Thrifty Thursday: Balance your Budget!

I feel like the two things I’m constantly struggling with are weight and finances. Apparently this is the norm, for us twenty-somethings. Fortunately, I have an awesome way of staying on top of my finances so I don’t get so overwhelmed (and stay tuned for tomorrow’s post on weight loss tips and tricks!) But, first the finances.

It wasn’t too long ago that I was first branching out on my own and suddenly had a ton of expenses (bills, dinner dates, the latest fashions!) that I wasn’t expecting. I also didn’t have the biggest paycheck to support these expenses (and sadly, still don’t… but that’s another story), and relied on my credit card for EVERYTHING. I remember looking at my bill one month and thinking there must’ve been some sort of mistake. How did those zero’s get there?! Anyway, after a proper scolding from my dear old Mom and Dad, I sat down and made a budget sheet.

It’s relatively simple – in fact it looks a lot like a checkbook registrar (does anyone still use these, by the way?), and I just plug in all my projected spending as well as my projected earnings. Back when I was in credit card debt, I had another column that showed how long it would take to get myself out of debt (which wasn’t that long, thank goodness). Now, I use it nearly every day and even have a second one for my fiancé and my joint account (I think he secretly loves and loathes my weekly updates). But, it paints a good picture of where I am financially and how much I need to save or splurge each month.

(screen capture of my budget sheet- with actual amounts omitted, duh! Black is what I actually spent, red is what I projected to spend, and I update it weekly for accuracy)

There are also several helpful tools online that can help with this. In my opinion, the easiest and most simple to use can be found at: http://www.mappingyourfuture.org/money/budgetcalculator.htm

You just plug in your monthly income and expenses and it tells you how much you can save or spend each month.

If you do online banking, many banks offer free online tools which can show you where you’re spending the most money and where you can cut back. My friend just made her own excel sheet doing the same thing and realized she was spending too much in the food category, so now she’s cutting back in order to save.

No matter which way you do it, keeping track of your monthly finances through a personal excel sheet or a website is a very valuable tool. Plus, it’ll make you feel a lot more on top of things!