Making Things Easy

 I've found through numerous trial and error different things that do/don't work for me as far as making things simple financially for me. Some people write down every single penny of everything they spend. This is the LAST thing I want to be a part of.  It comes off to me as being to obsessive, like there is no freedom in spending the money I work hard to earn. That's why I budget the way I do, or don't, whatever one can call what I do!

I mentioned in a previous post that everything over what I have to save each paycheck for bills is pulled out of my bank. What do I do with it? Whatever I please! If I feel like gaining some weight this period, then I'm going to McDonald's a couple times! However, this cash in hand is my gas and haircut money(I religiously get my haircut every time I get paid, $9.00 each time). I do have access to my wife's paycheck as well, which she pays our cellular bill and our babysitter with, $150 and $120 a month respectively.

Anyways, everything that is a monthly bill is automatically withdrawn from my account where I can. The thing I discovered with this is, with a few companies, they don't exactly advertise this service. This is how they can collect late fees from us. By making a few phone calls and visiting a few websites, I was able to get all but one company automatically withdraw my bill from my account. The last one offers this service, but someone on their end is a little illiterate and cannot figure out why my account is the only one in the entire USA that cannot have this service(I'm working on it though!). The benefit of this? No late fees! I don't have to make time to visit, don't have to write out checks, don't have to call and give my card number out to a random person, etc.. That part of my life is automated. Easy enough right?

I found out yesterday that my employer will send my direct deposit to several different accounts if I so please. A lot of employers do this, I've just never put this to use. The major benefit to doing this is that I can save money and never see it actually withdrawn from my bank, so I can get myself used to living on a little less. You can't spend what you've never seen in the first place. With me though, I use a program on my phone that I view all my accounts at once on, and so therefore I know the money is out there. I've combated this in a sense by making my checking account local, but my savings account through INGDirect. It'll take 2 to 3 business days for me to transfer money over to checking, so I'm less likely to put in the effort to do so.  My wife has began to save money out of her check, and soon she will be depositing that into my savings account after I set everything up.

I'm looking for budget ideas, as I'm always looking for something a little easier, or just good idea's in general to add to the arsenal. Comment!

The Budget

I'm not completely sure if what I do can be considered a budget. I'm always looking for easier ways, and the way I'm currently doing things has been working for the past year. It has definitely been tweaked, and I'm still tweaking things today.

I'm paid twice a month, the 15th and 30th. Weekends and holidays juggle the payday at times but that's the schedule we stick to. All of my bills, minus food and gasoline, add up to $1286 a month. I figure $1300 for a round number and for a just in case scenario.  Those bills, divided by 2, gives me $650.  Everything over that amount is withdrawn from my account, and is money that goes to food, gas, haircuts, and general items for the house and my personal "needs."  While that doesn't give me a complete look at where my money is going, it works.

I have my retirement automatically withdrawn from my check so that's taken care of. In my case, however, you're not given the option with the state to put in retirement or not. So for some, that may not be enough.  I was heavily searching into IRA's when I got a statement yesterday detailing what an old 401(k) account I had was worth. I had completely forgot about this. It's only worth about $250 (wasn't at that job long!) but I have it there so rolling it over is an option.  Plus, it's through INGDirect, and that's where my savings account is through.  For my next post, I'll be blogging about how I actually go about paying Mr. Bill.

The Debt

The following is an overview of my debt. I pulled my annual credit report yesterday and have added everything up. There are a couple things on my credit that I won't be paying on, for personal reasons I won't address here. The following totals do not reflect those items.

1. Installment accounts (7 Items) - $3602
2. Medical (7 Items) - $1306
3. Student Loan - $11,000

I will be paying those off in the order listed. I'll be putting some more progress bars up in due time when I began paying on them. I want to complete my small emergency fund before I start this process.

The Bills

So I got paid today. A lot better of a check than normal, I worked a little overtime. So I'm going to break down my basic bills below, not to include Auto Gas and Food. Why? Our gas varies a lot, same with food. I haven't been tracking it with the way I budget, but it's a task for a later date. Here we go!

