Tips for Organizing Finances

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Organizing finances is important to your financial health. If you aren’t organizing them, chances are that you are nowhere near a prepared for a financial emergency as you would like, if you’re prepared at all. The task of organizing finances can be daunting for many people, especially if you have never even made a budget before. Sometimes the fear of seeing where you sit financially keeps you from tackling it. Other times you simply are too busy to find the time. No matter what you reason is, taking the time and initiative to organize your finances will get you on the path to financial fitness and a huge stressor in your life.

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Organizing finances is imperative to your financial fitness. Here are some tips and a free Monthly Budget spreadsheet to help make it easier!

 

[bctt tweet=”Organizing finances is imperative to your financial fitness. This can help! #atozchallenge #personalfinance” username=”diyadulation”]

 

Organizing finances is imperative to your financial fitness. Here are some tips and a free Monthly Budget spreadsheet to help make it easier!

Know Your Net

Before you do anything else you need to know what you net (bring home) each month. This is what you will actually have to spend after taxes, health insurance, and any savings such as a pre-tax retirement fund or health savings account. There is a section to do this on the editable Monthly Budget I created that will do the math for you by simply plugging in your numbers. However, here is the math if you would like to figure it up for yourself on paper:

  1. Hourly Wage X 40 = Gross
  2. Gross – (Insurance + 401K + HSA) = Taxable Income
  3. Taxable Income X .23 = Taxes
  4. Taxable Income – Taxes = Weekly Net
  5. Weekly Net X 4 = Monthly Net

 

Organizing finances is imperative to your financial fitness. Here are some tips and a free Monthly Budget spreadsheet to help make it easier!

Know Your Expenses

Once you know your monthly net, it is time to figure out your monthly expenses. All of your expenses will be categorized into 3 groups:

  1. Essential – These are the expenses that you absolutely have to have. These include expenses such as you rent/mortgage and your car insurance. Essential expenses are the most important ones and need to be you priority each and every month, no exception.
  2. Non-Essential – These are the expenses that are nice to have or that make your life easier but that are not necessary for you to take care of yourself and your family. Cable television and eating out would fall into this category. This is the first category to make cuts from if you are spending more than you make.
  3. Debt – This is a category you want to try to eliminate altogether. Any student loans or personal loans as well as any credit cards you own will fall into this category.

You want to list out what all of your monthly expenses are along with what the monthly payments on them are. Again, there is a place for this on the Monthly Budget spreadsheet that will total your categories for you as well as give you some basic ideas of what falls under each category.

 

Organizing finances is imperative to your financial fitness. Here are some tips and a free Monthly Budget spreadsheet to help make it easier!

Find Discrepancies

If you have never made an actual budget before, the numbers may surprise you. You may find that your monthly income is greater than you expected. In contrast, you may be shocked as how much money is going out each month. If you are still finding yourself broke each month, no matter which of these scenarios you fall into, there are steps you can take to get your budget and spending on track.

Income is Greater

  • If your income is greater than your expenses but you are still running out of money each month then you need to find the leaks. The best way to do this is to track your spending. A wallet register is great for this. It’s small enough to fit in a debit card sleeve so you can carry it in your wallet. It is so convenient that even if you use cash, write down every purchase for a week or two. Then take a hard look at where all of your money is going. Are you eating lunch out every day? Do you get a Diet Coke from the vending machine in the breakroom before work? Once you are aware of the leaks, start trying to plug them by tempering your spending. You can start small by packing your lunch once a week or by purchasing a 6 pack of Diet Coke from the store to take into work each day instead of buying from the vending machine.

Expenses are Greater

  • If you monthly expenses are greater than your income then it is time to start making some major cuts. Your non-essential expenses are the first place to look at when making cuts. These include cutting cable, not eating out, and skipping your morning Starbucks. All of these are luxuries not necessities. If you want to get financially fit, you have to buckle down and make some sacrifices. Some other ideas for cutting back could be finding a coworker to carpool with or take a look at your cell phone plan and see if you are paying for features you don’t use. These are pain-free ways to curb your expenses.

