You have all heard me blab A LOT about my recent moving problems. In all honesty it could have been worse. Everything actually went very smoothly. There were a few weeks between the move from point A to point B that I lived at home. Oh my goodness... that was insane. I had not lived at home for at least five years. None of my own furniture was there so I had to sleep on my little sister's twin-size bed and I just wasn't in my comfort zone.
The best thing (besides actually having some down time and hanging out with my family) is that I was able to save some money. I knew that I was about to have to pay a lot in deposits for opening new bills and first month's rent and all of that fun stuff so I was loving it. It wasn't until I opened my first month's electric bill that I almost had a panic attack.
I was living on a half of a month's paycheck and my electric bill took me by surprise. So much so that I didn't look at the details of it until after I talked to my boss. He gave me some great advice (leverage your electric bills if you can!!) and I finally realized that a majority of the bill was my "new account deposit". Same went for my internet bill and my utility bill. Ugh...
So now all of those one-time fees are paid. Whew. After that little scare (I was seriously questioning how I was going to make it... okay not really) I sat down and made a budget. I used mint.com which may be the best invention ever. My method for making my budget was not very precise, but I looked at my priorities.
1. Start with your bills. It is nice to have new clothes, but what good are they if you can't wash them? I laid out all of my bills including rent and budgeted all of that. I felt really good about the fact that my bills added up to be a little less than half of my monthly salary. Don't forget your sorority dues!!
2. Save save save. They always say you should save 20% of every paycheck. Well, I didn't save 20% this month, but it is something I could do in the future. After budgeting my bills I moved over some money into my savings account, which made me feel very grown up!
3. The things you want/need. Next, I added my budget for groceries, restaurants, coffee shops, and clothes. The thing about this is that I know for a fact that I am going to spend money at Starbucks even though I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home. After all, I know that my coffee maker at home doesn't make Pumpkin Spice Lattes.
4. Leave some wiggle room. Something will inevitably come up between birthdays gifts, a cute new nail polish, and a new event t-shirt. Always leave some of your income un-budgeted. You don't want to spend every penny.
5. Keep it updated! There is nothing worse than spending a lot of time getting something setup and then not staying with it so you fall behind. I have found that is one of the really great things about Mint. They will send you alerts or emails if you have too many transactions that have not been sorted or if you go over a specific budget.
1. Start with your bills. It is nice to have new clothes, but what good are they if you can't wash them? I laid out all of my bills including rent and budgeted all of that. I felt really good about the fact that my bills added up to be a little less than half of my monthly salary. Don't forget your sorority dues!!
2. Save save save. They always say you should save 20% of every paycheck. Well, I didn't save 20% this month, but it is something I could do in the future. After budgeting my bills I moved over some money into my savings account, which made me feel very grown up!
3. The things you want/need. Next, I added my budget for groceries, restaurants, coffee shops, and clothes. The thing about this is that I know for a fact that I am going to spend money at Starbucks even though I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home. After all, I know that my coffee maker at home doesn't make Pumpkin Spice Lattes.
4. Leave some wiggle room. Something will inevitably come up between birthdays gifts, a cute new nail polish, and a new event t-shirt. Always leave some of your income un-budgeted. You don't want to spend every penny.
5. Keep it updated! There is nothing worse than spending a lot of time getting something setup and then not staying with it so you fall behind. I have found that is one of the really great things about Mint. They will send you alerts or emails if you have too many transactions that have not been sorted or if you go over a specific budget.
Next month is the dreaded six-month anniversary of my graduation which means... student loan payments. I'll obviously be adding that to my budget.
The cool thing about Mint is that they also have an iPhone app. I don't know how many times a day I check it. Today, a co-worker asked me to go to lunch with her and I noticed I have gotten in the habit of checking it before I say yes.
Do you have any tips for living on a budget?
Moving and all of those set up fees are the WORST! Good thing I had graduation money when I moved to GA or I would have been out of luck. I wish my expenses was about half like they are yours. Student loans kill me so sad your grace period is almost up.
ReplyDeleteIf I could save money at the moment, I heard the easiest way is to have it transfer out of your paycheck directly to a savings account and then don't touch it. That way it's automatically and it isnt tempting you to transfer it over for Lilly.
ps I have mint on my ipad and iphone I should really check that more! :P and sorry for the novel-long comment lol
~Joanie
www.flonmymind.com