This is a list of what I have currently setup for this year, 2008.
1.) Setup a Google Docs - Spreadsheet (everything revolves around this)
- On the first sheet I labeled it, Debt. On this sheet I listed all of our current debt, with the current balance and current monthly payment for each card. This one little step here is a big reality check for a lot of people and it definitely was for me as well. You have a card here and a card there and the out of sight out of mind rule really comes into play, but when they are all bunched together in one list, OUCH!
- I created a second sheet and labeled it, January - Forecast. On this one I listed all of our bills (rent, cable, credit cards, etc.) This is all totaled up to project what we will be spending in bills. Then I have listed my wife’s and I’s take home pay for the month to see the money coming in. Our Income is then subtracted from our bills to see what we have left for the month to spend on food, gas debt reduction, etc.
- I created a third sheet and labeled it, January - Budget. I have never created or restricted myself to a budget before so this will be a learning and tweaking thing for me. On this sheet I took an amount from what we have left after we subtracted our income from bills. I put this total at the top of the sheet then underneath it I started a item list of what we purchase. This includes our food, gas and entertainment or everything outside of bills. This column totals up and subtracts itself from the budget number to show the remaining budget left.
- I created a fourth and final sheet and labeled it, January - Item List. This sheet will keep a running total for the entire month of all our money coming in and going out. I list the date, item and the amount under either debit or credit.
The money we have left at the end of the month after the bills and budget the wife and I will be putting the money towards our lowest credit card balance. Both of us decided it would be best for us to go the debt snowball route. I first read about this at the blog, Get Rich Slowly. I would recommend checking them out because I have received some great advice from reading it daily.
That is the current plan as of now. If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts I would love to hear them. Hopefully this will work for me, but I am sure there will be a lot of learning and tweaking the plan along the way.