Here is my thinking about my budget. I don’t have enough money coming in to do everything I want to. My take home for 40 hours is 585. I will up that to 600 by making sure I work a little overtime each week.

I usually set aside all overtime for travel. I get a lot on this job in the summer. A couple of times I worked 20 hours in one day. I get through it by thinking about the travel it will pay for.

For the last year or so I have saved half of what I made in regular time. I lived in a small single room studio to make that possible. In 2 weeks I will move into a 3 bedroom house on a couple acres of land. I can only see 1 neighbor from it. Living there will dictate a lot of my budget.

A lot of my success has been based on avoiding debt and avoiding ongoing bills like high rent. Yes, $600 is high to me.

Well…here it is. It is copied and pasted from Excel


WEEKLY
Food* $25.00
Rent $150.00
Electric Bill $20
Gas* 25
Insurance 29
Storage 16
Internet 20
Audio subscription cancel
Gym 0
Hair Cut* 5
mail box cancel
Pocket Money* 10
Travel overtime
Contingency overtime
401 K 48
Marketing 150
Savings 102
Total $600.00

To summarize
1/4 rent
1/4 savings
1/4 marketing (second income building)
1/4 living expenses


There are some problems with it. The biggest is a shortage of money.
The living expenses is the tough part. I have to cut my food budget (which includes household stuff) in half. Ouch! Hello beans and rice.

The house doesn’t have a washer and drier so I will have to use a laundry mat until I find a set. I actually mean, “find a set”. I will once again pick them up on the roadside and fix them. I want to “dumpster dive” a freezer also. I can’t stand the way a refrigerator thaws veggies during the defrost cycle and re-freezes them. I have worked many years as a refrigeration technician and this is a simple matter.

The main problem with the budget is that it does not have a contingency fund built it. I don’t think a budget can work without one. There is just not enough money for it. I still have about $1,000 in the last years contingency fund and hopefully that will smooth out the problems. I think I will get a raise in October. ($160 gross a month)

The tighter the budget, the more it needs built in contingency funds.

I think the budget has major problems but I will deal with them.