I confess. I’ve been doing a terrible job at budgeting lately.
It’s not that I’ve been going over budget, or spending excessively. It’s that I don’t know if I’ve been spending excessively.
You see, I haven’t gone online and checked my bank balance since the beginning of the month. That, in and of itself isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. The worst bit is that I haven’t been keeping track of my incoming income or outgoing expenses. I have no idea of what bills we’ve paid, of how much we have left in our account, of what is left to pay.
To give you an idea of how detached I have been from our finances lately, I haven’t even deposited a €128 check that I received two weeks ago. Grave, c’est grave, as my husband would say.
In the past, looking at my budget spreadsheet every morning and entering in the new data has helped my keep our finances at the forefront of my consciousness. I know that when I get out of that habit, or fall off the wagon, so to speak, my finances go to hell in a hand basket, just to wrap up the metaphors nicely. I forget where we are, I push the goals to the back of my brain and I drop into Ikea- but only to kill some time you see.
Tomorrow starts another day. Tomorrow morning, I will update my budget sheet and see where we stand. Then I promise I’ll come and tell you all about it- the good, the bad and the ugly.
How about you? What habits help keep you on track financially?
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m so glad I’m not the only one! I posted just last night about how much trouble I’m having overcoming the resistance and getting my receipts into excel. Not knowing where I am financially always comes back to bite me but I keep avoiding because we haven’t had as much money (income, not windfall money) as usual over the past several months.
Intellectually, I know that’s really dumb because when we have less money we should be watching more closely, not less. But I keep procrastinating and then it seems overwhelming. I did a fair bit last night, but there’s still more to do. Sigh.
Shevy’s last blog post..Will I Ever Catch Up?
I think my biggest problem with keeping on top of my finances comes when I have the least amount of money. When I have more than enough money to pay the bills, I keep track of it and it’s encouraging to see positive numbers. When I start to fall behind, it gets depressing and I don’t like to see it. Hopefully blogging about my situation will help things!
My Journey From Debt’s last blog post..Rounding Up To Pay My Bills
Kelly says:
Isn’t it ironic that we’re most on top of things when times are good? I’m exactly the same way!
Hi Kelly, I can’t even get it together (yet) to make a budget! I keep telling myself I’ll get to it when I’ve gotten a little further with my organizing projects – ha! Between my blog, my new job, my work on my upcoming blog, and summer camp schedules, I’m struggling too! Hang in there.
Ann at One Bag Nation’s last blog post..Check it Out – I’m Swimming with the Sharks!
Cash. C. A. S. H. People always talk about tracking expenses. Saving receipts so they can track expenses. Credit cards that track and organize expenses. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s a waste of time unless you are overspending and have no idea where. Go with cash. Here’s why:
Let’s say you budget $400 per month for groceries. You pull it out at the beginning of the month, and when you go grocery shopping, it goes too. $400 per month, mean $100 per week. Easy to plan. When the money is gone, it’s gone. It doesn’t matter which grocery stores you spent it at, or if you spent $50 the first week and $150 the next. It’s worthless data. You’ve got better things to do if your spending is already in check.
Our system.
NtJS’s last blog post..Why Do You Not Have A Will?