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Figuring A Budget
Now that I’ve been working at this job for over a month, I have enough of an idea as to how the paychecks will fall to come up with a real budget. Why? Because right now I haven’t the slightest idea what the heck to do with all the money I have left over after paying rent, food, and gas. Keep in mind, this blog is intended more to help me than it is to entertain you, and I write posts like this one to force myself to do things such as a budget, and encourage myself to follow through.
Since I’m paid weekly, an my largest expense – rent – is paid weekly, I’ll keep the entire budget on the same timeline. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far, as a matter of non-debt expenses go:
| Baseline | What’s Left | |
| Weekly Pay | $370.00 | |
| Monthly Pay | $1,585.71 | |
| Yearly Pay | $19,240.00 | |
| Weekly Expenses | ||
| Rent | $200.00 | $170.00 |
| Gas & Food | $50.00 | $120.00 |
| Emergency Fund | $37.00 | $83.00 |
| Monthly Expenses | ||
| —per week— | ||
| Electricity | $7.50 | $75.50 |
| Propane | $3.13 | $72.38 |
| Hosting | $1.74 | $70.64 |
That’s right – a whopping $70 per week left over for debt reduction and the like. Or, if you wish, about $280 per month. After that, it’s a priorities game, based on importance and balance (because I’ll be paying off Capital One forever regardless, and if I go by interest rates, nothing else will ever get paid). I’ll likely begin using the envelope method… just as soon as I find my wallet, which is currently MIA and as such worrying the heck out of me.
In other news, Ellis College has finally sent a bill to the tune of $3,061.
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Related posts:
- Deal with the Landlord
- Blogging From Work
- Emergency Fund to the Rescue!
- End of the Road
- Crappy Payday A Rent-Saver
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
To keep you motivated, I would recommend $10-$20 free money in your pocket weekly. Christmas is coming and things always come up.
Pay minimums to stabalize and raise your credit score.
Then I would say, don’t look at interest right now. Instead pay the smallest debt till it is paid off. Which seems to be your sister. It sure will make the holidays better to see this gone.
Seeing debts disappear is very motivating.
Also, while making minimums the payments are going to begin to decline. Track the decline and pay this amount to your smallest debt. Keeping your total debt payment amount the same until you are free.
Right now, even being able to pay the minimums is my problem. I can’t cover them all with $280/mo. Heck, Capital One alone is $260 or so, LFCU is $165…
Is $370 after taxes pay?
It sure is.
Have you tried transferring your Capital One debt to a promo card that offers a low rate? I moved some crushing debt from Capital One to American Express, they were offering a rate of 3.2% for the life of the transfer. I have been paying it down much quicker by finding this far lower rate. Credit cards all suck, but you don’t need to swallow 34% interest…you can find a company that will give you a better rate than that
.
Good luck, keep it up!
77, it certainly would be helpful if I could do such a thing. However, I’m a realist. There’s nobody who would give me a low rate card out there that I could use for surfing it. Between my horrid credit, the fact that I’m way behind on everything, the fact that I don’t make enough money to pay what I’ve got now… yeah. As always, though, we’ll see what the future holds.