Budget...Why Do We Think That Is A Four Letter Word?!?

I can get obsessive about details:

Budget Guidelines Established in 2006
Housing 36%
Food 13%
Auto 11%
Health Insurance 5%
Ent/Rec 8%
Clothing 7%
Savings 5%
Med/Dental 4%
Misc 6%
Investments 5%
We set these guidelines up from reading and reviewing Crown Financial Ministries recommendations.

Current 2008 Budget Actual
Housing39.91%
Food9.77%
Auto9.49%
Savings/Investments/AutoInsuranceBuildup23.21%
Misc/Ent/Rec/Clothes17.61%

Let me also explain that this is a budget based on 61.67% of our gross income, 22.44 % of our gross income is absorbed with TRS/taxes/medicare/health insurance and the final 15.89% is dedicated to debt payment and tithe. We pay all our bills on the day we are paid, set aside our savings and live off the rest, so sometimes our food/auto/misc is less than the planned % is or we have an unexpected expense and this always happens and we eat off of our food stash.

We have a goal to have our home paid off in 5 years. This is realistic for us, we initially took out a 15 year note and are 4 years into our mortgage. Our goal is to establish an emergency fund of savings equivalent to 3 months gross salary and then the excess will all be put towards our mortgage payoff. Some would not agree with these priorities, but this is what we have established, there is a tremendous ease with having a house that is paid off.