My Budget

This is how I budget. It’s strange, I will admit, but it works for me.

First I fill out my Monthly Budget Worksheet during the first week of the month. I like to have everything planned out so I know ahead of time what’s going to be going on. I mark in the amount’s and the due dates, this way I can keep track of what is due when.

- This has been difficult for me because several categories always seem to change month to month. I’ll give you an example. My work category for this month is budgeted at $20, but I now know that I will either have to change that amount or be over in the category. While I was off on Friday my co-worker texted me information about a retreat that is going to cost me $15 that I have to attend. The retreat is in February, however they want the money by the end of the month. It’s not a huge stress because I always under budget but it’s situations like that, that annoy me.

Then I make sure to have my Monthly Expense Record all ready to go .

- This is where I write down; or keep track of my spending for the month.

Thirdly, I organize my Receipts box. It’s an old Recipes box but hey it works just fine. Who needs fancy budgeting software anyway?
- I make sure to place all the receipts in their proper category, this way at the end of the month when I’m going over my budget if I can’t remember what I spent x amount of money on in a specific category I can just pull out the receipt and see. Afterwards I shred the receipts, unless for some reason I need to keep them.