Sunday, November 2, 2008

Resetting My Debt Snowball and Making a New Budget

Since I quit my second and third jobs and got a raise at my first job I've needed to rework my budget.
I know that I will have less money coming in, but my income will be less erratic. When I was working on my Snowball before, I found that I wasn't really paying my set minimums on to my debt, I was just chucking everything I could on there and not following the plan.
I've decided to go to greater lengths to budget my money accurately, so I've reset my snowball and created a budget that involves giving me some "fun" money.

So, here is my budget:

I earn $1345.48 a month.

$850 - Living Expenses (this is a fixed rate that I contribute to our joint account)

$91 - Savings

$80 - Gas (this is a bit of an estimate, since gas prices are odd right now)

$101.01 - Prosper Loan

$105 - Bank of America Credit Card

$15 - AmEx (Minimum Payment)

$100 - Disposable Income

This gives me a potential $3 wiggle room every month. The gas money and the fun money will come straight out of my weekly paycheck and be moved to my ING Direct Checking Account and I will stop using my normal debit card. By isolating this money I think it will be easier to keep on track with this budget. I've put $50 in the account as an initial floater because that $45 won't immediately clear when I transfer it over.

The income from the sale of my business will go straight on to my debt. Any additional income over $50 will break down as 50% to debt, 25% to Savings, 25% to Disposable income fund. Anything less than $50 will be snowflaked towards my debt.

So that's my new plan. I guess we'll see how it goes!

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