The "B" word

PB&J...ain't nothing like it for a late night snack! It's a good thing the girls like to eat it too; we can't exactly afford pricey steaks or eating out. But no one in this house is starving. That's for sure!

We are supposed to master our money; money isn't supposed to master us. Hubby & I understand and agree with that statement, but our monthly budget has always been a thorn. The budget usually ends up being just a report of the past month's activities when it should be acting as our boss...as in, we've spent our limit on ____, so no more money goes to ____ unless it comes from somewhere else. We haven't mastered that concept yet.

The fact that we have a budget and refer to it frequently probably puts us ahead of the game. We always make sure that the checkbook register is up-to-date, so that we don't bounce checks, and every Monday, I enter the previous week's transactions into Quicken, which allows me to track where the money goes. Hang on to your hats 'cuz I'm super anal when it comes to tracking our spending. When we first started this process, I had the basic categories in my budget...housing, groceries, utilities, etc. But I quickly tired of looking at the Groceries total and wondering, "How in the world did we spend that much on food?!" So I took it a step further.

The nice thing about Quicken is that you can add sub-categories to each main category, so under Groceries, I've created divisions for each major type of food item...breads, produce, meat, beverages (we drink a lot of coffee, juice & soda), dairy, junk food and miscellaneous grocery items. Using the numbers from the store receipt, I split the grocery bill in Quicken to see whether we're overspending on junk food or other nonsense items. It can be a little time consuming, but it's worth it. When I first started doing this, I was amazed that we weren't overspending on junk or nonsense; our problem area was dairy! Granted our girls are young and require a lot of milk, but we're also huge consumers of cheese...all kinds. In case you haven't noticed, cheese products haven't been cheap lately!

I repeat the categorization process with personal care and household items as well, so that I can see how much we're spending (or rather overspending) on cleaners, batteries, paper towels and the like. Categorizing to this level also helps me determine whether it's better the purchase the industrial-size dishwasher soap or the tiny little package.

After all the categorizing in Quicken, I run a report and use transfer those totals to a custom Excel budget worksheet. Not only do I track the totals, but I also have columns for averages...average year to date and the current month average. As I enter the numbers each week, I can determine, at a glance, whether our spending habits in one area or another are improving or worsening. Even though this weekly financial exercise is time intensive, the payoff is enormous!! Not only can I quickly find out where we sit, but so can hubby.

When I was in college, I was told that the higher the executive the less detail he/she cares about; they want the bottom line. I am the CFO (chief financial officer) of our family; hubby is the CEO. Working on finances is not his forte; I'm a nerd. But I also want him involved. He needs to know exactly where we stand, so that he can keep his own spending in line. Every week, he & I look at my custom Excel worksheet, and within minutes, he's able to tell that we're either on or off track for the month. We do not argue. We do not have long discussions that begin with, "Why did we spend so much on ____?" As I work on my worksheet, if I think there may be a question later on, I'll make a note to explain why spending in a certain area was higher than normal.

You may read this and think "UGH! No way! That's not for me!"

And you may be right. As I admitted earlier, I am super anal about tracking our spending. And in our current situation, I think that anal retentive nature has been a blessing. The budget keeps us accountable. It helps us improve in areas that need improvement; it gives us encouragement when we need to lighten up on ourselves. And most importantly, it answers the question...where did all our money go?!

This month, we started a new budget, and we're doing okay! I've been able to make some smaller changes in my shopping habits that have resulted in savings and resulted in better planning. One thing that's always been problematic for us is frequent trips to the store because I forgot to purchase something. Most of the time, you go into the store for one thing and come out with ten, right? With the new budget, we aren't making those frequent stops at the store. Unless we absolutely have to have something before the next shopping trip, we do without.

Tonight, I'm faced with that reality. All day today, I've been realizing that we're out of this, out of that, out of the other. Geesh! I was tired tonight and didn't feel like making a big dinner, so tonight was breakfast night! I started cooking the bacon when I realized we had only three eggs left. Grrrrr. But we got creative and ended up eating some of the leftovers that needed to be eaten. It may not have been the most coordinated meal known to man, but everyone left the dinner table with a full tummy. That's what is important, right? :)

So between the little changes in shopping habits and intense tracking of those shopping trips, our limited dollars will be stretched as far as they can go. And they've gone quite far! As I prayed for, God has blessed us beyond what we anticipated. Hubby gets his unemployment every Friday, and every week (so far) we still had money in our account by the time the next check was deposited. I have no doubt that we'd be in trouble if we didn't examine our spending with a magnifying glass every week.

To think...when I first brought up the idea of a budget with hubby, he cringed. Now he wants to know if we're maintaining or improving. Some months are worse than others, but we are definitely making some improvement. Over the last few weeks, I've had one thought over and over. If he & I are able to live on our current income (roughly half what it once was), then when he does find a new job we should be able to start saving way more than we ever did before....all because of some minor changes and a little extra time.

I don't care what you think of the "b" word. For us, it works like a charm, and it makes us masters of our money. In a time of crisis, you can't beat that!!

Question: Do you know where your money goes every month?