[onewhippedpuppy]

We just went through creating a budget, as we are trying to get our house paid off (only debt). My wife is a huge Dave Ramsey fan, and we largely followed his guidelines to set up our plan. 15% to investing right now, which is a combo of 401k and IRAs. We already have a solid cash emergency fund, as well as mutual funds, and are putting extra to the house vs contributing to these at the moment. Our monthly expenses are set up on the envelope system, where our cash budget goes into an envelope for every expense with every paycheck. Our biggest weakness is spur of the moment spending, this should help stem it. If we don't have the money for it, we don't buy it. Envelope amounts were based on what we have been spending, combined with what we should be spending, so in some cases it was designed to cut down on certain expenditures. Time will tell how well it works, but only using cash definitely makes you think about what you are spending.