Budget Part 2

"Aperson who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful." 1 Corinthians 4:1-2

* Make a list of all your bills/expenses.
* Make a list of all your income.

Write your total income at the top of a piece of paper. You can do this monthly, weekly, bi-weekly. Write it which ever way is easier and whichever way you pay your bills. we both get paid monthly so that is how we set ours up. Then start subtracting your bills/expenses.

EX: 3,000
- 300 (tithes)
--------
2700
- 400 (Gas)
---------
2300

When you are finished see what you have left over. If you have money left, make sure you start a savings. (This could be your emergency fund..more about this later) If you do not have any money left, decide where you can cut expenses. (Ways to save.. more about this later) Most financial advisers suggest that you have 3 months of living expenses in a savings account/emergency fund. I don't know about you but that was overwhelming for me in the beginning. My goal started out just trying to get one month's! We have finally achieved that. (Took us 10 months) I also started saving for Christmas, Property Taxes, and Camper insurance. These were three big expenses that come due and are not broken down into monthly payments. I looked at what I normally spend on Christmas (I was determined to pay cash for all of it!! and I succeeded), taxes, and Camper insurance and then divided it among 12 months. I then included each one of these as a bill. I pay it to our savings account each month and keep track of it in a log book. I have tried to include everything I could think of that would pop up and try to throw us off budget. Stay tuned for part 3........