My first "experiment" that I will be starting on July 1st will be living on a budget. A few months ago, my husband got a new job. Before that, he was working part time. We were living off of his part time pay, plus the pay I was receiving. We did fine. It was a struggle at times, but we got by.
My husband is now making a considerable amount more a month. Unfortunately, we have not been saving any money. For the past few years, I have been in an "I don't care" mode and have not made a budget or really cared to save any money. I have not always been this way. My family has suffered some personal family losses and have been hit with some hard times. These are things that I will comment on at a later time. I have finally decided that this is not how I want to continue to live, so I have a plan.
The plan is to live off of our previous "part time" budget. We did it before, and so I believe this is something that we should have no problem doing again. We have acquired no extra bills, so paying those will not be affected.
How will I be doing this? My husband gets paid twice a month, so every pay period, I will take out our budget of $200, a week in cash. The cash will allow me to keep better track of my money and spending. Everything will be paid out of this "allowance". This includes gas and groceries. The only thing that will be taken out of the bank account will be bills. Everything after bills and allowance will be saved.
Exceptions to paying out of the bank account will have to go over a strict look over, by my husband and myself. Anything that we cannot pay with our allowance will need to be discussed. Only emergencies and extreme needs will be paid from this "saved" fund.
Using coupons, sales and eating at home will help make this "experiment" work. I will update twice a month on how this is going. Wish me luck!
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