As you probably already know, we budget out all of our money (as best we can) every month before it’s even in our hands. Some (like Dave Ramsey) refer to this as a “zero-based budget.” Some call it a “goals-based budget.” Whatever you choose to call it, the gist is that you make a plan for your money before the month even starts so you can avoid that awful question of, “WHERE DID ALL OF OUR MONEY GO???” Have you ever felt that way? I KNOW we have. Well, here’s the thing. Even if you’re a “budgeting expert” you aren’t perfect, and this month, we are a great example of…
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What We Spend in a Month as a Family of Four
When I was still in the research phase of figuring out the best way for our family to budget, track, and actually make progress toward our financial goals (without being trust fund babies or both of us having to work around the clock), one of the topics that drew me in the most was being able to see examples of other families’ actual budgets and their actual routines/management of those budgets. Considering that, I want to share a bit of our own budget with you, but before I do, I need for you to promise me something. Promise me that you will not try to build your own budget based…
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If You “Budget” This Way, You’re Wasting Your Time
Before I started organizing our monthly budget with my current system (using The Sustainable Budget Blueprint), in order to know exactly how much we were spending in each category each month, I had to choose an impractical or unreliable tool to rely on: A. the automatic breakdown of our online banking tools (which just guess categories based on the location of the purchase) B. spending hours going back through all of our spending to try and make my own best guesses as to which category each purchase should go under. Have you ever tried to categorize a purchase from Amazon, Walmart, or Target? Without the actual receipt, GOOD LUCK. Seriously.…
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MUD: The Secret to Consistent $ Tracking Through The Month
I am constantly hearing about how easy it is for my clients/readers to “fall behind” the tracking of their spending throughout their months. It causes them to feel like a failure, like they aren’t “good at” budgeting, and like they can never get enough traction to make their budgeting efforts worthwhile. THAT IS THE WORST! It’s also, unfortunately, not surprising because it IS one of the most challenging things about budgeting. Consistency. It’s the cornerstone of making progress with your financial goals, but it’s also the one thing that is SO easy to fall to the wayside in the midst of your busy LIFE. What’s the answer? What I call…
