A Grownup Budget

For the first time in my life I sat down and did a serious monthly budget. Literally. K and I have finally reached the point where living paycheck to paycheck, building up saving only to empty it out unexpectedly, is unacceptable and we’re dedicated to making this budget work.

Here’s how we did it.

1. Collect information. We saved every grocery receipt since January. We have the bills for all of our utilities and such available so that we can look back and project where the costs will be next month.
2. Organize it on the calendar. First we put all bills due on the calendar for the upcoming months to allow us to see when what is due in relation to when we’re expecting in income.
3. Spreadsheet! We broke out a Google spreadsheet to list every item in income and spending, as well as planning for savings, incidental and unexpected costs, etc.
4. Try it. We’ve laid out our budget in June. We don’t expect it to be perfect but we do expect it to be a start. We’re going to save every receipt in June, count every penny we spend.
5. Evolve. Based on how June goes we’re going to modify it and go again.

We ended the night both excited about the prospect of building a saving and paying off our debts. However, that being said, we both unanimously hate growing up.