So my wife and I have struggled with credit cards over the years and always knew that we should do something about it, but never really actually did. However, we finally took charge of it and got a consolidation loan and got rid of our credit cards, as well as made a lot of other improvements to our finances and budget.
We got an extra checking account to store money specifically for expenses, which has made a huge difference. Before, we just had one account where all of our money went into, and it made it difficult to know what was discretionary and what wasn't.
Here's our current situation:
We bring in ~$6,200 in take-home income per month (and this is after 401K contributions). Here's what our expenses look like:
- Mortgage: $790
- Utilities: $250
- Internet: $40
- Phone Bill: $100
- Auto Insurance: $150
- Student Loans: $600
- Consolidation Loan: $630
- Auto Loan: $220
- Transfer to Savings/Emergency Fund: $325
We've also budgeted for regular purchases (which includes some luxuries that we want to keep):
- Groceries: $300
- Medical Costs: $200
- Auto Maint. and Gas: $150
- Gifts: $75
- Subscriptions: $50
- Massages: $150
- Home Improvement: $250
- Various Future Purchases (like new smartphones, etc.): $200
After all is said and done, that leaves us with ~$1,700 per month on complete discretionary spending, like going out to eat, the movies, other random luxuries, etc.
Anything leftover gets put into our loans and/or savings, depending on whether or not our emergency fund is low at that point.
Would love to hear your thoughts and whether or not we're on the right track. Maybe we're completely missing something?
Submitted December 30, 2017 at 09:17PM by Crrrrraig http://ift.tt/2q0VEPp
