New Budgeting System
I have decided to change the way I manage my money. I have adopted the zero-balance budgeting technique. I picked it up from browsing the articles over at YouNeedABudget.com. Jesse describes how he raises a child and pays his and his wife's tuition up front on a modest income using the technique. The long and short of it is that you have to budget every single dollar every single month. There isn't one cent left up to chance.
It's already working. I didn't want to shell out the $20 for Jesse's program. Besides, I wanted it to be web-based and it seemed like a fun project to take on. So I programmed my own budgeting software. Here's a screenshot:
Basically it breaks things down in an easy to manage system. On the left hand side is the budget. Each category, at the beginning of the month, is allocated a certain amount. On the right hand side is the expense log. Every time I buy something I put the receipt in my back left pocket. Then, when I get home, I throw it into an empty plant-pot. Once every few days I grab the receipts and put them into the budget which automatically deducts money from the allocated amounts. So now I see what I'm spending.
Another big aspect is that my money doesn't become available to be allocated into the budget until the next month. So my two paychecks for April will be added up and made available to be spent in May. Since my paychecks vary in size this assures that I will never spend more than I've made. In addition it offers a bit of a cushion should I ever have trouble collecting a paycheck.
To get me started I'm living off one paycheck for all of this month and I'll attempt to live off only one paycheck for May. Then, come June, I'll have both of May's 2 paychecks to budget and I'll have kick-started myself onto a system where I'm always only spending last-month's money.
I enjoyed programming the software. It took about three or four days of spare time while sitting around at work. I intend to keep upgrading it and maybe in 6 or 12 months time I'll make it available to the public or try to make a little money off it as a hosted service.
It's already working. I didn't want to shell out the $20 for Jesse's program. Besides, I wanted it to be web-based and it seemed like a fun project to take on. So I programmed my own budgeting software. Here's a screenshot:
Basically it breaks things down in an easy to manage system. On the left hand side is the budget. Each category, at the beginning of the month, is allocated a certain amount. On the right hand side is the expense log. Every time I buy something I put the receipt in my back left pocket. Then, when I get home, I throw it into an empty plant-pot. Once every few days I grab the receipts and put them into the budget which automatically deducts money from the allocated amounts. So now I see what I'm spending.
Another big aspect is that my money doesn't become available to be allocated into the budget until the next month. So my two paychecks for April will be added up and made available to be spent in May. Since my paychecks vary in size this assures that I will never spend more than I've made. In addition it offers a bit of a cushion should I ever have trouble collecting a paycheck.
To get me started I'm living off one paycheck for all of this month and I'll attempt to live off only one paycheck for May. Then, come June, I'll have both of May's 2 paychecks to budget and I'll have kick-started myself onto a system where I'm always only spending last-month's money.
I enjoyed programming the software. It took about three or four days of spare time while sitting around at work. I intend to keep upgrading it and maybe in 6 or 12 months time I'll make it available to the public or try to make a little money off it as a hosted service.
posted by debtor at 3:39 AM
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