reason to think it's going to be $100, but we are going to try. This means that I will be eating PB&J's every day for lunch and avoiding a lot of the junk food that costs so much money. We are both committed to that $100 goal so we will see if it is doable.
Credit Card - $50
I don't think I have talked about my credit card. I do have one card that has $652 on it. The reason we are not paying off the whole thing and then cutting it up is because I am need of building up my credit a little bit. We never use it and will be making those $50/month payments until it is paid off. It will take a while, we know, but in the mean-time I will be building back up my credit. My credit isn't bad, but it could be a lot better.
Charities - $125
Eating Out - $50 
This is something we struggled with figuring out. At first we were just saying, "We are going to avoid eating out no matter what." While that is a good goal, it became increasingly difficult to avoid and if we did spend anything we felt like crap after. Also, we don't want to be in "bondage" to our budget. We want our budget to provide freedom to our finances. Yes, we could be putting an extra $50/month towards our debt, but I think that restricting ourselves so much would do more harm than good.
Mad Money - $20 ($10/each)
This is also something we debated doing. However, it gives us a LITTLE bit of flexibility. This way we can get a coffee from Starbucks or an ice cream sundae every now and then without being riddled with guilt over breaking our budget.

That is a total of $2,573! Wow, living is expensive.

Well, if we make $2,500/month and have $2,573 in bills and such we are a little short. However, that $2,500 is the LEAST we will make in a month so I'm not too worried about it. As we go along we will be able to know exactly how much we will be bringing in and fine-tuning our budget.

We also need to budget in things like future presents, car repairs, and other misc. items. However, if we are $57 short on our budget, we should probably wait until we know more about our income.

So, those are our monthly costs. Yes, some things we could "do without" like Netflix, eating out, and the Mad Money. However, I believe that by cutting those things out we run the risk of hating this process and not using our money for enjoyment. Being in debt does bring bondage, but so does restricting yourself so much in your budget that you hate every single day of your life. Those numbers will most definitely change as this is our first budget and we are still figuring things out.

This is a process for us and we know that. We know we won't be pros and budgeting right away, but we are excited to learn and get better at it. Thank you for all the support!

- Brian and Stephanie