My sister in law, Bridget, was kind enough to let me in her business as far as debt and bills go. She and my brother have created this AWESOME spreadsheet that lays out all bills, when they are due, all the info you need for each bill and even a countdown to when certain things will be paid off!! I saved a copy of her "Budget Form", deleted her info and entered mine! I have been able to plug in my weekly salary - show what bills need to be paid that week - put money in savings and create a plan to be DEBT FREE (minus house and car) by July when #2 comes!!! I can not explain how excited I am. I really feel like a dummy b/c I am obsessed with this plan! I wish my months would speed up so I can put X's when bills are paid and update balances! I even color coded my spreadsheet so it looks more fun! Who knew paying bills and buckling down could be so much fun?!? Its going to be tight the next 5 months but I can sacrifice to make things easier for my family!! To be honest - our family will not be debt free....just me. James and I keep all of our money and bills separate from each other. Not for any reason we just never combined accounts and it works for us. He has some credit card stuff and some loans and a truck note too. If you are interested I pay the daycare, mortgage, cell phones and then my credit card that I have. He pays all the other bills that keep our house going, insurance (health/auto), his credit card(s)/loans car note. It works out to to be about even - I may pay a little more in "bills" each month but he pays anytime we go out to eat or anything "extra" - its all a wash! Some people think the way we do things is weird...but its all we've ever known so it works out well for us :-)
I'm also having lunch with my husband today - who is off on vacation today & Monday. Tomorrow is his 28th birthday and we are going to the Coushatta for the night with a group of friends! (Going to the casino is NOT in my budget anymore....but I'll make it work hehe)
Have a great weekend everyone!
GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have paid off our credit cards a couple of times during our marriage but somehow, get right back there again?!
We only have one credit card now, but it DOES have a balance. :(
This flow-chart thing would have been something that I too would have gotten super-duper excited about.... a year ago!! I finally gave the bills over to Lance.
I thought after 8 years of doing them, (one of the years being our hardest year ever) I thought I had done my part... and too many months of him promising that he would help me, but never pulling through on his word-- got them ALL tossed to him about a year ago.
I'll be honest, I am better at them.... but I needed a break from the stress-- and for that, I don't care that he doesn't do as good of a job as I do!
I never think about them anymore!
Yay!!!! I'm glad you got a system that you're excited about! Money is a stressful subject.... Sometimes I wish I could have a spreadsheet going but I always set stuff up wrong and end up screwing things up. HAHA Kent is great with money- but he does it totally different than I do; this bugs me, but I just trust what he says. I have an app on my iphone that we track a weekly budget.
ReplyDeleteHolly- I am jealous! I would LOVE to not have to worry about bills!! :( I've always done them.... and with all this traveling, it stresses me out because I don't want to miss anything.