[speaker001:] hi Maureen how are you
[speaker002:] all right
[speaker001:] well do you have a family budget
[speaker002:] no we probably should but we haven't so why don't you explain to me some good tips about what you've done which you've found useful and workable
[speaker001:] okay we do a few things and I have to say we're my husband and I are both from financial backgrounds I I'm an accountant
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh he has an MBA so uh we were sort of you know keyed in on expenses and things like that so um
[speaker002:] um okay
[speaker001:] coming from that background what we pretty much do is we our household as far as living expenses we live on a cash budget every month my husband uh goes to the credit union and withdraws you know X amount of dollars for the month and then that money is used during that month we have a certain budget
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] excuse me for instance I control all the household expenses the groceries uh the haircuts the gasoline for my car any miscellaneous expenses babysitting things like that and uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] excuse me if uh it comes the end of the month and I don't have any money uh we don't buy any more milk
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but uh we've gotten pretty good at it we've been doing it a couple of years now
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so we our budgets are realistic and they are not so stringent as you know to make us feel uncomfortable
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] uh and I I really try to stretch my my dollars here and there shopping uh at warehouses sometimes like at Sam's and things like that
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but uh we live we live on on a cash budget and it sometimes it's tight come the end of the month but generally we always make it
[speaker002:] what do you do for the surprise things that you don't necessarily plan for the you know are sometimes several hundred dollars like uh tires for the car or car repair of some sort or like a a dental bill or something that you're not prepared for
[speaker001:] right well uh most of our medical things we don't uh have to worry about because of insurance and they're they're relatively small uh we've been lucky in the past we didn't have that problem but right now we don't for the other things the things that crop up that we aren't really expecting we have different funds set aside for different things like we have a car fund and we put a certain amount of money into that every single month whether we need to or not
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] so I mean and I I can't really remember what it is
[speaker002:] do you kind of continue call this like a part of savings account or a different savings account
[speaker001:] it's all part of the savings account we just keep track of it on paper uh you know a certain amount goes straight to the savings account we decide okay you know let's say it's a hundred dollars you know every month fifteen dollars is for car fund
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] you know ten dollars is for vacation fund whatever uh and
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] we just we constantly do that so that there's a build up of money for those things if something does come up like I know that my washing machine is going to go any day and
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] so but we have the money set aside so if it does it's not going to kill us
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] uh so we're we're actually we're pretty disciplined so it makes those surprises not so
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] difficult to get through
[speaker002:] okay then so like your pay what kind of a percentage do you basically keep out that you think that you know will cover all of the expenses kind of thing
[speaker001:] well in
[speaker002:] or like what what percent do you then save or something
[speaker001:] uh we have a lot of different things right now we save about twenty five percent of our of our pay
[speaker002:] hm okay
[speaker001:] it and it goes toward different things it's for you know for vacations like I said for you know emergencies like for car uh breaks down something like that uh and we also put money aside for our kids college
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] neither of us had any help with our college degrees and just this last month we paid off my final school loan so we're starting our kids a little bit early
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] do you uh use a lot of credit cards or your checking account when you go out and buy things
[speaker002:] checking account a lot uh not so much credit cards now several years back I used to use charge uh charge cards and you know all the time kind of thinking oh well it's on sale you know it must be a good deal and
[speaker001:] uh-huh sure
[speaker002:] there have been times that I have been bad about the credit cards and so pretty much now uh we don't use them too much if we travel or something yeah but you know
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] standard we usually don't or if it it is a purchase uh then it's paid off when the bill comes you know so it isn't any extended uh it may be that I picked up something at the store but then when the bill comes we always pay it off then so it's not any you know uh build up on the charge cards at all
[speaker001:] that's good
[speaker002:] and but that hasn't always been the case so I'm kind of I feel at least better now that I have finally gotten some of those things uh you know in the past and I don't have you know big cumulative amounts due to those charge cards because that interest rate just is a killer
[speaker001:] oh and it's not deductible anymore
[speaker002:] yeah well I've never been in the situation of itemizing anyhow but uh
[speaker001:] or you can get deduct anyway yeah
[speaker002:] pretty much when I always I go to the grocery store or something I just always write checks
[speaker001:] yeah we did we did that for a long time and it got to the point where we had no idea how much we were spending on things and it seemed like we didn't have enough money when
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] things cropped up you know so we decided to put ourselves on a cash budget well the first time we did it we just took some arbitrary amount that we estimated it would be and then we kept track of everything for a month
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] you know how much we spent on food how much we spent on gasoline how much we spent on everything and from that built you know a cash budget so now I mean I have
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I don't remember what it is now four hundred dollars for the month let's say and uh I mean some months I may spend three hundred on groceries and a hundred on everything else and
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] some months it may be different it's not as though we feel like we have to keep ourselves you know down to the dollar or the penny in certain categories kind of thing
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but the way we set up you know the amount that we want to save and the amounts that we have to spend for you know uh utilities and uh the house payment and all that those are things you don't really have much control over
[speaker002:] yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh the cash budget just fits right in there like I said if we don't have we also set aside money for entertainment I mean it's but again it's a set amount every month
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh on special occasions I mean birthdays and things like that we we don't we still have fun on things
[speaker002:] yeah uh we are in the process of trying to buy a house do you know how did your budget work or did you have a budget to uh get your down payment going to get a house
[speaker001:] well no not originally because when we we did buy when we bought our first house it was at a time where you and the kind of loan we got you really didn't have to put down anything
[speaker002:] huh
[speaker001:] so we got into it fairly cheaply and then uh after we sold the first house we were left with enough cash that there was enough to make the down payment on this house
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] so we we got out of that one pretty easily
[speaker002:] okay uh yeah I just keep thinking all the time I mean it it's really rough to keep yourself on a strict budget for a long long time when your you know your priority at least mine is to save for the house but then it's awful hard to really scrimp for a long long time and keep putting all the money into that down payment you feel like you want to live a little bit in the meantime
[speaker001:] sure I know that's how I feel sometimes about my kids' education I mean jeez they are one and four we have got a long time to save my husband he's the real he's the real disciplinarian when it comes to that money usually
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] oh no no
[speaker002:] well I know but there are times when I sit there and I think wow you know we make X amount of money and where is it I mean you look around and you go where is it you you haven't made uh big purchases and that's the easier thing to see if you can see a big purchase and you go okay well this is the year that we bought the couch or the TV or something like that
[speaker001:] what do you do with it now uh-huh right
[speaker002:] but all those you know just monthly payments and stuff that just go out the door and there's big chunks of your money to pay like the utilities and the gas and the groceries and stuff that you don't have tangible I mean the perishable kind of things that's gone used and gone
[speaker001:] oh yeah yeah it's it's amazing how much we spend on some things my husband cut himself down to ten dollars a week for his lunch at work
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and that's all he has he has a ten dollar bill
[speaker002:] huh
[speaker001:] and I mean so I'd say at least two usually three times a week he takes his lunch
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] the other times he'll uh I don't know go out somewhere eat in a cafeteria or whatever
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] but but he keeps himself on that I mean he found it's it's so easy to spend five dollars a day on lunch
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] that's a hundred dollars a month on lunch
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] that's that's twelve hundred dollars a year just on lunch when he can take a sandwich you know
[speaker002:] yeah