A year and a half ago, I never realized how important it was to keep a budget. At that time, I was a stay at home mom/wife, our daughter was going to daycare, and we were spending my husbands hard earned money like he was making 100,000$ a year.
We were so naïve.
My husband ended up loosing his job last year.
Our only source of income, right after Christmas. We never realized how our shopping constantly, and not saving, would basically run us into the ground.
We had no money saved, as we were planning a trip to Montreal the month after. We had credit cards racked up, and loans. That's when reality hit us, that we were so screwed.
We were behind in bills, and borrowed money from our parents to help us stay afloat until we both found jobs.
Luckily my husband was able to find a full time job not long after, but it came with a massive pay cut.
I was only able to find a part time gig, which was working mostly evenings, a day shift here and there.
We were able to pay rent, groceries, and gas, but the price for our daughters daycare, plus babysitters, was putting us in the red. Not included the rest of our bills, that we're getting higher in price, the farther we fell behind.
It has been an extremely tough year and a half on us.
We made do, by working opposite shifts at our work, barely seeing each other. We pulled our daughter from daycare, as we just couldn't afford it.
We were living paycheck to paycheck.
We would have to pick and choose which bills to pay each month. Every 2-3 months we would have to pay off a large bill that was disconnected.
When we found out we were pregnant, I was terrified. How could we afford a second child, when we were barely surviving as it was!
Through most of my pregnancy, we talked back and forth about us moving back home. Where we would have family and friends to help us with the new baby. I myself, have wanted to move back home for years, but never got around to it. It was just never the right time, or we just couldn't afford the move.
Finally, my hubby was offered a job in our hometown. We accepted, and were in a mad rush to move as they wanted him to start immediately. This job, would pay much more than what he was making at the time, and it just made since, because I wouldn't have to find work, and go on maternity, and we would be home.
My parents helped us with the cost of moving, and we managed to find a house to rent, for a price we could afford!
For 2 weeks with lived back and forth at both my parents houses, until we were finally able to move into our new place.
We are fully moved in, and just had our son Grayson about a week and a half ago.
Things are pretty tight financially right now.
Luckily our family has been so great to help us when we needed it, but now that things are, in a way, starting to settle down. It's time for me to buckle down on our budgeting.
My husband is making more money now than before we moved, and my maternity benefits just kicked in 2 weeks ago, thankfully, and we can now actually afford to pay all of our bills.
Let me tell you, the feeling I have, knowing we can pay every single on of our bills, and catch up on debt and so on, is the best feeling in the world. We will be able to afford everything we need for our son, and our daughter.
So every week/month, I will be writing up our budget, so that we can make sure all our bills are caught up, and paid for.
I know many families have gone through the same situation we have, and the last month has been very stressful. We were lucky enough that our family was able to help us financially, because I know if they hadn't, we would probably be living with my mother or father, as we wouldn't have been able to afford rent.
I'm hoping through my experience, others that are in the same situation, or can relate, can learn how to handle making a budget and sticking to it. I'm not saying I am a pro at this. Obviously not, since we've barely been living pay check to pay check, but this way, you can join me, every week on how I do our budgets, and what we spend the most of our money on, etc.
If I make a mistake with our budget, I won't be to surprised. We are parents to a 4 year old little girl, and have just had a newborn baby, so this momma will be exhausted for the next 2-3 months, but that's okay. Mistakes happen, and sometimes people have a hard time in the beginning learning to stick to a budget, and figuring out what works for you, and what you can afford! That being said, I have household responsibilities, one being in charge of our expenses. So even though I will be extremely tired, our budget is one of the most important parts of my day, to make sure we don't over spend(which we do anyway) and to make sure our bills our paid on time from now on!
Have a great day everyone! Keep your eyes open for our June Budget!
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