Budget Box Reveal!!

Earlier this week I wrote a post that we were definitely starting our whole Financial Freedom/Dave Ramsey plan.  I am so excited about this.  Not because we are going to be sticking (hopefully) to a VERY strict budget, but excited for what it'll do for our lives and our future and even our happiness (good for a Happiness Project post maybe?!)  Dave R says "Live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later" we like that saying.  Yeah we want nice cars and stuff and tons of clothes and games and movies...but do we want that more than early retirement, having a lot saved when we are older, traveling all over?  Nope.  We don't want the stuff!!  In fact, I'm purging our whole house of the "stuff" so we can lead more organized, clutter free lives, inside and out!

So far I've paid off 5 of my credit cards from my early "adult" years.  Such a bad idea to give an 18 yr old credits cards.  I have one more card to go, the balance isn't that high so that will be gone in a month or so - it's been closed and I never ever use it.  Then we have Daves one card to pay off.  We still use this one, but we have started to cut down on its use, a lot.  Then theres my school loan.  Ugh.  Whoever says education debt is good debt, probably doesnt have a school loan, lol!  Anyways, the point is - we are trying to pay off all this debt FAST, so our budget is based around doing that, and having an good Emergency Fun, life needs like gas and food, and then "stuff" comes last if at all!

So, to help with all this money-keeping-together I linked up with a bowl full of lemons this week to create a budget box.  Our box will help us keep our budget and finances organized!!  Have a look-sy:

 I got the box and folders and envelope book all at Target.  Total cost $15.  I guess thats ok in the challenge to become debt free?  We finalize our budget tomorrow, lol, there won't be much "extra stuff at Target" room in that budget! 

 Using my label maker (aka an organizers BFF) I labeled tons of folders with the following labels:

Pay Now

Paid Bills (we usually keep a few months worth of paid bills, just in case)

Medical Docs

Bank Info

Pay Stubs

Budget

Budget Forms

Investments

Tax Info

House Info

Receipts (have to keep these to make sure we are doing well, budgetwise!)

....to name a few

 Um...yeah, we have a lot of...paper.  This is all the stuff Dave & I have both saved, now we are merging it all, throwing most of it away (uncluttering is lovely!) and if it's important it has a place in our budget box.

 Not the most glamorous package, but this baggie will, for now, hold our calculator, check book, a pen and pencil, envelopes and stamps.  This will live in the back of the box so it's a one stop shot to paying our bills.  It has everything we need!

 All labeled and stuffed up and ready to go!

 This little book will be our envelope system.  It's a Dave R system that helps with the budgeting.  Theres a little notepad with it to track our daily spending!

 All done!!  It feels good to be financially organized - paperwise.

See?  We will tuck it onto our wonderful Ikea shelf for safe keeping so when we need to work on finances, pay bills, we can just pull the Budget Box out and go to town! 

Tomorrow night Dave & I have a scheduled date to sit at the table, pull this box out and jump into finalizing our budget.  We are excited about it, in a weird way.  It'll be hard, but it'll be all worth it in the end! 

I've gotten a lot done today!  It feels good to feel BETTER and be productive.  More on that later....time to read!!