New Month - Time to Review Your Budget!

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It's the beginning of a new month which means it's time to review our budget. Can you believe it is June?  Summer is here! We try and review our budget monthly.  Check out all your categories. Make sure you are staying within your budgeted amounts. Are you spending more in any areas?  Has your income changed? Maybe you need to do some adjusting.

Don't have enough money to take a vacation this summer?  You may want to add that category to your budget.  It makes it easier if you start setting a certain amount of money aside each month, especially if you have a goal you'd like to reach.

Take the time to sit down and go over your budget, it's there to help you know where your money is going and keep you on track.

Review Your Budget

It's the beginning of a new month which means it's time to start our no spend challenge as well as review our budget. Can you believe it is September? Fall is here! Check out all your categories. Make sure you are staying within your budgeted amounts. Are you spending more in any areas?  Has your income changed? Maybe you need to do some adjusting.

Didn't have enough money to take a vacation this summer?  You may want to add that category to your budget.  It makes it easier if you start setting a certain amount of money aside each month.

Take the time to sit down and go over your budget, it's there to help you know where your money is going and keep you on track.

Tracking Your Spending

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We've gone through phases of tracking our spending.  Usually when we are at the end of the week or the month and we have no idea where all our money went.  We went a long stretch without paying attention to our spending.  That got us a bit in trouble.  When we picked it back up and started paying attention I was shocked to see how much money was being spent on our variable expenses.  You can plan for your fixed expenses each month, mortgage, energy, phone, water bills.  However, when it comes to things like entertainment, eating out, groceries, etc it can add up quickly without even realizing it.

For the last few months we have been serious about tracking every dollar we spend.  I keep a notebook attached to the refrigerator where I write down what we spend each day.  I also have a clip on the fridge so that my husband and I can attach receipts.  I go through every couple days and write out all the receipts by date onto the notebook.  The key is to make sure you get a receipt for everything you purchase or at least write it down as soon as you can so that you don't forget what you spent.

The fist month (March) we started tracking I wrote everything down by date and then every week I would add up that weeks expenses.  At the end of the month I could compare what went out vs what came in.  At this point I really wasn't paying attention to what we were spending our money on just how much we were spending.

The second month I continued to write down everything but this time at the end of the month I tallied up what we spent on our variable expenses.  My main focus was gas, entertainment, dining out, and groceries.  I was stunned to see at the end of the month what we spent on some of these things.

By May I started something new.  I would post on the fridge what my budgeted amount for the month was for each of these variable expenses.   For example we budget $500 a month for groceries.  Each time we spent money on groceries I would subtract it from the monthly total.  This way I always knew exactly what we had left to spend for that month.

This worked a lot better and I have continued to follow our expenses each month.  It keeps me on track with how much and what we are spending our money on.  Do you track your expenses?

Reviewing the Budget and Making Some Changes

February is almost over and since we are almost 2 full months into the new year I feel like I really need to buckle down and review our budget and make some changes.

While we haven't gone crazy with spending or anything, we are still able to pay off our credit cards each month, but I haven't been able to put anything back in to savings either.  Our emergency fund has been dipped into and I know there are more unexpected expenses coming up.  There always seems to be something we didn't expect right around the corner.

This past December threw us for a financial loop when we celebrated Christmas and increased our traveling. Usually we do pretty good setting money aside throughout the year just for the holidays.  However, last year we had alot of additional expenses so we didn't have a lot put away.

The new year started with a broken vehicle, a child who needed surgery, and bills left over from the holidays that needed paid.  It's been hard to get back on track to say the least.

My plan right now is to look over our budget again and see if and where we could cut back.  Going back to a cash only approach or at least using our debit cards instead of credit is on the list as well.  As much as I try and track how much we put on our credit card each month, it never fails to send a little wave of terror through me when the bill comes in the mail.

Our $1000 emergency fund needs to be replenished and then I can start focusing on some long term savings.

New Month - Time to Review the Budget

It's a new month which means it's time to review your budget. Has anything changed in the last month? Income, expenses?  Now is the time to start putting away some money for that summer vacation.  Gas has really gone up in our area, if you are like me, more money is going to be needed for fuel which means we can spend less in other areas.  

 

In January we tried to eat from the pantry as much as possible.  I am hoping to do the same for February.  I am still well stocked with fruits and vegetables that I preserved from last years garden.  That should mean less money spent at the grocery store. 

This is just a few areas that I am focusing on with our budget.  Take some time this weekend to sit down and look over your budget. It is there to guide you and keep you on track with spending.