Our Budget Basics

Written by Nicole Dean

By ClubMom Member Janette, Omaha, NE

When we were in college and first married, my husband and I made $7,000 – $8,000 together annually. Now that we’re out of college, my husband works and I stay home with our children. He makes more than we made during our college years, but we use the same budgeting method.

We were both able to get out of college debt free, and remain debt free other than our house payment and the minivan we just purchased. Here’s how we do it:

First, we make a spreadsheet. On top of the spreadsheet we list the amount of money we have each month to spend.

We then list in order of necessity the things that we’ll be spending our money on, starting with essentials such as house payment, food, insurance, gas, and so on. As we get down towards the bottom we list things like “date money, spending money, clothing,” and so forth.

Janette is a ClubMom Member from Omaha, NE.

Tags: budget, budget basics, frugal budget, frugal living, frugal mom, Show Mom the Money