For the last five months we have been working to limit our monthly expenses to one income. Most of our expenses are fixed or near the same amount every month. Probably our most difficult categories to control are dining out and miscellaneous expenses. We have went back and forth on using the envelope system to control the spending in those two categories. When using the envelope system, we definitely do control our spending better. The issue is we also like the rewards we get from using our credit card when spending. The major problem with using the credit card, is the ability to quickly spend more without thinking. We did have a much better month keeping our spending in control, spending $234.50 less than we made. Since challenging ourselves, five months ago, to limit our spending to one income we have been able to make $93 more than we have spent. Here is what our budget looked like:
You have to visit your budgets every single month in order to stay on top of the spending. It will fluctuate and change from month to month; it just works that way.
