Create a budget, and stick with it

when I did my budget, but I will have tax refunds coming my way soon, so that will help make up the difference. Whenever one of them comes in I need to do a budget to address needs that I will need to dedicate that money toward. (Hopefully that will be sooner than later.)

I’ve kind-of caught up from the past few months’ financial crisis and can have a budget again that meets all my needs (unless something else happens!). I worked on it last night for about an hour…and I’m very happy that my new paycheck I will get today will be very wisely spent and saved.

that I’ve been converted to this budgeting stuff. I don’t like the process, but it makes me more calm about money. This month has been really bad since I wasn’t able to cover expenses with the amount I made last month. (Thank goodness I’ve been saving and have an emergency fun to use.)

I’m not going to make what I need to pay myself back in savings this month, but I’ll recover in a couple of months probably. I’m planning on working on my budget some this week for September.

Are you ready for the new month, Flash? I’m gearing up to be.

I’ve at least finally gotten my car repair expenses nailed down to a more realistic amount. It looks like I’ll be having to borrow money from myself to make it through the month at this rate, though. However, I think it’s safe to say that I need to take care of this sooner rather than later for both safety’s sake and since I might have more expenses later if it’s not taken care of.

I also don’t consider that I’ve been irresponsible in any way because I’ve had expenses that aren’t monthly come up now. At least I found out my car tag renewal is a little less than it was last year. That will help out.

because I started early and still don’t have it together! I’ve gotten everything down on paper that needs to be done, but I always save my food category for last so that I can just make do with what money I have left after everything else. So, that’s one category up in the air right now. The category of car issues has two undetermined items: new tires and a new rim. (I was told that I needed them when I had my oil changed and tires rotated last month.) And the other thing that’s up in the air is my medicines, because they are going up this month due to rising insurance costs. So, I don’t really know what to do until I can nail that down some more.

in the month, teammate. My travel expense sheet is due Monday by noon, so I should have an accurate assessment of what I’ll be getting paid on Friday (I love it when we get paid early!). I’m going to try my best to have my budget done before I go to the bank this coming weekend. I would urge you to do this as well, Flash. I am glad that we’re doing this together, because it really does give me an added push to be good with this goal.

chance to encourage me to create my spreadsheet to track my budget, I’ve done it! It wasn’t that hard, either. I’ve got it set up for each of my budgetary items and a place for each day of the month to write down what I’ve spent each day. At the bottom it will tell me how much I have left to spend and then below that, it tells me how much money I have left of all of my money for the entire month! And, also, there was a fringe benefit of my having done this tonight, too. When I got the total of all my money it reflected an error in my planning. So, I was able to track my error down and correct it before it was too late! Wow! :D This is cool! This will take the guess work out of what I’m spending completely! I’m amazed that something so simple could help so much. Okay, I’ll end this entry here before I look like more of a nerd than I am. ;)

Since TOdd has the magical power of motivation for me, I have now completed my budget. :)

and it’s time to start work on July’s budget, teammate. I have done better with writing my spending down, but I’m still not great about it, so I’m giving myself until the end of next week to try to get something together to enter my weekly spending into to compare it with my budget, so I can know where I am and how well I’ve stuck with it. I don’t like budget creation, but thankfully I have my financial advisor and teammate working with me on it and that provides a little element of fun into it. Are you ready, teammate?

is almost done…I’ve just got to make sure my adviser is okay with it. I worked very hard on it on Saturday and Sunday afternoons!