Here is your first
THURSDAY CHALLENGE OF THE YEAR.....
MAKE A BUDGET ....
Yes, make a budget if you don't already have one!
You can make it easy, with just a few catagories...
Or you can make it more complex with many catagories....
I used to do ours very complex, but each month I was frusterated figuring out each catagory, breaking receipts down to put in each catagory and then throwing that month out the window because I was too frusterated!
SO now I go EASY....
A few catagories
Gas
Household
Food
BILLS (all bills added up go here)
Clothes
Out to eat
OTHER
(in the other catagory is things like: Kids sports, birthday gifts, parties, all those OTHER expenses that come up each month!)
I do ROLL OVER left over money in a NUMBERS ON PAPER sense!
Say I only spent $15 on clothing and our budget is $50....
The following month I have $85 in our budget for clothing!
Some people like to take the extra and put it twards debt reduction... that is also a very good idea! I just roll ours over because I keep everything so low... I have to.... We can go 2 months without needing anything in the clothing area, and then BOOM, we all need new socks, and 2 kids need new shoes, and hubby needs jeans, ETC.....
Thus the reason we ROLL OVER!
The best advice I heard about a budget was....
"MOST people do not go into debt buying little everyday things.... they go into debt with their BIG purchases, so make sure that if you budget anything... BUDGET THESE PURCHASES!"
OK, now grab a notebook, make some sort of budget and stick to it for the next few months.... DO NOT STRAY FROM IT.... TRY HARD TO NOT purchase anything you DIDN'T budget for..... After 3 months, if you didn't enjoy it, I give you permission to quit and go back to your old ways!
OH, I almost forgot.... Our family theme this year is.....
THE YEAR OF SIMPLICITY!!!!!
Keep things simply; use what we have, borrow what we need, lend what others can use, sell what is of value that we no longer want, and give away all that we can that is just sitting around!
1 comment:
We used to do a too detailed spread sheet for our budget too and now have decided to do it easy. We are also cash only for all purchases except gas and bills. I hate going in to pay when I have all the kids in the car. I think I am going to tweak a few things and take your challenge! :)
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