Monthly Budget

So, for the first time I sat down and actually did a budget. Yes, I know. How have I been operating up until now?! I have no idea. I had no idea how much more than our income we were spending. Yes, I just admitted we spent more than we made. Kinda. My bonuses actually kept us afloat. We spent all of my bonuses as well. My new goal is to spend significantly less and just live on our income in order to save my bonuses and any other extra money that comes in (like tax return).

Well, now that I've done a budget, it's really tough to stick to!! I budget us really thin as you can tell. We save a good sum into our retirement and the boys college accounts every month. Aside from our usual monthly bills, I get $200 for gas (which might be a bit high), $300 for food and $164 for extras.

Well, unexpected expenses come up and can blow a budget very easily. This month it just happened to be a $200 insurance bill. We decided to purchase an umbrella policy. We hadn't had one before. Here is a relatively easy read on what an umbrella policy is and why they are important. http://http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/Insureyourhome/P35349.asp

So now I'm trying to come up with an extra $200 in our budget. We only spent $140 on gas this month and I have some money coming from a garage sale my sister held earlier this year. These two things give me around $110. It's interesting to see where you can get a bit of extra money if needed.

My new years resolution this year was to not use my credit card except for certain things that require a credit card (I have one membership that charges my credit card each month). I'm proud to say that I've charged a whopping $2 this year. For parking when I had no cash on me. That will be reimbursed by work though. So far so good!!