Husband had to work last weekend and it looks like he might be working this weekend too.

Stinks to goes weeks without a day off, but the money sure will be nice! We estimate he will make about $400 for each weekend he works.

He might be working our anniversary weekend as well. So rather than staying a night out we may just dress up and go out to a fancy dinner. Will have to wait and see.

Overtime money will be nice to buy some wants and for saving for Christmas. Hoping I can talk husband into using some to pay down debt as well.

I am doing well with budgeting. Only $55 more and I will not be floating anything on credit cards, I will have the cash put aside in my account to pay every expenditure as it posts. I am being faithful with YNAB and am tracking everyday.

I've started doing some of the outdoor projects that need done before winter. I was hoping for a couple months of mild weather but we jumped from 90+ straight into the 30s and 40s. Yikes! I hope it goes back up and we get a fall. I'm not ready for winter yet.

I received 3 web design checks this week. Allowing me to put $462 towards the biggest home credit card. That brings the total down to $7,683!

Most people suggest to pay off the smallest balance first but I would like to get both accounts under $6k so I can easily balance transfer them next year to new 0% interest cards. I am guessing it will take two more years to pay them off, but who knows. Anything can happen. Perhaps husband will get a ton of overtime allowing us to speed up the pay down.

I need to pay $962 more this year to meet my 2018 debt goal. Or $481 for the next two months. Web design has really slowed up right now, so I am a bit doubtful that I will be able to make it... Although it looks like I might have two goats sold, so if I chose to apply some of that income towards the debt I could make it work. I will just have to wait and see how the rest of the year goes.

I am having a horrible time figuring out switching husband's old 401K to his new one. They are both at Vanguard, but the old employer is going to have to write a check from vanguard back to vanguard? I don't get it. Seems stupid.

2nd paycheck from husband's new job. I've been sticking with YNAB and it is nice to see GREEN categories for all our bills because I have put back the money.

I worked extra on web design this month and I should have about $450 to throw at the credit cards. That is nice, hopefully I can keep it up and pay them down quickly.

Husband did a little bit of balking last night at our new budget. He seemed to have thought that the $400 additional money he will be getting a month would just be "extra" and he was miffed when he only ended up with $70 for spending money this week... (He thought he would get to blow that first $400 extra) I had to sit him down and go through the budget with him explaining that in the past we didn't budget for things like car insurance so we would just scramble to pay that large chunk every 6 months. Now on paper we have a line item for everything and it is taken out weekly. No more living check to check.

In the past he got about $30 a week to cover any spending he did. Usually his extra spending was going over on groceries or a clothing/house shopping trip every once in a while. Right now he is getting $70 a week which he will use to buy a couple splurge items he has been wanting. In about 2 weeks $20 a week will start coming out for retirement, and then in March another $25 a week will be taken for insurance. Then he will be down to $25 a week spending. He is freaking out that his spending will be even tighter than it used it be but we also budgeted more for groceries so his personal spending should be able to be used for actual fun stuff rather than than covering discrepancies.

I asked him to just try it for a while and see how it goes. We can make adjustments if needed but I think $100 a month for fun is more than enough... He honestly doesn't buy anything for himself, it is always groceries, or getting Chinese takeout once a month or less, or getting a few needed clothes. Now that our entire budget will be less tight I think he will actually get to use his fun money for fun and he won't feel so poor. We'll see how it goes.

I get about $55 a week for "spending" which is almost always used for housing purchases, or covering discrepancies in the budget. Neither of us are big wasters or have expensive hobbies thank goodness.

For example, since husband is going to be starting night shift soon we HAD to get some blackout blinds for our bedroom. (We have no curtains or blinds anywhere in the house.) Well I found some on sale for over 50% off, after searching for a while I could not find anything else that would fit our windows that was cheaper so I went ahead and bought them. About $115, yikes. But a needed purchase, so there goes my "spending" for a couple weeks.

