EveryDollar - New Free Budgeting Tool by Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey has released a FREE budgeting tool, EveryDollar. Since I base my budget on his income allocation budgeting system and have blogged about that before, I thought I'd share a review of his new tool.

I must say I'm impressed with how easy it is to use and set up. My husband and I transferred our April budget over quickly and easily.

I like that it combines the budget and envelope system. Well not really the physical envelope system, but the general idea as it shows you how much you have left in each category at the click of a button.

The only thing I still had to use my notebook for was the savings breakdown. (I use my digital OneNote notebook instead of a physical notebook now.) Since we budget by the month it was fine and not a hassle.

I hope you'll try it out for yourself!

*Well I posted this without ever reading the help section on EveryDollar. I decided to check if it had an option for the savings account breakdown and IT DOES!
What is a Fund? explains the process to adding your savings goals to EveryDollar.

I'm off to try it out now!

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Budgeting Ideas from a Missionary

December - Time to start planning next year's family budget. I thought I'd share how our family plans our annual budget as a practical and hopefully helpful blog post. A budget is not something we often think of when imagining the life of a missionary, but as a missionary it's definitely needed!  We get finances once a month and have to make that stretch.

The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty,
But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.
Proverbs 21:5

A little background first. Before I gave my life to Jesus, these budgeting concepts were foreign to my husband and me. As a matter of fact the first year of our salvation, we lost our house and our car due to bad financial decisions. We had a bank account but never balanced our check book...just looked at our ATM balance and went from there. Can you say bad idea, lol! Neither of us are from prosperous backgrounds or even from middle class America. Although my husband does come from a hard working background, I don't.

We first started learning about budgeting when Pastor Gordon asked Pastor Andy Anderson to do a financial seminar for us in Corpus Chrsiti, TX (Where we got saved). It was a real eye opener for us and really helped us. Pastor Anderson went over all the budgeting forms and so forth, but what was so helpful was the preaching that accompanied the practical helps. Since then, I've read countless books including ones from Larry Burkett and Dave Ramsey which I encourage everyone to do as well.

Allocation Spending Plan

When we lived in the U.S., I made up this form. If you click on the link or the picture you can download it and use it for yourself. That form is for a yearly budget with weekly paychecks. I don't use that anymore as we are now on a monthly budget. However if you are on a weekly or semi-weekly budget the excel spreadsheet is the way to go as it does all the math for you. It's based loosely on Dave Ramsey's idea of having your money allocated before you get it.

The following is based on keeping our budgeting simple and quick. Instead of a computerized budget I now use a simple notebook.  The basic concepts are the same, so it will work on computer or paper.

• First I title the 1st page "Savings 2014" and title the second page "Monthly Expenses".
• Then I turn to the 3rd page and title it January 2014 and do that with the consecutive remaining months for the next 11 pages. 
• Immediately after "December 2014", I start titling the pages "Grocery List Week 1" and continue for 52 pages until "Grocery List Week 52".
• Next we pray about what God would like us to give to support conference, give to world evangelism (at conference & our church), for revivals, birthdays, Christmas, our anniversary, and any other needs we might have. The reason we start planning now for conference is that when we 1st got saved we heard an offering illustration at conference one year that never left our memories. The pastor said something to the effect that if you are sitting here wishing you could give but you don't have any money it's all the times during the year you should have been setting money aside that are to blame. We hated the inability to give when our hearts were so moved!
• Once we have a base number for everything we need to save for, we then determine the dates we will need the money available. So for example our anniversary is in March. We divide the amount we determined by 3. For conference it's 10 because our conference is in October. We continue down the list for every item.
• Next we go to the second page and write down our income and expenses and a general estimate if it fluctuates like the electricity bill. Now we have a general idea if we can afford all that we want to do. If we can't we rework the numbers say for birthdays or stuff like that. The general budget is done.
• Now before every month begins we turn to the appropriate page and write down our income at the top and start subtracting expenses such as tithe, offering, W.E., savings, rent, and so forth. Very similar to my income allocation sheet but on paper and only 1 column because we only get money once a month. By this time we have the electric bill and other bills that fluctuate so it's more accurate than the general budget.
• I make a second column for  groceries and write the weekly dates. For instance in January, I would write 1/2/14 on first line then 1/9/14 on the second line and so forth. Next to each date I write amount we will have available for groceries.
• The way we determine available amount for groceries is by dividing whatever is left after expenses and savings by 4 or 5 depending how many weeks are in the month. Sometimes it's not very much so that is where the weekly grocery list becomes very important.
• I then turn to the weekly grocery list and make a list based on amount of money available. Since I have an Android phone I then quickly type my grocery list into my Google tasks, so I don't have to take the notebook with me.

Numbers might seem high bcuz our money is 2BZ to 1US.

Now for some tips!

• Always start with prayer!
• Keep your money separated in envelopes that way when it's gone it's gone. Here are some links where I explain cash envelopes: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• When it comes to finances as in other areas of life remember most things are a trade. Before I buy something impulsively , I ask myself "What am I trading this for?" 
• When it seems easier to eat out than to cook ask yourself, "What am I trading this for?"
• If you have more month than money consider buying fans and turning off your a/c. (We do that.)
• Only use your a/c at night. (If it's unbearably hot we do that.)
• When you don't have much money left in your gas budget take a bus or walk. ( We do that.)
• Eat leftovers for lunch or dinner depending on which one is the big meal you cooked for. ( We do that.)
• If you don't eat your leftovers by the next day freeze them. Buy freezer bags and save for when you don't have time to cook. ( We do that.)
• Use coupons or buy a discount card at your local store. ( We don't have coupons here, but we did buy a discount card from our local grocery store.)
• Buy used clothes. ( We do that.)
• Shop for your fruits and vegetables at the local market instead of grocery store. (Yep, we do that too, lol!)

