I have never been much of a budgeter. I never spend more money than I have and I consider myself to be quite thrifty (most of the time), but I'm not good at planning out how to spend and learning to really save for something. That's something I want to learn how to do. I'm sure all of you (my illustrious readers--all two of you!) have already heard of Mint.com. It's a pretty cool financial tracking/planning tool. I signed up quite a while back, but haven't used it much. But today, I learned how to customize it. I created some new budget categories that are less specific so I can use Jordan Page's budget ideas. I don't actually know Jordan, but I've been following her blog, so I feel like I kind of know her. Oh, the blogosphere. (Did you know that "blogosphere" doesn't even have a red squiggly line underneath it to indicate it's misspelled?) Anyway, on her blog, Jordan talks about how she budgets. It's really simple. And since I've never been much of a budgeter and I'm horrible at predicting exactly what I will need/do/eat/want to do each month, I decided I would adapt her method for me. She uses an enhanced version of the tried and true "Envelope Method." Hers is enhanced though because she uses a credit card for all her purchases instead of cash (wahoo--me too!), so she just tracks expenses on the outside of the envelope and puts the receipts inside. It's also different because she divides the envelope into 4 or 5 sections (weeks/month) and two columns: one for groceries (according to her groceries should cost $100/person/month) and one for other stuff. On her blog, she mentions how her her family's gas $ comes out of a different budget, so I adjusted mine. My envelope system will be the following. Column 1 will be Gas & Groceries (the necessities) and Column 2 will be Extras (the extras): restaurants, books, clothes, etc, etc. I like the idea of having an extras category that is a kind of catch-all. I'm hoping that this little factor will be the key to my budgeting success. Oh yeah, and also the apps Easy Envelopes and Budget Envelopes. I'm trying both of them out and then I'll decide which one I like best.
1 comment:
I don't know what it is about your list, but I am loving it! I bought pumpkin at the store today so I can try out the recipe you posted, and reading about your budgeting made me so happy today. Then again, Luke and I are hard core budget nerds (don't get me started on how much he loves his spreadsheet). Anyway, hooray!
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