A Pile of Receipts: Where I Was, and How Far I’ve Come
Getting out my winter clothes this past weekend, I came across a big wad of receipts in the pocket of my favorite winter jacket that I had neglected to file or shred and recycle. The majority of the receipts were from between when we bought our house in January and when we moved in in March. There were a number of minor cosmetic changes we made as well as a few repairs done in that time, and my filing system apparently consisted of my coat pocket.
Well, I wish I could claim to be more organized, but that’s not what this post is about. This post is about budgeting. When we bought the house, we decided on a budget for the painting and repairs, and then I kind of kept track in my head and roughly made sure we stayed in our budget. Did we? I’m not sure. We were in the general ballpark, that I know, but did we overspend on paint? No clue. Do we have two gallons on unused paint in a cupboard because I changed my mind at the last minute? Yes. Oops.
Now, I budget. On paper, not in my head. Sometimes I go over in a category, but I know that I did, and I make adjustments for it somewhere else. Sometimes I can’t afford to buy something in a particular month because we’ve already spent that part of the budget, and we do without. And now, when there is money left over from any part of the budget, I know exactly how much it is, and I can put it to use for us in reducing our debt.
We’ve come a long way in such a short time. It makes me wonder how far we’ll have come in another 11 months. Hopefully, farther than I could have imagined last January.
November 8th, 2007 at 7:46 am
When I look back at some of my habits and budgeting attempts from a year ago I am completely blown away by the progress. With a little dedication imagine where and to what level you could bring your finances, investments and businesses (I’m thinking generally not just you specifically).
The devil is in the details.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:38 am
I just sat down this week and prepared my first budget. Because I had never done it before on paper (yeah, I used to think that budgeting in my head was good enough)I had no idea what figures to plug into my categories. I decided to use the numbers on my October bank statement. What a wake up call. This month every expenditure is on paper so I can see what I spend. According to my first budget, I should have $600, but I don’t. Hmmmm. Where is that money?????????????
November 8th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Good job!
I feel like I’ve come a long way thanks to budgeting too. It makes me excited to think of looking back around this time next year and seeing the progress I have made (fingers crossed).
November 8th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Budgets are funny. They seem like they should work in my head, but then I am left like wealthy_1, wondering where the extra money went.
On paper much better