It’s finally time to reveal our budget! Everyone’s different and will have a budget that suits their life, this is what we’re working with right now.
Debt repayment: 2386
Charitable: 300
Savings: 300
Utilities: 188 (we have well water)
Phone: 70 (Emily only)
Internet: 40
Cars:
Gas: 450 (this number should go down in September. I hope.)
Repairs: 310 (tires for Adam) (next month is Em’s brakes)
Insurance: 165
Expenses:
Emily Hair: 100 (hoping to cut this in half)
Adam Hair: 15
Pet Food: 35
Groceries: 400
Adam Spending: 300 ($75/wk) (this includes eating out, entertainment, clothes, hygiene and cleaning products, and miscellaneous purchases)
Emily Spending: 300 ($75/wk)
So there you have it. We are not doing well with August budget, but it’s not for lack effort. For some reason, budgeting makes us fight, which is a set back. I think we both believe we’ll eventually get there, it just might take more time. 🙂
Does your debt repayment include your house payment then? Are you snowballing your loan repayments? As someone who’s worked on debt repayment in a couple, it’s that $300/month each that will likely be the hardest part….it’s so easy to go over on that kind of stuff or to justify things. The bills that don’t change seem to be the easiest, because you can’t get around them. Good luck…thanks for your transparency….it’s oddly soothing to read blogs of people experiencing similar things. Keeps me going in my own journey.
Our mortgage is not included here. The debt repayment is just the student loans snowball
I think your budget looks pretty good but . . . Holy gasoline!! 🙂 My husband and I recently downgraded to one car since we live near great public transportation and are also able to ride bicycles for most short trips. We got rid of a Jeep Grand Cherokee – and man our wallets sure feel fuller every month because of it.
Staying within budget can get super hard, especially when you have things like car repairs or other unforseen expenses come up. Every couple is different and can find their own way of navigating that sometimes difficult area. My husband and I have figured out our own system, but it took a few years to perfect it. Good luck!
thank you for the well wishes!
Hmmm… Solid debt repayment, that’s for sure! I am wondering whether the budget is complete though — I am missing some budget items that will build over time to pay for non-regular expenses (rainy days), or expenses that we all know are coming periodically.
Perhaps some of the discussions about money come from these incomplete budget items?
Over time, and the more you fine-tune your budget, there should be less need for discussions. I think the personal spending categories are really good as that’s money you just can spend without explaining to your spouse.
Ever considered a nice tool like YNAB to maintain and keep a budget? Works for us! Both of us can check the budget categories using our smart phone and record expenses we make.
Best wishes, Jerome
We use YNAB too and it is a great way to track expenses as you go. It’s kind of fun so makes budgeting seem like a game and not as much of a chore. 🙂
I also started using YNAB two years ago when I became serious about removing debt and it has changed my life in a very positive way. It is all about planning and communicating goals and visually seeing the impact of your daily choices to stay the course. When I was researching the choices…. and there are many budgeting programs I was amused and impressed that many marriage blogs and articles had endorsed it as a good communication tool. Even as a single person I’m still having the dialogs trying to make the right choices for my family.
During a recent unemployment period I became better at budgeting and planning with my wants verses needs list. By listing each item it helped me align my priorities and budget.
I enjoy your blog and admire your past success on reducing debt and moving forward one day at a time. Keep up the good work.
Hi Jerome, we have additional paychecks twice a year and a periodic bonus – this is how we pay for the save up over time items. But it’s really not enough usually, we don’t currently have a plan to save for a car when one of ours goes kaput.
