Hey everyone!
We are at the beginning of February and I thought it might be good to check in and see how budgeting is going. Remember that budget we made a few months ago? Mine got blown for Christmas and then odds and ends for parties I forgot to add to my budget. I am going to start fresh in February so I am bringing out my budgeting PDF again to fill out with all my new knowledge!
My budget is an ongoing process and I wish things were a little more calm and consistent so it would be easier to predict! I realized I have too many financial goals all going on at once and it is making my budget chaotic. When I had my budget all figured out it took me a few months to get it all perfect and I feel in the recent months it might be easier to just start fresh with my budget so in a few months I can be back up to normal and not feeling like I am playing catch up from the month before. I had several budget ruining things all happen within a few months of each other so things are off now with my budget. Over the summer I quit my job and started a new lower paying one, I got married in october (lots of money in that one), then all the holidays happened… and now we are saving up for a house! So things have been a bit crazy!
So here are a few things I am doing this month to start my budget fresh.
1. Look back at past few months and see how much I actually spent.
Each month I tend to push the budget up or down a little to reflect what I actually spent. So I am going to look through the past few months and see if has stayed about the same or it I have slowly been bringing it up. I am also going to look back on Christmas, see what I spent and then split it up by month and start saving up for next year so it doesn’t hit me quite as hard.
2. What is making you blow your budget or what budgets really didn’t work?
For me it was my miscellaneous category and yearly items. I would set my miscellaneous category too low and not have enough to get through the month, or I would forget my car registration was coming and it would blow my whole miscellaneous budget and I wouldn’t have any money for a birthday gift or anything else that might come up that month. So I am going through and creating a yearly budget and making notes of when to start saving for those things and putting a little more money in my miscellaneous budget so I have the wiggle room I need.
Here are a few examples of stuff I tend to forget about: Birthday gifts, car registration, oil changes, vacation/parties, yearly subscriptions.
3. Income Check!
I simply am not making enough money. To buy all the things I want (like a house) and save money like for retirement and travel that I want to do, I really just need to be bringing in more income. So to fix this I am spending this month researching how to get more clients for my graphic design biz – call me if you need a super awesome designer!!! I am also planning on launching a Pretending to be an adult course in the next few months for you amazing people! (OMG so much to do) AND I am creating a schedule and whole new line of products for my etsy shop! Here is to solving that income problem!!!
Keep testing and tweaking and we will get it! We got this!
What budget lessons have you learned since you started budgeting?
or
What are you doing to change your budget for the better?
Let me know in the comments!
Barojenty says
February 4, 2016 at 8:16 pmHi Alyssa, your blog looks great and it is a great read. I love it.