It's a Team's Life

Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Monthly

Over Bob and I’s past forty years of marriage I have had to budget our income; getting paid weekly, bi-weekly, and the worst was monthly.  With young children and me, a stay at home mom getting a paycheck once a month was a challenge.  At that time, it seemed as if we always had more going out than we had coming in. 

Many years later and in a totally different mindset I chose to figure our bills by the month.  I have a bill planner for each month of the year.  In my planner on the left page when the book is opened is a list of bills due that month for our business and on the right side is for our personal bills.  Very easy to look at and see what we have due, as I pay a bill it is checked off.  Savings is also considered a bill that is earmarked for maintenance, taxes, insurance, or even our next truck. The bills are listed in order of when they are due throughout the month.  When a bill is due quarterly or yearly that is noted on the correct month and then I also note that in the month when the bill will be due again so I do not forget. 

Over the years I have fine-tuned my planner and I have learned in the past fourteen years with our volatile income that working off of a monthly budget I have less stress.  Each week when we receive our settlement I first look in my planner and pay bills if the settlement is large I pay our higher amounts first.  There are times within a month when we might not have a settlement for that week.  This can happen due to the lack of loads or how we sent in our bill of ladings.  Working on a monthly budget that is not a problem.  

 After all of the bills are paid from the planner any money that is left over goes into savings.  This is money over and above what I have budgeted to go into savings.  Leftover money is not a bonus for us to spend willy nilly it is money that will be used for the business in the future.  Keeping our expenses low and our income high keeps us adding to our savings consistently and when we do have a slow month or we choose to stay home a little longer it is not a big deal. 

 

Plan to plan.

Bob & Linda Caffee

TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO

Expediters since January 2005

[email protected]

 

Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle;

Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;

Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;

Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.