R and I sat down Sunday night to finally discuss a real budget. it's pretty much gone out the window for this month due to Saturday night, but we're going to try to be good and get ourselves back on track for the rest of the month.
I've become serious about wanting to buy a house. we spend entirely too much on rent (an unfortunate thing about living in L.A.), so we really need to look at keeping ourselves in check with the things that we do have control over. I'm fully aware that moving into a place that doesn't cost as much every month would be the ideal thing to do in order to save money quicker, but 1. I'm sick of moving, 2. we need something as big as what we're in now so that we have room for all of our stuff and 2 big dogs, 3. we want to stay in the area that we are in. I know this will slow the savings down a bit, but that's something we're willing to deal with.
our biggest thing is dinners out. we spend way too much going out during the weekend. we'll spend anywhere from $60-$100 for dinners and around $20-$40 for lunch. at least three days out of the 4 that Ray is home. this is what we need to stop doing. this is our biggest issue. we budgeted $400 for the month for eating out. and we were sitting there wondering how we're ever going to be able to stick to that. but I understand that we have to give things up in order to save money or else we'll never buy a house. because obviously what we're doing right now isn't working.
we also have a lot of credit card debt that we have to pay off. unfortunately we went through a rough time last year about 6 months after we got married where neither one of us had a job. R was out of a job for 6 months. and he can't collect unemployment since he is self-employed. and I couldn't find a job in my area for the life of me. we ended up going through all of the savings that we had that we were planning on devoting to a down payment for a house or to paying off credit cards. if we had been able to actually use that savings toward what it was meant for, we would be sitting so pretty regarding credit cards. but, it didn't happen that way. so now we have to pay it down slowly. I cannot wait until they are paid off because that is going to free up a pretty hefty chunk of change every month that we can devote to a down payment. and with me starting work in September, my extra income will be fantastic.
as long as Ray can keep a contract for long-term, things will really be looking up and we might even be able to start looking next year for a home. and that makes me very excited.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
budget minded
Posted by Kelly at 1:41 PM
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2 comments:
You can do it!! We were in the same situation a few yrs ago, really wanted to buy a house, and so we came up w/ a plan.
Like you said, we only ate out 1x/2x/week and brought our lunches to work. Made coffee at home so that Starbucks wouldn't drain our accounts.
We had multiple CC's so what we did was:
1. Pay just the minimum on all the cards (for a reason, I swear, below) except for the one w/ the highest interest rate so that......
2. we could apply the "leftover excess" money to that one. It made such a huge impact on paying off the balance.
3. Then once that was paid off, we did the same thing to the next credit card.
It sounds like you're already thinking ahead, so you'll get a house before you know it =)
Just like freckles said - you can do it! it is hard - really hard but the reward is amazing! i know we spend a ridiculous amt on food too - we ended up still eating out but getting water instead of soda or margaritas. And another thing that helps is roadside pickup - less $$ for tips. also - the lunch thing - make the lunch at home the night before (just like in school). The next day it is already made and available so you are less tempted to make the taco bell run :)
every little bit helps and as long as you and the boy are on the same page - you can be sitting in your new digs before you know it!
You go girl!
Katie
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