Finance and Fat » Budgeting

You Just Realized You’re Spending More Than You Earn: 4 Things To Do Today

Eden — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:03:15 +0000

My financial turnaround began when I realized I was spending more than I earned each and every month. That’s pretty much the only way you can pile up more than $25,000 of credit card debt in a year (that’s about the rate I was going). For me, it came down to stupidity and lack of attention really.

If that sounds like you right now, here are four things you can do TODAY to stop the bleeding and begin to gain control of your financial life.

Stop using credit cards – Those little plastic jerks are ruining your life and you know it. Chop ‘em up! They aren’t cool, you don’t NEED them, and what good have they done for you so far? Life is possible without credit cards. I haven’t had one for more than a year now and I never miss them.

Make a budget – Honestly, making a budget is like getting a raise. It’s amazing what a little detail work can do for your finances. It’s hard work though. It takes time and practice to successfully budget. Don’t give up after your first try and don’t expect to get it right in the beginning. Just trust that it will work and give it a chance. This step alone will dramatically change your financial life.

Sell some of the stuff you bought that you knew couldn’t afford anyway – Video games, DVDs, golf clubs, whatever unnecessary junk you bought that you don’t need. Face it, almost nothing that we buy is truly a NEED. Be ruthless. Start listing some stuff on Craigslist or Ebay. It can be a pain, but consider the hassle to be part of your therapy. This will put some cash in your pocket quickly and give you some small victories on the road to turning your cash flow positive again.

Create more income – This could be overtime at your current job, finding a part-time job, or my personal favorite- finding some freelance work of some kind. Anything that allows you to use your existing skills to provide a valuable service for someone is your best bet for some quick side money. This is the best choice because you’ll start to get a taste of how to create your own path to income in your life.

These are just a few tips and there is more you can do, but you have to start somewhere and this is as good a start as any. You need to dedicate extra time to working right now, but don’t neglect education. Read some blogs, and read some books. Start talking to your friends and see if any of them are trying to change their financial lives too (you might be surprised, this is more common than you probably think). Try listening to the free Dave Ramsey Show podcast (or his radio show if it’s on in your area). The podcast is only 40 minutes long, it’s free, and it’s a great way to get a daily boost of inspiration and keep fighting the battle with debt.

Even if you can only do one thing today, it’s a start (if I had to pick one, I’d start with budgeting). The most important part is realizing there is a problem and starting to take action as soon as possible. Once you get the ball rolling, this will get easier. Good luck!

You Just Realized You’re Spending More Than You Earn: 4 Things To Do Today

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Simple Steps for a Cash Only Christmas

Eden — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:00:42 +0000

Christmas 2007 was my first cash-only Christmas. That was a great experience and I would never dream of using credit cards to pay for Christmas again. However, this year I’ve made the cash-only Christmas even better by starting a ‘Christmas Fund’ back in January of this year. My Christmas Fund is a savings account at ING Direct with a monthly auto-transfer to cover this year’s Christmas spending.

It’s a great feeling to know that not only will Christmas shopping not put a dent in my normal monthly budget, but thanks to the spirit of frugality this year, I’ll actually have a fair amount of money left over that I can save or pay down debt with. Nothing makes personal finance easier than a little planning and proper execution.

If this wasn’t your experience this year, I’m sorry and, believe me, I can relate. Everything I’ve just talked about would have sounded rather nutty to me up until about a year ago. It’s not too late to prepare for next year though. If you start now, you’ll be ready for Christmas in 2009.

How to prepare for Christmas 2009:

Plan how much you will spend in 2009
Divide that number by 11 (assuming you will save from Jan – Nov)
Open a savings account and call it your Christmas Fund
Set up a monthly auto transfer
Your work is done until next December!

This is a great way to cut down on stress during the Holiday season and it makes it easy to keep your budget under control.

Simple Steps for a Cash Only Christmas

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Looking Back at Our First Cash Only Christmas

Eden — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:58:48 +0000

I guess I didn’t really know how it would go, but this Christmas came and went just as quickly as the others before it. However, the big difference this year is that Christmas won’t be lingering in the form of credit card debt or budget regret. I can’t even begin to express how good that feels!

We didn’t plan all year long and we didn’t start saving last Christmas, but we did sit down in November and make a plan for Christmas- and we stuck to that plan. We took a portion of the money that would have gone toward extra debt payments in December and budgeted $800 for Christmas. That included gifts for everyone on our list, cost of food for hosting Christmas dinner at our house, and a little extra padding for unexpected expenses. I am happy to report that we came in under budget, by about $90.

This is the first Christmas I can remember that we didn’t use a credit card and didn’t over spend. Working with a budget for every person on our list was quite liberating. It made it easy to decide what to buy for someone- if we planned to only spend $25 on someone we wanted to make sure we got the best value we could for the money.