This might be a controversial comment, but $300 budgeted for charitable giving seems like a lot when you’re trying to get yourself out of debt. I understand wanting to still give, but maybe you guys should consider other ways of giving. For example, maybe you could volunteer your time or clean out your closets and donate unwanted clothes/shoes/etc. I recently cleaned out our pantry and donated a lot of food that I knew we were either never eat or not eat in time before the expiration date. I think there are many ways to give and may help you be able to contribute more to your debt repayment.
these are great ideas for giving, i hadn’t thought of it that way. i will talk with emily about our giving and see what we think we should do
Looks pretty good! Couple things I’m questioning:
$450 gas budget-this is HUGE. How far is your commute? We have 2 vehicles and fill each one twice per month for a $220 total. My husband’s commute is approx. 18 miles roundtrip. My car is used for errands, etc. We have a crossover and truck. Both get ok gas mileage, but are by no means gas sippers.
$600 blow money between the two of you: We allow $800 per month and almost always come in WAY short of that. We’ve made it a challenge to try and save as much of that as possible towards savings/mortgage paydown. It’s a fun game! If it keeps you happily married, don’t change it. Over time, you will probably realize it’s a lot of money to be blowing.
Charitable $300: This is a very personal matter and all I’ll say is, until you have your student loan debt repaid, I would strongly consider backing off this amount. Even if you donate $150 per month, you are doing much much more than most.
Groceries $400: Again, this amount is HUGE for two people. We are a family of three with me, my husband, and a 20 year old son and we budget $260 for groceries and than an occasional run here and there for milk, bread, etc. that we run out of. Strongly consider cutting this back and taking a hard look at what I imagine must be high-end foods that you’re buying. You can buy fresh produce, but it all doesn’t have to be “organic”. Just my opinion, but living on filet mignon instead of chicken breasts can be a real budget buster. Not saying you’re doing that, but your grocery bill indicates it.
Thanks so much for sharing! Hope I wasn’t too harsh in my assessment. You guys seem to have a very similar cash flow situation to ours and we’ve learned over the past 2 years that if you push yourself just a little bit harder, you get there faster and learn a lot along the way!
We live in the city with two cars and our gas budget is $400 a month. I drive 15 miles to work my husband drives 30 round trip. We don’t have good public transportation so we do a lot of driving. That’s just the way it is. We also each have $150 a month for spending money, so $300 a month. We have a separate “entertainment” budget for doing things together and a separate “household items” budget, like toilet paper, lawn mower parts, etc. Perhaps a couple more categories might eliminate the fighting bits. I totally understand. But at least for us having a few more categories gave us a little more clarity and there was less money tension. I think you are doing a great job! What about travel or holiday visits-do you save extra for those or is that not an issue? We save up all year for gifts and holiday travel so when it happens it’s not a big shift in our budget. Just some thoughts. Love having you on the blog!
Hi Cathy! My commute is 22 miles each way. The gas is something we didn’t expect to be such a huge difference when we moved out of town. It also reflects that some of Emily’s furniture buying and delivery sneaks into this number.
I’d like to reiterate that the $600 for spending is not just blow money. It encompasses clothes, household goods, eating out, entertainment, personal care items. I wonder if the $600 is pretty reasonable when you add up all those things.
You’re right that the grocery bill is high. We don’t buy organic necessarily, but we do shop around the perimeter of the grocery store. Lots of meat, fresh produce, very little cheap carb-based foods. We do like to get natural meats when we can. I bet if we set our minds to it, we could reduce this bill, though. I’m glad you chimed in because I’m curious what others spend on groceries.
For a healthy protein source have you tried quinoa? I don’t know if it turns out to be cheaper than meat, but I suspect it might. It’s a grain – a seed, really – that is packed full of protein and fiber. I think it even has complete proteins. And it’s really easy to cook: rinse, boil in water for 15 minutes, then let it sit covered for five minutes. The water:quinoa ratio is 2:1. I also think it might be and eco-friendly crop as well.
I’ve been thinking about quinoa! I really like the taste, the price, and the nutrients- all but the carbs. I try to stay away from carbs as much as I can (although I spend all my time failing at it) and quinoa has A LOT of carbs.
Is the $2386 for student loans the total of all the minimum payments, or are you paying extra on all of the loans?
