As we’re settling into post-deployment life, Mac’s paychecks have reverted to their normal amounts. Now that we have a mortgage, I’m going to more aggressive with our budget. I won’t lie, the extra money last year was a huge blessing. We paid off all of my federal loans, put down 10% on our house, and almost doubled our savings account. But we’re back to reality.
Our total expenses take up about 40% of Mac’s take home pay, so we are planning to save at least $500 a month. One thing we’re terrible about is our spending. We’ve never really cracked down on how much we spend on groceries or on eating out. Starting in March, I’m going to experiment with grocery shopping once a week (since we’re eating more produce) and using gift cards to bankroll date nights.
How do y’all budget?
I grocery shop once a week and it helps so much! That stops me from buying things we don’t need. We limit ourselves to eating out maybe once every 2 weeks, and we are able to put $600/month into savings plus make principle payments on a personal loan that we have.
I wouldn’t know what to do putting that amount in to savings each month! Sounds like you guys have the budget thing down.