Empty Envelopes

Tomorrow is payday and I cannot wait.

We're a two vehicle family (well, we actually have four at the moment, but let's not talk about that) and one is parked because it has no gas, and the other (my van) Josh coasted to work in this morning.

Super thankful that Josh works half a mile from home so that my van can run on fumes for him. :)

I was telling Josh the other night that I was frustrated that our envelopes were empty.  I was feeling like we failed our attempt at our budget.

He reminded me that we used the money in the gifts envelope for gifts (Chad's birthday) we used the grocery money for groceries, we had to buy gas, etc. etc.  We needed the money in those envelopes and used them accordingly.  We put $250 in savings from the last paycheck, and we also tithed 10% of his check.

The money wasn't blown or wasted or whatever.

We're down to the nitty gritty on groceries, but that's to be expected since the last time I went shopping was on November 16th.  Yikes.  (other than picking up some milk and cheese)

I'm already thinking we need to up our grocery budget.

I cancelled Netflix yesterday.  We just haven't been using it much, we grab a Redbox more often than we watch Netflix, so I'd just rather put $8 toward Redbox per month.

Josh told me last night that he's really liking how we're doing and that was so encouraging to me.

This morning we talked about Christmas presents and had agreed to spend $50 on each other.  After I figured out how his check will be dispersed tomorrow, I called him and told him I'd rather put that money in savings.  It won't be easy to not have presents to open on Christmas morning, but I had a great Christmas last year, and I'd much rather have a savings account than a present to open.  So we agreed to put the money in savings instead.

Yay for being a grown up.

I'll start doing budget and savings updates around the first of the month after this.

Life, it's not fair.

Last night we went to Trevor and Megan's for a birthday party for their youngest.  He's my future son-in-law and I love him dearly.

I don't necessarily love the fact I'll be stuck with Trevor for the rest of my life, but whatev.  You win some, you lose some. ;)

(kidding, Trevor...mostly)

The girls came home with two balloons apiece.

This morning one of Spice's balloons pops.  Immediately she's bawling.

"Iiit's not fair.  Jaylee has two balloons and I only have one.  She should give me one."

HOLD THE PHONE.

We don't do fair around these parts.  Sorry, children, Mama doesn't wanna set you up for disappointment, so let's just lay it out here real quick like.

Again.

LIFE IS NOT FAIR.

So I told my distraught four year old, "You can continue crying and nothing will change, you will still only have one balloon. OR, you can choose to work, make some money and buy your own balloons."

I will not raise my children believing that just because someone has more than they do that it isn't fair.  I will raise my children believing that if they want something, they need to work for that thing that they want.

Even if it's balloons.

Budget stuffs. Cutting out. Adding in. And the one thing I refuse to give up.

Yesterday I told you a little about how Josh and I have finally both agreed that we must get ourselves on a budget.

And stick to it.

That's the biggest thing.  Sticking to the blasted numbers.

Today I'll share a little about what we're changing so that we can start saving.

First to be cut out was our Starbucks addiction.  I'll be honest, a couple years ago I'd guess that we were spending nearly $300 a month on coffee.  (totally just heard and saw your jaw drop..I KNOW)  We've cut back just because over the last several months, but in the last few weeks we've cut it out almost completely.  We have gone from having Starbucks on a daily basis, to Starbucks one time per week.  On Saturdays.  Huge savings.  Huge.  And honestly, I don't miss it too much.  I've been enjoying my home brew, which is Starbucks dark roast from Costco.

The next thing I plan to do is, and this makes me slightly panicky, more so than giving up coffee, is to give up my iPhone.  I've tried this in the past.  I even tried it a couple of months ago.  I'm notorious for getting rid of my phone only to get it back again.  However, not only is that bad girl a money sucker, she's a life sucker as well.  I spend too much time playing with that thing and not enough time with my babes.  Hate admitting that, but there it is.

