The one where we discuss money and the budgeting of it and just how much it sucks to be an adult.
So, do y'all budget your money? In an official way? My parents are obsessive about it. Well, my mom is. When I was growing up, she had little envelopes for everything from gas to utilities to groceries. Every payday, once the paychecks were cashed, she'd distribute money into the appropriate envelope and that was that. It's worked very well for them.
Unfortunately, that kind of organization seems to skip a generation because I don't do anything at all like that. But I'd kinda like to get my fiscal house in order. At least a little bit.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a total spendthrift. But living in an all-digital world with all-digital money makes it hard to truly see what you're spending unless you're totally on top of things. For example, if I were to go to the store with actual cash money in my hand right now to purchase a can of hairspray — you know, like if you were a kid with an allowance — I'd be looking for something at a $2.48 price point. It's hairspray and $3 is a fine amount of money to spend on a can. BUT ... if I'm buying it from Amazon, I'll search for hairspray, check the results, look at the ones that say the product holds and smells great, and then I'll add it to my cart without even blinking an eye at the $17.79 price. "It's free shipping and it'll be here in two days!" is the ridiculous excuse I'll use to justify being so insane.
No mas. It's time to take another step into adulthood. Yeesh. That word. It just paints such a bleak picture. But sometimes we have to do the things we don't want to do. It's a sign of growth. Right? Sigh. Let's just go with it. Since I'm only comfortable dipping my toe into this whole adulting world, I'm not going to go crazy and purchase any kind of fiscal software. Nor am I going to go crazy and create anything in Excel — mainly because I don't know how to use it. But that's not the point. The point is that I'm going to be fiscally responsible in my attempt to be fiscally responsible. I'M ALREADY MAKING SMART DECISIONS! I've created a very basic document in the very simple and very free program, TextEdit. I have three very sensible sections:
one for the weeks in the month (week 1, week 2, etc.) where I'll total up how much I spent that week, Monday through Sunday.
one where I'll actually list out what I've purchased for each week so that I can see item-by-item what I'm buying.
one where I'll keep track of items I want alongside items I need. I've given myself a budget for each week and if I happen to do well one week by staying under budget with my needs, maybe I'll be able to treat myself to something off of my want list.
Is it going to work? Who knows. But we're about to find out. And I feel good about it, so that's something. How about you? Do you have any special budgeting tactics to stay on track financially? I'd love to hear about them. Send me a message or comment below.
Cheers, and peace out until next time.
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