Alrighty so aside from Facebook, I was hoping to start a smaller community of people on here who don't mind having another safe space to vent frustrations or celebrate victories. Currently, I am in the process of just tracking our spending/ starting to budget and not tackling anything. Basically, I am trying to control our spending outside of bills until we both return to work Full-time.

I am currently 28 weeks pregnant and working part-time. I no longer do clinical hours, so I took on a more relaxed and flexible position so I can go to appointments and rest up. My pregnancy has brought on some medical issues that are thankfully only going to be an issue during pregnancy and not something long term. With the change in position it meant a reduction in both hours and pay, but I rather get paid something than have nothing. Once my kiddo is born I get a short-term disability for my maternity leave which is still better than nothing. So, I am just trying to make sure we don't go too much in the red during maternity/paternity leave. However, my income and my husbands should greatly increase. Hopefully, mine will be more than double when I return to work in September. (I took my boards exam last month. If I pass then once I get fully certified my pay goes up) My husband is still in the process of being approved for his raise (He already passed but now his certification needs to be approved by the state and local insurances which is a pain) which is again more than double what he is currently making. We thought it would have been approved over a month ago, but we just got confirmation it will be potentially a few more weeks because there was a holdup. So that was a huge bummer because we were going to use that raise to save up for paternity leave. Now he will be working part-time instead of taking off the full two months.

In this journey, I have been reading both Dave Ramsey and The Budget Mom. So I won't exactly be 100% Dave in my planning but I will, for the most part, follow the teachings. When it comes to The Budget Mom, I just love her stuff so much. We aren't ready for it yet, but once we go back full-time I am buying her planner and going for it hard. I currently have my own made up sheets to track our spending and so far we are staying within the budget of our spending categories despite still being in the red. So because I know we will still rack up some debt until we return (thanks to delays in raises and me taking a pay cut), I am just not worrying about it yet. A few things we want to incorporate which would make it not Dave's plan is to include the 52 weeks saving challenge to stockpile money for Holidays and Car Maintenance. He is normally just like have your baby emergency fund and throw all your extra money at debt. The Budget Mom takes into account sinking funds and that sometimes realistically you need to deviate from just throwing everything at debt especially for morale. Either way, though we anticipate that once we both are full-time and at our respective new income we can pay off all our debt in 3 years. So for that, I am super excited!

So, that is about us and our situation. The one thing I love the most about the budget mom is her super friendly community on facebook. Since I am always on Subeta I thought maybe someone else on here too is working on savings, or debt, or retirement. So I wanted to bring some friendliness here in case people want to share. I love hearing about other people because you guys offer me motivation. You don't have to go into specifics about stuff. Please share some cool resources you have using. Do you use a color in debt tracker for progress? Do you swear by a particular budgeter or financial blog. Do you need someone to tell you that you're doing fine and to keep up the good work? I can definitely be your cheerleader and would love to share experiences!

I've been trying to write something for the past day but I was always too busy to sit down and write haha. Anyway! I'm not in your situation but as a college student graduating in May, I've been feeling more and more cautious of my money. I've always been on the frugal side, coming from a 'poor' family.

I wanted to thank you for your ' budget mom' idea. I went on her website and started a new way to budget what I get with my scholarship each month.

Well, if it makes you feel better, I was exactly the same way when I was an undergrad student. My mom is terrible with money. My father was not. He is totally debt free and my mom is like drowning.

Basically, until I ended up with my husband I was pretty debt free. What is looming over us is his student loans and our master's programs. NYU for one year was a pretty penny. Elite schools =/= better education what they = is more debt. The masters though was a calculated risk because we knew if we took on the loans, at least our income would more than double when we finished so we could pay it off quickly.

Congratulations on the scholarship funding though! Wishing you the best in staying frugal and being able to live life how you want.

Funny, my family is the same way. My father is great with money/saving and he and his wife are debt free and set for retirement. My mother however, whelp. Is my mother. She hasn't quite drowned yet, but only because I keep bailing her out. My brother is no help with her, even though he makes six-figures, which is super annoying. I know he has a family, but he hasn't helped her a lick, even though Mom helped him when he was younger, paid his rent with money she shouldn't have spent and all that jazz.

I'd like to work on setting up a budget. I'm debt free, but I kinda float along and would like a more structured plan.

Yay for Debt Free. I can't wait to be back at that. I was fine until I was 20 basically but by then I knew Adrian and I were probably going to get married. We did though make a huge dent in his student loans undergrad before we got married. Then we both went loans for the Masters.

