What's the best way to come up with a budget, and stick to it?

Question

Our combined income is $66,200 before taxes & benefits are taken out. That doesn't sound too bad for an annual salary, but why is it so hard to pay the bills?

What is the best way to come up with a budget, that we can actually stick to?

Here's some of our monthly bills...

House: $1200

Cable: $125

Elect: $180

Water: $40

Gas: $40

Car $424

Truck:$403

Auto Ins: $277

Daycare:$600

Baby Supplies: $150

I'm sure there's some more I missed...

We need to start saving some money to pay off some bad debts... but find it so hard to save! How do you do it??

Answer 1

Please visit www.DaveRamsey.Com

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Answer 2

Start a journal, where you track EVERYTHING you spend for a month.  You could start in August:  Write in exactly what the incoming amount is, and then write in line-items (Groceries, Insurance, Payments, Eating Out, Savings, Pets, Gifts, Clothes, Toiletries, Household Items, Haircuts, etc.)  Include EVERY cent spent- Do a "proposed" column, where you guess about how much you might spend in each category for the month, and as you spend money, keep your receipts and add the amount of $ spent to each category.  At the end of the month you can get a good idea of where you are spending more or less than you need to/should.  Then when you do September's budget, you'll know which areas to cut down on.  My husband and I do this, and it makes us MUCH more aware of where we're spending more than we want.