I used Oprah’s “Debt Diet” program in order to track my monthly spending. I wanted to use one of the charts, but the format didn’t seem to be working. I should’ve been able to type into the form, but wasn’t able to.
I would recommend this site for anyone wanting to create a budget for themselves and/or their family. Even if you don’t have a lot of debt (which is my case) it helps to really look at where your money is going and how you might save.
Once I broke down my monthly budget, I used Google’s online spreadsheet tool (recommended by Ms. Van Londen) to track it. I then researched costs: to rent a moving van; gas for the move; lodging; food; rent for house in Fairbanks, AK; to purchase sled dogs, houses and supplies for dogs; etc. I also plugged these numbers into the spreadsheet.
I added a section for a “2nd scenario” underneath the “Moving to Alaska” column. I adjusted a couple of things just for comparison. This part was hard for me since my initial goal was to create a low-cost plan and I had already sold almost everything we owned, etc. I am not willing to scrimp anymore with buying the dogs, their gear, etc. I want them to be healthy and well taken care of. What I could adjust was instead of staying in hotels along the way, we’d camp. Also, instead of eating out we’d keep a cooler stocked with grocery food. This only cut our expenses down by $340. I wouldn’t mind (at all) buying our food at grocery stores rather than eating out. However, I would much rather stay in hotels along the way since we’ll have my son with us. I’ve traveled the Al-Can three times so I have a good idea of what to expect and I would really want us to rest up between drives…especially with a toddler!
A third column was used to tally how much I could scrape up by selling items we owened. I figured this would save us money also by not hauling as much up to Alaska. We would also have one less car on our drive up there, cutting down on gas. Our car is payed off, so all of the money we made off of that would be ours. All of our sales gave me a large chunk of money to apply to our moving budget.
A second spreadsheet was used to assess our budget for the first month in Alaska. The only way I would make this move is with a secured job for my husband beforehand. I planned for him to replace his current income. Having lived in Alaska and knowing his experience, I know this is possible. Also, if nothing else, my husband has done freelance web development and has made a decent living off of that. That will be our fall back plan. The good thing about that is, he can get work from anywhere.
For my portion of our monthly income, I will open an in-home daycare. This will allow me to avoid daycare costs for my son while bringing in more money to support my mushing ventures.
We started with our first month in Alaska having a large sum of extra money. However, this was because of selling pretty much everything we had. We would not have such a large budget on a “typical” month-to-month basis. I really wanted to have that extra cushion to start with because I know it’s easy to look at things from a one-dementional “planning” aspect and think you’ve covered everything, when you haven’t. My dream is pretty big, in terms of cost and transition and there needs to be room for unplanned events, etc. Especially in moving to a place like Alaska!
