I could be super cheerful and persuade you that this year will be different and that you should take life by the horns, yada yada yada. But I’m not going to. Nothing will change – financially speaking – unless you start to budget.
Life is miserable, eh?
There are as many ways to budget as there are overextended consumers. I’ll share my system in a minute, but first let me warn you that it will take 15 minutes of your time. Can you spare a quarter hour for financial solvency?
Here’s the deal. Most budgets look backwards. You pull out your bills and receipts from the past month and add up what you spent. That number is supposed to indicate how much you will spend next month, right? Wrong!
A better budget looks forward. And my budgeting system only takes 15 minutes to set up. Click here to get my three-page budget. Then click on “Bargain_Babes_15_minute_Budget” in small font to download the zip file.
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January 5th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Love the whole looking forward theory! Will definitely check out your three-page budget.
Thanks =)
Kansas City bank rates
January 5th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Hve you tried this budget and does it work? 15 minutes passes so slowly when working with bills.
January 6th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Yes, I have tried this budget Junie. I created it out of necessity when my household income was drastically reduced. I hope you’ll give it 15 minutes. And let me know how it works for you.
January 6th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
I cant down load it for free..
January 6th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Yvonne, tell me a little more about what exactly you are having trouble with. The more details, the better I am able to help.
January 7th, 2010 at 9:39 am
I’m really looking forward to using this and seeing if it’ll help. That said, I found one VERY MAJOR missing expense on this: GROCERIES! I spend almost 1/4 of my income each month for food. That results in a big chunk of my monthly budget at missing from this then!
January 7th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Vicky, I don’t earmark a specific amount for groceries because I am a better food shopper if I leave groceries to come out of my discretionary income, the dollars left over after all my regular and irregular expenses are taken care of.
January 7th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Since I’m retired, and don’t have mortgage or car loan payments any more, it’s rather easy for me to budget from my limited pension funds. However, I can see the value in your system for those with income that fluctuates or is reduced, as well as for those with dependent family members. That’s one part of my younger years that I don’t miss. Now I enjoy being Gran!!!
January 13th, 2010 at 9:30 am
[...] Budget! Check out my simple 15-minute budget. It really does [...]
March 5th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
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