Spending Less, Saving More

Toward the end of July my husband and I decided to revamp our finances.  One day during the week I had a day to myself and I started looking around at all of the clutter that lie scattered around the house, and I thought to myself, "do we even use this stuff that we buy?"  The answer was irrevocably no.  I began to think of the money that was spent on this clutter that we don't use and spend our valuable time dusting.  Thousands of dollars I'm sure spent on unnecessary items that add no value to our lives, but we thought it was neat or pretty or smelled good and we spent ten to twenty dollars to take it home with us.

At this point I knew we needed a drastic change in the way we viewed our money.  I began by watching Youtube videos and reading blogs.  Back in December I believe, my husband and I bought Dave Ramsey's Money Makeover book and of course it set idly on a shell gathering dust.  I grabbed the book, blew off the excess dust and cracked it open.  I took notes, highlighted and dog tagged the points I wanted to share with Kyle once he got home.

I decided that our first and easiest step would be to set a budget for our family.  So after about three or four tries I finally came up with a budget system that worked for our family.  Here's what I came up with.

• First I calculated all of our set monthly expenses such as electric, house payment, gas, etc,.

• Second, I thought of how much our family would need to spend a month on food, grocery store only.  Depending on your family size this total would differ.  Also included in this second step I included personal budget, such as hygiene, and funds for gas each month, as well. 

• Third, I calculated the unexpected such as car expenses, birthdays, showers, weddings, and travel.  Including an unexpected budget is dyer.  Without having this included in your budget you are guaranteed to feel discouraged because we can't always calculate down to each penny.

• Fourth I gave my husband and I some blow money just to keep us semi relaxed during this trying time of not spending as much as we were used to.  This was only about enough for a coffee once a week for the both of us.

• Last but not least, I calculated how much money we would have let over at the end of the month to put towards our debt.  

Another tip I picked up from Dave Ramsey was the envelope system which I'm sure most of you have at least heard of.  The envelope system is essentially a way of spending less and saving more.  At the beginning of every month I head to the bank and take out enough cash to cover groceries, gas, and personal items for the month.  I then divide each amount in two and store one half in my wallet when I head to the grocery store and the other half in our safe at home until I'm ready for the second half of the month's expenses.  This has really helped my husband and I not to overspend.  We are using cash for our expenses other than monthly bills, instead of just swiping a card each time with no concern of how much we are really losing.

When enforcing the envelope system in our lives it is very essential to plan ahead.  For example, going to grocery store is no longer a spur the moment decision.  We have to sit down, plan our meals for month and make a list of ingredients we will need.  I also try to incorporate what we already have in the house.  Once I have my list ready, I head to the grocery store with the money for the next two weeks and my phone for a calculator.  I add up everything that goes into my cart because we only have our cash with us.  No checkbook or credit cards!!  If we go over budget we are forced to put something back.  Unnecessary buys can't happen during this trip.  Whatever is left goes home, into the safe to put towards the next two week shopping money.

I, however was not a fan of carrying around a bunch of envelopes filled with money.  My first goal was to find a wallet that would help me with this system and fortunately I found the perfect one.  An expandable wallet with slots that I could label my money, groceries, spending money, gas, personal, etc,.  I ditched the envelopes and just added clips to keep my money together.  This system has really worked for me and those of you who aren't that thrilled to be carrying around envelopes I suggest you try out clips, as well.

Not overspending allows my family and I to pay down our debt and spend our money on experiences rather than on things we won't be using.  I would much rather live a simple lifestyle that isn't filled with thousand of things and instead experience life through traveling and going on adventures.  I hope these tips help you and your family.  If you have any tips, feel free to share in the comments.