Although my husband and I managed to pay off $122,243.01 of my student loan debt in 4.5 years (and we also paid for a new house AC that was $8,000 during that time as well), I am not a budget or money expert. I am the queen of buying something and making it work in the budget later, but I have learned some stuff along the way that has allowed us to have that wiggle room in our finances.
Bill Payment Tracker
The first thing to do when budgeting is writing down all your bills. Start with monthly bills, then quarterly, semi annual, and annual. I divide up our monthly bills into 1st half and 2nd half of the month since we get paid twice a month. Every time I balance our accounts I check to make sure the bill was paid and check it off on my tracker. All of our bills are on auto pay, but I have caught some mistakes and have been able to keep an eye on some bills (like internet) that can jump in cost. Bills that are not paid monthly are saved for each month.
Monthly Savings Plan
We save for several other things a month in addition to the quarterly, semi annual, and annual bills. I really do believe that this is a huge factor as to why we were able to pay off so much student loans in a relatively short amount of time. Whenever bigger bills come across we don’t have to worry if we have the money to pay it. For anything that exceeds what we already have saved for we turn to our Emergency Fund. Things we save for are:
- Car Maintenance
- Car Registration Inspection
- Christmas
- Pet Expenses
- Lawn Maintenance
- Medical
- Minor House Repair
- Texas Music Educator’s Association Convention
Budget Items Savings Tracker
Since we don’t use the money we save every month all the time, it gets put in a separate bank account with its own debit card. I keep a tab on my Google Sheets that tells me how much money we have in each of the categories. Every month I add in what we save and subtract what we use. This account is different from our Emergency Savings Fund.
Budget
Now that all the bills are written down and there is a plan for savings it’s time for a budget. I am not a very strict budgeter when it comes to this part. I have our income, tithe, bills, savings, and extra loan payment. Then, I budget for car gas, tolls, grocery, toiletries, and entertainment. I know I could be more detailed, but it simply stresses me out to the max. Again, I have one budget for the 1st half of the month and one for the 2nd half. Could I lump it into one monthly budget? Probably, but it just makes more sense in my brain to do it this way.
Account Transactions
Before you say I’m too old school, hear me out! I am a very visual, hands on type of person. When a pay period ends (or 3 or 4 because after having our son, Ewan, it has just been harder to keep up with…) I will print out our checking account transactions from that pay period. I look through every payment and see what needs to be reimbursed from our Budget Items account. Lately I’ve been using different color highlighters for different categories. I do the same for the Budget Items account. The goal is to always use the Budget Items account debit card for those items, but that doesn’t always happen. I do keep these print outs for at least until the next time our accounts are balanced so I know where I left off.
Any extra money we haven’t spent gets put towards an extra payment of something. First it was my student loans and house AC unit, then we paid off the smaller of the two house loans. Our next project was the cars until the winter storm hit and a room flooded. Now, all our extra money will be going towards fixing the house/upgrading the flooring.
6 Month Expenses Emergency Fund Plan
Something that will bring peace to many people’s mind is to have a fully funded emergency fund in the case you loose your job. I took what I felt like were the bare essentials to get by each month taking into account those quarterly, semi annual, and yearly bills. For us, this is an ongoing project. We are sitting at about the 3 month mark.
That’s it folks! Before you tell me, “There’s an app for that!” let me say that I’ve tried apps and websites and this is just what works for me and how my brain works. I hope you found some helpful tips for your own budget! You can download a budget template below!
In hope and healing,
Brittany
Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-4773 (Non Emergencies)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
Postpartum Support International Support Coordinators
Pregnancy & Postpartum Mental Health Symptoms (from Postpartum Support International)
My Beloved 