Budgeting

If there is anything in this world I suck at, it is budgeting. Not creating it, I am good at writing it all down and planning it all and everything else but then I end up forgetting where I put my book, forget to keep receipts or just forget to track it in general. Plus like most women I am great at spending money on my son.

My budget is pretty simple, I motivate myself by getting a new account book (found at Walmart or staples) or I just rip all the pages out the old one and pretend it is new! Our bills don't really change much month to month but other expenses do and as much as I tell myself months ahead of time I am going to set aside money for you know car stickers and such, I forget and then BAM all of sudden time flies by and here we are needing stickers and tests and everything else for the truck and the SUV.

This is the type of book I like to use. It keeps everything neat and in proper lines.

My set up I get my fancy fine point pens out, pencils and erasers.

At the beginning of each month I set up a page in my book about that months debt owning as well as savings and money that is in the accounts.
This has greatly changed over the years for me as of right we have no behind bills thank goodness!

On the back of that page I set up what bills and other expenses that need to go out that month. This month is HUGE for me this time because of the time of year it is.

We get paid weekly so each week I go in and put down what I paid to who and what is left owning at the end of that week. Plus what I moved to saving IF there is anything left to move to savings.

I don't have a photo yet of my month end but at the end of Sept I will add it and you can see what that looks like.
Its pretty much the same as the beginning of the month page but it shows what is left owing and to who and how much was put away that month for savings.

I have to make it fun for me and new pens, bright lit areas and sharp pencils make it at least a little bit more tolerable. I don't keep receipts anymore I used to and keep daily book records for the home but with having to do that for the business it had just become too much.

Now if I could only remember to actually sit down and do this each week!