Amanda Forbes: Let's talk BUDGET!

Once upon a time there was a little girl who grew up REALLY fast, got married, and was out from underneath her parents wings in this big scary world into...dun, dun, dun.. Adulthood. She often wondered what happened to the days of riding on the back of her older brothers big wheel and living life without a care in the world...

Well along with adulthood she had to learn how to manage her finances. How to pay bills and still have money to tithe, save, and have hot date nights! And shop. Luckily, the Queen was there to save the day!

Mom introduced me to a budget. If you are OCD, like organizing, or just love to save money, this budget idea is PERFECT for you. I am beyond excited to have a firm grip on our finances and being able to get the most for our money. I don't work 40 hours a week to watch it disappear in thin air, right? Did you know that you would have to save 4 million dollars by the time your 70 to be able to retire and live a normal life? Now, that's apparently not my goal, because it's extremely un-realistic. And sad. So, to atleast ensure that we can some what live a happy like with all the needs and not so many wants, we've decided to crack down and start budgeting. And stop that extra money from disappearing. {Maybe it goes where all of my missing bobby pins go?}

Here is the spread sheet she gave me...

I have made up a fake budget, for an example.

There's a column to list the due dates of the bills, the name of the bills, and the amounts. It's best to put them in order from the first of the month to the last. At the bottom it tally's it all up for you. Below is a second chart that has extra necessities that we spend money on. Groceries, gas, dates, hair {duh}, etc. It give you a grand total at the bottom of that for bills & necessities.

To the left we have the income {haha-at amounts}. Then there is a column LESS Monthly Expenses and WAH-LAH there is all the money that disappears into thin air. When you see that amount your chin will probably hit the ground like ours did. :)

The Savings Chart was something I added so I could figure out how much money was put into savings each month and for what... Example.. say we are saving for a New TV and we are putting in $50 a month. When I copy and paste this spread sheet to make a new November Chart and we decide in November we want to put in $150, we will change that total to $200. Right now we are saving for a few different things, so we are able to keep up with what money is in the account and for what! Make sense?

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to explain. We are excited to be well on our way to saving some monies and buying new things, maybe take a nice vaca to St. Lucia ;)

Bella is also a firm believer in budgeting! Happy she could help.