We got married about a month after we graduated from college and spent most of our money on unexpected honeymoon fees (ugh). Why doesn't life warn you about these things?
When I graduated I had just finished student teaching and you can't work while student teaching. Too much work, seriously.
I had a job during school, but it was on campus and we all know that you can't work on campus anymore as a student if you aren't a student. Awful, I know. The plan was for me to either get a job teaching or start substitute teaching once school started. THAT is a whole different rant I could get into. Finding a teaching job is so stressful when you're a new teacher. BUT, we got married in July and school doesn't start 'til late August.
I had a job during school, but it was on campus and we all know that you can't work on campus anymore as a student if you aren't a student. Awful, I know. The plan was for me to either get a job teaching or start substitute teaching once school started. THAT is a whole different rant I could get into. Finding a teaching job is so stressful when you're a new teacher. BUT, we got married in July and school doesn't start 'til late August.
Nick, luckily, had an awesome job at an artisan bakery in town and it was just barely making ends meet. I'm so glad we didn't have to start paying off loans yet.
Now we have to be grownups. Yuck.
Nick and I discussed finances well before we got married. I'll give all the credit to his parents who just discovered Dave Ramsey when we were dating and encouraged us to read and follow his book!
If you don't know about Dave Ramsey and this book, you can learn more about him here (I'll save you an extremely long blog post). I'll also save you time on explaining the whole book, but it was an eye-opener for us. We were both just living life and spending money. We were paying bills, but somehow found ourselves short on money when it came time to it.
Now our real budget starts. BTW, I love Calvin and Hobbes.
We pay most of our things in cash now. We keep all of our cash in envelopes (see how I made envelopes here). I'll just let you in on how we disperse our money.
We have cash envelopes for:
- Groceries (broken up in weekly chunks)
- Gas
- Household items (separate from groceries, but shampoo, cleaners, towels, etc.)
- Car money (this is still in the works for us, but it's our oil change money and stuff)
- Individual blow money - we give ourselves some money each month that we can spend on ourselves. This includes: clothes shopping, coffee runs, thrift store hunting, whatever.
We used to pay our bills in person, too (so we had cash for those), but our utilities and property manager live in totally different areas, so it is much more frugal and gas-saving to pay things online.
I also have a budget workbook on excel that helps me keep track of when we pay things and how much they all cost. It really helps when you have too many things to pay off online.
We actually have a separate savings account that we keep money in for paying everything. Having it in its own account allows us to make sure we are putting enough into the account for the following month and then we know that all of our extra income can be put into savings.
One thing that Dave Ramsey recommends that I would HIGHLY recommend is to give yourself an emergency fund. What it is, is an account that you never ever touch unless it is an emergency.
Our fund is equal to two months of bills/rent/food money just in case something were to happen and one, or both of us, didn't have a job and we needed to still pay for things. We haven't touched it at all since we've been married and I have forgotten many times that we even have it, but it is seriously such a stress reliever to know that you have it. Plus, if you put it in a savings account it can take on interest!
We STILL don't have this whole budget thing 100% figured out.
We're still having tobuy not buy those extra movies from Goodwill.
We're still trying to figure out how much to put into different savings.
We're still making financial mistakes.
But we are learning and doing things much better than we used to.
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I hope that didn't totally bore you, but I know that it's always nice to see how other people organize their money/finances. Actually, it's nice to know how people organize things in general.
If you are interested, really check out Dave Ramsey's book. It is an amazing eye opener.
I recently came across another blog that can really help you as well if you're looking to save more and spend less. You don't have to do exactly what she does, but she explains everything she is doing on her spending fast (and spending diet) and why. Go check it out. It's a worthwhile read.
We pay most of our things in cash now. We keep all of our cash in envelopes (see how I made envelopes here). I'll just let you in on how we disperse our money.
We have cash envelopes for:
- Groceries (broken up in weekly chunks)
- Gas
- Household items (separate from groceries, but shampoo, cleaners, towels, etc.)
- Car money (this is still in the works for us, but it's our oil change money and stuff)
- Individual blow money - we give ourselves some money each month that we can spend on ourselves. This includes: clothes shopping, coffee runs, thrift store hunting, whatever.
I was worried about having money envelopes hanging around the house, but we have it hidden pretty well. It's not in the underwear/sock drawer either :)
We used to pay our bills in person, too (so we had cash for those), but our utilities and property manager live in totally different areas, so it is much more frugal and gas-saving to pay things online.
I also have a budget workbook on excel that helps me keep track of when we pay things and how much they all cost. It really helps when you have too many things to pay off online.
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| Click picture to enlarge |
We actually have a separate savings account that we keep money in for paying everything. Having it in its own account allows us to make sure we are putting enough into the account for the following month and then we know that all of our extra income can be put into savings.
One thing that Dave Ramsey recommends that I would HIGHLY recommend is to give yourself an emergency fund. What it is, is an account that you never ever touch unless it is an emergency.
Our fund is equal to two months of bills/rent/food money just in case something were to happen and one, or both of us, didn't have a job and we needed to still pay for things. We haven't touched it at all since we've been married and I have forgotten many times that we even have it, but it is seriously such a stress reliever to know that you have it. Plus, if you put it in a savings account it can take on interest!
We STILL don't have this whole budget thing 100% figured out.
We're still having to
We're still trying to figure out how much to put into different savings.
We're still making financial mistakes.
But we are learning and doing things much better than we used to.
--------
I hope that didn't totally bore you, but I know that it's always nice to see how other people organize their money/finances. Actually, it's nice to know how people organize things in general.
If you are interested, really check out Dave Ramsey's book. It is an amazing eye opener.
I recently came across another blog that can really help you as well if you're looking to save more and spend less. You don't have to do exactly what she does, but she explains everything she is doing on her spending fast (and spending diet) and why. Go check it out. It's a worthwhile read.
