[budgetmom]

These are the actual numbers. I am normally an average frugle person. I mean, I never really had a savings set up but I did manage to get my bills paid on time and whatever was left over after that was fun money. When I had kids that change and the fun money went to making sure they had clothes, shoes, toys, etc. Now, this went on just fine until DH started complaining becase he thought he was getting paid enough money to be able to afford some luxuries. We argued a lot about it and finally I gave the financial responsabilities over to him. A month and a half later we took a two week trip (me and the kids) out of state to visit family. It was then that I realized there was a problem. My(by the way he can't get a bank account in his name) bank card was declined. Well, when I got back I took the finances back over. He realizes now that I am just better with money (although I'm not really doing it the right way currently either)and trusts me with having that control more now. I do keep him very well informed of what I am doing now, though. That is something I didn't really do before. At any rate, while I was gone he didn't pay the bills either (there was a lot of money missing that he could not account for) so we got WAY behind with everything. The electric alone got to be over $500. I started trying to stick to a budget then, that is what you are seeing now (for the most part). Some of them are a little high because they include a previous balance. Should I have included those in the debt category? I just figured it would be easier to list the whole current bill amount than try to break it all up. So, the electric and the phone/internet will go down to around $115 for electric and $75 for the phone/internet once the prievious balances get paid. DH said that he will start when I talked to him last night. The original rate I had calculated to set aside for him was $240. I have not prioritized my debt, aside from the bank balance. I figured it would take priority and would take a little to pay off (overdraft protection can be a drawback when someone doesn't manage money properly). disneysteve, it is still a little high for the phone. I have talked with the phone company and got rid of our long distance service altogether. We no longer call long distance because those reletives have moved back into the state and city. Once this billing cycle is over our rate should drop even more.