Update on the Budget pt. 1

Doug and I have been tracking our spending for 3 months now.  Surprisingly, there weren't really any surprises in where are money goes.  See what I did there?  Used "surprise" twice in a sentence.  Yep, it's a favorite of mine. 

In the budgeting worksheet that we use, our expenses are separated into two main categories that each contain subcategories.  The categories are "fixed expenses" and "flexible expenses".  Fixed expenses are the ones that don't change from month to month.  For example, car insurance, the cell phone bill (except when Doug is a texting machine and goes over $120 on his plan), and tithe are all fixed expenses.  As I entered our fixed expenses into our worksheet, I began thinking:

Even if we begin regulating our flexible expenses by packing lunch instead of eating out or not buying that pair of heeled clogs that I want desperately (j/k, still not sure about those...), we will always have to pay our fixed expenses.  These expenses are skimmed off the top of our income before we have the freedom to decide if we would rather save our money that month or take a last minute trip to Miami.  Doug and I decided that the next logical step in our budgeting is to reduce our biggest fixed expense, our rent.  This will give us more "flexible" money to use as we choose.  We love our apartment and it is bittersweet to move on, but the Spirit is leading us to something new.

The front yard of our apartment.