2013: The Year of the Budget

At the risk of sounding shallow and, well, completely irresponsible, I'm coming out with it: Over the last few days I put together the first budget for our family ever.  This is a little pathetic as my husband and I have been married for four and a half years and our kids are almost four (no they're not bastards...I just got pregnant practically the day after we got married and they were born REALLY early) and we're just now getting this done. As I mentioned in my last blog, my husband is still with the same company, just accepted a new position. It was our hope that in spite of the pay cut his overall hours and stress would drop significantly. In reality, he gets paid half the money, works more and is more stressed. AWESOME!!!! That being said, it is what it is, and after multiple transfers from savings to checking last year it occurred to me we most definitely are spending more than is coming in. DUH!!!! Enter the budget.

I actually had a blast putting it together. Don't get me wrong, the end result ain't pretty, but I feel so much better knowing exactly what is coming in each month and exactly what is going out. I made this pretty little spread sheet in Excel and am now obsessed. We actually do a good job with the frivolous spending, but realized that there are a couple of areas that we can improve on. For one, Starbucks.

Let me just preface this by saying since having kids, Starbucks is my drug of choice. It's my crack. I go every single day (sometimes twice). "Hello, my name is Ann, and I'm addicted to chai." However, when you're spending nearly $300/month there, it's time for an intervention. I have to add that the $300 isn't just me, my husband goes every day too. And after hot chocolates here and there for the girls and breakfast for the four of us at least one day over the weekend, it adds up! So the REALISTIC (really important) goal is that I will only go once a day and I will no longer order food. Let's be honest, there's no way, unless of course I donated my kids to Salvation Army, that I could (translation: would want to) cut it out completely. This is doable. The other big ticket items are tuition and childcare while I'm in school.

Childcare alone is almost $2000/month. Ouch! It makes it hurt even more that I work for free. I'm currently a lowly intern with a monthly income of ZERO dollars. Double ouch! Anyway, as of now we pay for my tuition out of pocket but we're looking into the option of taking out a loan which if I'm not mistaken, is interest free until I graduate (or six months after). The goal would be to chip away a little bit while I'm still in school, even more over summers as I won't incur the same childcare costs, and pay off the balance quickly after graduation. We shall see, still need to look into it.

Another doozie is Comcast which seems to go up every few months. Time to give them a call and let them know I'm jumping ship unless...

The budget is definitely an eye opener. It feels so good to be on top of it though. And, if you haven't done yours yet (which I'm sure you all have as you're likely far less shallow and far more responsible than I) GET TO IT!!!!