Budgeting isn’t easy. But whether you’re trying to cut spending to save for that new house or you’d like some extra money to put towards your credit card debt, establishing a budget that works for you is essential. Which is why we’ve created the Budgeting Bootcamp experience. The bootcamp is a two-week program that will teach you how to establish a budget from the ground up and then actually stick to it. Every couple of days you’ll receive helpful tips and tricks for creating your own budgets, advice on mistakes to avoid and more.
Interested in participating in the bootcamp? First you’ll need to subscribe to our newsletter.
From there, you’ll be able to join the group titled “Budgeting Bootcamp,” where you’ll find a thread for each day of the budgeting bootcamp. This is a place to discuss what you learned, ask questions and share resources.
Disclaimer: This Budgeting Bootcamp is only for NEW email subscribers!
That sounds great. I have been married for 28 years and my husband has gotten laid off so many times it has been hard to build up any savings. Plus, we each had daughters from previous marriages and my ex-husband, who was supposed to pay child support, didn’t, and my husband responsibly paid $300.00 per month regardless of our money situation. I worked up until I had our first son, and then I stayed at home. When he started school, I went back to work. Eight years later when I had my other son, I became a stay-at-home mom again until Cody started school. During this time, we had filed for bankruptcy because we couldn’t keep up with the bills. Credit card debt and medical bills were piling up. My husband cashed in 401k’s, I was taking jewelry to pawn it off, and I took a loan against my life insurance policy. It was terrible. After the bankruptcy, it was a sigh of relief. We also caught a break because Countrywide sent us a letter saying they were paying off our second mortgage because of some mistake. I don’t know if it was a government thing, but we weren’t arguing. So, things were going alright. Until my husband got in a wreck with our car we had like 3 payments left on. He was fine, thank God. But Chris and his dad started talking and Chris figured that once in his life he was going to have a newer car. We argued, oh did we argue. I just wanted a nice one out of the paper. A nice one that would not put us in debt. But no, he bought a $19,000 car. I was heartbroken. Not only that, he co-signed for a car with my daughter without asking me and long story short, years later, she is struggling to pay for it. And a few months later, our son was looking for a truck and my husband told me it was my turn to co-sign with him. Now in my day, my parents NEVER co-signed anything for us. I was against it and I told him about it. Well, my son drove a truck off the lot. 2018, it was repossessed. Our credit rating is in the toilet. We have been late on so many of our different payments it’s not funny. I only worked part-time. I finally got a full-time job last year that I wasn’t at very long. I found out I had diabetes and I was pretty sick and so I wasn’t catching on as fast as they wanted so I was offered an ultimatum. Either show some improvement over the next two weeks or it could be my job. So I quit that day. I have applied so many places and been turned down. I know it’s because of my credit rating. My husband works full-time, plus he has a hauling business on the side. It doesn’t really make that much money by the time you take out gas money, dump fees, truck repairs, and all of that. So now we owe back taxes to the federal and state. The federal since 2014. We live paycheck-to -paycheck. There. I think that is my financial situation all laid out. I hope it wasn’t too much. It just kinda’ explains how I got to where I am. Have I thought about divorce? Yes, I filed last year. Then I dropped it. Stupid!! I used to be a miser with money. Doesn’t mix well with someone who doesn’t save a dime!!! I even opened my own savings account at a different bank. Once he found out about that he kept asking how much I had in there so we could borrow from that. Any budgeting advice you can give me would be a plus. I hope this is the information you wanted… If not I just gave you an earful of my financial problems, sorry. I know it’s probably beyond saving, but anything you could tell me would be a big help. Right now I have a 0 balance in my savings account. Help!
Why can’t current email subscribers participate in the bootcamp?
At this time, we’re only rolling it out to new newsletter subscribers. But we will absolutely consider others in the future! If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them =)
Why withhold Budgeting Bootcamp from anyone on the site who is interested and in need of this information? Why should people struggling to pick up a bit of information here have to wait and brand new people get the whole bootcamp?
I’m in content and community marketing also, and it’s a huge customer service mistake to make a new, permanent offering available only to new members. I guarantee you’re going to lose existing subscribers. Starting with me, possibly. You’re messaging us that your entire business plan is focused on churning through new subscribers and not providing quality content for the ones you already have. Plus, if you’re going to do launch something for new subscribers, why announce it to existing subscribers at all? That makes no sense. Make an offering for your new subscribers that introduces them to the valuable content existing subscribers already enjoy, don’t create something completely new for new subscribers only. Sheesh. This is content marketing 101.
I’m in content and community marketing also, and it’s a huge customer service mistake to make a new, permanent offering available only to new members. I guarantee you’re going to lose existing subscribers. Starting with me, possibly. You’re messaging us that your entire business plan is focused on churning through new subscribers and not providing quality content for the ones you already have. Plus, if you’re going to do launch something for new subscribers, why announce it to existing subscribers at all? That makes no sense. Make an offering for your new subscribers that introduces them to the valuable content existing subscribers already enjoy, don’t create something completely new for new subscribers only. Sheesh. This is content marketing 101.