Are you snowballing one loan and doing minimums on the others?
I do agree about $300 in charitable giving. What about giving time instead until your debts are paid off?
Even paying $2386 per month, it will take you 4 years to pay off the student loans.
Do you have an emergency fund? If so, how much? Do you have enough to cover six months of mortgage, utilities, other monthly expenses?
Are you dependent on your tenant in order to pay your mortgage?
If you don’t have a healthy emergency fund, I would forego the charitable giving and the savings until your emergency fund is done.
Hi Susan! The $2386 is a big snowball amount, The minimums are about $1100 give or take. We are snowballing one right now and paying minimums on the others.
We are building an emergency fund, we will talk more about that soon. While we aren’t dependent on the tenant to make the mortgage payment, if the tenant disappeared, we’d have to divert a chunk of the snowball payment to cover the difference.
I’m pleased to see a line item for charity. If that’s what you are comfortable giving, I’m thrilled you feel compelled to share your blessings with others.
My son gives $35 per month to an overseas charity. He has a very low paying job and struggles to make ends meet but has avoided debt and even saved enough to take a year off to travel/work Australia. I kept reminding him to cancel that monthly payment on the credit card. His response to me was that he decided to keep it. How could he, in good conscience, take $35 per month away from someone in need, when he had chosen to leave his job to travel for year.
Emily and Adam have chosen to invest heavily in themselves and their lifestyle choices and are paying a high price for those choices by carrying a lot of debt. I don’t agree with most of their choices, but I’m pleased they are not using their debt as an excuse to not contribute to the well being of others. That shows great character.
thank you for the kind words. we wish we could give more. our giving got away from us while we weren’t living on a budget, so i’m glad that we can add this item back in.
As a couple who are working on debt….I will say that $600 a month is alot of “blow money.” You said eating out is included….is that include when you go out as a couple? Or does that fall under groceries? The idea behind blow money is that you don’t have to account to the partner on it. But in my experience, that is REALLY hard to do when they have alot of money to spend.
Charitable giving…..everyone has to do what they feel is right. $300 a month equates to $3,600 a year. Have you looked at the numbers if you dropped that number to $250, or $200, or $150? I agree with the commenter that said there may be other ways to give other than money. I know I volunteer alot, although the actual dollar value of what we give is small.
Lastly….don’t forget about expenses that come up over the year. If you get into the habit of saving for them over a longer period of time, then you have the money available when you need it. One example is Christmas…..we save some per paycheck so we can pay for Christmas in cash.
Hi Mysti. The $600 is not exactly blow money. It includes all restaurants, entertainment, clothes, personal care, etc. it’s our spending allowance for non-grocery items.
We pay for those intermittent expenses like Christmas out of our 2 annual “extra” paychecks.
Why is the mortgage not listed? I think the mortgage payment and mortgage total debt needs to be listed here. Also, I’d like to see the total mortgage payement, the amount the renter pays and then the amount you pay.
Hooray for your charitable giving!! I think too often we make being debt free our God. So what if it takes a little longer to become debt free because you are giving. I believe you will be blessed because of it.
“too often we make being debt free our God”
I really liked that. When I first saw the charitable giving amount I was slightly shocked, but after thinking it over, I believe it shows great character to give, even when your life could be made much easier by not giving.
Thank you Diane! We’d like to give more. someday we will.
This is a good start. I think you need to list the mortgage payment and the minimums on your student loans, so that its clearer how much extra per month you are putting towards debts.
I think the $300 personal money is fine (okay it would be a lot lower for us, but if you are both good with it, then ok), but I think personal, basic hygiene and toilet paper needs to come out of your grocery fund. I can see keeping those items in personal money causing problems. Its ridiculous to think that you are each buying your own toilet paper! You are a married couple, so don’t get stuck on the tp.
As for the giving, I think that is great. But, until you are debt free I would reduce it to $100 per month and put the other $200 in savings. You need to build up an emergency fund.
