It's linky linky time again with Phoebe! I love her frugal linky parties, and this week is on budgeting. I am very passionate about budgeting. So passionate, in fact, I have been teaching some local home schoolers the joys of budgeting. Some people hate budgets, but not me. I think it goes along with my list making personality.
My earliest memory of budgeting comes from my Mom. She would use a steno pad and keep track of money coming in and money going out. I was always a bit fascinated by that even as a child. Really. The Bob and I have been married for 14 years, and we started budgeting very early on in our marriage. Though not the case when I was single (that's another story for another time), we have always been careful with how much debt we get our self into. There's a plan in place to get it paid off as quickly as possible if/when there's an occasion that we do take on any debt. Right now, other than our house note, we have no debt. It's a beautiful thing. Getting our house paid off, which should be in about 9 years, will be heaven.
We follow a combination of Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett. We're probably more Larry Burkett than Dave Ramsey. If you've never heard of Larry Burkett you can go to his website at Crown Financial Ministries. Larry is actually deceased now, but the ministry he started is still going. They have a ton of free stuff to help people in budgeting. Following a budget over the past years has gotten us through hard times with our business and helps keep our checkbook balance where it needs to be. It makes us mindful, extremely mindful.
I hope I don't sound like we have it all together and that we're all that and a bag of chips? To be honest, we still struggle with the discipline of some things. Like oh say, saving. Not retirement saving, but saving saving. This year, we are really, really trying to focus on saving more. It's one of our top priorities. Considering the economy and the state of the Nation, it may be more of a challenge, but it's challenge we're willing to tackle! Also, I'm trying to tackle the grocery portion of the budget. I may never be a Phoebe or Gayle, but I know I can get it down. I'll keep you posted on that. Actually, if you see this post from yesterday, you'll see what I'm working on to accomplish that :)
3 comments:
I've heard of Larry Burkett before, but I never realized that he was behind Crown Financial. I've been meaning to check it out.
I use a notebook to track all of my stuff, too. I'll bet that that is the list maker in me as well! :)
Wish you the best in saving and on the grocery budget!
We don't have any debt either (except for the mortage) but we just depleted our emergency savings fund by about $1400 thanks to a car repair. So we have to work at building that puppy back up again.
Funny thing, I like having the money there in case of an emergency but I hate using it, lol!
I haven't read either of these guys but I requested Dave's book from the library since everyone keeps talking about him.
We were out of debt once. Like, for two weeks. :)
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