I read the replies to my "No resolutions allowed" entry and the one about accountability really struck home with me. I need to be accountable. Oh, I know I'm accountable to YHWH in regard to my stewardship of what He's given me and I even have a group of women online that I report to in some things. But apparently that's just not enough for me.
Now, I'm a pretty frugal person, believe it or not. I feed a family of 4 adults and 2 part time teens on less than $250 most months. We have no car payments and very little credit card debt. We manage to pay our bills for the most part but the mortgage payment, as small as it is, has just been an issue lately. We're self employed so we don't have a stable income and that's part of the problem. I won't go into all that here and now but suffice to say it's an issue and one I'm not sure I can resolve quickly. I'm going to pray and think on all of this.
In the meantime, I need more accountability so this blog will be my spending log. I'll post entries detailing our anticipated monthly expenditures, what we've actually spent and where, when, and for what, etc. Maybe that will help me.
I'm still reading the blogs of others and I'm still impressed. I'm also learning quite a bit but if any of you have suggestions for me, I'd love to know them.
So I was thinking...
December 30th, 2006 at 04:03 am
December 30th, 2006 at 04:16 am 1167452201
December 30th, 2006 at 05:22 am 1167456157
December 30th, 2006 at 02:20 pm 1167488458
I worked at a local retail place but quit because my other half said he needed me to handle the phone calls and paperwork of the business while he's out making sales calls and such. This is a bad time of year financially and people aren't buying many ads right now. I'm considering going back to work, at least part time, but don't have a vehicle and there is no public transportation where we are. In the meantime, though, I'm going to talk to DH about this and get his thoughts on it. If I work, he will need to rearrange his schedule to get me to work and back but he's done that before so it isn't like he doesn't know how!
Thanks for your suggestions. I'm going to post an entry here later today probably with our expenses. I really appreciate the ideas!
December 31st, 2006 at 09:48 am 1167558505
The 18 year old son budgets and pays for his own lunch stuff now as he packs it off to his employment. He also pays for all of his other needs as well, clothes, medical insurance, car insurance, etc. When he turns 20 if he's still at home he'll come off the Mom & Dad dole for a roof, utilities & meals and go to paying R&B as well. It's certainly cheaper than if they were renting some place on their own.
On the varying amounts of income -- you might try and visit Jesse's You Need A Budget site (youneedabudget.com) and on there it helps you think about budgeting on just such a system. Say perhaps that you average 1300 a month in income w/some months at 1600 and some at 900 but fixed expenses are 1000.00 - figure out how to keep hold of the money on the high months and boost the low months from those savings and take a draw of 1000.00 a month for your monthly self SALARY...his budget program would help - but you can also do it w/plain old pencil and paper....I did for years.
Good luck to you - this place is full of all kinds of good help! Keep reading and posting!