I am regaining some momentum to keep up with my budget. There for a little while I was just in a funk. I felt like I wasn’t going to get ahead and I think I even felt sorry for myself for a few minutes! (ugh, I hate when that happens!)
BUT, I have jumped back on the bandwagon. I created 3 budget sheets for myself. One, for my fixed expenses, another for my variable expenses, and the third to record my income. For each of these I listed what I should reasonably be spending/earning and then left slots under the category so that I could record the actual amounts.
I also have had ton of no spend days this week! Aside from paying bills I spent $14.68 getting food and drinks for lunch and a couple snacks for the girls, I got some cheap checks, and spent $40 on gas. That’s it!
Now that I am able to get commission on top of my hourly rate I have also been working on my insurance marketing. I have earned a little bit from this so far, but I still have a long way to go before I reach my goal!
Here are some of the articles from the past week that have helped me reign my spending in:
I don’t know how I just now discover this blog, but I am now hooked on Early Retirement Extreme. If you want to learn how someone lives on $7,000 a year then browse around this blog. It’s pretty motivating!
- 6 Reasons Why Being Frugal is Awesome @Club Thrifty
- Life Lessons from Paying off $14,00 in Credit Card Debt in Less than a Year @The Happy Homeowner
- Networth of $160,000,000 and Working in Food Service @1500Days
- How Debt Mimics Life @The Frugal Farmer
- Which is Harder, Paying off Debt or Saving Money? @Budgets are Sexy
Happy Budgeting! Have a wonderful weekend!!
Thanks for the mention, Alexa! I haven’t been on Early Retirement Extreme – can’t wait to go check that out! Have a great weekend. 🙂
You’re welcome. You have a great weekend too!!
I love Early Retirement Extreme. Not something that I could do, but very interesting to read!
It’s motivating. I am not sure that its something that I would even want to do. But it definitely gives me some frugal inspiration!
Great for you Alexa for getting back on the budgeting habit. I’ve not been to Early Retirement Extreme, I’ll have to check it out. I could not imagine living on that little, especially with kids. Have a great weekend!
Thank you! You will have to check it out. Pretty cool blog, a little similar to mr. money mustache
Awesome job on the budget. May is turning out to be a good month thanks to cooking at home instead of eating out, and a 3 paycheck month, woot!
Thats why I am on track too! No eating out. Yay we did it!! 🙂
You know, Alexa, over my many years of learning to be a good steward of my money, I’ve discovered that two steps forward and one back is reality. Sometimes you get three steps forward and that’s great! Worksheets have always been a huge help to me; I’d love for you to check out my worksheets. You can find them in the following three posts:
Part II: Does Your Spending Support Your Values?
Reduce Financial Emergencies With One Simple Strategy
Part III: Charting Your 10-year Plan
Thanks Ree. I will check those out. I love writing things on paper to track them versus keep records on the computer or online.
I am doing something similar.
Page One: Fixed Expenses
Page Two: Variable Expenses
Page Three: Ideas to create more income to fund Page Two.
: )