75% of One Year DOWN

Our marriage turned 9 months on February 23rd, which is pretty exciting. Think about it, we could've had a kid by now, sheesh! Seriously, we're happy to have yet another month under our belt. Here's a current picture of us:

You know, it hardly seems like we're newlyweds anymore, I feel like we've been married forever. Bryan is more my family than anyone, it's as though we've always had this natural rhythm of life together. I say this a lot when asked about my marriage, but it's true: I highly recommend it!

Some Updates:

We made it through the month without going over our grocery budget! It was great to clean out our fridge and cupboards a little. But it will be even more great to have food in the house after a big grocery shopping trip tomorrow!

I've been keeping pretty disciplined in exercise, budgeting, and reading! It's been really great to feel like I'm accomplishing much more during my day.

However, God has really convicted me about how very undisciplined I am in reading my Bible everyday. I've felt so proud of myself these past 4-5 weeks, but God gently asked me, a few days after the Lent season started, "What impact are those things having in the Kingdom? Why is health, money, and education more important than Me?"

So I decided to start a Bible read-thru. I'm praying that God would help me to exercise discipline in this most important area of my life first and foremost.

Bryan and I switched sides of the bed the other week. That was fun! I'm still getting used to not being right next to alarm clock. Which is a little inconvenient because I can't see more than a foot away without my glasses on.

Bryan has been pretty busy with the Anthem Band, they've written a lot of songs and are starting the recording process.

Bryan also went to the Chiropractor and his daily headaches ceased for the first day in a long time-praise God!

This next month will be a really busy month for us, but I won't spoil all of the updates now. Until next month!

The Nuts & Bolts of our Budget: Part 1

photo credit: big wedding tiny budget

About a year ago, when we were so close to ending our engagement and beginning our marriage, Bryan and I took a class with our connection group called Financial Peace University. If you've heard of Dave Ramsey, you've likely heard most of what I'm about to go through as it's similarly modeled after his class.

Over the next few weeks, I'll use terms that Dave (we're on a first name basis) would also use.

Part One.

We have a something of a zero-based budget (actually I'm not sure that name is correct, but trust me, I got all of this from Dave). This basically means, in Dave's words, we "spend all of our money on paper before the month starts."

Here's how we did it:

Step 1: We tried to account for every expense we could possibly think of. Literally anything that could come up over the course of the year, not to mention those trusty bills that happen to come every month.

Step 2: We came up with a monthly budget to account for all of those expenses.

Step 3: At least for us, our ideal amount to spend each was more than we wanted it to be. It wasn't more than we made, but we wanted to pay off our debts and start saving up for school so we shaved everything off we could. This relates quite a bit to the whole saying no thing. We didn't add dates to our budget until we were debt free, for instance.

Step 4: So then we had our bottom number, our budget. It was less than our income each month, so the last step was to make a plan for all of the extra income we brought in. That's where the goals come in, we funnel all of our extra money towards our goals.


So, in essence we have our income, which we tithe from first and foremost. Then we have our expenses, which are as little as they can possibly be right now. Then we have our goals, which we fuel with all of our extra income each month.

Here's an example:
(please note this is not our actual budget, but if you want to know what I spend on whatever, just ask!)

Income: +$3,500.00
Taxes: -$750.00
Tithe: -$350.00
Sub-Total #1: +$2,400.00
Rent: -$700.00
Utilities: -$125.00
Car Repair: -$100.00
Car Insurance: -$250.00
Fuel: -$200.00
Phone: -$75.00
Groceries: -$200.00
Medical Expenses: -$50.00
Clothing: -$100.00
Dates: -$50.00
Fluff: -$100.00
Christmas: -$50.00
Vacation: -$50.00
Sub-Total #2: +350.00
Goals: -$350.00
TOTAL: $0.00

and the winner is...

Christy!

Congratulations! (I've just sent you an email, Christy.)

Just so you know, I was so thankful for ALL of your comments, it was so encouraging to hear from you! I really wanted to give you all free books!

I used random.org to choose the winner, because it seemed the most fair. Here's hoping that authors will read more of my book reviews and we can do this again!

Happy Monday!