SAMPLE 2 PERSON BUDGET HOW TO

It’s on my list to tackle in 2016 by reducing our home size. We live in too large a house for our needs that is a bear to cool. We don’t currently contribute to savings (except our retirement accounts, which is done automatically and we don’t even think about), since we already have our emergency savings plan in place. We put $580/month into our debt repayment “snow ball” plan, and then any extra unplanned money that comes in. We average $34 for my bill and $57 for my husband, we both have iPhones on the TING network (it’s in independent cell phone company available everywhere that Sprint is and it’s amazing. We’ve had it for almost two years now, it came with a DVD player for the kids and is so cheap that we don’t need to stress out over scratches, or spills. We traded in our newer car that we had a loan on to get a 10 year old Chevrolet mini van for $5,000. So we spend several months (maybe even a year’s worth) of the clothing budget in one trip. When my husband says he really needs new work clothes, we check out of the promotions going on that weekend in all of the appropriate stores and grab everything from one store for the best price. We don’t regularly shop for clothes and good deals. We pass their clothes on to friends when our kids grow out of them. Our kids all have friends a little older than them, so we get their clothes when they grow out of them. We buy all of our jeans and pants from the thrift store on 50% off days, and fill in occasionally with other things as we need them. We’ve really cut back on our clothing options the last few years to put that money towards other goals.

It’s very likely that we under spend in this area. Reducing this to $1,600 is going to be my goal for 2016. We got a fantastic rate (by moving two days after Christmas!), but this needs to change. Granted we live in an incredibly expensive area, but this one drives me nuts. We used the money saving workbook to carve out a path to spend less and less every year. In our first year, we reduced our spending by over $23,000. We have a long way to go there are always substitutions that can be made and we take a few at a time to work our way through them slowly. If you spend less in an area, let me know! We’ve been on our frugal journey for almost 6 years and every year we get better. If there’s something here you spend more on, then check the notes to see why our spending is in that area maybe it’s something you can implement. Reducing your spending in a category usually requires you to learn a new skill or get used to a new routine for it to work.įor instance, if our grocery budget is lower than yours, and you see that we eat almost everything from home, you might say “Great idea! I’ll eat everything at home too!” But if you aren’t used to it, you end up spending money on groceries, and then your groceries go to waste by forgetting to defrost meat, forgetting to pack lunch, etc. Let this sample budget be an example, not a guide. One statement of caution though: if you’ve never budgeted before, don’t take my sample budget and say “That sounds good! We’ll do that!” The only way to truly reduce your spending is by determining the true total amount of what you spent last month, and then trying to make substitutions to lower that amount. We have a budgeted amount that goes towards debt repayment based on my absolute lowest expected income and then we apply everything else we make towards that. I have a fairly irregular income where some months are fantastic and some months are… not so much. We already have our emergency savings account and a slush account established, so we don’t have a set amount going to savings monthly. Your budget may look different depending on where you are in your life. Everyone is at a different point in their financial journey you may be well past us, or you may be behind us. This sample budget is based on our current household budget.

SAMPLE 2 PERSON BUDGET HOW TO

Which is a shame, because seeing how other people spend their money is a huge help in deciding how to manage your own. This isn’t something that is discussed often, even amongst friends, so it’s really hard to see specifics of how others spend their money. A sample budget is a budget from another family that you can look over to help you create your own budget. From the young couple that doesn’t have enough money to pay their electric bill, to the largest multi-million dollar company everyone needs a budget. Hot Mess to Home Success is now open for limited enrollment! Get step-by-step training on budgeting, meal planning, and home management that anyone can stick to! Offer ends January 12th 2024 at midnight! Learn more here.Īn absolute necessity to managing your money is a budget.

Sample 2 person budget