Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Household Budget

It's time to start analyzing our finances again. I have been avoiding this chore like I avoid weeding on a 90 degree day...

I started going through my receipts for the year so far. I entered all my 2nd quarter numbers into a spread sheet. My categories are Eat Out, Groceries/Household, Kids, Adults, House, Gas.


I am sure the gas and eating out numbers are off, hubby is terrible about keeping receipts. Spreadsheets like this are helpful to me because I can look and see that in May we were spending money 6 out of 14 days, 3 in a row, eek! I am pretty sure we were doing a project on the house, but still, we could have planned our trips a little better!

I am encouraged to see that we only spent $951.29 in the Grocery column. I included all household, toiletry and gift items in here as well. Most of the Kids purchases were baseball related.

I don't have any amounts for the bills we paid yet, that's step 2! Most of them are paid online, so it won't be hard to assemble that data. Then I can combine the numbers and paint a better picture to create a real budget, with a plan and everything!!! I am doing this now because I want to really cut the extras out, so I can start birthday and Christmas shopping.

Some helpful budgeting links:

Free Budget Forms

Simple Debt Free Living

Create a Budget

Kiplinger's Budget Tool

The Day My Personal Financial Statement Talked To Me


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