I found my money!!

We all know that we should have a budget for our personal finances, right? Right. Do we actually have a working budget for our personal finances? For many people out there, myself included up until yesterday, the answer would be, "No."

I frequently work with people who struggle to manage their finances and make ends meet. Part of what I do is to steer people in the right direction for getting help managing their finances. I have known that I need to put these practices to use in my own life but just haven't. Until now, that is.

I believe one of my motivating factors in this is education. Every day that I spend in my role at Ulster County Habitat for Humanity is another day that I learn something completely new about the world of finance. The more I learn, the more I realize how important it is to buck up and take the reigns as far as how my money is best utilized.

Yesterday, I decided to sit down and work up a budget for myself. Talk about revelatory. I knew I was a terrible saver, but holy cow! I discovered that almost 50% of my money was being wasted! HALF! HALF of my money! Are you kidding me??

Right then and there, I decided that enough was enough. From now on, I am going to adhere to a strict budget and save some of my hard earned money instead of wasting it away.

I am an impulse shopper through and through. I readily drop five bucks here, twenty bucks there typically for nothing that I genuinely need, like pens (I am an office supply junkie), craft supplies (as if my entire bedroom full of supplies isn't enough), a coffee and an apple fritter at the convenience store, etc.

We have all heard at least one person say that all that little spending adds up and we agree but don't necessarily acknowledge as true in our own lives. I encourage you to sit down and work out a budget if you don't already do so and see where your money is really going every month. You might be surprised!

I recommend grabbing some pay stubs, a calculator and a pen and just buckling down and doing it. Because I'm awesome, I am giving you some budgeting sheets to use to help you get started. Next time, I will talk about ways to save some of that money of yours. So, get started. Here are those budgeting sheets: Income Budget and Spending Budget.