*Income*Budgets*Save* Part 2

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

*Income*Budgets*Save*

Part 2

So in part 1, I shared with you a little about my household income. Let me give you a bit more information so you can see what I am working with; when trying to create a household budget. Some would say that I should not be giving out this much personal information; I do see their point. However, I have always felt my life is an open book and by sharing my information it may relate to others and help them as well.

We are a family of three that live in the household which consist of two adult and one teenager. Our combined income averages about $35k per year gross means before taxes taken out.

After doing some research, I see the average median household income: $76,188 for my zip code. So what should this mean to me NOTHING! You maybe asking yourself; why did I look it up then? Well let’s be honest curiosity got the best of me, plus I like the fact I can live for the most part just like my neighbors on about half the income. So how do I do it? Where did I start?

Over the past few years I have been looking more closely at my financial spending habits and seeing that for the most part I had no self control & seemed to always be trying to keep us the so called Jones’s. Are you doing the same thing?

I am a firm believer that baby steps are the way to go when trying to break a bad habit. So I started there, First thing I did was really take a hard look at my families spending habits. Did it fall into the annual income? The answer to that, sad but true was NO. Our spending habits were just as out of whack as our own government’s budget.  

Here is my general household annual budget:

$ 35,000 Total Household Annual Income

$ 15,000 Housing Cost (Rent, Taxes, Repairs)

$ 20,000 Remaining Balance

$   5,000 Utilities (Water, Electric, Cable)

$ 15,000 Remaining Balance  

$   1,800 Cell Phones (not a necessity but under contract right now)

$ 13,200 Remaining Balance

$   6,000 Car Insurance & Repairs & Gas

$   7,200 Remaining Balance

$   3,900 Food @ $75.00 per week x 52 weeks

$   3,300 Remaining Balance

$   5,000 Credit Card Payments

$   1,700 Over Budget

$   1,500 Christmas/Birthday/Back To School/School Year

$   3,200 Over Budget (MayDay MayDay we are going down!)

As you can see this is very out of whack. Now, I need to make even more cuts to this budget in order for us to live within our current annual income. Up next in this series is some of the ways I am tackling this issue. I will be sharing with you some of the tips & ideas that I have recently learned on how to manage your family income stretch your hard working dollars.