I have a hard time budgeting. Not because I don’t want to, but because my husband works construction. We get paid when he has a job to do, and if there is no job, then there is no income. We also live in Alaska, so a lot of the outdoor jobs shut down in the winter.

I also work from home doing a number of different types of jobs – teaching piano lessons, some sewing projects, and selling my artwork. My jobs in some ways are more steady like the piano lessons. The others would probably be considered more seasonal as they depend more on the tourist “season.” 

But budgeting is a huge thing. I know that I have to make whatever money we make stretch until who knows when, so it’s important to calculate approximate time in between jobs, as well as add on how long before the first draw on the next job. Today I thought I’d share how I budget, and some of the things I’ve learned over the years to keep us afloat.

1 – I pay Tithing. We pay 10% tithing and then additional offerings as we feel we should to help locally as well as worldwide. This is something I would never skip as we have seen many blessings in our lives because we were willing to give back to the Lord a little piece of what He gave us. If you’re not religious, you could give to a charity. Giving away a little of our increase helps us be grateful for the things we have.

2 – Just because we have money now, don’t blow it all now. Save for the future. I try to put a big chunk of any money we get into savings that we try not to touch while we’re working.  A lot of the budgeting information out there say’s 10%. I think that’s a good place to start, but it should be one of the first things you do, not the last.

3 – Pay the bills. Mortgage/rent, electricity, phone, gas, etc., pay them. Living where we do in Alaska, we have very few utility bills, that’s really nice. But we do have electricity and cell phone and internet bills. Check over your subscriptions and make sure you are using them all. If not cancel them. I did that recently, thinking I only had 2 subscriptions. But as I went through my credit card, I had 5 different ones. I use 2. I got rid of the rest.

4 – Years ago I never really budgeted for food. But over the last couple of year I have had to really look at what I’m buying and how much things cost. I now take cash to the grocery store so that I know exactly how much money I have to spend and keep really close track of what I’m buying. This has been such a great change to just using my credit card as I spend almost $100 less every single week. We still eat well, but I am so much more conscious of how much each Item costs, looking for coupons and better deals, and just being wiser in what I spend. 

5 – Stay within your means. I remember reading an article once in which someone was criticizing an money expert because they told a client that they couldn’t keep drinking Starbucks coffee. The person was upset that something like their coffee would come under scrutiny and that they may have to drink cheaper coffee. I was surprised as I was always taught that if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. There was no “but it makes me happy” excuse to live beyond your means. 

Well, there are some of the things I do to budget my money. As I was typing, I thought maybe I might expand upon several of those points in future blog posts. But this is a great overview. Budgeting and staying with our means, as well as having a little bit of money set aside for the future brings a lot of peace of mind. Sharing, even just a little bit of what we make also gives us a lot of gratitude for the what we have been blessed with.