Budgeting: How I Do It

Here's how my husband and I split the expenses at home:

• Hubby's salary covers the car loan payments, monthly groceries, produce and meat products from the market for our daily menu.
• My salary goes to all the utility bills: Meralco, Cable Service, ISP and Water bill plus Johan's stuff (diapers, snacks, milk and distilled water). Oh and I also pay for our monthly LPG.

If you think about it, it may seem that I pay more than what hubby pays. But, no. Hubby's list may be shorter  but the cost of those items on his list is way higher than those on mine and we both decided on who pays what depending on each of our own monthly income.

Okay, so because I have such a long list, I created a system on how I budget my money. I bought this envelope and put in tabs for each item that has to be paid. I listed down a schedule on which utility bills need to be paid on the first payday and which bills can wait until the 30th.

Since, I already have an idea on how much each item costs, I just put in the corresponding amount of money on each tab and just make some adjustment on some items like the Meralco bill and Water bill which may always be higher or lower than the previous month's. Also, because the 15th paycheck is usually higher than the 30th, I usually put in the budget for some items even if their due date is not until the end of the month. That is so I would still have a few more pesos left on my 30th paycheck.

This system is very helpful as I get to see where my money goes and this prevents me from spending money that should have been used to pay for something else. Also, it is helpful in unexpected situations like the time when our LPG ran out and both me and hubby weren't home, I just instructed my MIL to take the money allotted for the LPG from the envelope and have one delivered right away.

This process works effectively for us but I am yet to create a spreadsheet where I can record all the expenses we made on a monthly basis so I can track more accurately where our money goes.