The Dreaded Budget

A budget sucks. There's no way around it, no way to spin it to make it sound fun. They are not good times. They are just necessary. To have a Life After Student Loans you need to control your life while trying to get rid of student loans. A budget makes that possible. I don't know how many times I would check my bank balance and think "Where did all our money go!?", and I know everyone else does that too. A budget is the answer. And I'll let you in on a little secret, eventually they aren't all that bad. In fact, I look forward to doing ours every month.

At the end of every month, Husband and I sit down and plan where our money will go the following month. We take how much income we will have that month plus anything left over (if we get lucky) from the previous month and spend that money on paper until we are at zero. We start with necessities when planning the budget making sure we have enough for the basics: food, rent/mortgage, utilities, and transportation. Then we move on to the other necessary bills: car insurance, etc. Then we write in the things needed that month: clothes, car maintenance, doctor visit copays, etc. Anything left over is dumped into the student loan debt.

Don't get me wrong, we don't live like monks. We give ourselves a reasonable allowance to spend as we please. We write a line into our budget every month for a date night or two. And we are slowly doing some much needed renovations to our condo; we just have a budget for all of that. (Stay tuned for future posts about my attempts at DIY home improvement)

If you're handy with spreadsheets, have fun customizing a budget for yourself. If you're not, financial guru Dave Ramsey has some great ones available for free on his website http://www.daveramsey.com/tools/budget-forms/    Dave Ramsey is a proponent of the all cash envelope system. Each envelope is labeled for what that cash is designated for; when there is no money left in that envelope, you will not be spending any more money on that item. We don't use this for most things, but it does mean we have to be very honest with each other when we're using our debit card.

I now look forward to doing our budget because it is so motivating to see how much money is going into the debt. Its a competition with ourselves to see how much of our income can be put towards that. Disclaimer: if you are doing this as a couple, the budget process was realllly not fun the first few times. It takes practice, and a few emergency rewrites mid month before you'll get to the point where you look forward to it as a couple. Added Bonus: the discussion and compromise of the budget meetings will spread to the rest of your marriage making your marriage that much stronger. If you're doing this as a singleton, this is equally a perk and a drawback. You don't have to argue, beg and cajole to come to an agreement on the budget with someone else, but on the flip side, there's no one to keep you honest, either.

Shannon C.