10 Steps to cleanse your budget

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People are in a sink or swim moment right now which means that we need to cleanse your budget just as you would cleanse your body by eating certain foods and get all the unnecessary out. Let’s get all the unnecessary out of your budget too.

1. Set savings as a priority. (pay yourself first)

During the time it is necessary, it is even more important to pay yourself first. You can do this by two ways. The first way is how we complete it, and that is by setting up an automatic savings from our checking to our savings. The other way is manually putting your money into your savings, but most likely you will stop doing this after awhile and forget. You will spend it all instead of saving. We recommend doing it the automatic way. Saving is important to let you know that you will be okay when hardships happen, because let me tell you that car breaks down at the most inconvenient time and so does the washer and dryer!

By setting up this pay yourself first, we were able to save $10,000 for our baby fund! Thank goodness Ember says!

Articles you will enjoy to learn more about paying yourself first:

• Starting a Family – a baby fund is a must!
• 5 Reasons to Have a Baby Fund!

2. Create your budget from expense #1 priority to least priority

Number of our priorities for the budget are: Rent, RV loan “our mortgage”, food, insurance, and gas. If it does not come into these areas we need to rethink and see if we can get them reduced or changes made. Sometimes it is a hard sacrifice for a bit. I know it is not what we want to hear, but let me tell you it is not forever and it will not be.

Live within your means — you will enjoy life better this way instead of charging it on a credit card that you are not able to afford.

3. See where you can decrease expenses

This is a hard one for some because they do not want to cut expenses. We have two cars, if it came down to it. We would sell one of the cars to become in a better financial path. This means we would cut out insurance on 1 car and save monthly plus save on having to do the license registration again when that is up. Many people would be saving on the “car payment” too, but this is not an expense for us because we pay our cars off in cash.

Another area of decreasing expenses would be subscriptions. During the pandemic, we cancelled Netflix. I mean when you need it the most that’s when we said, see you later! We looked at ways to cut our cell phone bill, auto insurance, and so much more. It is just a call away. Pick up the phone and call. I know it can be tough, but it will feel good afterwards.

4. Make a list where you want to cut out the extras.

What is the list of where you want to cut out the expenses you do not need right now. This is where you write it all down and set a day to cancel the “junk” or the excess “food” if you are thinking of it as a cleanse for your body. It will be cutting out the extra for your peace of mind really.

Where we started was bringing our lunches to work, since we work in a grocery store it only made sense to stop spending our money at the store we worked at. It could save you $70 a week, $280 a month, $3,360 a year!

5. Pray about it daily to help you and guide you

This is should have been number 1 in the entire list, but we want you to pray about how to cleanse your budget daily to help you and guide you! Ask for wisdom and knowledge on how to cut unnecessary items. Remember, since we have been in the pandemic and not spending any money and now that places are starting to open up it may be a temptation to go and spend a lot of money you do not have.

Pray for God to guide you and tell you “no” to going out and buying stuff.

How we have had God help us guide us with this saying, “Positive Thoughts. Positive Actions”

6. Start canceling memberships and subscription

This is a no brainer really, but I know people who pay for memberships and subscriptions that they do not even use. Guess how many we have…ZERO! We do not pay for any of these. Why? Because during this time we have found that we do not want to waste our money each month on things we do not use or should not use. Instead we spend more time in nature and bounding together. Yes, sometimes it does get boring but it is better than being broke because of these monthly costs. Remember, we are cleansing your budget. You can GET these back at anytime!

7. Start calling companies to find a deal

As we already mentioned above, you will want to start calling companies to find a deal and many places want to keep you as a customer so they are willing to find you a deal! Phone companies, insurance agencies, TV and other subscriptions, etc.

Call.

Go now.

Please and get yourself some relief.

If you are told no, definitely ask to speak to a supervisor because most likely they are able to get you a deal. We got a deal with Amazon Prime that we paid for a year. We got 3 months for free and at first they told me they could not do anything for me.

8. Watch TV and find commercials to search for a good deal.

TV commercials we have to say are where some of the good deals are. We stopped watching TV for a long time, but now that we watch TV off my parents account we see the good deals. Phone companies paying for phones and creating new unlimited to win you as a customer. Car dealerships offering 0% interest for over 12 months plus no money down. Mortgage companies at the lowest interest rate since a long time. Even furniture deals, but please make sure you can afford all this stuff if you go out and find the good deal. you do not want to get a “good” deal if you do not have the money for it!

9. Pray more about finding a light to saving and give more. Who to bless and what to save for.

As a reminder when cleansing, this is a good thing to do. Who can you bless for free with your time? Who can you be a listening ear for? These simple things make a huge difference!

10. Keep calm and know God got this!

Do not let the worrying keep you up at night, but know that everything will be okay! God has got you and he will not let you fall. Keep calm and know you got this with him!

This is easy to read, but actually really hard. I can remember when I was living on my 3rd month of no income and I felt like the world was crashing down on me, but I had to fight the devil out of my mind. Why? Because I knew that God had me and he told me all I needed to hear was, “Keep calm and let GOD take over.” I love this because when I had Ember, I am afraid of needles, hate the doctors, and everyone thought I wouldn’t make having a kid. Me included!! There was this verse in the Bible that made me make it through the entire process. I kept saying, “I am weak Lord, I am weak!”

2 Corinthians 12:10 “That’s why I take pleasure in my weakness, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

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Share with others to show them they can do this too and make their money work for them!

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Yes, we live tiny with a baby. We budget to save more and are working on paying off our “mortgage.”

We paid off $32K of her student loans, paid 2 cars with cash, saved up 10k for our baby fund and paid off $20k his student loans.

We want you to live your best life with financial freedom. We want you to enjoy what God created us for!

Life is just beginning!

Join us also on instagram at believe.and.budget!

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