Quicken Master!

Inspired by Kathleen's Money Matters post, I decided to create a pie chart of our household budget. I wish it weren't so bleak, but with two students in our household, money is tight!

 Our groceries, eating out, and entertainment money is all taken out in cash. So at times it will vary how it will be used (sometimes we'll spend more or less on entertainment depending on how social we are feeling) I am a religious Quicken user, and reconcile our account at least twice a week.

We racked up some debt with a major dog surgery, medical co-payments, a computer, and a car transmission & repair (for a car I don't even own anymore!) We made the decision to downsize to one car, and we do have a car payment. In moving to Portland, we decided that one car was totally feasible. And in fact, when Colin doesn't have to commute to the suburbs for work, we will most likely sell our car eliminating our car payment entirely and transfering that money over to paying off the rest of our debt.

When we moved to Portland, we only had a rough idea of what would be making financially, and the place we rented is a little on the high end for our budget. But this summer we are hoping to pick a place a little bit cheaper, and ease up our budget a bit. I used "utilities" pretty liberally, and it covers our car insurance, cell phone (we have no landline), internet, and gas/electric bill.

Things will continue to be fairly bleak for the next two years, but after that we will both be in our careers. I'm hoping that we can get rid of the rest of our debt, then we will only be left with student loans.