You may wonder if we use a written budget to stay on track with our debt.
I have tried many things over the years and while a written budget with fancy spreadsheets or instant calculation apps are exciting at first, they lose their excitement for me after a few weeks.
The only thing that has worked for me is a good old fashioned hand written notebook. I love lined notebooks. I love the potential of what can be written down on those blank pages.
Each month I write down by week what I need to pay when, taking into consideration due dates and the amounts of the payments.
Here is a generic example of what my schedule looks like this month:
Pay days for us are Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Having four jobs and all different paydays helps us feel like we are not living paycheck to paycheck.
You may notice that our mortgage is weekly. This is because with so many other big payments its easier to save weekly for our mortgage rather than pay it in one large sum.
Old Navy will be paid four times this month. I plan on sticking to that unless something else comes up that is an emergency.
Please keep in mind this is only the payments that are due each month. I don’t consider this a budget. This does not include school lunches and haircuts and doctor visits and repairs and entertainment and gifts, etc.
This schedule tells me what I HAVE to pay. As one debt goes away it frees us up to put more into savings and repairs and such. After the Old Navy is paid my husband and I will be redirecting some of that money into more savings and retirement.
Well that’s about it. This is what I look at every Wednesday to see what needs to be paid first before we do other things.
I am used to it so it doesn’t scare me anymore!
What do you do for a schedule to pay your bills? Do you do something similar?
See you again in week 12! -MM
The Professional Domestic 
Our bills used to be all monthly, but we’ve noticed in the past 3 years or so, that the utility companies are very quietly reducing the number of days between bills, so now there are 13 payments instead of 12. Back when I received one monthly paycheck, that created some issues.
Our big goal for this fall is to use no savings, and live on just my piano income. The hard part is getting the money up front, because all of our bills were front loaded to match my old pay check, and some of my families are not very timely with their monthly checks. It made for a very lean September, but God blessed me with 4 additional students last month, and I think we are very close to having what we need for the first days of November ready to go.
I am with you on paper and pencil. We have our bills written out on a sheet of notebook paper each month, then DH staples the actual receipts and bills to that sheet. It is easy to find a specific month when needed, and the odd payments that happen quarterly or annually are there to remind you. Are you close enough to paying off the Old Navy card to have a target date yet? That will be worth a cutting up ceremony!
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Kathy you teach piano too on top of all of your sewing and stitching? Wow you are one talented lady! I never thought about a cutting up ceremony…hmmm… I am hoping to get the card paid off by the end of November. Fingers crossed.
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Oh that’s very exciting! My piano studio is a new thing, I officially went full time last September. I was on the State 4-H staff for 27 years until my boss gave me notice of no contract two years ago in Feb. I had been blogging before, but it and the crafting provided the therapy I needed while I sorted myself out. So now I have 35 students and I love my new boss!😆
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Wow congratulations! God sure is wonderful!
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I am so excited for you, your first big goal is in sight!!!!
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