A Workable Budget

I am sure that you have often read in my posts that a budget is a must if you are to successfully make the jump from working mom to stay at home mom. I can not stress how important it is to know exactly where your money is going. So this month even though it is already November 4th I thought I would issue a challenge to all you moms out there to write down EVERYTHING that you spend this month. The first step in creating a workable budget is to actually see where your money is going. I think you will be surprised. I know that the first time I did this I was very nervous. I knew that I did not always spend wisely and by writing things down my husband was going to know how much I really spent on things.

After our first month of writing down every penny we spent my husband and I were amazed to see how much money we actually just let slip through our fingers without even noticing it. By the end of our experiment we were able to "find" $500 a month extra to put into our savings account each month. WOW what a wake up call.

To help you out I thought that I would play along and post my family's daily spending so that I can remain accountable to sticking to my budget as well. At the end of the month I will post how well I stayed within our budget this month. I will work on getting the last 4 days up as soon as possible.

For more information on setting up a workable budget as well as getting out of debt I would highly recommend Dave Ramsey's total money makeover. His books and classes have changed the way my husband and I think about money as well as our outlook on paying off our debts quicker.

Leave me a comment below if you would like to join me in this. Together we can keep each other accountable.