Of course every New Year, people want to start "budgeting" and "saving"... why not? It's a new year. You can get all your finances back in line after a hectic (and expensive) Christmas season, you can plan for fun trips for the upcoming year, and you can get a sense of calmness when all the numbers add up well.
Nathan and I have jumped on the bandwagon and are refiguring our budget for 2012... We went through the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class last spring and it really helped us become more aware of where we are spending our money and how much we ended up basically "throwing away" because of frivilous purchases. There were many helpful FPU classes that we benefitted from including school loans, investments, retirement, insurance, etc., but much of it we already knew and were implementing thanks to our parents' great examples. (Thanks, parentals, for the class by the way!) But even though we went to the class, we kind of slacked off a little bit. Now we are being much more diligent and documenting every purchase we make-- someone mentioned to us that we need to look into mint.com which really helps you track your budget through your bank account.
Obviously being a good bargainer and being able to spot good deals is helpful in this process-- we have saved a ton of money on clothes, our new gym membership, even cell phone bills because you shop around, ask questions, and see what options you have. Groupon and Living Social have also helped us save money-- I try to only buy deals that I KNOW I am going to use and have been wanting because you could definitely spend a lot of money on deals you don't need on those websites.
If you want some motivation to get back into your budget and get out of debt, look at this video from Saturday Night Live called "Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford." Hilarious!
Nathan and I have jumped on the bandwagon and are refiguring our budget for 2012... We went through the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class last spring and it really helped us become more aware of where we are spending our money and how much we ended up basically "throwing away" because of frivilous purchases. There were many helpful FPU classes that we benefitted from including school loans, investments, retirement, insurance, etc., but much of it we already knew and were implementing thanks to our parents' great examples. (Thanks, parentals, for the class by the way!) But even though we went to the class, we kind of slacked off a little bit. Now we are being much more diligent and documenting every purchase we make-- someone mentioned to us that we need to look into mint.com which really helps you track your budget through your bank account.
Obviously being a good bargainer and being able to spot good deals is helpful in this process-- we have saved a ton of money on clothes, our new gym membership, even cell phone bills because you shop around, ask questions, and see what options you have. Groupon and Living Social have also helped us save money-- I try to only buy deals that I KNOW I am going to use and have been wanting because you could definitely spend a lot of money on deals you don't need on those websites.
If you want some motivation to get back into your budget and get out of debt, look at this video from Saturday Night Live called "Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford." Hilarious!
This post made me smile..
ReplyDeleteSo smart of you and Nathan to start now, and not 20 years into your marriage like ANOTHER couple I know well!
ReplyDeleteGood ideas!!!
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