getting back on track by making a budget

I hope that I can prove that we all can make and stick to a budget even with little money coming in. I know I am not perfect and I will sometimes fail but I think that the key is to never stop trying.
Okay on to the budget:
We get about 319 dollars a week and this is how I divided it up
10 to Amazon credit card
5 to JCP credit card
10 to Paypal credit card
10 to visa
25.50 to the cable company
30.00 to the electric company
200 into savings for our rent
and lastly 5 dollars into our IRA
So this is a grand total of 290.50 for bills and this leaves us with 28.50 extra cash for comic's, the movies, gas, food and whatever we might need.
Our rent is 736 a month so after 4 weeks of saving 200 I have 800 dollars and that extra 64 dollars a month is staying in savings so we can buy our three children Christmas presents. That should give us over 300 dollars to get them gifts.
I have found for us to get on track and be able to not run out of money every week has been to break our bills down into more managable chunks. The electric bill is 120 so I simple divide by 4 and came up with 30 dollars and so on.
I have been able to do this for all our bills. It has helped us alot, I hope this will help others as well.

Getting honest about Credit cards

I'm still on my goal to be coming a home owner. So I need to come clean about my credit cards, my usage, how much I owe. Ect.
I have 4 credit cards and I am a grand total of 2511.13 in debit.  I am amazed at how much I owe. Some people might think this is a huge number while others might think really? Is that all. Too me and for my income this might as well be 20 thousand dollars. Seeing as how for a family of 5 we only make 16588 a year this is a little over 15% of our income. So I am ashamed to say that I let us go into a debt that high.
I am however, going to dig us out of this.
I am making a vow to myself and putting it on the internet, even if no one ever reads this, to not put another cent on the credit cards and to put 10 dollars a week on to each one until they are paid off. I dont know if there is a better way, sure that there is, but this is how I'm going to do it. I owe only 24 dollars on my Pennys card so this one will obviously be paid first therefore, on the 3 weeks it takes to get that one paid off I will then deciede which card will get the 10 that was going to JCPennys.
I think it will be my Paypal visa because it has the highest interest rate @ 25 % (I know I am crazy)
I am not sure which card should get that extra 10 dollars the highest interest rate first or the lowest amount owed card first.
I also think while I'm at it I will call the credit card companies and see if I can get a lower rate, I have never been late on a payment, they just might work with me.
I have also started watching one of Sarahs little girlfriends a few days a week. It isn't alot of money but some extra that I can send to the card companies as well. Anything to help get us out of debt and on the road to. . .

money

It all comes down to money. One way or another it always seems to be there; money.  How much does this cost, do we have enough, how can we get more. See deep down money seems to decide for you whether or not you get to do it, own it, or experience it.  I am not saying that mine or anyone elses lives are unfulfilled because of the lack of it. I have a very fulfilled life.

I am trying, as the rest of us are, to earn enough to pay the bills, save, and have some left over for fun activities. Having said that, I dont contribute monitarly to our family. I contribute in a differant way.
I use coupons to save us money, I stay home to help with daycare costs, I breastfeed our youngest son, I also cloth diaper that same child. we use cloth napkins, cloth rags for spills, we try to use as little disposable products as we can.  I make almost everything we eat.

I want to save enough money to buy a house. At the moment I feel like this is an insurmountable task. Follow me on my blog to see if I can do it. I am going to be writing about this and I am going to challenge myself to look, really look at my finances and I am going to write about it here. I hope that I can inspire others through my trial and error.

Fighting for Batman

I currently have a fight going on in my daughters bedroom. She and her friend are fighting over Batman. They both say that their Barbie is his girlfriend. I have to go intervene, each girl gets the doll for 5 minutes. Seems fair to me, then Sarah starts to cry bc her girlfriend has told Batman that it doesn't matter what Sarah says because he knows his heart belongs to her Barbie doll.  I swear these children crack me up.