January's budget, and why I am already scared...

January's Budget.

Fixed: We are going to cut back on our cable, and my husband is working to set up a computer here so we can bring our server home. Those were pretty much the fixed areas I saw could get trimming. Sure, I could cut tivo and netflix and even cable... but we have to have a plan we can stick to. At this point, I do not feel our situation is that dire, and we do use all of those things. We are already going to lose a lot of favorite channels in the cable cutback, but we hope to get uverse in the future after we are out of credit debt and look forward to that (it is not currently in our area). I am also worried about our power bill. It has been shockingly low for winter here the last couple of months. I am scared it could come back with a vengance. It is a rather flexible fixed expense.

Debt: We will knock out CC1 and CC2 and about half of CC3. This is exciting. My tiny payments to CC 4 and 5 give me a stomach ache, tho. Those are the ones we are usually putting all the money to. Hopefully we will manage not to use them and all will go well. The payment to 4 includes the budgetted amount for netflix which gets charged to it, and the payment for 5 includes the budgetted amount for alarm, tivo and insurance. Plus a little extra towards the finance charge. (The top total is the actual total, the bottom total is the budgetted total. You should see what the non-print-area part of this spreadsheet looks like...)

Variable: We have set up "funds" for our lawn boy and our pets, so when those expenses do happen we have cash to cover. I would like a small travel fund as well, but it isn't in the cards this month. Instead, we have to pay my husband's car reg tax. I guess that is all I have to say about that. This section is all about willpower.

Save: :'(

Leaves us with a tiny bit left over for "just in case" and not bouncing checks.

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I showed the budget to my husband, and he was mostly amenable. He did bring up a couple good points. One was his car renewal, which has made its way into the budget. If it is car renewal time, it must be birthday time. We hope to have some sort of family party, either out or at my family's which hopefully won't cost us anything. Gift? I guess that has to come from my discretionary (codenamed doll) or not at all. He also wants service done on his car. A necessary expense, but one that makes me nervous, and I know he will use the credit card for :( We also have to at least get a roof inspector out here. He wants some hardware for his bring-home-the-server project. And we have a wedding looming in the not so distant future. Plus convention tickets to buy (which I thought we had more time to save for).

We have a written plan. That doesn't mean we get stoned if something comes up. We will see how it goes.