Well here I am ready to start on my new spending plan, and I only worked one day last week. Not a good start for the year. I'm not going to let it stop me though. I'm going to continue working hard on the spending plan and rebuilding my emergency fund. I'm also still looking for a new job. Hopefully something really wonderful is around the corner. It's funny, but when you are so ready for a change you feel so impatient to get there. I just have to keep reminding myself that you are always where God wants you to be. I do that a lot. Every time I miss an exit on the freeway, late going somewhere, etc. Reminder: You are always where God wants you to be. Isn't that nice?
So here are the components of the spending plan as recommended by Crown. The Tithe is of course 10% of your income, then you deduct taxes. The spending plan is the net that is left over.
Housing 36%
Food 12%
Automobile 12%
Insurance 5%
Debts 5%
Entertainment 6%
Clothing 5%
Savings 5%
medical 4%
misc. 5%
school/childcare 6% (If this category is used other categories must be reduced)
Investments 5% (if debt free)
You can get more details of the money map and spending plan on www.crownmoneymap.org and on destination one they have a detailed explanation of the spending plan and what goes into each category. You should keep a 30 day diary of what you spend before you start the spending plan to get an idea of what you are spending. Crown also has money map coaches that you may call for advice and they don't charge money for it.
I'm procrastinating on making a new one. It's time consuming, I have no idea how to estimate gas for the car right now, and I invariably get into a fight with my husband every time we do it. (He thinks there is too much money in my gift fund and I think he spends too much on gas and fast food.) At any rate, I will have it completed by the end of the week. Lets hope it's uneventful. I seriously am looking forward to a new plan this year. I am already seeing the benefits of just the effort I started putting in 6 months ago, so if I'm doing as well as I am right now, I can't wait to see what the end of the year looks like!
2 comments:
Beth,
Maybe Laura and I are nuts, but we have been tracking every expense for years now. I know a lot of these places suggest tracking all your expenses for 30 days and then building a budget, but I just have never been able to see how you can change your habits in one month. And I have never been able to figure out a clean budget, as each month is different than the next. So we set some amounts for spending (a budget based on our typical averages), then we track every expense, which is mostly Laura's job. My job at the end of each month is to "redraw the lines," figuring out where we needed more and where we needed less and balancing things out. Most months we have some left over (a nice surprise), some months we have to borrow a bit from our "short-term savings" to cover, and some months it comes out quite nicely across the board. I know others might need a more spartan approach ("I absolutely will not spend more than x on this category this month"), but we have been more successful with our track-all-and-tweak-as-necessary approach.
Thanks for this blog. It shows some really practical wisdom.
Jeff, thanks for your input. If I understand you correctly you put money aside for other times. This spending plan allows for that too. For example we have a bill we pay once a year for that I set a little aside every month for the yearly fee. Is that kind of what you do? Also do you literally track everything, like every soda you buy? If so that sounds like a lot of work. How much time do you spend on it?
Also I do occaisionally have weird expenses like for Derrick's school field trips which are not easy to plan for. It has been different every year with totally different amounts so I can't figure out how to do that other than to take it out of the household budget.
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