Friday, October 5, 2012

The Budget

The budget, just the mention of the word can cause some people to break out in a cold sweat. Living on  a shoestring budget it is super important to know how much money you need to survive each month. We're still trying to figure out how to make our money stretch to cover the month, after a couple years of being self employed, it's easy to live high on the horse since we have "guaranteed" money coming in each month.  The truth is though, the money isn't guaranteed and we are learning to live as if it's a gift.
With that being said, here is our monthly budget.

Rent $685
Electric varies anywhere from $115-$135 (sometimes even higher!!)
Gas for our vehicles 
  * hubby's truck $60 weekly
   * my van $20 weekly ( sometimes more depending on the children's activities)
Dog food $40 monthly ( we have an English Mastiff)
Cat food $20 monthly ( we feed 4 cats, 1 indoor and 3 outdoor)
Household $75 monthly ( this includes trash bags, toilet paper, cat litter, sandwich bags, etc)
School $25 monthly ( for any fees, books, printer ink, etc)
Misc dog $25 ( flea pill or shampoo)
Dip $25 ( my hubby's vice!)
Farm $100 ( includes feed, hay, anything else needed)
Food out $100 monthly ( this just got written out because the factory is talking about layoffs)
Car insurance $85 monthly
Food budget $370-400 a month

Things you'll notice:
*we don't have any car payments. We own both our vehicles.
* We don't have cable. We use an antenna and watch that for free!
* We don't pay for Internet, my in-laws paid for a full year for our Christmas gift. It will be $29.99 a month after our year is up.
* I don't pay for haircuts. I cut every body's hair, including mine. If I want to color my hair it comes from the household budget and I buy a box at Walmart for under $10
* We currently have a savings account with $25 in it. We add to it as we can. 
* No holiday budget.  I'll talk about that another day.
* We do not have cell phones. We have a magic jack phone that was also a Christmas gift.
* We also don't budget for car maintenance. Thankfully my father in law is a mechanic who also gifts us if/when something happens!
* if we need clothes it comes from the household budget.
* we don't pay for heat. We heat solely by wood burner. We are blessed to live where we have access to woods and all the trees that come down so we don't pay for wood either.
* we don't pay for water/sewer because we have a well.
* our trash is included in our rent
* we receive state funded insurance
* we have no debt

This post is linked to
Big Family Living 
Frugal Friday
Morristribe's Homesteader blog carnival
Homestead Revival Blog Hop

5 comments:

Amanda said...

I'm enjoying this series! There are a couple of items that are usually in a budget that I don't see in yours (water, sewer, trash, medical). Also, it would be interesting to know how many people and size of home this budget applies to :)

The Farmer said...

Hi Amanda!
We have a well so we don't pay for water/sewer. Our trash is included in the rent. We currently receive state funded medical insurance because I have congestive heart failure from chemotherapy received almost 7 years ago.

Becky said...

Thank you for posting this! I never know if I'm paying a lot or not very much when compared to other families. My monthly spend on gasoline is about the same as yours, but my car insurance is 2x what you pay. Our gas & electric averages about $200, but we need to pay for heating. I'm also paying for my land line telephone - I've never heard of MagicJack. I'm investigating if that's possible where I live (Canada). Huge savings!

LCD HEADREST MONITOR said...

Its interesting to read.. we may think that these are things just a part of life.. but talking about this is good.

Jainal said...

Lovely post. Wonder full blog. I have come some advice to about Budgeting for your success. Thanks for sharing.....