What to do if you took on debt to pay for Christmas this year:

If you had to use credit cards to pay for Christmas this year, don’t beat yourself up over it now. Recognize the mistakes you made and take action TODAY to prepare for next Christmas and to be ready to handle it with cash. If you don’t have one yet, open a savings account for Christmas. Call it your ‘Christmas Fund‘ and only use the money for Christmas. Decide now how much you need to spend for next Christmas and divide that total by 11 or 12 (decide if you want to count this month or start in January or whatever). The best advice is to set up an automatic transfer each month for your monthly Christmas Fund contribution so that you won’t even have to think about it. Personally, I don’t like to set up automatic payments or transfers for non-essentials so I will manually move the money each month- decide what works for you here and what you can safely commit to doing.

An example- I opened our Christmas Fund yesterday (with ING Direct) and funded it with $50. I chose $50 because I always start my new ING savings accounts with $50 (no particular reason for that). We have decided to budget $1,000 for next Christmas, which leaves $950 to save from January through November (11 months = $86.36 per month). That’s it! Next Christmas is taken care of! Of course I need to make that transfer a part of my monthly budget, but we can afford it so that won’t be a problem. So whatever your budget may be for next Christmas, decide it now, plan for it now, and get started TODAY! I promise you won’t regret it.

Remember, by preparing for next Christmas now, not only are you taking control of your money and making it work for you, but you are reversing the damaging effects of interest that you would be paying to a credit card company and actually earning interest all year long on your savings account. Compound interest working against you is the enemy of financial freedom and wealth. Compound interest working for you is your greatest ally in changing your financial future and becoming wealthy. This distinction is probably the greatest difference between the poor and the wealthy- don’t let this be another year that you move in the wrong direction.

Best of luck and Merry (cash) Christmas!

Looking Back at Our First Cash Only Christmas

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Get Out of Debt in 9 Steps # 6 – Track your spending and keep your budget updated

Eden — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 12:00:25 +0000

Now that you have made a budget and you are living below your means, you need to keep track of your spending in order to be sure you stay within your budget and don’t spend more than you earn.

I use Quicken to track my spending, entering my receipts and transactions on a daily basis. You don’t have to use Quicken, Microsoft Money is a common alternative, or you can do this with just paper or a spreadsheet as well. Once a week I create a report with Quicken and import that data into my Excel budget spreadsheet. I enter my spending for each category and review how much money I have left in that category for the month (or recognize that I have over spent somewhere). Doing this weekly prevents my spending from getting too far out of control and it provides flexibility to change my budget if the unexpected occurs or if my needs change during the month.

In my earlier post about budgeting, I uploaded a simple spreadsheet sample to help you get started. Now I have an updated, slightly more complicated version that includes fields for tracking your money each week. Take a look at the new version to quickly get up and running with a budget and weekly tracking (Excel, opens in new window).

The key to using this budget spreadsheet is to start the month by filling in the ‘Plan’ columns with your best estimates. Then each week (I update mine every Sunday afternoon), put in your actual numbers for each category for the week. The ‘Total’ and ‘Difference’ columns at the end of the row will help you to see where you stand and how well you prepared for the month.

In addition to using a tool to track your spending, have a regular ‘budget meeting’ with your spouse, your kids, or anyone who helps you to stay accountable. Make sure that you are scheduling a time to discuss where you are at with your spending, how the month is shaping up with your money and any areas of concern. Communication is critical, and frequent updates help you to stay on top of things. If you keep up with this you shouldn’t have any ’surprises’ or mistakes that lead to bank fees or bounced checks or anything else. This is not a time to place blame on anyone if mistakes have been made, but rather a time to discuss what went wrong and what went right in a comfortable way. You need to be a team!

Tracking every dollar spent and assigning it to a category may not work for everyone. It works for me because I’m the computer nerd in the house and I like to collect and analyze the data. If you aren’t wired this way, consider much more broad budget categories that you fund at the start of the month or with each paycheck. Maybe you put $100 in your pocket (or an envelope) for food and that covers your groceries and eating out for the week. You don’t have to track all of those dollars, but you do have to commit to the fact that this is food money and you aren’t going to mix in dollars from other categories and spend it on unrelated things.

You may think the budget process I covered is too tedious, but I would recommend trying to track every dollar for a month or two and see how it goes. At the very least, you’ll have a better understanding of where your money is going. If that’s not for you, just be honest with yourself about where you are assigning your money and don’t stray too far from your plans.

9 Steps to Get Out of Debt

Get Out of Debt in 9 Steps # 6 – Track your spending and keep your budget updated

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Get Out of Debt in 9 Steps # 2(b) – How to Make a Budget

Eden — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:01:56 +0000

In the previous step, I covered why you should make a budget and now it is important to talk about how to make a budget. As with any new thing you endeavor to do, the best advice is to start now and start with something, don’t worry about making it perfect on your first try.

