I have a love/hate relationship with budgeting. I do really well for a while and then find myself slipping. When you have a bunch of kids, you need to live on a budget. There always something to budget for like orthodontics, summer camps, medical bills, outgrown shoes……

I also have a desire to do some minor (and not so minor) home improvements. I want to pay cash for those.

Starting this month, I will be going back to pencil and paper budgeting. DH and I have a few expenses that we know are coming and we need to get back on track. Last week, I wrote down just my “random expenses” and they were $38 for the week. We all do it, but I was just surprised how much it was. Especially on a week I knew I was tracking.

Here is what I spent my $38 on:

Lunches out at work (3 days) $22

Diet sodas from vending machine $7.50

Muffin and drink one morning $5.50

A drink for Kid 1 at gas station $3.00

Not that I needed to track this to know, I spend too much on eating out and diet soda. (I know it is a bad habit. That will be a goal later)

I have dusted off my Dave Ramsey stuff. I have subscribed to his podcasts again. I have made a list of our debt smallest to largest. I have scheduled a meeting with DH.

I will be getting estimates on car and house insurance and looking at our cell phone plan. We already got rid of cable and we do not have car payments.

I will also be looking more closely at our food budget. When I review our expenses, we spend a good part of our budget on food. It is my failure to plan. I need to do some meaningful meal planning.

My husband and I also need to get back to meeting about the budget. Talking about money is stressful, emotional, and can sometimes be uncomfortable. So like things that are easily avoided.

I will be posting when we have a budget savings and how we achieved it. I will be looking hard at what we are doing and asking if we really need it. It is my hope that our ideas will inspire you to live on less for your projects and plans.