typing 60 words/minute like some of us do! (I have no idea how fast I type) Why? Because it takes time to write a word letter-by-letter vs. Just like when you were learning to spell – you wrote the word out. So, $12 over $240…that seems like an easy choice to me.īut you’ll only notice this because you’re actually tracking your expenses, which is why I get the need to want to write them down. An entire container of grounds is $6 and lasts at least 2 weeks. But if you don’t care about coffee and are spending $240/month…just go buy Folgers. If it’s something you absolutely love every day and use, then keep spending it. You should be looking for these money sucks that you have in your daily life and trying to find a way to stop them. But spending $10 less isn’t the same as $1000 less. Is that your entire goal? Sure, in a simplified way, yes. I know many people that simply use Mint and go, “ok, cool – I spent less than I earned this month.” It’s going to stick in your brain and after getting two coffees at Starbucks every day at $4 each, you’re going to go, “dang, I just spent $240 at Starbucks this month”, but hopefully maybe only a few days in rather than getting all the way to the end of the month! This might seem cumbersome, but you’re the one that wanted to do things the old-fashioned way!Īnd let’s be honest, writing down your expenses is the best way to actually learn where your money is going. As you guessed, now you’re simply just recording all of your expenses that you might have. Now that your planning phase is completed, it’s time for you to head to the “Purchases This Month” section. Once you have your list, you simply will enter in the rest of that chart with the Fixed/Variable information and the ideal budget amount you plan to spend. Personally, I think that unexpected expenses are one of the fastest ways to ruin a budget, so check out these 15 personal budget categories that most people miss to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success. There will be some easy ones like rent/mortgage, groceries and gas for your car, but you’re going to likely forget many others like car maintenance, tolls and home goods! This might seem easy, but I guarantee you’re going to forget some things. You’re simply going to put in a list of items that you might expect to spend money on. Then, you would move onto the Allotted Expenses. Maybe you’re expecting a nice check from winning your Fantasy Football league – put that in as income! Let’s pretend the month is January… the steps would be to fill in the month, and then the dates that you’re expecting paychecks, birthday money, or literally any sort of income. So, I took the Doctor Budget layout and tried to simplify it a little bit into a blank format so if you’re 100% deadest on having a printable budget planner, you can still use Doctor Budget! Just a simpler version!Īs you can see, there are really four different sections that you’re going to fill in: I think that you can really accomplish this same goal by just using a printable budget planner! Now I know some people that take it even further and put cash into those envelopes to make sure that expense is paid for, but I personally think that’s just too far. Literally every single expense that he has will then end up with a receipt inside an envelope. They don’t have a formal budget now but they would need to have one if they retired early, and the budget process that my dad uses is the envelope method. Well, turns out a sticking point was the budget. They were trying to decide if it made sense to stop working a couple years early and live smaller or keep working and then enjoy their current retirement lifestyle that they envisioned. But I know some of you are much more old school and prefer the tried and true way.Ī couple weekends ago I was talking to my dad and he said that him and his wife were considering retiring early and simply living on less than they might’ve otherwise desired. Nowadays I prefer to do all of my budgeting with Doctor Budget because I feel like I get a perfect mix of being forced to track my expenses and also the automation so it doesn’t take me all day to do my budget. It sounds ridiculous but it was honestly one of the most useful classes that I took in high school because I could use it in my everyday life. They taught things like how to cook, sewing, washing clothes, and even balancing a checkbook and creating a budget. In fact, I was recently talking to Andrew and Dave (yes, I am friends with the famous hosts of the Investing for Beginners podcast) and I was telling them in high school I took a class called, “Life after graduation”. Remember how people used to balance a check book? That’s the type of stuff that I am talking about. What I mean is to throw technology out the window and do things in a way that you know works. And one of those ways is to just go back and do things the old school way.
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