With my 21st birthday a short 3 weeks away, I’ve made a very conscious decision to get myself out of debt, stay out of debt, and start saving as much money as possible! I’m sure this is a goal of a lot of people at the moment, after all we live in a debt filled world, where debt is encouraged. However, I have role models on both ends of the spectrum, and quite a few who are somewhere in the middle. Do I hope to get rich, fast? That would be nice, but it’s highly unrealistic. I simply want to pay off my debt, be able to live comfortably, and one day have enough money that I can travel, buy a house, raise a family, and not have to live paycheck to paycheck.
My mother is one of the most generous, loving, absolutely amazing women I've ever met, however, she lives paycheck to paycheck, and even then often has issues making ends meet. My grandfather has been my father figure since I was born. He is retired, his wife is semi-retired, and they are able to live very comfortably, they travel, and they just purchased a house! Which of these two lives would you chose? I’m aiming for the second!
With the help of this blog, I am hoping to achieve my financial goals.
Just a few days ago, I used a couple of Pinterest posts to help me form my own budgeting sheets, and started a budget binder. The sheets are extremely simple, so I'm going to share them with you!
First is my Month at a Glance sheet, the second is my Monthly Expenses sheet.
The Month at a Glance includes a list of categories, your goal amount to spend in that category, and the actual amount spend in the category. At the bottom there is a line for totals, your total you set as your goal to have at the end of the month, and the total you actually had left at the end of the month. My overall goal is to have every dollar in a category, so an ending total of $0, anything extra goes into savings.
Monthly Expenses is pretty self explanatory. At the top there is Date, Amount, and Category. You list everything you spend money on, every last thing, even if bought with cash, and write the category it falls into on your month at a glance sheet. This makes adding totals easier at the end of the month!
There you have it! The beginning of a new budget chapter.
Share your thoughts, comments, and suggestions!
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