Budget Shortfalls

I am still working on my January budget. When I use my spreadsheet I come out okay. When I use Dave Ramsey's Cash Flow forms I was short approximately $100.

On my Excel spreadsheet, I have an entry for every paycheck. I then have what bills or expenses should be paid with that paycheck. For example, my "end of month" paycheck at job#1 is almost 100% to the mortgage. My methodology (by paycheck instead of by month), is actually more accurate than what I am doing with Dave's forms. Then again, instead of just saying XXX dollars per month, I could figure out what that pay is per month.

One thing I didn't consider on Dave Ramsey's form was that Job#3 actually pays "every other week" rather than twice a month. Also, I was under-estimating my pay (rounding down) so that made up for the $100 shortfall.

Another thing I did to save money was set up my car insurance to be an auto-draft from my checking account. That saved me over $20 in January.

Combining these things, I should have more money to put in the Baby Emergency Fund to get me to that $1000 (currently at $500).

My goal for the next 48 hours is to print off a copy of the Excel spreadsheet and compare item-for-item with Dave Ramsey's forms. I might be missing something somewhere--on one or both sheets.