{"id":2694,"date":"2014-04-07T08:09:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2014-04-05T13:11:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T17:11:12","slug":"need-budget-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/2014\/04\/07\/need-budget-follow\/","title":{"rendered":"You Need A Budget – Follow Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been three months since I started using You Need a Budget<\/a>. I’m pleased to say that I’ve stuck with it and am really starting to get my budget under control. Here are a few things I’ve learned so far.<\/p>\n

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  1. We spend a lot of money going out to eat. Well we use to. Now that I put in place a budget of $75 for monthly entertainment\/date nights, we are rather picky about where and when we go out to eat. I spend a little more time on deal sites like Groupon and Living Social buying coupons to use on date night.<\/li>\n
  2. Pets are expensive, but not as expensive as kids. We are considering getting another dog, a big 80lb+ dog, so I added the cost to our budget. Food, treats, vet bills, another bed, leash, food bowl, flea, tick and heart worm medicine, etc. It would cost us about $1500-2000 a year and that is if the dog stays healthy and we just have normal vet visits.<\/li>\n
  3. I forget I need to buy stuff that aren’t emergencies. I’ve budgeted “Just in Case” money for emergencies but what I’m talking about are things I have to buy once, maybe twice a year. So now I’ve started looking around for those things I will need to buy but not every month so I can add them into the budget. For example, this past month I had to buy furnace filters, change the oil on my car, and buy new windshield wipers.<\/li>\n
  4. Having a monthly allowance really makes me conscience of what I want to spend my money on for myself. I have $75 each month that I can spend on what ever. What I don’t spend carries over to the next month. I’ve already divided that money up. I’m saving to go on a 4-wheeling trip, a few things for my motorcycle, and a video game. In talking with my friend, he wants me to join his gym at $15\/month so we can workout together. But that means I have to either give up something I am saving for or save longer to buy it later. After thinking about it, I decided not to join the gym because I would rather not wait and I have workout equipment at home. I feel like an adult now.<\/li>\n
  5. Having a budget really gives me a clear picture on what I need to make every month to pay bills and also what bills are out of control.<\/li>\n
  6. We are able to work towards savings goals together. We want to redo the patio this year, nothing major but it will cost a few hundred dollars. Now that we aren’t spending money on what ever, thanks to the budget, we will have the money to redo the patio. Thanks budget!<\/li>\n
  7. Communication will go a long way. Throughout this whole process I’ve been talking with my fianc\u00e9e about our budget. Even though our budget is a work in process it helps to understand where all our money goes and what we can afford and can’t afford.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Overall having a budget has taken some effort. I can see why a lot of people either don’t have one or argue over money. You Need A Budget <\/a>has helped a lot. If you don’t have a budget, I would suggest starting one. You will be amazed what you spend your money on. If you do have a budget, what are something you have learned from using a budget? Please leave us a few comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It has been three months since I started using You Need a Budget. I’m pleased to say that I’ve stuck with it and am really starting to get my budget under control. Here are a few things I’ve learned so far. We spend a lot of money going out to eat. Well we use to. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-improvement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2706,"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions\/2706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}