Budgeting by what Timeframe?

Dave Ramsey's budget is based on a month. Which is great, except that it's hard to plan all the expenses because of the varied number of days in a month - in my mind that didn't make sense. So, I adjusted it to every two weeks so that I would know how we can plan our paycheck.

Right now, our mortgage take up just about 40% of our paycheck. So with tithing, we have to budget half of what we bring in across utilities, car, groceries, gas, family activities, etc. We can't wait until we are at a place that our mortgage does not take up so much of our income, but that will be a couple years in the making (either by paying it down or making more money).

This process has been excited for me. We have gone through quite a bit of discovery in determining where our money was going and where our weaknesses are. It's fun to see how we can unexpectedly find areas of improvement - like cooking from scratch or finding coupons. I have several sisters-in-law that have shown me how many activities your family can still experience even on a tight budget.

When listening to Dave Ramsey's CD's, he mentions putting together a quickie budget to start and then a more detailed budget (found here: http://www.daveramsey.com/tools/budget-forms/). But it is key to working with your spouse so that everyone is in agreement. I LOVE that last note - I believe that it is imperative that couples are reaching towards the same goals. If they aren't reaching towards the same goal, then their paths might diverge. Leon and I have seen this work in our lives over the past few years and it has been very powerful.