First-Time Budgeting

Wow!  I remember our 1st-ever budget.  My fine bride, Jenn, came into the living room with this scrawled out budget on a piece of lined paper.  She had been trying to get me to budget for the past 6 months or so, but I was not playing along!

You see, I thought that budgets were controlling, restricting, live-in-a-Maytag-refrigerator-box pieces of trash.  I wanted no part of that!

STOP!  There we were, ME managing the money, with $4.13 in our checking account and our credit cards run up with a balance for the third time!  There we were, 105% financed car, 100% financed truck, and nothing in our short-term savings account.  There I was, B-R-O-K-E, and in COMPLETE DENIAL!

Folks, I can not write it strong enough!  I was B-R-O-K-E and telling my wife, "NO!" to doing something different!  At that MOMENT, something happened to me that changed my life and marriage forever.  I turned off the TV and looked at the budget she had drawn out.  It was amazing!  It actually balanced without incurring any additional debt!

LIFE-CHANGING does not describe the next few minutes.  I moved on into the computer room and started entering the expenses into Microsoft Excel.  As I was putting together the formula to subtract expenses from the income, I realized that all of this time I could have been managing my money with a 1st-grader's math ability.  INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO!  After a few minutes, we had a budget that was EXACTLY ZERO.

My life and marriage have been changed forever because we discovered that a budget is NOT restricting!  It IS controlling!  It is YOU telling your money what to do!  It allows you to pay off debt, save up for known, upcoming expenses, save money for emergencies, and fund your dreams.

The first budget – yeah, it was tough.  Not everything went according to our plan.  I mean, every month we were spending an enormous amount of cash at Wal-Mart and really did not know what we had spent it on.  As a result, month one was a little tough.  Month two – that was a bit easier.  Month three – that was even easier.

Listen to your feelings as I write this next line:  We don't worry about money ANY MORE.  We did something different.  We applied God's word and Grandma's advice to our money and our lives have never been the same.

You CAN do this!  You CAN get through the 1st month's budget!  What have you got to lose?!  Click on "TOOLS" at the top of the page or click HERE to download your FREE budget form and get started!