Bill Pay Days

Once you have your budget organized, the last step to organizing your finances is creating a pill pay schedule. Figure out when all of your bills are due and schedule “bill pay days” on your calendar. Be sure that you are paying all of the bills that are due before your next scheduled bill pay day. Pay day is the best day to schedule your “bill pay days” because you will have a clear picture of what you actually have to spend after paying all of your bills. Also, this keeps you from spending the money you need for bills because it is already gone.

 

Organizing finances is imperative to your financial fitness. Here are some tips and a free Monthly Budget spreadsheet to help make it easier!

These steps for organizing finances will have you on the right path to becoming financially fit. Once you have plugged money leaks and trimmed some expenses, you can begin setting financial goals for yourself. Set up a strategy to pay off debt. Start building your savings. Make your money work for you instead of your working for your money. Don’t forget to grab your free Monthly Budget spreadsheet before you go. It will make creating your budget a breeze! After you’re done, start organizing the rest of your stuff with A to Z Organizing.

See where I’m linking up!

Lazy Girl’s Guide to Couponing

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The lazy girl’s guide to couponing is the perfect way to save a ton of money on groceries without spending hours a day clipping coupons. You can save your hard earned cash without making couponing your full time job.

Don’t accept paying full price for groceries! Instead use this easy lazy girl’s guide to couponing I created just for you.

[bctt tweet=”Don’t pay full price for groceries! The lazy girl’s guide to couponing will help! #savemoney #couponing”]

You’ve watched the episodes of Extreme Couponing where people are leaving the grocery store with pallets full of items that they got totally free. You sit back and think about how awesome it would be to save that kind of money each month on groceries and household products!

You want a piece of that savings, man! So you go out and buy a Sunday paper and sit down, scissors in hand, ready to start saving. Suddenly, it occurs to you that you don’t know jack about couponing.

Furthermore, you don’t have nine hours a day to spend couponing and researching. At that point you are probably ready to pour a glass of wine and resign yourself to paying full price for groceries.

Don’t pay full price! Instead, I’ve created the lazy girl’s guide to couponing just for you.

 

Don’t accept paying full price for groceries! Instead use this easy lazy girl’s guide to couponing I created just for you.

1. Go Digital

A lot of stores now offer digital coupons that you can load right to your store card. This is great if you’re busy and don’t have the time to clip and organize coupons. In fact, I recommend doing this every time you shop to save a least the bare minimum on all of your purchases.

Kroger is great for this (plus, hello, fuel points)! Here are some reasons why Kroger rocks for digital coupons:

Even if you don’t shop at Kroger, digital coupons are always worth the 5 minutes it will take to search at whatever store you do shop at. If you don’t know if your regular grocery store offers digital coupons, check. These can save you on the items you always purchase.

 

Don’t accept paying full price for groceries! Instead use this easy lazy girl’s guide to couponing I created just for you.

2. Let Someone Else Do the Hard Work

There are a ton of websites out there to help you find sales and match coupons to those sale items. For the truly lazy couponer, like me, the absolute best site for this is the Krazy Coupon Lady.

They do a fantastic job of finding deals but they take it a step further and let you know exactly what coupons to use and where to find them. Here are the specific (and super easy) steps to get your deals on their site:

  1. Select you grocery store from the menu.
  2. Click on the post for the current week’s matchups.
  3. As you scroll through the list, click on the box next to the sale items you want to buy. This adds those items to a list for you.
  4. If there are coupons online that you need to print, they will be listed as a clickable link under the item. Click and print these coupons as needed. Note: You can usually print the same coupon twice per computer.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 for each store you shop at.
  6. Pull up your list on the site and print it out.

Not only will the items on your list be itemized automatically by store, they will also detail the precise way to use the coupons.

For example, if you shop at Target and want purchase a specific dollar amount of items in order to receive a free gift card but also want to use coupons, they will explain (and it will print) exactly how to ring up your transaction.

