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[Hugmonster]

DH and I are having some financial issues. We are doing better than in the past, but the two months I went from FT to 8 hours a week really hurt us.

He is thinking about a budget, but does not do those realistically. We know we eat out way to much, daily for lunch. But it is needed to get away from work.

Any good websites or books you can recommend. We seem to swing from don't spend anything to spend it all.

[rescuesk]

I started last March with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. It's a great guideline, although I don't follow it to the letter (no comment, Bridgit, if you read this! )

Anyway...we were literally tossing money out the window and knew we needed to make some changes. In addition to setting up a budget, DH and I needed to make some lifestyle changes or the budget wouldn't help.

I started out by sitting down and figuring out approximately how much we spent each week on various items. I put those figures down on paper and then decided where I could cut from. That was a real eye opening day. Another way to work on that is to keep track for a week or two of every penny you spend. You will be AMAZED at where the money really goes.

Then I took about 12 envelopes and wrote a realistic figure to put away each week for each category. Some of my categories are dog food, groceries, gifts, spending, etc. I included things we didn't want to totally give up, like dinners out and getting my nails done, as well as the occasional bottle of wine for me and Captain Morgan for DH. They got rolled over into the budget.

Then, I took some of the larger bills that we pay quarterly, like our EZ Pass, insurance and sewer bills. I divided then by 52 weeks, and marked on the envelope how much I needed to put away each week so that we didn't panic when those bills came due.

Then, I took 2 envelopes for what Dave Ramsey calls "sinking funds" which are bills that come at the worst possible time. Mine are car repairs and vet bills (I have 2 dogs and 4 cats). They get a little each week.

Our major bills are paid out of rest of the money that goes into the checking account. Those are easier to budget because they are a fixed amount each month.

It was H++A++R++D at first to stick to the budget. I was used to walking around with $100 in my pocket, now I had $20. I started to take my lunch every day, we made coffee in the morning and at work. DH has a little coffee maker in his office that saved him countless trips to Wawa, and we have one at work where I put a buck or two in the kitty each week and drink my coffee for free. We ate home ALOT. No more "I'm tired, let's eat out". There's a sticky in this forum called Fast and Frugal dinners, and I make alot of those!

Our budget took alot of tweaking, and I still tweak it to this day For instance, I had to increase our grocery budget when prices soared last year. That money had to come from somewhere, so I took it from one of the sinking funds.

Sorry this got ao long, but having a budget is an important first step in getting ahead financially. It is SO nice knowing that when the insurance or the EZ Pass comes due, or when I need a bag of dog food, the money is there and I am not scrambling to pay for it!

[saremca]

Big second to the Dave Ramsey suggestion. We followed his plan pretty closely (although we definitely wouldn't qualify as gazelles) and are debt-free except for our mortgage, which we have another 2-3 years left to pay on. His plan is not easy in terms of you have to give up a lot and get serious about cutting your spending and saving, but it is easy in that it's a simple, easy to follow plan.

[korki-rad]

We just started with Dave Ramsey the first of this year (we did Financial Peace University) and are still figuring out the whole budget thing, but are definitely getting better. Likewise, we don't feel we can follow it to the letter, but do the best we can.

We spent two months really keeping track of every single penny we spent and recording it. (Since we use our debit cards almost exclusively, it wasn't too hard, since we could just pull the bank records.) At first we used Dave Ramsey's online budget software, but DH didn't really like it, so now we use some software called You Need a Budget (YNAB) that lets us import our online bank records and sort into various categories, so we can see how much we are spending on various items.

Seeing everything in black and white was VERY eye-opening. It was SHOCKING how much we were spending on eating out! I am too embarrassed to even say how much it was. But, after having that number stare at us, it was very motivating to work harder at fixing meals and eating in. It was also very good for DH to see how much $$ he was spending on things like energy drinks throughout the month...now he works harder to go to bed on time so he doesn't *need* an energy drink.

The other thing that has been key for us is the envelope system. We don't use credit cards, but it was too easy to whip out the debit card and then wonder why we were out of money at the end of the month. With the envelope system, you budget for the various things you need each month (or each week or whatever -- DH gets paid monthly, so that's how we do it), put that money into an envelope and that is all you can spend. When the envelope is empty, you are done spending.

We are working on getting "gazelle intense" as Dave Ramsey would say. We are both looking for outside jobs to help pay down some debt, it's just hard to find anything right now. And we are going pretty bare bones on meals and things, to save as much money as possible. I am planning to go to thrift shops and consignment stores to buy the kids' summer clothes -- they will just be playing outside and don't need much in the way of "good" clothes in the heat of the summer. I've also been selling a lot of the kids' old things at consignment stores.

It's like Dave Ramsey says....you've got to live like no one else so you can LIVE like no one else!!

Good luck...and remember, it's going to take some time to get it all right. But just keep plugging along and it will get easier!!

[saremca]

Also, the forums on DR's site are pay forums, but there is a great (free) community of DR followers here: Living Like No One Else. There are some really cool people there and they know their stuff. Hugely helpful to us when we were getting started.

[twogirlsmom]

Yep- another Dave fan here! Dave's information is not just about creating a budget. That's only one small step. His style is to transform your mindset on money and life. DH & I were just floundering along without a lot of direction or goals. After reading Dave's book Total Money Makeover, it all became crystal clear to us. We had steps to follow & goals to meet.

I just wanted to add- we also don't follow everything he teaches to a "T". We've adapted it the best we can for right now and as things change in our life, jobs, etc- we tweak our budget and plan to reflect the changes.

[Hugmonster]

Thank you every one. I will see if the library has a copy of the book. It's kinda funny, keeping focus is the hardest thing. DH will be interested and ready, but I won't and vis versa.

[korki-rad]

Originally Posted by Hugmonster

Thank you every one. I will see if the library has a copy of the book. It's kinda funny, keeping focus is the hardest thing. DH will be interested and ready, but I won't and vis versa.

Something that DR talks about in FPU is that in every couple there is a "nerd" and a "free spirit." Neither is a negative connotation -- everyone needs a "nerd" to help keep the focus on the goals, to actually do the budget, etc. And the "free spirit" is necessary so that you actually have a little fun now and again (with the "nerd" there to reign it in before it costs you too much.) He recommends having a monthly budget meeting (or however often you need one), but that the nerd be very aware of the free spirit's attention span...if the meeting goes too long, the free spirit won't buy into it. Not sure if TMM goes into this, but it was an entire lesson in FPU.

[Angela531]

We have John Cummuta's Transforming Debt into Wealth and absolutely love the lessons learned (sometimes hard lessons). We too were spending too much on convenient things like eating out, video rentals, ect. It is hard in the beginning, but after awhile everything just becomes routine. His program shows how to prioritize debts and pay them off completely and quickly using the Accelerator Margin (the extra $ you "find" after cutting out/modifying unnecessary expenses). With his program you can be completely debt free (including mortgage) w/i 4-5yrs.

[Minnie-ZB]

Recently Jean Chatzky had an article in the USAA member magazine about budgeting. I found it to be very helpful in guiding us towards a budget. I noticed she recently put her budget tips on her blog:

A Budget Breakdown « Jean Chatzky blog :: The Difference :: Personal finance, debt, and money advice

I hope this helps you. I know for me it is the first time I really understood what I was supposed to be doing. Hey, I'm a slow learner and apparently I need a pie chart.