Monthly Spending Expenses

I wanted to follow our Monthly Budget with a breakdown of our monthly cash expenses.

Listed in our Monthly Budget is our living expenses (*), we pull cash out every week and keep it in an envelope size accordion file. Each main category listed here is one envelope that holds that weeks cash for that expense. We then pay cash for ALL of our day to day things. The only time we don't use cash is when we pay bills, which we either pay online or by check.

This is a great tool to keeping us on track with our money makeover because it makes us more aware of exactly how much we spend on items throughout the month. We also do not carry our debit cards/checks/credit cards because it becomes all to easy to just use your card when your purchase runs over the cash you have on hand or you want to “splurge” on a larger item.

Below is an idea of how we budget our living expenses each week. (Keep in mind that we make changes as needed depending on the events of the month but we try to keep it as close to this as possible.)

Monthly Spending Expense Breakdown:

Grocery:	$100.00
Produce	-$10.00
Dairy	-$10.00
Meat/Poultry	-$15.00
7 Dinners	-$35.00
7 Lunches	-$10.00
7 Breakfasts	-$5.00
Toiletries	-$10.00
Snacks	-$5.00
END TOTAL	$0.00
(Roll remaining…)
Restaurants:	$20.00
(Roll remaining…)
Gas:	$20.00
(Roll remaining…)
Medicines:	$10.00
(Roll remaining…)
Clothing:	$10.00
Kids Clothing	-$5.00
Adult Clothing	-$5.00
(Roll remaining…)
Laundry:	$10.00
Dryer Quarters	-$10.00
(Never have any left.)
Baby Care:	$10.00
Diapers/Wipes	-$10.00
(Roll remaining…)
Cosmetics/Ect.:	$10.00
Hair Care	-$5.00
Personal Items	-$5.00
END TOTAL	$0.00
(Roll remaining...)
Jason's Work Food/Drink:	$12.50
(He gets reimbursed when he purchases food & drinks at work but we budget it in at the beginning of the month.)
Entertainment:	$10.00
Netflix	-$10.00
(Netflix is a once a month fee. On the other weeks we keep it simple or roll the money to the following week so we can use a bigger amount for entertainment.)

We have a couple expenses (**Oil & Repairs & **Dr. Visits)  in our Monthly Budget that we do not pull cash out for but rather we put it straight into savings, this way we have it ready for when one of these needs arise.