Once we get used to this budget we might have to chunk out our spending categories even more. Maybe add a clothing line item and a housing line item. But I didn't want to get too strict right away. We will re-evaluate at the new year.

My first paycheck should clear tomorrow, and I'm still up in the air about what to apply it towards.

Including the cash I made today from doing freelance work, I will have a total of $665 after bills.

My only current plan is to put $275 towards my EF. Which leaves a remaining $390.

There is $370 on my credit card, but it's not due until March. So I was thinking of paying $300, and putting the other $90 on the LOC. Or should I just pay it all off, and only send about $20 to the LOC? Sigh. I can never decide. What would you do?

Husband wanted to be included in the budget so last night we sat down and figured up a new budget now that I know exactly what I will be making after tax.

Of course the budget will be a little different for these first couple checks because I owe myself some money and my credit card needs paid down. But hopefully this will be our budget once things get settled.

Our Total Monthly Wages = $3,000

$500 - House
$100 - Propane
$50 - Water
$20 - Trash
$75 - Internet
$175 - Electric (Average)
$300 - Food & Household
$300 - Tithes
$75 - Car Insurance
$10 - Phone
$350 - Car Fuel
$300 - Spending & Unexpected Costs

$200 - LOC Paydown
$400 - Savings
$100 - Home Improvement Fund

I have $100 to put towards hay. Credit card is down to $150.

Next week hoping to get back on the savings bandwagon.

Internship is still going well, and words can not describe how excited I am to get started on that job full time. I can barely stand it in the office anymore, and I'm just counting the days.

I'm going to be earning a minimum of $300 a week after tax, which is a little bit more than I am making now. Trying to figure out a new budget, since I won't be eating lunch out everyday. Although still probably once a week when I drive to the city to work.

Here is what I have came up with so far:

$300 Weekly Pay

-$50 House Payment
-$30 Tithes
-$10 Internet
-$50 Gas / Spending
-$10 Lunches

Leaving $150 a week for savings/spending

I know want to finish my EF and get as much as possible into the Roth before the deadline. Also need to pay down the LOC, and then start saving for a truck for husband.

Should I do one goal at a time or split my income more than one direction?

Additional bonuses will be sent straight towards the goals. But I can't budget for them at this time, since I have no idea what I will be bringing in.

YNAB is going well so far.

I have been staying in budget for everything, except for groceries! Yikes. I did really good only getting what we need, but the fact is food is expensive, especially dog food!

We are already $30 into our food budget for NEXT week, and I need to go pick up some cheese and sour cream for dinner tonight. After that I'm making it a goal not to buy anymore groceries until Friday.

I did manage to save myself some money! I called the car insurance company and had them shop around for a cheaper plan. They found one for nearly $400 less a year! Whoot whoot! Now I only need to come up with around $165 before Oct.

Put the first $127 of my school bill on the credit card. Only 2 payments of $112 left.

Paid $185 on my credit card today. I only need to pay $15 next week to pay off the statement balance, but I am going to continue to pay it down to $0. I'm tired of having a "balance" on there, even though we don't get charged interest.


Just trying to manage until husband gets paid again. 3 weeks seems like a very long time away.

Husband got his first big check.

It could not have came at a better time, since our bills are about $120 over budget this month, and the $300 plumber bill. (Still have not got a hold of him yet. We are playing phone tag.)

Since our income will be changing, we finally sat down and I shared my budget plan.

This is a bi-weekly budget.

My Check $470
---------------------
House $100
Tithes $50
Lunches $30
Phone/Insurance $50
Gas $80
Savings $150

Remaining $10
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Of course other expenses usually come up and eat some of my savings money. But I am hoping that with husband raise we will budget some discretionary money, and I wont have to eat into my savings.

His Check $860
---------------------
Bills/House $300
Food $150
Gas $100
Insurance/Phone $40
Tithes $90
Savings/Bills $50

Remaining $130
_______________________________

Our remaining money will be saved, used for date nights, and remodeling our house.