Budget Software
Instead of making up my own excel table, which I knew would be tedious I decided to spend the money and buy a budget software program. I googled "Budget Software Excel" and the first hit was this You Need a Budget. After reading a bit on this website I was very interested.
I don't know what it was, but the guy who runs the site and created the program, Jesse Mecham, just had a way with words and how he communicated on the website. It was very conversational as if he was talking right next me.
I dediced to buy YNAB Pro because I wanted to be able to import my online bank transactions and I liked the screenshots. Also there is a 60 day 100% satisfaction guarantee. And! There were five bonuses that came with the download. Bonus 1 is a Debt Snowball a spreadsheet with a step-by-step process with how to get out of debt. Bonus 2 is an income tax forecaster, Bonus 3 is a retirement planner Bonus 4 is a mortage analyzer and Bonus 5 (which I most interested in) is a car maintenance schedule.
Since I usually pay debit or credit card for everything and rarely use cash importing my bank statements is very easy.
So far after using it for one day it's been great. I decided to start July 1st instead of backtracking all of my spending.
Keeping a budget is one thing but tracking your purchases is a whole different mind set. There are so many distractions out there to tempt you. For example, today George and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some tapes so he could tape Tour de France. I had to decided what was a need and what was a want. The guys who read this blog won't care, but I wanted to buy red nail polish for my toenails because I didn't have any. But was this a necessity? No, my toes can be naked, or I could use the silver polish I have.
As one financial expert once said on Oprah, "If it's on your ass, it's not an asset."
After downloading the YNAB software I also signed up for the 10 day e-course.
Day 1 makes an analogy of the budget being a tree and the financial things around us like vacations, house, retirement are the fruit on the tree. So my plan for today is to list my financial goals (the fruit).
I don't know what it was, but the guy who runs the site and created the program, Jesse Mecham, just had a way with words and how he communicated on the website. It was very conversational as if he was talking right next me.
I dediced to buy YNAB Pro because I wanted to be able to import my online bank transactions and I liked the screenshots. Also there is a 60 day 100% satisfaction guarantee. And! There were five bonuses that came with the download. Bonus 1 is a Debt Snowball a spreadsheet with a step-by-step process with how to get out of debt. Bonus 2 is an income tax forecaster, Bonus 3 is a retirement planner Bonus 4 is a mortage analyzer and Bonus 5 (which I most interested in) is a car maintenance schedule.
Since I usually pay debit or credit card for everything and rarely use cash importing my bank statements is very easy.
So far after using it for one day it's been great. I decided to start July 1st instead of backtracking all of my spending.
Keeping a budget is one thing but tracking your purchases is a whole different mind set. There are so many distractions out there to tempt you. For example, today George and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some tapes so he could tape Tour de France. I had to decided what was a need and what was a want. The guys who read this blog won't care, but I wanted to buy red nail polish for my toenails because I didn't have any. But was this a necessity? No, my toes can be naked, or I could use the silver polish I have.
As one financial expert once said on Oprah, "If it's on your ass, it's not an asset."
After downloading the YNAB software I also signed up for the 10 day e-course.
Day 1 makes an analogy of the budget being a tree and the financial things around us like vacations, house, retirement are the fruit on the tree. So my plan for today is to list my financial goals (the fruit).
posted by Spitfire at 6:00 PM
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