Brad and I needed to start a budget once again to get us on the fast track to paying off student Loans Gag!
Anyway when we do a budget we find sticking with Cash works best for us! So we got onto the magic budget ladys website (Gail) and clicked on the resource button at the top. Then we scrolled down to the interactive budget work sheet. This is amazing and works wonders for us. Some people it does not work for but for us it does. So we punched in all of our numbers and reworked it all till it came out perfect. Trust me it took a good portion of 2 night's to get everything to balance out. But after it's all done if you look over to the side she Tell's you how much each week you have to spend on your needs. Awesome!
Anyway so for my budget binder i took a small binder (like a mini one) I kinda thing you can only get them in the states but I'm not sure on that. Anyway i had it on hand. So i took a 12 by 12 scrapbook paper folded the bottom up and folded it in half to make a pocket on each side and hole punched the open side.
Like in this picture
So i use the front pocket for the week recipes and when the week's over i move them to the pocket on the other side and save them for the end of the month when i evaluated how we've done.
Then i whipped out my Handy Dandy Silhouette and printed off in vinyl the purpose and amount for each pocket.
Behind the pocket page I have page protectors that I've, in vinyl, printed off "weekly Budget" that's were i stick the weekly amount of cash that we have for that categories and on a second page protector I've got overflow. which if for the extra money that we have at the end of the week (which we have yet to contribute to that). Anyway so this is were the cash goes.
In between every category I've got little papers for note or to jot down if we bought something and didn't get a recipt.
I added in a calender at the back of the book to write down the date and amount of Bills that come out of our account in a month Such as Insurance, Taxes, Car payment all the things that are automatically debited out of our account. So by the end of the month i can pretty much calculated what we should have in there, and it's a great feeling to know exactly were your money's going!
I love this system and my budget binder. I've got to admit when we first start on a budge it's a bit (what i would think)like coming off Crack. It's so hard and there are tonnes of tear and tonnes of negative '"i can't feed my family with that amount" but we are doing it and I'm happy to report It gets less and less embarrassing caring around my Budget binder with the more and more student loans we get paid off! Totally worth it!!
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