This blog will mostly be used for posting my weekly budget updates. Payday is Thursdays and DH's work is very variable so we don't have a constant to work with. He only worked one day in January, but then he's worked 50+ hour weeks the last two weeks.

I do have a standard budget that will be mostly the same with some changes from week to week that requires $535/week without a snowball. Most weeks DH will earn more than that I hope as that's only 24 hours of work, but there will also be some weeks where he will probably make less. I know that BS1 and BS2 aren't recommended to have sinking funds but we can't guarantee being able to cashflow anything without doing so, so please don't scold me lol. Oh, additionally we will be receiving family assistance payments shortly - I believe it's about $419/fortnight but I'm not sure. Mostly we expect that to go to the "snowball" (which isn't really a snowball as all our debt is in one place) but is there to help out in a bad week.

Here is this weeks budget, with an income of $945.13:

Category: Previous Balance/Budgeted Amount/Amount Spent/Remainder(Zero or Negative Balance)

Tithe: $0 $95 $0 ($95)

Rent: $0 $180 $180 ($0)

Groceries: $0 $100 $65.06 ($34.94)

Petrol: $0 $60 $60.73 (-$0.73)

Utilities: $0 $40 $0 ($40)

Car Reg & Ins: $0 $40 $0 ($40)

Internet: $0 $15 $0 ($15)

Mobile #1: $0 $7.50 $0 ($7.50)

Mobile #2: $0 $2.50 $0 ($2.50)

Hygiene/grooming: $0 $5 $0 ($5)

Gifts: $0 $10 $0 ($10)

Miscellaneous: $0 $5 $0 ($5)

DH spending: $0 $5 $5 ($0)

Me spending: $0 $5 $5 ($0)

$570

Snowball estimated: $375.13 Actual: $228.40

I already blew the budget as I forgot about a chiropractor appointment I had booked weeks ago (-$86) and I spent $60 on baby things that I need but they could have waited. (-$60)

For now every category will be carried over to the next week. Most things are monthly or quarterly and with DHs variable income we really need to do our budget this way. So snowball has to come from anything DH brings home over and above $535/week and Family Assistance payments. Snowball may decrease from what I forecasted but it won't increase.

I'll update my progress and the next weeks budget on Thursdays.