Organization

Sponsored post with all original opinions. It’s time to begin holiday shopping. With Thanksgiving and Christmas upon us, I am trying to accomplish my goal of saving money on my budget. With inflation and the price of everything in the grocery store that blows my mind, I think this is going to be tough. Every month this year seems to be more expensive than the last. Our grocery bill is not sustainable and the holidays keep me busy in the kitchen making all kinds of good things. Unless I have a paper or computer software that holds me accountable to the budget, it’s impossible for me to prevent overspending. That just means credit card debt that will put me behind until it’s paid. In the past I’ve used paper and pencil to make a shopping plan. I would make columns and write down each person’s name. Then the amount of money that could be spent was recorded. I left room for a third column to show how I stayed on budget. Inevitably, the budget would get busted. This was because I would forget about things that I needed to keep the traditions alive for my family. Now with the price of food sky-rocketing, I’ll need to cut back on some things. One way to make the budget work is to deligate. Instead of me cooking and baking everything, I could create a plan where all the family members could contribute one dish. If you don’t want a pot-luck (with 7 bowls of mashed potatoes), you could give everyone a list of needed foods. This means that the host doesn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars preparing a meal for extended family. Another idea is to scrap some of the traditional foods. Years ago our Christmas Eve meal was soup in bread-bowls. Coming home from church to a crock pot filled with our favorite potato soup was lovely. The bread bowls could be made in advance. This became a tradition at our home. In the past, I’ve used special planners that were designed for a Christmas budget. Those are fun to use and always made budgeting a little more fun. My sister makes a spread sheet to stay on track. That’s a great plan, too. Online calculators have the benefit of being free and doing all the math computations for you. I love that part! The planning templates can be used as you like, to give you a custom planning form. Planning meals around the discounted items can be an everyday process that also works for the holiday meals. You just might need to be more flexible. Sometimes being flexible can bring about the best surprises. What are your favorite holiday plans for saving? Digital coupons? Specials? Comparing prices on items online? We’ll all be using all the best methods to have a beautiful holiday season, without spending too much. @2023, copyright Lisa Ehrman

Pexels – CC0 License Good financial management is only slightly less important than taking care of your health. It’s less important, however incrementally, because of course, being healthy happy, and capable is certainly more valuable than any luxury purchase.  That said, it’s true that without good financial management, however that takes place, it’s hard to live a full and happy life. That’s not to say you need to be rich, or even do more than break even, but having enough for the essentials and being able to enjoy life to some degree is necessary. Baking financial management into your routine, then, should be as simple as brushing your teeth morning and night, exercising three times a week, and getting enough sleep. We focus on those elements of our routine through and through because it’s necessary to do so, and in the long run, will help us stay healthier than we otherwise would. But how can you bake in financial management within your routine? In this post, we’ll discuss that and more: Great Bookkeeping Just like any business would be lost without a good record of their accounts, it’s wise to keep yours properly documented too. This might involve saving your bank statements into a personal cloud folder every month, calculating your expenses to properly tally just what your outgoings have been, regular reviews of your subscriptions, calculating any extra income for your necessary tax contributions, and more. If you can apply great bookkeeping to the task and learn the basic tenets of this budgeting effort, then you can avoid any unexpected issues taking place. Essential Advice It’s okay to admit that you might not be up to date with every single financial measure or possibility at your feet. Most people are concerned with working, caring for their families, and doing what they can to save, so they might not be up to date with the latest current account offers, the best saving accounts, and government schemes. This is where it can be tremendously helpful to read websites like ours to keep up to date, or even use a financial advisor where necessary. This way, you can avoid learning from mistakes the hard way, and practice the best wisdom going forward. Orient Your Goals Ultimately, finances are impartial. They can be spent in any number of ways, but money is just a number in your account until you use it. For this reason, orienting your goals towards whats most important to you – from making sure your house is paid off to getting the best deal for a new car to going on two vacations a year, the more you can orient your goals the more you can set priorities and move on from there. What’s more is that when your main goals are being worked towards, the added side luxuries and constant options are something you worry about less. This can help reduce impulsive spending and gives you a long-term view of the future. With this advice, you’re sure to bake financial management into your routine correctly.