Budget the money for next month: My favorite day of the budgeting month! I act like my own little financial advisor, but instead of trying to decide what I want my money to be doing decades from now, I’m honing in on what I want my money to do for this month.I do a quick check against my checking account to make sure all the paychecks that month are accounted for. Check my Next Month’s Money Category: We’re living a month ahead with our money, and I use a holding category in the current month that houses all money earned that month.It often gets shuffled around to fall on the weekend before the month rolls over or when I get paid, but sometimes I get behind and it waits until a few days into the month. I’ll start thinking about it naturally toward the end of the month when I’m wondering what I can buy next month and how I’m tracking on my financial goals. I have a calendar item that repeats monthly on my calendar app to do this monthly check. Once a Month Budget Routine (About 20 Minutes) Are they duplicates that need to be deleted?.Do I need to deposit any outstanding checks?.Clear out transactions: I look at all my accounts in my budget and sort by cleared-I investigate any uncleared transactions that are older than a few days.This means I pretty much just use my credit card like a debit card and never carry a balance month to month (this is an underrated habit if you want to save money). Match credit card balance: I visually match my Credit Card payment category in my budget and the account balance to make sure that I’m still a paid-in-full credit card user.Did I mention reconciliation is super important? Reconcile accounts: If I haven’t actually fired up my computer all week, this is when I open it up and reconcile (which means I match my budget to my bank account and make sure they match).I’m sitting on my laptop doing it while I watch TV with my family. Once-a-Week Budget Routine (About Ten Minutes)įor me, this once-a-week check of my spending habits usually happens on Sunday while I plan my week. During the day, I enter purchases on my phone as I make them.I make adjustments as necessary (and adjusting my zero-based budget isn’t just expected with YNAB, it’s encouraged!). I also check the budget for red or orange and move money to cover unexpected variable expenses, increases to fixed expenses, or just plain overspending.Usually I do this while brushing my teeth (really!), but a couple of times a week I make it official and reconcile my monthly expenses on my computer instead. Every morning (okay, almost every morning) I open the YNAB app and my online bank app to compare balances and add any missing transactions.Here’s how I’ve optimized my money management routine: Daily Budget Routine (Five Minutes or Less) I saved time, saved stress, and felt like I was more in control than ever. It was a radical transformation once I settled into my budgeting routine. Here’s what it looked like using this budgeting app before and after:īefore/No Routine: Late nights catching up on old transactions and printing out my statements from my bank accounts to do the dreaded reconciliation = BAD.Īfter/Routine: Make minor updates on my daily spendings that takes no more than five minutes a day, no need to dread a ginormous catch-up = GOOD. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I applied this hard-earned wisdom about routine to my budget. I’ve been using YNAB, a budgeting system and a way for tracking your spending for ten years now. With routine, we get the space and freedom that we craved all along. Routine allows us to be more productive, more organized, and more centered. It frees up brainpower, it lets us go on autopilot. Routine, I’m sorry-I’ll never stray again! You complete me! I need you in my life! Take me back! I always think that I won’t like a daily routine.ĭon’t hold me back, Routine! Stop trying to tie me down, Routine! I’m sorry, Routine, I just want to keep my options open, OK?īut it never takes too long before I come crawling back….
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