Our Family

For my valentines gift, James and helpers did some quick fixes to the pantry. We are saving for a new kitchen so this was super cheap upgrade to last us till then. We have some leftovers from other projects to use in here. Leftover paint makes it feel nice and clean again.

First let me start by saying this is just what works for us...there are many ways to go about this and this is just one. We want to be wise stewards of God's money so here is how we try.

I think before you start looking at ways to save money you need to know where your money is going. We use Quicken Essentials for Mac. I have used Quicken for Windows in the past and liked it a lot. Then, we switched to the Mac version...awful. Just bought the new version for Mac and it is much much better and will make life easier. Quicken is pretty powerful and there are several functions that I don't use but I am a control freak so it gives me that control over categories etc. There are some awesome free programs out there like Mint.com and YNAB. These just didn't work for me. Mint.com would not let me customize as much as I would like otherwise we would be using that one. YNAB is really cool if you do the cash envelop system and need help sticking to a budget.

Each January, I run a report to see the previous year spending. Divide by 12 to get the monthly amounts. We use this to adjust our budget and set goals. Last year, the goals were to be wiser with our grocery and eating out budgets. We did pretty good in 2010 spending less money in both categories than in 2009. (More on this in a future post)

Dave Ramsey/Crown Ministries are both excellent organizations. I guess we do a combo of both of their plans. Here are some links to see what works best for your families. Crown Money Map Crown Restoration Guide or DR Baby Steps.

Cash Envelopes/Credit
Let me start off by saying I am a huge fan of the cash envelope system. It is probably way easier to manage as well. It keeps you disciplined. Love it! However, we pay for everything on credit cards. Most cards offer some kind of points rewards so I feel like I am missing out on a ton of free stuff by using cash. We use our points for airline tickets and gifts cards. We paid a huge chunk of our basement remodel by cashing in points for Home Depot gift cards. We pay the balance each month and I use the spreadsheet below to keep our monthly spending on track.

Monthly Budget Spreadsheet
I try to enter receipts within 1 or 2 days so this is always current. Let me know if you want a copy. The green dot turns yellow or red based on your spending.Goals for this year:

• Get Emergency Fund up to at least 6 months
• Pay off Honda