Ok - now I've made the "responsible" decision of getting rid of all debt except for the mortgage....

How do you guys budget? What do you normally allow for everything? Last time I had to budget was back in 2002, when my exH and I had to live on $27,000pa combined (cos I was a student) and we had to pay rent of $140 a week, and a car loan of $125. I got by on $50 a week for food for the two of us. I can't even comprehend HOW I did that now, considering its hard getting it under $300 a week for us now.

So what does everyone put aside for their electricity, phone, and everything else that pops up? I was putting away $80 a week for everything (other than food) and it just wasn't enough, so obviously I stuffed up somewhere!!!

I'm wanting to do this properly - and I know that we will follow a budget cos we're not that irresponsible (yes, totally skimming past the fact that I just got rid of $17,000 worth of debt!) but there were a couple of big ticket items in there that we HAD to get and we didn't have the money and the credit card was a lifesaver at the time.

Anyhoo - sorry.. off the track a bit.

How do you guys budget? How much?
TIA!!