If you clip coupons from the paper for a certain item, they will even let you know the name and date of the insert it is found in. Seriously, this is the easiest way to achieve huge savings with almost no work on your part.

 

Don’t accept paying full price for groceries! Instead use this easy lazy girl’s guide to couponing I created just for you.

3. Enlist Help

There is no rule that says couponing can’t be a social experience. In fact, I absolutely support making it social. There are a ton of ways to make cutting coupons and shopping a social event but I’m going to share my 3 favorite ways with you.

  1. Get the kids involved. Let them help you cut out the coupons needed for your trip. If they are too young to use scissors (or to cut neatly) have them locate the coupons you need in inserts or organize like coupons together. Kids will get excited about helping and you’ll be teaching them life skills along the way. My oldest son started his own “coupon binder” at 5 years old because he loved it so much. Have fun with it and they will too.
  2. Make it a girl’s night. Get your girlfriends together with some wine and scissors and get to work. This lets you get some much deserved girl time without any guilt. Bonus, if you all pool your coupon inserts, you can get extras for items your friends may not buy and you might learn tips and tricks from each other.
  3. Stop together. The next time you go grocery shopping, have a friend tag along. My friend and I love doing this and I actually look forward to grocery shopping. We go into Kroger and hit Starbucks then get all of our shopping done. It is especially helpful if you have small children to wrangle. Two pairs of eyes are always better than one. It is also a fantastic way to stock up on items and bypass the Rule of 4 (see below).

 

Don’t accept paying full price for groceries! Instead use this easy lazy girl’s guide to couponing I created just for you.

4. Remember the “Rule of 4”

A lot of die-hard couponers recommend always bringing an updated copy of your store’s coupon policy because not all cashiers and managers will be knowledgeable about it. If you want to do that work, more power to you.

I, however, am far too lazy for that and instead made the Rule of 4. The majority of stores will let you use up to 4 of the same coupon in a single transaction. This means if you have coupons for a dollar off 2 boxes of cereal then you can use up to 4 of those coupons for 8 boxes of cereal in 1 transaction.

This is where having a friend shop with you comes in. Say you have 6 of those coupons and your friend isn’t using any. You can have her add the last 4 boxes of cereal onto her transaction and use the coupons to get the deal. Then just give her the cash for those items.

Now you know the absolute easiest way to save money with coupons! By going digital, using KCL, enlisting help, and remembering the “Rule of 4” you will be saving money on your groceries in no time. You may get so good at it that you’ll be able to start growing a stockpile (which I totally recommend). Need help budgeting, too? I’ve got you covered on our budgeting page!

See where I’m linking up!

Don’t Forget to Pin It!

 

More Ways to Save on Your Groceries:

Easy Steps to Make Your Written Holiday Gift Budget

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If you stress every year over how to pay for all your holiday gifts only to suffer remorse come the first credit card bill of the new year, you are not alone.  In fact you are in the company of over 70% of the population according to multiple research and consumer studies.  You want this year to be different.  You want this year to finally be the year that there is no post-holiday financial stress. That’s what these 31 posts are all about.  You can save money, stick with a budget, and have a joyful holiday with these tips.  If you don’t already have a written holiday gift budget, stop what you’re doing right now.  Don’t buy or make a(nother) gift until you get a written holiday gift budget into place.

Your written holiday gift budget truly is the cornerstone of the entire holiday savings pyramid. Learn how to make it happen easily with these tips.

[bctt tweet=”Don’t buy or make a(nother) gift until you get a written holiday gift budget into place.”]

Pick Your Number

The first place you always want to start when making any budget is with the total amount you have to spend.  Think realistically about what you can actually afford to spend.  This is the time to be brutally honest with yourself and not sugar coat your situation.  No one else has to know your financial situation but you definitely do.  When determining your budget, keep these tips in mind.

