Hello! Today we are talking about SAVING money and budgeting! Yay!
We are a one income family, and have been for 9 years. Even though my husband makes the money, it is my job to manage it. I pay the bills, I budget, I save, and let’s face it, I’m the one doing the swiping. He’s at work all day.
I create a SPENDING SPREADSHEET each month, and it’s changed my life!
A spending spreadsheet is basically just writing it down every time you make a purchase. You will be SHOOK at how much you are actually spending. The month is half over, and I’m still in the first column. You should have seen this when I first started doing it. I was in the second column by day 10. Swipe, swipe, swipe.
First, make your key according to what categories you spend. Bills like mortgage, phone, water, electric, etc. come out of our bank account. This is for our credit card. Every time I actually make a purchase, it goes here.
Gas – I use orange for this – I document both my husband’s and my gas purchases.
Bills – these are things that are necessary items that I have to purchase. Things like school pictures, prescriptions, lunch money, things like that. That’s yellow. The non-negotiables.
Groceries – I try to spend $100 or less on groceries each week. This goes in blue.
So, seeing a lot of orange, yellow, and blue on your spreadsheet is ok.
We don’t want a lot of green and pink.
Food – fast food or eating out goes in green.
Fun/Other – this is unnecessary spending; things that you don’t need. Amazon, Target…you know what I mean. Goes in pink.
Here’s ours for September so far.
As you can see, I’m not perfect! I went ham at target on the first of the month, and we have definitely eaten out a lot.
This spreadsheet just makes me way more aware of what I was spending. At the end of the month, add up the green and pink. You will be shocked, and you will think twice before you swipey swipey.
I hope this is helpful to you!
Let me know if you want more budgeting tips!
Thanks for reading 🙂
xx
The Hustlin’ Homemaker 