Here is one of our previous monthly budgets. It is based on a total after tax income of $1747.00 per month. The book is not showing a profit yet so we get no income from it. A couple of notes about the budget:

You will notice there is not a section for clothes. We get enough for Christmas from the grandparents that we don't buy much but underwear, socks and shoes. If there is something else we need, I supplement with nice stuff that I buy at garage sales. All clothes items come out of the Wal-Mart category with the paper goods. We did have our all our credit cards paid off, but we had to charge our move to Kansas ($2700.00 @ 3.9%). We had no choice since hubby couldn't find work in Idaho, so we have credit card debt again. (We paid off $20,000 in medical bills and credit cards in 5 years on an average income of $22,000 per year. Click here for more information on how we did it.) We plan to pay this off with our tax refund of 3K in Earned Income Credit this year. After 3 years on the market we finally sold our house in Idaho and had to take a loss of $7500.00. We took $8000.00 cash advance on our credit cards to pay for it. We needed the extra $500 to catch up on some medical bills. I immediately transferred the 8K to 2 credit cards on which I am getting 3.9% and 5.9% interest until it is paid off. Hopefully it will be gone in 18 months to 2 years. All eating out is included in the Social/Entertainment category. Our grocery budget includes food only. Our food budget is for two adults and two pre-schoolers. I buy almost everything at one store and stock up buying only sale items from other stores. I can get paper goods cheaper at Wal-Mart than the grocery store, so I buy them there. At the moment Mike is covered for basic medical insurance through his work. I am covered for emergency on my Medicare and the kids are on state medical. It is $200.00 to get family medical through Mike's work for the kids and I and we simply don't have the money (as you can see) to do it right now. We are right on the line, financially. If an emergency happens (like our car dies) we may use the credit cards (at low interest of course) for back up (though we try not to) until hubby can find a better paying job.

Monthly Budget

INCOME-after tax

Mike's check	$1428.00
Tawra's disability	$319.00
TOTAL INCOME	$1747.00

EXPENSES

Tithe (church donation)	$180.00
Food (we decided to get WIC until we can pay off the debt from our house in Idaho or hubby gets a better job.)	$80.00 (+$48 in WIC)
Rent	$350.00
Sewer, water, and trash	$30.50
Phone	$50.00
Electric and gas	$230.00
Gas for car (we live 30 miles from town)	$135.00
Credit cards	$185.00
Internet	$00.00 (the book pays for it.)
Uncovered Medical Expenses	$75.00
Wal-Mart (includes all paper goods, clothes, soap etc.)	$75.00
Dog food	$4.00
Stamps	$6.00
Basic cable ( not critical but we can not get any TV without cable.)	$30.00
Car insurance	$54.00
Car repairs and tags	$75.00
Haircuts	$18.50
Presents-birthdays, etc.	$50.00
Social and entertainment	$30.00
TOTAL EXPENSES	$1658.00