elder marvin j. ashton said, "God help us to realize that money management is an important ingredient in proper personal welfare. Learning to live within our means should be a continuing process. We need to work constantly toward keeping ourselves free of financial difficulties. It is a happy day financially when time and interest are working for you and not against you.
Money in the lives of Latter-day Saints should be used as a means of achieving eternal happiness. Careless and selfish uses cause us to live in financial bondage. We can’t afford to neglect personal and family involvement in our money management. God will open the windows of heaven to us in these matters if we will but live close to Him and keep His commandments."
here is a link to his talk if you'd like to read the whole
when we were students it was hard to budget, because income was varied. some months we had extra, some months we didn't have enough...we would usually come out even in the end, but we couldn't plan on having a set amount for anything. now that our income is more set, we are able to really set up a budget that we can stick to.
i really love using my debit card, but it is too tempting to overspend (especially if it is a tiny bit) on groceries or dates when you know you can just whip out the debit card. bryan is humoring me by letting me give the "envelope" method of budgeting a try. so, i will be saying goodby to my debit card and hello to bills. i think that if i have cash, then i will be less likely to overspend. i will let you know how it goes.
i got this wallet from the laughing house to help sort my money that i keep in my purse. i am excited for this experiment.
what are your budgeting tips?
We tried the cash envelope system but gave up because the debit card was just too convenient. I blogged about the various reasons here: http://inzolo.com/blog/why-the-cash-envelope-system-didnt-work-for-us.php
ReplyDeleteThat's what let me to write Inzolo, which is a debit card friendly envelope system :)
Good luck though. I hope you post updates on how progress goes.
still in school, so the budget is a bit wonky like you mentioned. Still, I'm trying to appreciate the art of coupon clipping. A couple bucks off here and there means more money to spend on etsy or sewing supplies :)
ReplyDeleteWe're trying to do the same thing, some weeks or days its easier than others. ;)
ReplyDeletei tried the envelope method and it didn't work for me, but i am sure it will work for someone who sticks to it. good luck! you will have to share how it works for you!
ReplyDeletei do the "payday= pay bills" method, where on payday i immediately subtract whatever bills i am going to pay during that two week period (i include putting money into savings a "bill", same dollar amount every paycheck), then go grocery shopping, THEN give my husband our bank balance (i.e. what we have to "play with".) my husband knows that if he looks at our bank balance online, it is not a true picture of what money we actually have. i subtract from our balance what we spend daily, always round withdrawals up to the nearest dollar and deposits i round down, and try to have a minimum dollar amount in our account at all times (e.g. if our balance is running at about $500, we curb our spending and only spend on absolute necessities like food, water & toilet paper). this "minimum balance" thing really helps us not have to live paycheck to paycheck, and makes you think before you spend. good luck! finances are hard!