Good job! If you both agree on the budget, then your arguments should decrease. If one of you doesn’t want to stick to the agreed-upon budget, then they need to grow up! Adults learn to save, wait and appreciate their purchases when they can pay cash. Time to grow up!
I think your keeping up your charitable giving is admirable, and good for you for doing it. And I agree with Annonymous that you should consider including your property expenses and income in the budget, including whatever savings you’ll be doing for future maintenance and upgrades. It was a big decision for you, which you put a lot of financial thought into, and you probably need to keep that in the budget mix. Just my .02, of course.
Another comment. We budget $500 a month on groceries for two. We try to stick to that and it’s hard. I don’t sacrifice on healthy food and I order somethings online that are hard to get in store-sugar free jerky, whey protein powder and almond flour to fit our way of eating. The way I have found to cut back is to really get creative about what we do eat, and what is hiding in the cupboards. At least once or twice a week I have a no spending day and I create a meal/s with random food we have. I know we won’t go hungry even thought it might not be the most interesting meal. When I really look around we have a lot of food in our pantry and shelves to use up. We don’t buy prepackaged food either. Buying meats and eggs from local farmers here is more expensive then the grocery store but tasted and nutrients and long term effects are important to me. So that increases our grocery bill. Yet we still buy some things at discount stores. What are food prices like where you live? Do you have good access to fresh food or do you end up having to drive a ways to get it. That’s a factor in car/gas costs as well. To find what I really like I have to drive 25 minutes to my favorite coop, or I can order it online and pay for shipping. Good job you two!
Kerstin, sounds like you do a low-carb or paleo type of lifestyle. While we don’t stick to it very well, we make many of the same choices you do. We don’t buy bread, sugar, flour…mainly meats and veggies. I agree that these are expensive groceries but if we don’t follow a good diet, we will pay for it many times over in health care costs, etc.
I like the suggestion of a no-spending day! I think we should try this every now and then. tell me more.
As far as where we live, we have great produce all year round at good prices in Texas. But meat is pricey. there is no way around it.
You could save a lot of money by rethinking your meat intake and substituting healthier alternatives such as beans and unrefined grains like quinoa. Beans are very inexpensive, and healthful. Unless the meat you are buying is grass-fed and free range, it is not good for you (and it isn’t particularly paleo either. Cavemen did not sup on cornfed steers). Even grass fed beef should be eaten in very limited quantities. I do research on the effects of diet on heart disease, and believe me, the arteries of the men who claim to be following the paleo diet are NOT pretty.
Congrats on the progress with the budget. For me, I had to start budgeting things like travel and gifts (mostly for Xmas) rather than planning to pay it out of my “extra” paycheck. I always spent those paychecks at least three times by the time I actually got them.
We follow a “everything in moderation” diet. I’ve never been a fan of “fad” diets and I consider the Paleo fad just like the South Beach Diet of yesterday. To each their own, but to make statements that you’ll live longer and healthier by going to any extreme is simply unproven.
The budget is a roommate you have asked to move in with you and rather than have three-way fights you need to gang up on him.
i like this analogy!
I’m just commenting to say that I LOVE your charitable giving. Don’t listen to people saying to lower it. Ever since I got my first job I have donated money monthly, with a long term goal of donating 10% of my net income. I’m up to about 5% now and I have never regretted it, it feels so great.
Thank you Jade! I don’t think we’ll reduce it.
Did I miss seeing household expenses and repairs? We live in an older home, but for us household furnishings and repairs have been huge the past 5 years. Easily more than our food budget. Also, for 2 people, I think the grocery amount seems high. We spend that or less for 2 adults and 2 kids and we entertain a lot. I use Costco as my primary grocery store and make almost everything from scratch. It is time consuming, but due to severe food allergies, it is really important to me to know exactly what is in our meals. The added benefit is that our grocery bill went from about $700/month to about $400. Even for 2 people, you can buy in bulk and freeze for later.