It's fine, really. I've come to terms with being a little obsessive about saving money. It's kind of my hobby. The more I talk about it, the more people I meet who want in.
In the past, I've kept track of my spending in calendars that we're gifted to me. For two years straight I entered anything costing a $1 or more. This was back when I was going out religiously. So I wasn't shocked at the tally's rung up under "entertainment". Truthfully, I was the cheapest of the bunch regardless. I just got to a point where I wanted to see where all that hard-earned money was escaping to!
As a waitress working towards bachelor's degree, I also wanted to track what days and months were particularly flush and take holidays and cram on the not so flush. With my new found frugality, I pursued a system that didn't require so much work. I was crunching all the numbers myself. So last week, I learned excel. Online. For free. I downloaded free office software, OpenOffice, and set about creating my personalized budget worksheet. It adds everything up AUTOMATICALLY! Yeah, didn't major in computer science, as an artist I focused more on graphics programs anyways.
My latest challenge, has been getting my husband to use the budget worksheet. I will blog about using charm to slay your mates financial defenses. I do not know yet why he resists so much! He probably doesn't want to know!
I am posting my blank budget worksheet that you can personalize! Break it down as little or large as you need. I recommend rounding to the nearest dollar and then half-dollar with more experience. Don't worry if you miss a few. Just start getting acclimated to the idea. You might even start writing expenditures on scrap paper to keep track. So much can happen in a day. I can't emphasize enough how powerful this tool is for understanding your individual spending habits and how to establish discipline. Just knowing that every purchase you make has to be entered causes a pause before buying. Discovering where you really spend money can be eye-opening. Once you have a little history to work off of, you can start slicing into each category. With a little more history, you can set realistic spending caps in each category and stop yourself from going over.
For a good time, imagine ways to add more categories to your income section...
Download Budget Worksheet HERE! Enter the Captcha, Click "Download Now", wait 40 seconds and click "regular download. Copy the file into your own excel software if it opens read-only. Let me know if and how this helps or if you have any problems!
Enjoy!
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