No matter how you start, just get started- start on paper or start with a spreadsheet, whatever works for you. Start by writing your expected net income for the month at the top. Don’t just take your average salary for the year and use that. Look at how many paydays you will actually have this month and how much money you expect to earn. Admittedly, this is more difficult if you have a variable income, or if you expect large commissions or bonuses from time to time. There is a slightly different approach to budgeting for variable incomes that I will look at later.

Assuming you have a mostly fixed income, follow this basic format:

Income-
Cash on hand: $500
Net Income: $2,000
Total: $2,500

Expenses-
Mortgage: $1000
Utilities: $200
Groceries: $300
And on and on…
Difference- calculated field subtracting your expenses from your income.

Download this sample spreadsheet if you want an easy way to get started (Excel file, opens in a new window). The categories included are mostly what I use now, but you will of course change them as appropriate for your needs. Remember, this is supposed to be a simple starting point. I have come up with something a lot more complicated that I use now, but it didn’t start that way and I only made changes as I saw needs develop.

If you have a variable income, the same concept applies, but you need to go about it in a slightly different manner. Start by making a list of your expenses for the month and rank them in order of most important to least important. Then list your income, base income and cash on hand (whatever you know you will have) and start applying that to your expenses. Keep working your way down the list until you run out of money. I’m not an expert at managing a variable income. I have worked as a freelancer in the past and relied on a variable income, but I didn’t budget or spend my money wisely at the time.

The first time I created my budget I realized I was deeply in the red! It was over $1,000 negative. Of course, the only way to spend more than you earn is to use credit cards or savings, which is why stopping the credit card spending is critical to getting started on getting out of debt.

Ideally, your difference in income and expenses will be $0.00 or slightly positive. The idea is not to spend every dollar you have, but to allocate ‘extra’ dollars either to savings or debt payments. For example, if you work hard at cutting your grocery spending for the month, change your allocation and send that extra money to debt or savings.

Making your first budget is a huge step toward taking control of your finances. However, it is highly unlikely that your first month of living on a budget will go as you planned. Don’t let that discourage you! Just track your progress, update your budget weekly, and make changes as needed. You will get better at this each month, but it takes time to get it right.

In the next step I will look at how to raise some extra cash to give you a nice head start on getting out of debt.

9 Steps to Get Out of Debt

Get Out of Debt in 9 Steps # 2(b) – How to Make a Budget

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Get Out of Debt in 9 Steps # 2(a) – Why You Should Make a Budget

Eden — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:01:28 +0000

Step 2 is Make a Budget, but I thought I should break that step into two parts- first explaining why you should make a budget, followed by how to make a budget.

We have all heard that you should run your finances like a business and all businesses have budgets right? Well, I imagine that any successful business does have a budget, but I’m not an accountant and I don’t know about you, but that advice never resonated with me. Let me tell you why I, a person who never had a budget before and never planned my finances ahead of time, think you should have a budget. It comes down to one word for me- empowerment.

You may think that making a budget will be boring, time consuming, difficult, nerdy, restrictive, or any other number of negatives that seem to surround the word budget. Guess what- I thought all of that before too, but since I’ve started living on a budget I can tell you that most of those words do not apply.

Boring - Yes, unless you love math and details this will probably be a bit boring.
Time Consuming – Yes, it will take a lot of time, especially at first, but it will get faster each month.
Difficult - Somewhat difficult at first, but once you’ve set it up the first time you are basically done with only minor tweaks left to make here and there.
Nerdy - Subjective, but nerds are a bit more popular these days so it isn’t all bad.
Restrictive - Not at all. I have found it to be exactly the opposite!

I think the greatest hurdles most of us face when it comes to budgeting are the fear of the budget restricting our fun and the amount of time we will have to spend managing it. These are valid concerns and it does take time to properly manage your budget, but the time commitment is far outweighed by the empowering benefits and control you gain after making a successful budget.

Empowerment

I’ve used this word a lot now so let me talk about how I find a budget to be empowering. If you are anything like me, your finances have probably been out of control for a long time. A budget is the only way to take control of your finances, and it feels really good to take back control of something that I couldn’t handle for so long.

Benefits

Make faster decisions – Can we afford XYZ this month? Just look at the budget and you will have your answer.
Resist temptation – can I afford a video game this month? The numbers don’t lie. You can lie to yourself about how good or bad your finances are, but if you have it all on paper the truth is easy to see.
The power to say no – Having a hard time saying no to friends or family who want you to spend your money? It’s a lot easier to say no if you know for a fact that you can’t afford to spend the money and as an added benefit you can blame your budget for forcing you to say no.

If you still aren’t convinced, I can only encourage you to give it a try. Commit to at least two months and see what you think. I’m speaking to you as someone who was skeptical, but I am now convinced of the benefits of having a budget.

It’s nice to know why you should start a budget, but you still have to take the time to make a budget. In the next part, I will cover how to make a budget.

9 Steps to Get Out of Debt

Get Out of Debt in 9 Steps # 2(a) – Why You Should Make a Budget

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