I have mulled this over a great deal the past few days and did the math and scratch work I seem to need to make decisions. I believe I am going to experiment with the money jars for Jan, Feb and March. I have been doing my own version of that with my account and invisible envelopes for online banking but I seem to lose momentum and don't stay true and honest in the last 10 days or so per month.
With the jars, perhaps this will keep me on track and give me honest readings of how much I spend per category per month.
I plan to have one for groceries, one for spending, one for household, one for fuel/gas and one for dining out.
I seem to do alright in the other categories through my money shifting. Those are the five whose lines and details get blurry.
I'll have to figure out how much $ I need to get out of the bank on payday. I rarely can get to the bank so I believe I will withdraw money every two weeks, tucking only one week's worth in each jar and the rest in a do not touch envelope which I believe I will be relatively successful in not touching. The jars will make it feel more like a game to me.
Here's hoping I last the whole three months without 'something' coming along to throw me off.
1 comment:
I also have trouble tracking my spending accurately. I've tried jars and tracking in Excel, but I lost focus when life got hectic. You've inspired me to try again in January. I found a Pear Budget template that I had downloaded a few months ago that looks good. It automatically adds the numbers for each month so I'll have a running total for the year, giving me a more realistic picture of my spending. Exciting!
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