Let’s be serious. Budgeting to me equates to exercise. There are those freaks out there that talk about getting a “runner’s high”, how they can’t miss going to the gym for one day. I am not one of them. Honestly, most of us aren’t.
We only get serious about exercising when our doctor calls us a fat pig or it’s January 1st and “more exercise” is our resolution. 2008, I am going to me a more moral, caring person and take care of my self mentally and physically. How long does that last? Until the first snowstorm? Not even?
Well budgeting is the same. It sounds like a good idea and we know we should do it. But there’s all that work. I have to write done every penny and what I bought, I have to set a budget knowing that I’ll miss half the expenses, I have to live my it, and then I have to do it next month. Oh joy!!! I can see this working out.
So what’s a lazy non-freak like me going to do? Have my wife do the budgeting. That didn’t work very good last time. She was very good at tracking expenses and nagging me for my expenses but we never know how much we could spend on certain items. Also I wasn’t good at keeping track of things.
Well, I started searching on the web for budgeting tools. Excel ones – too much work. Paper ones – way too much work. And then I discovered Mvelopes.com.
Mvelopes takes the envelope system and modernizes it. The envelope system is when you take your paycheck and put the money in actual envelopes that are labeled (like food, gas, car, insurance). Once the money is spent, it’s spent. The issue in today’s world is that we don’t pay cash for things. We use credit cards, debit cards, checks, and cash. Some of us have more then one bank (we have three) and multiple credit cars.
That’s were Mvelopes comes in. My banks, credit cards, loans (auto and mortgage) all hook into Mvelopes. Any transaction that appears get uploaded to my view. Then I just drag and drop the expense in the proper folder, much like dropping emails into folders in Outlook.
The hard part is setting up the budget and funding the folders. I’ll talk about this in my next post.
Budgeting … yuck!!!
December 14th, 2007 at 03:41 pm
December 14th, 2007 at 04:08 pm 1197648529
December 14th, 2007 at 04:29 pm 1197649779
Once a week, sit down with the other person and input your information.
I like what Dave Ramsey says when he says that we have to tell our money where to go; not allow it to tell us where it is going. So, you actually have more control when you have what I call a SPENDING PLAN not necessarily a budget.
December 14th, 2007 at 06:32 pm 1197657179
December 16th, 2007 at 03:58 am 1197777499
I tell you what does excite me though. Knowing that I am building my future and my freedom, and my budget shows me how it can or is being achieved.
So, I guess that's how I try to keep myself motivated. By looking at the benefits that can come out of it.
Hope to hear some tips and insights from you soon!
December 16th, 2007 at 06:57 am 1197788235