It’s Called Currency

Now that you’ve had plenty of time* to consider parts 1 through 4, let’s do a wrap-up of the basics for budgeting.

As the tagline of this site says, “manage the flow and you’ll be able to weather any storm.” Budgeting is the primary tool for managing the flow of money in your life. In Part 1, we saw where the money is flowing in (your income). In Part 2, we looked at where it was flowing away (your expenses).  Part 3 was the opportunity to create and /or examine any holding ponds (savings) and Part 4 was where you purposely diverted the flow in order to create growth elsewhere (giving). Know that money will flow through your life whether you’re managing it or not. However, taking the time to plan where the flow goes results in you holding onto more of it and having it be there where you need it.

[Read more →]

Tags: blogging, budgeting, cashflow management by Julie Ann Dunn
No Comments »

Part 1 of this Budgeting Basics series was about your income, part 2 your expenses, and part 3 your savings. Now it’s time to look at what you’re giving.

You’re probably familiar with the saying, “You get what you give.” I prefer what Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, said/wrote which is “You give before you get.” Think about that for a minute… if you want to receive something, you must first make a space for it by giving something. This principle is exactly why you need to make sure that giving has a place in your monthly budget. [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, giving by Julie Ann Dunn
No Comments »

In Part 1, you added up your income. Part 2 had you tally up your expenses. Now, before we look at the difference between those numbers, let’s talk about your savings.

Here in the United States, the amount of money Joe Citizen saves is non-existent. In recent years, the statistics have shown the nation’s savings rate at 2% on the high end and a negative 2% on the low end. In other words, our citizenry saves, on average, nothing. Are you an average Joe? [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, priorities, saving, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
No Comments »

Now that you’ve tallied what you’ve got coming in, it’s time to look at what’s going out, but first, I want you to take out an index card or sticky note or just a small piece of paper. On it, I want you to write the total amount for what you think you spend each month. Set it aside for later. [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, education, priorities by Julie Ann Dunn
2 Comments »

Welcome to the first of a series of entries on budgeting. This series will look at the components of a budget in order to help you keep that resolution you made about actually budgeting your money this year.

When most folks first decide that they need to budget, it’s usually because they’re living beyond their means or have not been saving anything for their future. They’re normally at some sort of crisis point, if not financially, then certainly emotionally. They have had all kinds of self-defeating negative talk running around in their heads for days or weeks or even months. They beat themselves up for frittering away their money as they look down the barrel of a milestone in their lives: decade birthday (30, 40, 50), new baby on the way, child entering high school, job change, etc. There’s no money (or at least not enough) for college, for retirement, or even for a long-overdue vacation. “How,” they ask, “did this happen?!” [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, education by Julie Ann Dunn
3 Comments »

Many people have a habit of purchasing their Christmas gifts on their credit cards each year, acting as if they were suddenly surprised to find that Christmas came on the 25th of December…what, again?! Others frantically try to scrape together enough money to buy gifts by cutting corners in the months of October, November and December. Again, they seem to be surprised to find that there’s a major expense in the fourth quarter of the year. If you’re in one of these groups, here’s your clue: it’s time to start planning for next year. [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, priorities by Julie Ann Dunn
No Comments »

When I first started trying to figure out how to create a budget, I was lost. I didn’t know how much I spent each month on pretty much anything, nor did I have any idea how much I shouldspend. The whole idea of trying to figure that out intimidated me to the extreme. As a matter of fact, I had several false starts with my budget. I’d put one together at the beginning of the month, figure out that I wasn’t meeting it at the end of the month, and decide it was hopeless and convince myself that I really didn’t need a budget anyway. I think I did this several times over the course of a couple of years. At that time, money wasn’t tight and I could afford to be reckless. Or so I thought.

Had I taken the time to learn—really learn—how to effectively budget in those days, I might not have ended up more than $30,000 in debt when my first husband and I split up. [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, education, priorities, saving by Julie Ann Dunn
No Comments »

As I was running through some headlines for online news articles yesterday, I was pleased to find some that related to topics I’ve talked about here in the past couple of weeks. For instance, on the subject of layaway, which was my November 2 topic,  Sears is reinstating its layaway program starting tomorrow. Of course, they’ve got restrictions so you can’t put a computer or refrigerator on layaway, but something’s better than nothing, right? Perhaps they’ll add options for those items if the program turns out to be popular.

I also discovered [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, education, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
No Comments »

This can be a tough question. After all, most people just “pay the bills” and get on with it. But what about those times when money is tight or you’ve got an especially large bill that’s going to affect your monthly finances more than usual? Does food rank above entertainment in your spending plan? Does transportation come before recreation? Do shelter and utility payments get made before you pay on any credit cards? Are you properly prioritizing your spending, or is your money spent in whatever category is yelling today?

At the top of your list, as your highest priority, should be your rent or mortgage payment, followed by the various utilities that keep your shelter comfortable, and then food. [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, priorities by Julie Ann Dunn
1 Comment »

You probably think of budgets as straight jackets for your money, that putting down on paper (or into a computer spreadsheet) just where your money is going to go each month is too confining, too restrictive.  But like water, money needs to flow. If you don’t clearly define where it will go, whether it’s a holding tank for a future need, or directly into the current of your daily spending, your money will just slip through the cracks, dripping out of your life.

One simple concept that made budgeting much less confining for me is the “blow money” category. [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management by Julie Ann Dunn
1 Comment »