I began “budgeting” in 2010. I put the word in quotations
because, to a hardcore budgeter, what I did wouldn’t look like
budgeting at all... Not even close. Today, I am slightly closer to that goal, but I may never be a budgeting savant. I mean,
there are some people that don’t spend a single penny they haven’t set aside
for budgeting purposes. I don’t quite know how to do that, because it seems
like every time I get close, some unexpected expense pops up, or a friend comes
up to visit and they want to go to their favorite restaurant, or a new bar. My
point is that budgeting is hard.
It doesn’t help that half the literature out there is about
how “easy” budgeting is and how all you have to do is the exact thing that
seems so impossible to do. I can look back to not very long ago, and think
about how I used to handle my finances. That person would look at what I’m
doing today and think, “There’s no way I could do that.” Shows what he knows…
The funny thing is that every time I made a slight
improvement on my system, I actually had one less thing to worry about. The
truth is that worrying about money is exhausting. Ironically, when I spent
virtually no time checking my accounts or tracking spending, I felt more
stressed out about money than I do now that I am checking my accounts
regularly. After all, my money was being spent one way or another, and every
time I swiped my card for a sorta-big purchase, every time I got a loan payment
notification in the mail, I was reminded.
I will tell you a couple of things that have helped me, but
I also want to ask you what you have done, or will do, as far as baby steps go,
to improve your financial health.
Small steps I made:
-
Figuring out my regular expenses, and putting
money aside into a savings account I don’t touch except in emergencies.
-
Making financial goals to make sure I’m saving
up for things I want to be saving up for.
-
Using Debt in Focus to help me
make the most of my debt payments and get a financial overview/help me think
about good budgets.
-
Making debt repayment a priority
-
Refinancing high interest debt with low interest
debt.
These steps in and of themselves were pretty small, but they
had big impacts, and they helped me get on the path towards keeping a regular
budget. Now that I’m budgeting regularly, it feels like just another baby step.
Now for more baby steps towards even better financial health!
Help me, and other readers out and share yours now!
I'm the one with a "head for numbers" in my family, so managing our finances had always been my responsibility. I found that draining though, because it was always me saying "no, I don't think we can afford that". So my wife and I decided that our "small step" would be to start doing the finances together. We set aside about half an hour each Tuesday night to review our accounts online, pay our bills, and talk about the big picture. Then we get to put it away and know that we're on the same page.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I made the same arrangement years ago. Even more important than sharing the bookkeeping responsibility, it keeps everyone informed of current status so that careless over-spending doesn't happen.
DeleteQuestions: Has anyone actually USED Debt in Focus (now MoneySavvy-something-or-other)? I am, of course, familiar with Jean Chatsky (sp), but this sites privacy policy SCARES me! It sounds like a great opportunity, but I worry about the security of the information obtained by the site. Heeeelp!!! :)
Hi Sandi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I have personally used Debt in Focus and I assure you that you are not required to share identifying information. You have the option to register for ease of return but you don't even need to do that, as there is a code you can use to return. While demographic information may be collected, your information remains anonymous, which is what happens when you do a Google search as well.
Even if you do register, you need to actively request a follow up from UMassFive before your information is shared. We have a contract with SavvyMoney and we understand that privacy is very important. That's one of our favorite aspects about this program over others - that it allows the flexibility to remain anonymous while also offering the option to request a followup if a member does in fact want that. I'd be interested to hear others' experiences as well but I thought I'd give you a quick answer!