Budget, Savings, Emergency Fund?

Do you have one? two? or all three? If not, why not? Would you like any of the above?

Did you know that no matter what your situation is that with a budget you CAN have a savings and an emergency fund?!

For those that have savings and/or an emergency fund, how did you get started? What got you started?

I'm 28 years old, married with 2 children and going through with the short sale process on our house. It isn't the most ideal situation, but it is what it is. Its what is needed right now for my family as we weren't so prepared as we thought to purchase a home.

I've never lived on a budget. In fact I've lived paycheck to paycheck ever since I had my first job. By the way, I'm a WAHM now, where as before I was a SAHM for many years.

While my husband works his butt off 40 hours a week, it is just enough to pay the bills. Well, most. As I said we're going through the short sale process on our house because we weren't able to make that payment AND all of the others.

If we paid the mortgage we'd have to be behind on all of our utilities. That's right, I'd pay the past due amount, leaving the current amount unpaid. Of course when the due date came and went for that bill, it was then past due. For MONTHS we had a past due amount on each of our utilities. Until we decided we couldn't afford to pay the mortgage. We're now current with our utilities but behind on our mortgage.

Hardships happen. They happen to ANYONE. They can happen at ANY TIME. Are you prepared? Do you want to be?

My husband and I have decided it is time to take control, not only of our finances but other attributes in our lives. For the financial control we're leaning on Dave Ramsey, I'm sure you've heard his name in passing at least once. We're taking his 13 week Financial Peace University course. Tonight was class 1 and we learned so much just from this class that I can't wait for the future classes.

Did you know you should have a minimum of $1,000 for your emergency fund? $500 if you're income is less than $20,000 a year.

What about having at least 3-6 months of expenses saved up for that "rainy day" that may come?

Those are a couple things that were covered in tonight's class. Which by the way, we pretty much got a comedy show tonight just for going. He is a FUNNY guy! Definitely lightens the mood a bit!

If you have the chance to take the class, even if its doing it from home on your own, I fully recommend it.

I'll try to update about the class no later than Monday evening as each class is on Sunday. However, I can't guarantee it'll be up by then as I may get busy on some Mondays. So for sure it will be up each Tuesday after. Check back then to see more information on how you can save money and plan for the future.