Reflection: How did we reduce it? We removed all daycare ($800) and reduced our grocery budget by nearly $500. That required Leon to not eat out as much, cut back on soda, and for me to cook homemade meals and cut back any 'extra' spending on little items here and there (which I have a weakness for). We also reduced our gas consumption by nearly half ($200) since I wouldn't be driving to work every day.
Back to the question, is it working? Well, that depends on our commitment. Mentally, yeah. We're pretty excited about it because we have significantly improved our spending. But we haven't quite hit each number each month. The discussions we've been having lately is a re-commitment.
Using Dave Ramsey's approach, we have standardize (equal pay) as much of our expenditures as possible and have most of them on automatic withdrawal. The cash spending is where we haven't been staying on target. So that is where we are 're-committing'. I'm even going to get envelopes out and I've proposed that we lock up our debit cards. :|
I love this quote (paraphrased) from Dave: 'Tell your money where it is going instead of it telling you.' We'll keep you posted!