Hi @r.hopkins completely understand where you’re coming from! However, this is just a pilot that we’re soft-launching to new email subscribers. We’re working on another iteration for a wide release. In the meantime, the content is still available to ALL community members in our Budgeting Academy course where you can receive the same kind of content:
That sounds great. I have been married for 28 years and my husband has gotten laid off so many times it has been hard to build up any savings. Plus, we each had daughters from previous marriages and my ex-husband, who was supposed to pay child support, didn’t, and my husband responsibly paid $300.00 per month regardless of our money situation. I worked up until I had our first son, and then I stayed at home. When he started school, I went back to work. Eight years later when I had my other son, I became a stay-at-home mom again until Cody started school. During this time, we had filed for bankruptcy because we couldn’t keep up with the bills. Credit card debt and medical bills were piling up. My husband cashed in 401k’s, I was taking jewelry to pawn it off, and I took a loan against my life insurance policy. It was terrible. After the bankruptcy, it was a sigh of relief. We also caught a break because Countrywide sent us a letter saying they were paying off our second mortgage because of some mistake. I don’t know if it was a government thing, but we weren’t arguing. So, things were going alright. Until my husband got in a wreck with our car we had like 3 payments left on. He was fine, thank God. But Chris and his dad started talking and Chris figured that once in his life he was going to have a newer car. We argued, oh did we argue. I just wanted a nice one out of the paper. A nice one that would not put us in debt. But no, he bought a $19,000 car. I was heartbroken. Not only that, he co-signed for a car with my daughter without asking me and long story short, years later, she is struggling to pay for it. And a few months later, our son was looking for a truck and my husband told me it was my turn to co-sign with him. Now in my day, my parents NEVER co-signed anything for us. I was against it and I told him about it. Well, my son drove a truck off the lot. 2018, it was repossessed. Our credit rating is in the toilet. We have been late on so many of our different payments it’s not funny. I only worked part-time. I finally got a full-time job last year that I wasn’t at very long. I found out I had diabetes and I was pretty sick and so I wasn’t catching on as fast as they wanted so I was offered an ultimatum. Either show some improvement over the next two weeks or it could be my job. So I quit that day. I have applied so many places and been turned down. I know it’s because of my credit rating. My husband works full-time, plus he has a hauling business on the side. It doesn’t really make that much money by the time you take out gas money, dump fees, truck repairs, and all of that. So now we owe back taxes to the federal and state. The federal since 2014. We live paycheck-to -paycheck. There. I think that is my financial situation all laid out. I hope it wasn’t too much. It just kinda’ explains how I got to where I am. Have I thought about divorce? Yes, I filed last year. Then I dropped it. Stupid!! I used to be a miser with money. Doesn’t mix well with someone who doesn’t save a dime!!! I even opened my own savings account at a different bank. Once he found out about that he kept asking how much I had in there so we could borrow from that. Any budgeting advice you can give me would be a plus. I hope this is the information you wanted… If not I just gave you an earful of my financial problems, sorry. I know it’s probably beyond saving, but anything you could tell me would be a big help. Right now I have a 0 balance in my savings account. Help!
Unfortunately, I think that you have a marriage problem that is manifesting itself as a financial one. You have a husband who wants to spend what he wants when he wants to, with no regard for your (joint) finances and your feelings and stress level.
I would recommend marriage counseling - IF you want to save your marriage. If not, separate your finances and don’t give him access or knowledge of anything you are squirreling away. Talk to a lawyer who can advise you of the laws in your state and how to protect yourself.
I absolutely agree with Annie B. Then you can begin to get your finances in order. Your husband has dug a very deep hole, but you can dig out slowly. First and foremost, no co-signing for ANYONE once you get back in the black, EVER!
Then you can use all the good information on here, like pay yourself first. Start a savings and even if it’s only $5 a pay to start, DO IT! As you get things under control, you can raise it. So much good information on here, but you have to either get counseling with your husband or eliminate him from your finances or you’ll never be financially secure.
This is what I do to show people how to set up a basic budget. I ask them to email me how often they are paid, weekly, biweekly or monthly. I WANT NO ACCOUNT NUMBERS, just general info. Tell me your take home pay and how often. Then list generic items, rent, car, credit card 1, credit card 2, furniture, food and utilities. I plug these amounts into an Excel spreadsheet. I email it back, answer any questions. Once they understand the Excel spreadsheet, I DELETE the entire emails and spreadsheet. I’ve been doing my own budget on Excel since the early ‘90’s. But this can also be done on a pad of paper. Once someone knows what a budget looks like, I can see the lightbulb going on and I get happy when they realize how easy it is to make a budget!
I’m so glad that 2019 is OVER. In late 2018, we ended up with a layoff from a company after working for them for 21 years. It was in truck driving. We had just bought a house. 2018-2019 involved getting a new job. One that no longer paid by the load, but paid by the mile. That’s been a real adjustment, because if the wheels ain’t turning, you ain’t earning. So we end up with variable income that can fluctuate as much as $500 per week.
In an effort to try to balance the budget, I went back to work in April. I’m not paid for any holidays that the business is closed, not paid for time off of any kind. I took the job because no one would hire me with a bunch of gaps in employment after raising kids. I have job skills I need that I don’t have (such as Microsoft Office).
Anyone have any ideas to improve my employment situation? My body will not let me stand for long periods of time (my knees and feet are shot).
I’m retired, on a fixed income and so “out of the loop” on job openings and all the modern stuff you have to know how to do or (it seems) stand on your feet a lot.
I worked at a hospital admitting job. Sitting was involved and inputting information into the computer to make a patients chart…address, phone, insurance info, etc. At that time the only requirement was a high school diploma and 6 months experience working with the public. I had been a dime store (pretty sure they don’t exist anymore) cashier for about 7 months while in high school, so that counted. Maybe you can find something like that.