1. Rent - $500.00
2. Utilities - $250.00
3. Car Insurance - $90.00
4. Auto Payment - $248.00
5. Internet/Cable - $104.00
6. Washer and Dryer - $94.00

These are rounded up figures, and it's how I figure it. My Utilities number is high, but never has it been over that much, some months they total about half of that. With my internet/cable bill, those are through 2 different providers, so with my cable service, it's $57 a month, and getting ready to be in the $80 range here soon. As soon as my contract is up, I'll be cancelling this service and using a combo of Xbox Live/Hulu Plus/Netflix to bring that number to about an average of $25 a month. That could change if I find another cheaper route. My washer and dryer is through rentacenter. We sold off the ones we had when we moved to low-income housing, as we didn't have need for it. It's cheap enough to work with, and it's warrantied the entire time we are paying on it and for a year after it's paid off, so that works for me.

As far as debt, I have some. I haven't looked at my credit report this year so when I do, I'll post the figures here. She got paid today also, and set some money aside for us to start saving. Now to set that up. I've already put a Emergency Fund progress bar up on the side. It's not three months worth like I am ultimately going for, but its a good amount to have so I can start paying down my debt. I have my next post already running through my mind, so stay tuned for that.

The Situation

     The last time I blogged here I was jobless. I was dependent on my $7,300 tax return to hold me over until I found employment. I bought an $1800 piece of junk car and paid my mom her $1000 back. I was dependent on my mother to pay my cell phone bill and my car insurance, and those two items were paid by her for a very long time, even before I had started blogging. That summer I got a little paper route, and made about $100 every week, until I wrecked my car into something unknown in the middle of the night. I could no longer do the route and had just spent $1000 trying to fix all the problems I was having from the car.
     What saved me though was the fact that I had enrolled in school right after I started blogging. I signed up for all the student loans I could get (Bad Mistake!). Right around the time I had that wreck my financial aid check came and I bought a nice mini-van for $3400. The car would never start again after I wrecked it, and it sat outside my apartment for a year. I sold it for $150 and had it crushed.
     I was in school a little over a year before I got bored, and irritated. It got to where I was arriving to school an hour early and still was late to class because I couldn't find a parking spot.  Plus, I had broken my foot and it was not fun going to class during the winter with ice on the ground. I could never get approved for a temporary parking pass so I could park closer while I was on crutches.  I ended up dropping all the classes that semester.
     I took summer classes in 2010, and passed those, but didn't feel challenged, or I was just lazy. I wanted to work. I applied for a state corrections job in Oct. 2010, a field I have experience in. I got that job, with a raise to start because of my previous experience. Thing is, my state is THE lowest paid state compared to all the surrounding states, and I rake in a whopping $24k a year.  Bright side is, it is $24k I didn't have.
     As of today I'm still at this job, and due for a 5-10% raise Nov. 1st. Not much, but I'm not complaining.  During my college time my wife was able to get her Nurse Aide license and is now working in a nursing home.  We have moved into a house we rent, and it's right in the middle distance wise to our jobs. Hers is 30 minutes one way, mine is 30 minutes the other way. Needless to say, our gasoline bill is through the roof. I sold off the mini-van in Feb 2011, and bought 2 cars for us.
     For the first time since I was 19, roughly 8 years ago, I'm completely independent and pay all my own bills.  That is sad to say, no one should be my age and still depending on their parents. I don't feel very good about that, but that stage in life is gone. Me and her both are enrolling back in school next year, without student loans, and going to further ourselves in the careers we have chosen. I'm always on the lookout for better paying state jobs, but I'm not being very active in the search as I'm satisfied in my current position.
     This is a quick run-down of what has went on the past couple years. It's not a thorough description, but you get the point I hope. I want my next few posts to cover my financial situation, and what you, as the reader, can expect to see content wise on this blog. I'm still working on giving the site a new look and updating lots of information, so please be patient and subscribe, comment, and all that good stuff!!

Money Manager Ex and Budgeting

Money Manager Ex is a free tool that I use to set up my "spending plan." With it I assign every dollar to a different account to be deposited in from my checking account each week. This is the same as Envelope Budgeting. Money Manager Ex is a great program that reminds me a lot of a much more condensed Microsoft Money. Really worth a look if you need a program that does not cost any money and gets the job done. You can download it here.

For each of my expenses I have an account. Each week when I had a job, I would deposit 1/4th of the total monthly amount into the account(eg: 6.25 deposited four times would equal my rent payment of $25.00). When the bill comes due, I have the money to pay the bill in the account. I debit the account, and start over again the next month. In those months where there are 5 paychecks, I would withdrawl the money into a savings account.

On top all all this, I would deposit 10% of my earnings into a savings account as well. Anything left over is spending money, to buy household items and to just "blow."

Now, without employment, I am forced to throw that idea out of the window. I have to start from scratch again. Feel free to leave suggestions