A really cool website...

Jacob listens to this financial guy on the radio sometimes on his commute home and really likes what he has to say. So last night he went on his website where he has a budgeting form that you can fill out. You just enter in how much money you make and then he calculates how much money should be spent in each category. He even automatically deducts 10% for charities or church stuff. So we entered in the minimal amount that we could make in a month (Jacob's hours vary a lot) and it spit out numbers that were pretty much right on with our bills that we already have.

What I really like is that his principles are the same that my parents taught me. He puts 10% toward tithing or charities and then has you saving 10% of your money as well. Anyway, we have been having a hard time figuring out our budget and now we have an exact idea and will end up saving a lot more money than we have been.

The guys name is Dave Ramsey and the budget form is called the Gazell Budget Lite. I would recommend everyone type in their numbers and see how close they are to his plan. It's free too.

Here are the percentages that he goes by:
Charity- 10%
Saving- 10%
Housing- 25-35%
Utilities- 5%-10%
Food- 5-10%
Transportation- 10-15%
Clothing- 2-7%
Medical/Health- 5-10%
Personal- 5-10%
Recreation- 5-10%

You can also go in an alter things. For example, we have student loans so we added those in under debts. And the number he gave for utilities was a little low so we adjusted that as well.

Another form he has is called the Monthly Cash Flow Plan. This one breaks down every category imaginable. You can print this one off and fill it out on your own, or pay and have him do it for you (we just printed it off). And in this form he puts Astrixs on some categories that you could use an envelope filing system. We have been thinking about using envelopes and putting money in each one for groceries, date nights and such.

I just thought I'd put this out there for you guys. I really liked it.