Last night, your favorite southern couple had our bi-annual “State of the Union” or “budget committee meeting”. Basically, a time when we sit down and review our budget and re-vamp any budgeted items that are receiving too much money or not enough money. Now, we talk about our budget line items that affect us on a weekly basis, on a weekly basis. These are the things we do every week, like buy groceries and gas. The bi-annual committee meeting is for the things we don’t look at all the time, like web hosting fees and legal fees etc.
As I said above, we also go over our budget reports to understand what is being under-funded and what is being over-funded. We look at EVERY budget item. Last night, we had to increase the money funding our medical budget and our grocery budget (I swear the grocery stores just keep raising the prices!). Now, you might be asking “how do you increase a line item?”, and the answer is simple; Something else has to be cut back. We took the money from our monthly savings (grudgingly) to fund the additional money needed for the medical and grocery budget items. What if you have no savings? Then you have to cut back on another line item, like cable, telephone or Internet. Is your budget so slim that you don’t have ANYextras? Then you need to try cost cutting to bring your spending in line with your budgeted amount, or increase your income to cover the overages. It’s simple math…your budget must be balanced! If there aren’t enough funds, you must cut back, or make more!
Now I challenge you to have your own budget committee meeting (if you’re single, you still need to have the meeting with just yourself, or a friend/family member you trust to share this info with)! Sit down and figure out how much you spent on all your expenses this last year! How much did you go over? Under? Do you even have a budget? First things first, you need a budget. Get out a pen and paper, and write down all of your expenses, in order of importance (1. housing, 2. food, 3. electricity etc.), then write down your income. Assign amounts to each category. If you run out of income before you reach the bottom, then you either need to cut back your expenses, or increase your income. Did you reach the bottom with money to spare? Great! If you have debt, use the money to pay it off, if not, start saving an emergency fund for 3-6 months worth of expenses, and after that, for retirement!
It’s our opinion that money works for you and not against you if you watch it like a hawk. Don’t give yourself the opportunity to mess up! Start this year off right, and take your budget committee meeting to the kitchen table tonight!
