Live on less than 1/2 your income

by Hope

This is part I of my plan to be debt free by June, 2023 – Begin by living on on less than half of my income excluding debt payments. By summer, I’d like to cut that down to 1/3 or maybe even a 1/4 of my income.

Here’s how I came up with this budget:

1. I took the spending reports from 2021 and created monthly averages for everything I spend.
2. Looked at my plans and goals for 2022 and created a budget around every thing and then divided that by 12 and put it in the appropriate budget item.

Hope’s Winter/Spring Budget for 2022

The details

I think many of these categories are self explanatory but these are some details you may want to know or have questions about.

• Storage – plan to keep this until May, 2022 as we complete the house repairs, determine girls plans for fall and organize existing storage at house. This has been slowed down due to my health challenges.
• Life Insurance – I am actually carrying 3 life insurance policies right now. This one I started when I had Princess and Gymnast. I did decide not to convert it, so it is only good for two more years. The others are carried through my job and come out before I see any income.
• Princess – Allowance – this will end in May, 2022. And she has been advised that in coming years she will need to be prepared to handle her college expenses. She will get through this freshman year with no debt. She does plan to get a job on campus this semester and of course, during the summer. Her old job gave her some hours during this Christmas break but no where close to full time.
• Gym – I’m not sure I’m going to continue this, but leaving it for now.
• Gifts – this is essentially birthday money. It includes both gifts and family dinner out for each family members’ birthday.
• Savings – I continue to save $300 in my local savings account. Just want to keep up the habit.
• Dog – My puppy will be getting spade and such this first quarter of the year so this item will go down after I see what that will run. (She is such a joy to me, my constant companion and snuggler.)
• Buffer – I originally called this kids, but decided buffer was more appropriate now. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, normally when it comes to the kids, but that’s becoming less and less these days as they are all becoming more and more independent. (Gymnast is working part time these days.) So this just gives me a little wiggle room each month for the just in cases.
• Travel – this is a big one. And covers a couple of different things…as you know, we are going to Texas more frequently as my parent’s health continues to decline. My fiance and I are traveling monthly to see each other. Hopper has made this so affordable with planning, but it’s still more than I’ve spent in past years especially on just me. And the biggest one, is that for Christmas next year, I am planning to take all the kids to New York for New Years. That will be our Christmas present (notice there is no other Christmas line item.)

When my debt is gone, this is what my budget will look like. That is why I am keeping it separate from my debt budget/payoff plan. But don’t worry, that’s coming next along with updated numbers. Ugh!

Hope is a digital marketing manager and foster/adoptive single mom to five kids. She has run her own consulting company for over 15 years and took a leap of faith returning to the corporate world in 2021 to a job and team she loves! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally mastered the balance between family first and wise financial decisions.