This is the first of a monthly series that starts this year. I am going to call it Simple Budgeting. Hey, if it is Simple or Simply or something along those lines then I don’t have time for it and you probably don’t either. So look for a post each month starting with “Simple Budgeting:” I will add it to my top link list here soon.
So the topic for this month is “What is your budget?” I recently heard on the radio that most people don’t what their budget is. My first thought was “how is that possible?” As I drove along, I thought about this and realized during the MomTV show a few months ago, Eddie asked me about how to write out a budget and I told him on paper. He asked about software and I went back to paper. So as I was driving and thinking, I was trying to figure out why paper worked better than online for budgeting. Here are the reasons I came up with:
1) you think about it differently than when you type it.
2) there are no excuses you can’t get to it.
3) you can’t fudge it. Forget the pencil. Use a pen!
So here my story about how we track our budget. We have a little notebook that we write our monthly bills in. My notebook goes back 2002! I fit two months per page. I wrote front/back. My husband just uses it front sheets but that is personal preference. Down the left side of the page you need to write down all of your bills. Don’t leave anything out! Include rent/mortgage, utilities, credit cards, student loans, services, Netflix, gym memberships, dues, insurance, etc, etc, etc. On the top write Jan 2010 and Feb 2010. Go through all of your bills and write down what you spent this month for all of those expenses. You have a column set for next month, ready to go. When you get to March, copy that column with all of the expense names to the next page. Simple, right?!
Proof to you. Here is our book(1), my oldest page(2), our latest page(3). Yes, I blurred out numbers because they don’t matter.
You can see on the third image my husband has added check marks. Since we pay most of our bills online, he marks off when they clear the bank account so we know what is outstanding!
So go grab a notebook and log into your online banking or get your bank statement and start working on writing this out. I bet you will be surprised. I am not asking you to do anything with it but to just write it down.
If you take time to do this, leave me a comment and let me know. I love feedback. I have given this challenge to other friends over the years and it has really helped them so I hope it helps you too!
Also if you have a budget tip of your own, question, scenario, etc., you would like to see in my monthly post, leave me a comment or send me an email at simplybudgeted at gmail dot com! I LOVE hearing from you!
I love this old school budget! The way you do it is very much like we offer at BudgetSimple http://www.budgetsimple.com, if you didn't want to carry your notebook around 🙂
Hi,
I made an excel sheet to help me with this process since it does many things automatically. I only have to enter what i spent where. Have a look at it if you'd like to.
http://amixedbag.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/an-easy-to-use-budgeting-template/
Phil and smilinglight … great resources BUT I do still highly suggest that folks start by writing this down by hand. I will keep going into details as why but my point #1 is still true. You think about stuff different when you write it down. Remember back in school when you had to keep writing stuff over and over and over again as part of the process of remembering it. Think of this in the same way but there are no tests or quizzes on how much your electric bill was last month!=P
I tried doing our budget/spending on the computer but I much prefer to write it down.
Dollar General sells a great (and cute vegetable theme 🙂 Home financing book/bill organizer that I use! (I love it so much I actually gifted it to few friends that have budgeting issues 🙂
It has a new month on each page and pockets to put the bills in that need to be paid that month, when a new bill comes in I file it in a pocket for when it will need to be paid.
I am pretty diligent about writing down nearly every penny we spend, I can get a bit obsessive about it 🙂 But I have used these books for the past 3 years. It has helped us budget so much and see where our $ really goes.
Oh, I found a link for it!
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=4461950
$2 at the Dollar Store!
Mary Beth – Thanks for your notebook tip! We have a bill slot that all bills go into when they come in the mail. Most are online though now (saves stamps!) You are doing good if you write down everything. We don't do that but we know what is left for everything else (groceries, gas for cars, car service, eating out (haha), diapers, etc) after our bills are paid and THAT is really important stuff to know!
There is a connection between the brain and the process of writing. You just can't get it with a computer!
I like this getting back to budgeting basics plan.
I used to to this religiously when I was first on my own, mostly because I was so poor and worried about evey purchase/expense clearing my checking account. I have kind of forgotten about this as of late, but I think I have to get back to it. It really made me think through every purchase more and not waste money. All of those impulse purchases really add up each month if you don't hold yourself accountable.
Excellent post. I already write everything in on a calendar but this is an excellent idea to see it all together. Thanks
This sounds like a great thing to do. My husband does all the bill paying, so this would be a great way for me to know what is going on as well and take a good look at what we are doing.
cspmom at gmail dot com
Keeping a written record is very empowering. We do ours on a computer spreadsheet.
Nancy
allibrary (at) aol (dot) com
Great Blog. Are you a Venus Cow yet?
Best
I do alot of lists and budget lists and round things up so then iw ont spend over i usually spend under great post