As a transitional housing case manager, one of the dozens of tasks I may be working on includes educating my clients on creating a budget. Some components of budgeting may include keeping a spending journal, saving receipts, pulling a credit report, debt repayment, and (hopefully) saving money. When our families first learn about program rules and expectations, we talk a lot about money killers and money takers. When asked what these phrases might mean, clients will often mention credit card debt, rent to own furniture, and expensive cell phone contracts. We highly emphasize need vs. want when making purchases and discussing any big financial decisions with a case manager.
For Andy and I, this last year has seen some major money grabbers: buying a house, moving expenses, travelling here and there, gifts, home maintenance, new furniture, eating out... just to name a few. To give you a brief summary of what has worked for us (and for me while I was single), our bills are always paid on time, and credit card/car/student loan payments are often much more than the minimum required. I believe that just knowing and mapping out when your bills are due AND how much is due is paramount to budgeting. I take on the role of household bill payer and utilize an excel spreadsheet to do so.
Our biggest issue is our "fun" money, which usually tends to go toward food. As I mentioned earlier, we eat out for dinner a LOT. On some occasions, 3 times/week. I fret just saying it, but there; it's out in the open! Granted, we make many visits to Muchas Gracias (cheap Mexican food), the sushi train restaurants, Sweet Tomatoes (always with a coupon), or dine in for a cheap bowl of of pho. Any "expensive" meals (and I am talking over $30) are more limited (every two weeks, give or take). Still, we
could be meal planning and saving quite a bit. We both eat breakfast at home and take our lunch to work. We also buy coffee beans at the store and grind them at home. Dinner is our downfall!
I could blame the busyness and emotional draining of my job, but seriously... as I manage 18 households and take on extra projects (helping folks apply for health insurance, social security, or trying to rapidly rehouse the homeless), the last thing I want to do is come home and cook. Andy also works 40 hours/week, but he works well with direction and easy to prepare, ol' standby meals. Plus, we take turns and are bad enablers so there's that as well...
Enough of this pity party! It is time for this team to buckle down, stick to a strict budget for the next four months (at the very least), and pay down our debt. Because we've acquired a few new credit cards in the last year, our goal is to have 75% of the debt paid off by mid-April 2014, and the remaining amount in mid-May! To break it down, we'll be using a debt snowball model (paying the smallest balances first). Money has been budgeted on a weekly basis for food and gas, and we have a small buffer in between paychecks for emergencies. If we eat out, it will only be once per week and the money must come from our food budget. I'm going to print out our debt repayment spreadsheet and put it on the wall next to the calendar so it is always in the back of our mind. I figure if I check in on the blog regarding the state of our finances any time we're paid, I'll be able to update the masses and hopefully have a bit of accountability to boot. Here's to debt repayment in 2014!