We're going to step up our giving. We've not been as faithful this year as we have been in the past.  Josh grew up tithing to church and we've done fairly well in doing that over the years of being married.  This last year, though, with switching churches, getting burned out, etc. we found ourselves not giving the way we're supposed to.  Both of us have felt terrible about this but resolve to do it different from this day forward.  We have found a church we're loving and have started giving again.  (side note, we're called to give whether we love the church we're in or not, however, we're finally there on a consistent basis making it easier to drop it in the box.)

I've cut back on our grocery spending.  Honestly since I haven't paid attention to the money coming in or going out, I couldn't tell you how much we were spending for groceries.  I'd guess near the $600 mark.  Ack.  Some of that is due to beer and coffee consumption because Starbucks is at Safeway and so is beer. :)  I've decided $300 cash for food for the month.  Gone are our weekly steak nights.  Boo.  We'll see how it goes...

We don't have cable or credit cards or car payments.  There's not much we can cut out.  We have Netflix for $8 a month but at this point we'll keep that.  I think the biggest thing I'm noticing is that I have envelopes designated to stuff.  Gifts.  Vehicles (tires, oil changes, etc) Clothing.  Things like that.  And there's money in those envelopes!

During the summer Josh puts in a lot of overtime.  I checked his most recent pay stub and found that he made a chunk of change just in overtime so far this year.  It made me sick to my stomach that we didn't stash that.  Instead we used it for things like eating out and coffee. And just stuff. Ugh.  Things that are not lasting.  We've decided to start adding his overtime to our savings.  Once a month if the company makes their numbers he'll get a commission of $120 added to his check. It's not a lot, and it's not a guarantee but we're going to put this in a separate savings for date nights and gas money.  If you know us at all, you know we like to drive.  I've said before that we try to get down to Portland to watch a game per season of my nieces and a beach trip as well with their fam.  These are things I just don't want to cut out.  Those girls are going to be grown and gone in no time (oh my heart hurts thinking about it) and while they still have school functions, I want to be there.  So, that small commission check will be going toward that and I'm thankful.

I'm excited for the changes in our hearts.  I've been so half-hearted about this stuff because I know that Josh was too.  This time, knowing he's all about it, has me pumped.  We can totally do this.  We can change.

And to help with accountability, I think I'll be writing about it once a month.  You're welcome.  ;)

It's high time we make grown up decisions and a budget is about as grown up as it gets

Over the years Josh and I have gone back and forth about budgeting.  We've budgeted and then we've not.  We've lived from paycheck to paycheck to having cash monies leftover when the next check showed up.

Recently Josh was telling me about one of the guys from another branch of his company.  He got hurt and was out of work for several weeks.  He had $17,000 in his savings account.  And thank goodness for it.  He ended up needing every penny.  Had he not had that emergency fund he could have lost his house, vehicles, etc.

It got me thinking.  Currently we only have a couple thousand dollars in savings.  If Josh were to be out of work for a month we'd barely scrape by on that.

What if had to be out of work longer than that?  Yes, I'd go out and apply for jobs but I wouldn't make much.  Definitely not enough to cover our monthly expenses.

We need a plan.

We need a savings.

We need a budget.

So we're doing it.  It's usually I make out the budget and Josh is like, "eh..." and so then I'm like, "eh..."  But this time we're both all in.

Other than our mortgage, we have no debt.  No credit cards, no car payments.  I'm thankful for that because we can get right to saving without having to pay off debt first.

Our first goal is to save about $15,000.  Seeing that huge number is freaking me out but I'm going to stay positive.  It's totally possible.  It's just going to take some time.  Probably two years.  Could be a little more. I'm sure if we were super hard core and only ate beans and rice for meals we could save a lot faster, but I really like food.  Lots of food.

It's only been 3 weeks but we've already saved over $500.  For a one income family, I feel this is pretty good.

I'm excited to finally, finally be making wise choices with our money.  I'm that girl that kicks herself over and over for poor decisions and I definitely do when it comes to money.  We've been extremely blessed by Josh's income and I've been such a bad steward of that money.  It's time to change that.

My kids are definitely driving me.  How can I teach them about money when I don't take care of my own?

Changes are being made.  I'll share more about those tomorrow.

Do you budget?  Do you not?  

If you or your spouse were out of work for several months, do you have a savings plan?