Many people have asked me if I have a budget for my family every month. The answer to that is no. I don't believe in having a budget because it is like why many people fail to lose weight. People fail to lose weight because they set up too much at one time a expect a lot a results instantly. With a budget this also can happen so this is what I do to succeed. I pay myself first before I do anything. What!! not pay bills first? That is right I pay myself into a ROTH IRA and into my TSP account before I do anything else. Next, I pay my bills which includes DirectTV,DSL, telephone,heating/elec, and my insurances like car etc. (SGLI comes out of my paycheck automatically). Then we usually go shopping and say how much we are going to spend on this trip to the supermarket. We always have a shopping list but I do buy an extra $10-20 off that list on canned goods for food storage. (More about that later). I then put some money in my ING DIRECT account for an emergency fund. I do have a little left over for things like milk, fresh fruit,veggies, and gas. I don't budget I just live under my means which a lot of people don't do. If I want some coins or a new computer or something like that I start putting the money away and save for a few month until I have the money.
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