Day 58- Budget

One thing that's been happening since I started this is that I'm saving money. I've cut back on my Diet Coke. I'm buying my snacks for the week in bulk, and I only have fifteen items of clothing, so no money spent buying clothes. I thought it would be a good idea to start a budget for myself. I have a few items in my future that will build on this budgeting idea, and I thought it would be a good idea to begin this now.

My husband and I have a good plan set up with our money. It's worked out well for us for years. Of course there's been a little adjustment, since certain jobs have changed. We used to split everything down the middle when we were in college. Neither of us made that much money, so we made due with what we had. We also each have our individual checking and savings accounts on top of our joint checking account.

Now that he's a doctor he can afford to pay for the bigger things. He pays the mortgage while I pay for home maintenance. He pays for the majority of our trips while I pay for some of the meals on our trip. He also is in charge of our retirement accounts. For the utilities and food I pay for half. I also pay for any personal expenses I have that may not involve him. I don't expect to pay for his martial arts lessons. Why should he pay for any extras that I may have? Even though my pay is nothing compared to my husbands there is a sense of satisfaction knowing that I am making somewhat of a contribution to our living expenses.

There are several steps involved in budgeting my spending, and it may take a bit before I completely get this budget set. First I need to get all of my bills together and put those into my budget. Those are not going to change. So, I might as well put those in there first. I hate to guess at any figures, so I will need to wait until they come in. Then there are every day living expenses like my car, glasses, appointments, and medicine, among other things.

Then there is all of that extra unnecessary spending, which I thought I'd write down in a notebook. In the end I need to essentially treat myself like a child, and give myself an allowance for any extra, fun things that I may want. But I need to figure out where I'm at right now in order to figure this one out, and to see how much of an allowance I want to give myself.