I actually really like budgeting as weird as that is. What I don't like is couponing.

Yeah, I want to go back to school, so that will probably end. XD I just have to figure out what to go for.

...I want to like couponing, but I always feel like I never quite manage to do it right. And I hate having to try and find prices across a zillion stores.

I hate trying to find coupons. Plus we tend to buy already store brand so that basically is never on sale. And yes price comparing at different stores is annoying. People look at me funny with my calculator and notepad.

Some things I'm ok with store brand. Some things, just are not the same. I have yet to find a store brand mac and cheese box I like, so I just buy bulk craft at sams. And I love sams club tp, nice price and it doesn't feel like a cheap-o. ...Some things I'm happy to save money on, but toilet paper, paper towels and toothpaste/mouthwash are not some of them. I tried the store brand mouth wash version of mine and I was not impressed. But I'm happy to buy store brand beans, evaporated milk, sugar, milk, things like that.

100% agree with you on that. Especially about TP. I have yet to find an off brand for poptarts I like. The thing with Sams Club is like I feel that sometimes we don't go through the bulk fast enough and it goes bad. Like I really need to start taking into account how long certain quantities last. Another thing we have been trying is I think it is called Mealime or something like that. It is an app that helps us like pick food. We have been doing a lot of the same dishes which has made me miserable. So now we change it up.

I usually stick to non perishables at sams, or I try to find a friend who wants the same thing so we can buy one pack of whatever it is and split it. My dad and stepmother use a vacuum sealer and freezer a lot of things. .....I haven't quite decided to try one of those. Im leery about a lot of frozen things. This month is actually my month to clear out the cabinets, so I'm working on cobbling together meals from all the stuff in there until it's down to things like - flour, sugar and baking powder. I don't want anything to go bad- and I'd also like to work on organizing it better, but I'm not entirely sure what i'll end up doing.

Ooo that is smart trying to split with a friend. Should definitely try to like set something up like that. And enjoy the pantry cooking! We will definitely do that when the kiddo is around. Right now I am like mega picky about things being the same back to back.

I couldn't respond there for a bit, I had a cat on my shoulder/arm and he was sooo adorkable, so I didn't want to move him, but he finally wandered off when the boyfriend went into the bedroom. XD

And yes! Splitting is nice, because you get the savings without having the mega-amounts. I do also grab their individual chip bag assortments. Cheaper than walmart in the long run and better for me because I use them in lunches, but I often take a couple months to go through them because I don't pack chips every night. If I try buying big bags they just end up going stale. And I don't blame you - being preggo has got to include some interesting hankerings.

No worries I popped off subeta myself to watch TV. Yeah we definitely do the small chip bags. Our go to snack for lunch. Gotta convince friends or something near us to go split stuff with us.

Save your spare change in an old jar or mug, don’t use coin star because they take off nearly 11 percent for their “cut” instead go to your bank and ask for some coin rolls. Fill ‘me up and bring them back to the bank and exchange for paper money or have it put in your account.

Whenever you get change from a 20 put a few singles aside in a small tin and put the tin in the back of a drawer or cabinet. Sounds strange but it’s a pretty effective way to curb unnecessary spending.

When I’m saving up for something fancy for myself I use a thermometer (like this one https://codepen.io/TommyCreenan/pen/pCslj/ ) to help me keep track of my progress.

Hope this helps!

I definitely keep my coins. My bank isn't local it is out of state so my local banks won't take my money without charging a fee. Coinstar at here let's me put it as an Amazon gift card with no fee removed. The fee is charged if I ask for it back in cash.

Having a little cash storage in the house is awesome. We do that.

The thermometer is cute. We have like the debt progress coloring ones. We aren't really saving outside of the baby. And once that is settled whatever is left is going to debt. Thanks for sharing. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you.

I passed my board exam so I am now a BCBA. Woot woot. I filled out some of the state licensure paperwork. So hopefully their turn around is like 6-8 weeks. So I will be fully credentialed before I leave for maternity. Meaning when I come back I am definitely making more than double. More money to throw down

I finally unburied the things! And congratulations! tosses confetti That's wonderful about passing your exam and getting more than double once your return from maternity leave!

Found out we can't mooch Netflix anymore because they are cancelling the account. Honestly sad about it lol. The budget mom is also putting her new printables up for sale on the 1st for like 25$. So I am splurging on that.

10 or so weeks before we meet the kiddo too which is going to be interesting. Excited for sure but already stressed because it means family crowding.