The majority of our world lives life paycheck to paycheck, but you don’t have to. You can be different and live the uncommon adventure.

Our uncommon adventure started soon after we got married and sat down and realized we had no money. I mean we had money, but not a lot of it and it was going somewhere that we didn’t even know. We looked at every receipt and double checked every item in our bank statement. It showed us we were spending too much money on eating out and groceries. We were out of control. We weighed the heaviest we’d ever weighed, we weren’t healthy and we didn’t have money to do the things we actually wanted to do.

So we sat down and straightened it out. We made a budget (the first of many) and we decided where every dollar should go.

Since our adventure started here, why not kick us off with a great way for you to start! Trust me I get that this is overwhelming, but if you are tired of living a “normal” life that has you feeling scared and angry, this is going to help.

Budgets are actually super easy! If you are struggling, I highly recommend looking into Dave Ramsey’s suggestions for finances. His resources helped us so much during our journey!

Think of it like this, every dollar gets a name. For your first budget, you will need to do some estimating-that’s ok! Trying is the first step. Next you’ll need to actually track your spending. I find this is easiest through an app on my phone, but you can do it other ways too! Mint is a great app and Dave Ramsey also offers the Every Dollar app for tracking budgets and spending.

At the end of the month sit down and look at what you actually spent, vs what your goal for spending was. Mostly likely if you aren’t paying attention, it will be way off. My biggest suggestion here is to log your expenses as you make them and when you hit your goal, stop spending.

I know, what if you have no food in the cupboard and you have spent your grocery budget? I promise you can make something. Invest in some staples for your kitchen so you can always have a meal on hand. Here are some of the things I always keep in the cabinet:

Rice
Canned Beans
Potatoes
Flour
Sugar
Spices

If you have everything on that list you can make a meal. Add some other staples in your fridge like milk, eggs, and butter.

Those can take you far. Eat whatever you have left in your cabinet. If you can’t make it until the end of the month with that, then buy more groceries, but make a mental note so that you budget more for the next month.

As you go from month to month, keep adjusting that budget. Make sure you are saving money at the end of the month for big things coming up. We recommend starting to put aside money for Christmas in July so that by October you can start shopping! This can be as little as $5-$20 a month, or more, but by setting it aside early and preparing, price tags won’t be a problem in December!