Cleaning Up Your Budget For January
I love the fresh start of January. Cleaning up my budget template and starting my planner over new gives me a great feeling! Although any time is a good time for me to make a change, January just feels right. I love a fresh month, year and in the case of 2017, I will also have a new week! There is something apropos about New Year’s Day being on a Monday. Well fresh start and sappy stuff aside, here are my recommendations for cleaning up your budget and starting the new year off right!
Five Great Tips For Cleaning Up Your Budget In January:
- Clear Out Anything Unnecessary: I use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking my bills. So it works best for me to start a new tab with the new year on it. From there I go through and re-label thins that may have changed for me and my family. I also take the opportunity to delete categories that don’t apply or add in new ones where I see fit.
- Review The Past Year: I like to go over my last year. Not only do I look back at my expenses last January to see how I did, but I also like to see how close I came overall. This shows me whether I need to adjust the way I project my expenses.
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Set Financial Goals For The New Year:
I love to set some goals for myself. They don’t have to be for the year as a whole, just do what works for you. This can be as simple as saving up for a vacation or the holidays next year. Maybe it is increasing your retirement or paying down your house. Every dollar matters, so I like to have some goals for how I appropriate and budget my money.
- Decide On How You Are Going To Track Expenses: You can get as involved or keep it as simple as you would like. I fill out my budget when I pay my bills to see how over or short I am. I keep my receipts for clothing and groceries or any other area that is variable. There are apps and things you can download as well.
- Set A Schedule: You may want to set reminders too. I fill out my budget whenever I get paid…so about every two weeks. This has worked well for me so I am not going to change it. You could choose to fill it out monthly or you could use an app or a notebook system to update it more regularly.
