In the Wind

Time to make a list.

I have a 5 subject notebook, I can get 2 years of data in them. I have 8 of these books.

Quick story, before my son was born we didn't pay much attention, just paid our bills, put money in savings and our retirement funds.

I had credit cards galore and when my son was born went crazy using them. Learned a hard lesson real fast.

I now only have 2.

Here's How I list my monthly expenses, I list them in order by due date, I only list bills that are monthly and  I have a misc . list.

Gas co          $25

Electric co     $180

Cell phone     $ 80

Water           $ 154  These are not real amounts, just examples and I'll tell you why.

Cable/ internet   $ 152

Mort/ Rent        $ 500

car pymt        $ 174

car insurance  $ 220

Grocery         $ 700

credit card1    $230

credit card2    $ 102

Cash out        $ 200  Cash we keep for , gas/lottery/whatever.

Adjust your list to suit you needs, these are not real numbers for my household, it is not my intention to let you in on my finances, just to help you think of something you may not have thought of.

If you add the list, it comes to $2517 this does not include the cash.

Some people get paid every week, some bi-weekly.

according to the list you need $629.25 to go into checking every week.

Because I have past data, I can go look at Sept. 2015 and know what I paid for bills that fluctuate , like gas/elec/water.

I already have September 2016 ready, on my list looking from last year, I see I will be writing checks to my son's HS for various things.

If you have bills, that are not monthly, like license tabs...our birthdays are January and June, so I add them to my list in December and May. It is easy to forget these things, so keep a list you can fall back on.

Being organized is your first priority to yourself. When you see it written you get a higher sense of where your money goes.

Now there are the Misc things, health co/pays dentist co/pays, oops need a water heater, all the little things that come up that you can't really track until they happen.

We have 2 types of Savings, one for emergency and one for long term.

This doesn't happen overnight either you have to work at it.

So many are living check to check, when a bill comes due they have rob Peter to Pay Paul and it doesn't have to be that way.

People get laid off, get hours cut, get sick, hurt, have to care for an elderly parent, all kinds of stuff does and will happen.

Getting your bills under control is first.

My next post will talk about all the bills I listed and some tricks to help you reduce them.

You can't start and emergency savings until you get control of the money eating machines.