budgeting After five years of going back and forth in an incredibly abusive relationship I'm finally…

We make about 6,500k a month, sometimes more. We take out 1k every month. Have $200 for groceries every week and $200 to spend freely for the month. We only spend cash and don't use our cards. Obviously you can set what money you have for when. Doesn't work for everyone, but it does for us:)

Make shopping lists before you go to the store and stick to them. That's really helped me budget better.

I use cash only and have an envelope system where i put what money is needed for what bill into it and and what goes for food and then another for spending cash. That way when the spending cash envelope is empty then myself and the kids know we are broke until next month. Dont eat out its very expensive and wasteful.

Oh and coupons save so much money. If you shop at walmart use the savings catcher on their app as well, i get back about 20 a month in gift cards for walmart just off of reciepts price match.

Take out savings first thing. Plan on a percentage of your income ALWAYS being savings and stick to it.

My husband is an impulse shopper too. What works for him is having a cash "allowance" that he can spend on frivolous purchases. Then the rest goes to necessities

Learn how to coupon! I save tons of money.

Ty ladies! Im looking for a budgeting app too.

Stop buying crap you don't need and shop the ads.

We're currently doing Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University through our church to get ourselves in line. It's been a huge eye opener as to how much we really spend on silly stuff and how much we waste food. In 7 weeks we've managed to get an emergency fund started, pay off 2 small debts completely and have gone from praying we don't overdraft and paying bills late to having money left over at the end of each week that we can throw at other debts. I highly recommend it if you can find somewhere that offers it!

I also followed David Ramsey's advice. Have completely paid off al my debt except for my mortgage. The key is making a budget and sticking to it. Use cash for purchases to prevent over spending. And try and pay off debt as fast as possible. It's hard. But doable. :)

Dave Ramsey. I'll try him

I third and fourth Dave Ramsey! Since reading Total Money Makeover (and taking the same class pp mentioned) we have an emergency fund, are paying off our debts smallest to largest (our tax refund is going to pay half of them!) and are looking at being completely debt free in two years.

Give every single dollar that you make a name and a place to go. So write a list of all of the things you *must* pay; rent, electric, water, car, insurance, etc. Then list your debts from smallest to largest, and note what their monthly minimum payments are. Last, write down the rest of what you spend your money on: gas(auto), groceries, toiletries, pet needs, household items (diapers, wipes) and determine how much you'll need each month to cover those three catagories. ANY DOLLAR left over goes into savings until you have $1,000 emergency savings.

It takes discipline, but you're on the right track. You can do this.