Saturday, January 26, 2013

Budgetology

Jan 1st was the start of our strict new family budget. Our objective: to pay off our student loans. Our strategy: $125 weekly food budget, $50 "fun" money and $200 all other / miscellaneous. Until now, we spent money pretty frivolously: Indian food one night, sushi the next night, new pair of shoes the next day, etc. Individually these things don't seem so harmful, but in aggregate they add up. Now on week 4 of our budget, we are on track to save maybe $500 / month if not more. We are thankful to my sister, Kelleigh, for getting us excited about budgeting and for her advice along the way. We're not entirely sure how to start budgeting for big things we will need eventually (new tv, printer, vacation, car) but in the meantime we press ahead with our immediate goal of paying off our student loans by 2014.