I'm sure there are many more tips, but this post is really long already! :-)  If you have any tips, ideas, or questions please leave them in the comments below. God Bless!

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Free or Low Cost Online University for Missionary Kids is Possible!

My daughter recently graduated from homeschool at the age of sixteen while living overseas in Belize. We were a little concerned about her continuing education but were trusting God to provide.

As missionaries finances are very limited, so being able to afford college as a foreign student just didn't seem possible and sending our young daughter to America without us was not an option.

The solution: Online university classes!

I started looking into different Texas universities that offered online degrees and classes. After contacting different schools, I found this informative website http://www.utcoursesonline.org/

I called and spoke with a lady who was able to direct me and helped me choose University of Texas of the Permian Basin as my daughter's home campus. I also came across this article claiming U.S. News and World Report named UTPB 46th in the nation and first among Texas public universities for online bachelor’s programs. 

I looked into their freshmen admission requirements  and since my daughter was homeschooled the entrance requirements were a little tougher. Also since we are currently serving in Belize, I wondered if we would still be considered Texas residents since the school fees are considerably higher for non-residents. In addition, we wanted to apply for financial aid. I called the school and the admissions clerk was very helpful. He explained to me that since we were still considered Texas residents with the IRS, DPS, banks, etc. we should still qualify for resident fees. To make sure, I also contacted FASFA and confirmed with a representative on the phone. She was very helpful and stated that we qualified as Texas Residents for FAFSA.

Once that major hurdle was out of the way, we started the application process. Thank God my daughter did well on her ACT exam because as homeschoolers we could not provide class rank or TAKS test scores. Within a month she was accepted!

Part of the reason we chose UTPB was because of The Falcon Promise. They promise free tuition for four years for Pell grant eligible students with an income of $60,000 or less. We knew we would still have to pay for her books, supplies, and miscellaneous expenses. We almost didn't apply for any other scholarships because most required for you to live on campus.

I'm so glad we decided to file for scholarships anyway. My daughter was awarded the Freshman Merit Scholarship Award and the Book Scholarship. We received the letter while our daughter was at our church boot camp in Texas. We almost missed the deadline to accept the award. The financial aid office was very helpful and allowed us to fax the acceptance letter along with a Home Housing Exception Certificate stating my daughter lived with us in Belize and would not live on campus.

Once she was accepted, we noticed she would have to attend freshman orientation and meet with an advisor in person before she could register for any classes. Well, that wasn't going to happen, so I called admissions once again. The clerk directed me to email to my daughter's advisor with our situation. The advisor was very helpful and immediately pulled the registration hold and advised my daughter over email.


So I guess the moral of our story is don't quit asking for what seems impossible. God is faithful and will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!

My daughter starts classes next Monday, so please keep her in your prayers!

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Cash envelopes - Part 4

I uploaded my Budget/Allocation template to docstoc.com. Please feel free to download it. I based it on the Dave Ramsey allocation worksheet. This is an xl file so it does the math for you! Just click on the orange
arrow on the far right-hand side and it will download to your computer. Leave a comment if you have any questions.


Buget/Allocation

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Cash envelopes - Part 3

I decided to add some verses you can use for the cash envelopes.

• Proverbs 19:15, NKJV Laziness casts one into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.
• Proverbs 10:4 He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
• Proverbs 12:24 The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.
• Proverbs 12:27 The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.
• Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
• Proverbs 21:5 The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.
• Proverbs 27:23 Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.    
• Galatians 6:9 ESV And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

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Cash envelopes - Part 2

I was talking to my sister yesterday about using the cash envelope system. Previously I'd written about the actual envelopes themselves and not about the system. So today I'm going to go over the system. I've also included some informative links at the bottom of the page and even a video.

• First make a budget. I have a spreadsheet I made (which I'll upload soon) where I enter my monthly allocations.
• Once you've allocated all your incoming finances for the month, withdraw enough money for the week and put it in the proper envelopes.
• If self-disciple and self-control are an issue, write scripture verses on the envelopes to keep accountable to yourself and to God.
• During the week, keep tack of how much money is left in each envelope and spend accordingly.
• When the money is gone it's gone! Don't pull from another envelope or you will shoot yourself in the foot. If you get tempted to take from another envelope, read the scripture verses on your envelopes.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2070415_use-cash-envelope-budgeting-system.html
http://www.daveramsey.com/article/dave-ramseys-envelope-system/lifeandmoney_budgeting/
http://www.fiscalgeek.com/2009/09/cash-envelope-budget/
http://www.notthejetset.net/2008/07/our-cash-envelope-system.html
http://www.debt-to-income.com/cash-budget.html

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Cash envelopes

I received this great link. She shows you how to keep your cash envelopes all together in your wallet. Very Pretty.

I use the envelope system here in Belize because the bank fees are ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, we still have a bank account. We just pull out the money we need on a weekly basis from the atm and put it in envelopes. In the US we used our checks for everything, but here they charge you for every single check you use, plus they charge you to withdraw money from a teller. The only thing they don't charge for is using the atm. And going to the atm every day is not cool.

That's where the envelopes come in.  If you don't use envelopes (or some kind of budgeting tactic) to keep your money separated, you will run out of money before the end of the month because everything here is so expensive

As Christians we have to be good stewards, so the envelope system has definitely helped. Dave Ramsey, the author of Total Money Makeover, also advocates the envelope system.

This tutorial will just be an easier way to implement the envelope system. Lately, I have to dig through my purse to find the envelopes. Can you say time saver? You don't even need to make the pretty envelopes, just use regular envelopes and stitch them together per the tutorial.

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