New Year - New Budget

Every January I sit down to review and update our budget. I look at all of our balances and obligations so that I can budget and plan for the year ahead. This can be a fairly stressful time because we never seem to be where we hoped to be (does anyone?). Money definitely seems to go out quicker then it comes in.

In the past, I've tended to make our budget in January and not look at it again until the following January. This can lead to problems of going off budget and not even being aware of it until months later. So this year I am vowing to review our budget monthly. This way I can better monitor our progress and make any corrections before we get too far off track. We both want our debt gone.

As of right now I still haven't finalized our budget for January. That bothers me, but for right now I'm stuck. We both had changes to our pay and I'm not sure exactly how that will effect our take home pay. I do have the expense figures and an estimate on income, so I'm not a total slacker. I would just prefer to have "real" numbers.

I will say that our budget is tighter then either of us cares for right now. We will definitely be doing everything that we can to cut expenses this year. We both want to put more money into savings and have a little more breathing room in the budget.

Have you completed your budget yet? If not, what are you waiting for?