new year, new goals!

so i'm sure like most, we have lists full of things we wish to accomplish this year! i think it's helpful to write down goals, pursue them + see it come to pass. one of my favorite goals from last year was seeing us pay off my student loan (PRAISE HIM!)!

now this year, with #tinybabyharps on the way, we are in full time savings/budget mode! i want to cut the excess now so we can save for our sweet babe + even just be more conscious of where our money goes. i remember hearing a quote : instead of seeing your money go places, tell it where to go!

and that my friends is how i became budget obsessed. okay, maybe not obsessed, but definitely competitive about it. i love seeing us save money at the end of each month + just dumping that into savings (sometimes it feels like dumping, most times it feels like barely shoveling). because of that + a nice little work bonus (trav's), we were able to pay off our honda this month (once again, PRAISE HIM!). WE OWN A FULLY PAID OFF CAR! that feels so good!

disclaimer : by no means do we do a budget the best way cause i'm not a budget expert nor have i read a book on it. but i wanted to share what we do to make our budget work for us!

so we are on these awesome website called mint.com. my sister got us hooked. you hook it up to all your accounts (debit + credit cards, loans, etc.). from there, you can make your budget for different categories and for every purchase + transaction, you will see it fall into that category.

some of our categories include but aren't limited to : tithe, rent, car payment (not honda), gas, entertainment, shopping (yes it has it's own category), lunches out, sporting events, mobiles, travel, etc. you can see an example of one below (it's not ours, google is good to me).

(source)

so every month, we sit down + see what's on the calendar. the best part is, depending on what's going on for the month, you can change the amount of money! for example, we just got over a busy month of Christmas shopping. so we ended up adding more to our gift category. this month, we had to get a window fixed on our honda, so we upped the service + parts category.

i don't think i need to give more examples cause you can tell it's super flexible + easy!

another awesome feature is their goals tab! you can plug in the amount of debt you have left on, let's say a school loan. it will show you the interest rate, how long it will take to pay off with whatever amount you plug in + wa-lah! it's paid off in no time!

just thought i would share a helpful way to budget this year so ya'll can pursue some goals you want to invest in! hope it helps! if you have more questions, i'm no expert, but ask!

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happy monday! (such a monday topic, budget... blah!) xoxo