Budget. Yup, that’s a fun word, isn’t it? Well, Thursdays this month are going to be all about the almighty dollar. While I am not teetering on a fiscal cliff, I would like to be better about our spending. My friend, Steph on A Grande Life, is cutting back on her coffee spending. Another friend, Barb at A Life in Balance, is amazingly thrifty. And, now it is my turn. My main financial goal for 2013 is to see if we can set a monthly budget.
Photo courtesy of Images of Money
I know that for a lot of people, budgeting has always been a part of life. But, I have never had one before, so this is a new territory for me. So, here I go. I have a few things in place already. We bought a Neat Desk scanner, and I have receipts set up to feed in and figure how much we spend. I will be pledging to have everything scanned and sorted by the end of the month so that I can hit the ground running in February. I’ll have some more finance goals to share as the month goes on, so wish me luck with the new mindset and check back in to read.
What are your financial goals or tips for staying on budget?
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
That is a great goal! I can’t wait to see how scanning receipts goes… Having a budget is something we have always had, but recently we have been more relaxed about it. It is time for me to focus a bit more on it:)
It’s going to be a bit of a mindset change for us. Hopefully, it will be a smooth transition.
How’s the scanner working out? I always think it would be a good idea but haven’t moved on it — what do you think so far?
I like it. It works smoothly and we got the less expensive version, but the speed is still good.
Last year we did the cash budget/envelope system. I used it all the way to the summer, but hated it! I haven’t come up with a budget resolution again this year, but I should.
I’ll have to look into doing it in that style. Best of luck with establishing a budget resolution for this year.
Becky, do you listen to Marketplace Money on WHYY and on podcasts? That’s the best show I know that makes finances actually sound interesting. I’m tweeting today about a great piece from this week’s show, about how to be smarter about money by never, ever buying what you see in pawn shops. Here’s sending you and your budget good vibes.
I don’t listen to those, but will check out the podcast so we can listen during the day. Thanks for the good vibes and the Neat Desk organizer recommendation!
Glad Darla commented about the Marketplace Money on WHYY – I need to listen to that!
I love the image!
I haven’t done our budget this year because much hasn’t changed. I do need to adjust a few things like the school budget. I’ll have 4 kids in school next year. Fortunately, we’ll get a sibling discount on 2, but incidentals will increase.
I am impressed with how good you are at all of this Barb. Flickr Creative Commons has some great images to use!
Practice, practice, practice, plus a few classes when I worked at Penn, and thinking about the images I see in posts. You can do it. It just takes time to train your eye.
My husband and I are sitting down this weekend to work on a budget! It’s about time we set one.
Your coffee post is giving me good motivation. I’m using up my Starbucks gift cards first and cleaning out the coffee machine tomorrow. I’ll have to wonder what to do with the time I gain back when I don’t have to go out for coffee anymore. 🙂
I tried to subscribe to your RSS feed, but feedburner couldn’t find you. Then, I tried to put your site manually into my Google Reader – no luck there either. You might want to check it out.
Looking forward to subscribing soon!
Thanks, Anna! I just switched to Feedblitz, so that may be the kink. I’ll fix it tonight. Thanks!
I like to use Mint.com. I know everyone says that cash is the best way to go, but we use our debit for everything and having everything filed for us in the software makes it really easy to see how we are doing in each category. To each their own, right?
Thanks for the tip, Jamie and thanks for stopping by and linking up!
great goals. We do a combination of cash and debit. Once we pay all of our regualar bills and savings, I take cash out for groceries, entertainment and blow money for me and my husband ($20 a week). Anthing left over goes into savings. I put the money in a labeled zippered pouch and use it only for that category. So while I may not know exactly what I spent all the grocery money on I know I spent it only on groceries. We have a separate checking account for auto. My husband has a second income and we put that pay in this account. We use a debit card for gas and maintenance (we don’t have any car payments) and have our insurance automatically deducted. I transfer anything left when he gets paid again into a savings account that is just for saving for another car when one of ours dies. It’s not the most detailed plan but neither of us are very detailed and so it works great.
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