Category: Budgeting

If you’ve been putting off creating a budget for months because you dread digging through a bunch of papers (or signing up on a bunch of web sites) to see what all you owe, there’s a relatively painless way to get started.

The catch is, it’s also a little bit slow.

But slow is faster (and better!) than never doing it at all, and slow is better than continuing to put off creating a budget for several more months.

Slow is progress.
Read more

The envelope method is an easy way to budget and keep track of your spending. Its chief advantage is that it’s crystal clear whether or not you’ve got money available to spend. After all, all you’ve got to do is take a look in your envelopes. It also forces you to think about your planned spending for the month ahead of time — which is pretty much the definition of a budget.
Read more

If you’re thinking of buying a new car or doing some home improvements (or any number of other things), the normal thing to do is sit down and look at your budget to see whether or not you can afford it.

And while budgeting is awesome — and a critical part of getting into good financial shape — your budget is not the place to look to see whether or not you can afford to buy something.
Read more