Living with the Budget

So it is Christmas shopping time and yes I have been given a Christmas Budget.

I have been very good. I created my list of people to buy gifts for, along with the allotted budget amount. Yes, all of this is on a spreadsheet and I track each item and expense after I have purchased it.

I have been doing really well, until I realized I forgot a very special group. The daycare teachers. So today I had to email Chris and tell him I will be over budget. Here is how the emails went.

Me: I will officially be over budget on Christmas because of the daycare

Him: Are you requesting a bailout?

Me: Yes, from Christian and Archer, For their daycare teachers.
I’m cutting back….I already eliminated some and I've also taken on the ______ present in my budget. See I’m not like the Big 3 CEO’s….I haven’t been flying around in my private jet.

Him: I see... Actually, Senator McCain just emailed me and told me what a fiscal conservative you are. Currently, I have _____ left in the budget for Christmas. How much over that do you think we will spend?

Now if this is just Chris and I going back and forth, can you imagine what it will be like when Christian or Archer ask for some expensive item in the future?!?!
I will be saying, "Well son let me see your spreadsheet first before we go present this to the budget. "

My children should be well versed in the use of spreadsheets by the time they are 10, if not sooner.

From Christmas

Budget

I have been thinking for a while about writing a post about the Budget. With all the news today on the financial crisis the US is in, it seems like the perfect time. When the news analysts are saying you have to cut back and take responsiblity for your actions and your spending, they always go to the "create a budget and live by it" line. Oprah did a show today on being Thrifty. She had the thriftiest family in America on helping out a family that was in crisis. Very interesting stuff.

Now, if you chat with me much or know my husband well, you have heard about the Budget. The Budget is a separate entity in our house, ever watchful, ever present. Whenever I ask about buying something the response I get is "Let me check the Budget". So when I hear on the news gloom and doom, I take pride in the Wenck Family Budget and I give all the credit to the Man I Married almost 5 years ago. Oh yes, you read that right...I give him ALL the credit.

It all starts with a Feasablity Budget. This is done annually, around the end of the year (after we know if we will be getting raises for that year). This budget takes all our income and all our expenses and makes sure we are only spending or saving what we make. I also like to refer to this as the negotiation period. Chris wants to cut and I want to spend/save, so we take to bargaining. We also take everything we can think of into account. Pet expense, eating out, personal allowance $ (this goes for me, chris and each of the boys, yes the 7 week old has a budget too). We plan for gifts thru out the year...pretty much, you name it, we plan for it. Now of course something get missed, but that is to be expected.

Once the terms are agreed on Chris sets up the 365 day cash flow budget..oh yes, you read that right too, 365 DAY!! This shows all $$ coming in and all $$ that is expected to go out. Another key to the Budget is automatic bill paying and automatic spending. The majority of our household expenses are set up on an automatic payment systems. All of our savings is automated too. We save for property taxes, insurance, long-term household repairs, car repairs...you get the idea. ING is wonderful for this because ING allows me to set up numerous accounts....that is a dream set up for a nerdy accountant type like myself. Each savings catergory has its own account.

Another one of our tricks is to use our solo credit card to our advantage. We have a rewards plan that pays us cash back once a year. In years past we have received over $800. The Budget likes that!!!

So, what are the results of our Budget.

• we don't have a car payment,
• we only have 1 credit card that doesn't carry a large balance,
• we save up and pay cash for something or we don't get it
• we don't lose sleep at night wondering if our house will be foreclosed on
• we don't worry about paying off our multiple credit card bills

Now we didn't get to this point alone. At one time we both had credit card debt and we also had student loans. Through some fortunate situations we were able to pay all those off early in our marriage.

And if you wonder if we are raising our children in the Budget Doctrine, just look at this picture

From seton shower

I am the "Budget", and I approved this message. (editor's note: Chris wrote this line)

THE BUDGET

If you know Chris well you know about THE BUDGET, you have heard about THE BUDGET, you have been told you need THE BUDGET...in some way you have probably been preached to about THE BUDGET. THE BUDGET rules over our family with an iron fist. If THE BUDGET says no, well then there is nothing that can be done about that.

Well since July I have been wanting to take a family trip to the beach. I thought Christian would enjoy it since he had so much fun playing in the water in Colorado. Well THE BUDGET put a quick stop to that. Actually the Wenck Family 365 Day Cash Flow Budget 2007 said we were have a negative cash flow situation. THE BUDGET even started to demand more money because we were in the negative. The recommendation was made the I cut back my personal allowance. Well there would be none of that... I have to hold onto every penny THE BUDGET gives me. So we went of a money diet. We wrote down everything we spent money on for a week. The idea was to see where we were over spending.

Last night in the midst of Chris updating THE BUDGET these words were spoken..."Uh hey babe, I think I found something". Turns out there was a HUGE error in the Wenck Family 365 Cash Flow Budget 2007 and we are back in the black...by a lot.

The official company line is something like this.

The Wenck Office of Management and Budget restated its accountability targets after finding a huge error related to a Spreadsheet formula error.

So now I am being asked, do you want to go to the beach? Do you want to get that new monitor? Do you want to go to Sea World? What do you want to?

So we are going to Vegas (Baby)!!! The perfect place when you find some money...go to a place you are sure to spend it all !!!! Actually there is a confernce in Vegas that I wanted to attend but at the time THE BUDGET said Chris couldn't go because we just couldn't afford it.