Declutter Your Budget

July 17th, 2010 Decluttering

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“Money, money, money, MONEY!”

Declutter my budget, what budget? Where do you fall in the spectrum of knowing how much money you have coming in vs. how much money you have going out? Often times when people are disorganized they have a few different things going on:

They are spending a lot of money on ‘stuff’ that ends up causing clutter
They don’t realize just how much money they are spending
They may actually lose/misplace money such as checks & gift cards

It may be hard to set up a budget for yourself because it forces you to face reality. And it might not be a reality you want to face because when you have to put limits on yourself that’s not so fun. But it’s part of being real and it’s part of being a grown-up, sometimes we have to tell ourselves ‘no’ for the greater good. Sometimes we have to tell our family members ‘no’ for the greater good.

I encourage you to set up a budget with any program, piece of paper, ledger or system that is easy for you to keep up with. Be honest about how much money you are bringing in every month. It will take a while of keeping track of expenses to really realize how much is going out every month. Write down everything! Make categories, big or small. Here are a few examples:

Hair cuts
Auto gas
Auto insurance
Gifts
Entertainment
Allowance for kids
Groceries
Meals eaten out
Charity
Cell phone
Doctor co-pays/bills
Credit card payments

There are many options that you may for your own categories. The bottom line is, the incoming income needs to exceed or at least equal the outgoing expenses. If that’s not the case, you’ve got some work to do to declutter your budget and see where you can eliminate or reduce your current expenses. Some ideas:

Reduce cable package
Reduce meals eaten out
Call around for new insurance quotes: auto and home
Reduce cell phone plan if you aren’t using your monthly minutes
Cancel subscriptions you don’t use

Feel more in control of your finances and your life by decluttering your budget and being honest about where you are now. All you can do is go up from here!

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