  • Don’t think about who you have to buy for.
  • Don’t think about that $60 Xbox game your child wants.
  • Do think about your existing debt.
  • Also think about all of the other financial obligations you have coming up during the holiday season such as food, travel, and sporting tournaments.
  • Do think of how miserable you felt after overspending in previous years.

 

Your written holiday gift budget truly is the cornerstone of the entire holiday savings pyramid. Learn how to make it happen easily with these tips.

Make Your List

Once you have your total number for your budget, set it aside and forget about it for a second.  Start making a list of everyone you need to buy gifts for.  Make your first draft quickly and include everyone that comes to mind.  Only after you have made this list should you look back at your budget and compare the two.  Take a hard and critical look at both.  If you have a $50 gift budget but also 50 people on your list then you need to make some serious cuts.

No matter who is on your list you can make cuts.

Later in the series we will talk about alternatives to traditional gifts and gift exchanges but, for now, here are some tips you can use to cut your current list.

  • Combine couples and/or families and give them one gift.
  • Cut out coworkers.  If they are close enough to truly warrant a gift, they will understand that it is just not in the budget this year.  If they don’t understand, clearly they don’t deserve your time, energy, and money anyway.
  • Resolve to send a thoughtful card to your child’s teachers instead of actual gifts.
  • Cut anyone that you don’t communicate with on a regular basis that isn’t family.

 

Your written holiday gift budget truly is the cornerstone of the entire holiday savings pyramid. Learn how to make it happen easily with these tips.

Allocate Your Funds

Gift Budget Example

Once you have cut down your list, it is time to start allocating your funds.  You can’t just set up a general total budget number for the group and expect to stay on budget.  Each person needs to have a specific dollar amount assigned to them.  As you make purchases for that person, subtract the amount spent from their totally allocated amount.  (31 Days Subscribers get a free printable planning page for this along with instructions to assist with this step **Update** All freebies from this 31 Days List have been moved to the VIP Library for subscribers. Sign up for free here!).  Here is the general guideline to follow when breaking down the total amount of your written holiday gift budget:

  • Immediate Family: 40-50%
  • Extended Family (Grandparents, Brothers, Sisters…): 20-30%
  • Close Friends: 10-20%
  • Everyone Else: 5-10%

Our Gift Budget 2015

Again, these are just a starting point for you.  You will inevitably need to allocate funds to fit your list.  Our percentages do not fall precisely within these parameters but we do stick pretty close.  We have a total budget of $500 broken down as follows:

  • Immediate Family (including stockings): $235 or 47%
  • Extended Family: $140 or 28%
  • Close Friends: $110 or 22%
  • Everyone Else: $15 or 3% (we only have 2 that fall in this category)

As you can see, we don’t fall exactly within the guidelines set above, but we also aren’t too far off.  Our “everyone else” category only needs to accommodate two people so that gives us slightly more freedom in other categories.  The same goes for you.  If you have a ton of very close friends but not much extended family, consider switching those two guidelines to accommodate your family.

 

31 Days of Saving on Holiday Gifts: the free course to help you have you best holiday season yet! From building a strong budgetary foundation to finding small and large ways to save, this will help you knock your holiday gifts out of the park without breaking the bank!

Alright!  Give yourself a pat on the back because you have the key piece of your holiday savings foundation. Your written holiday gift budget truly is the cornerstone of the entire process.  You now know exactly how much you have to spend and exactly who you’re spending it on.  That’s half of the battle right there!  Come back tomorrow and we’ll tackle what you 3 main options are for actually obtaining the gifts you need.  Also, don’t forget to sign-up for the 31 Days of Saving on Holiday Gifts newsletter to receive access to extras like the Gift Budget Planner mentioned above! **Update** All freebies from this 31 Days List have been moved to the VIP Library for subscribers. Sign up for free here!

 

31 Days of Saving on Holiday Gifts: the free course to help you have you best holiday season yet! From building a strong budgetary foundation to finding small and large ways to save, this will help you knock your holiday gifts out of the park without breaking the bank!

 

If you missed the introduction to this series, check it out at 31 Days of Saving on Holiday Gifts.

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