Thursday, May 5, 2016

budget

For the last 10 years we've used an excel spreadsheet to track our income and expenses.  I've never been really disciplined about it so there are occasional "manual adjustments" in the record.  A few things have changed and I'm hoping to get a grip and really track our expenses better.

The good and bad of knowing all your income and expenses is that it takes some of the drama out of living.  I can't pretend that there is more money because I can clearly see that there is not more money in the line up.

We were able to pay off our student loan though.  So yay!  We're "debt free!" except the house.  And that is significant.  The house is worth more than we owe on it.  Yay!

We got a new metal roof so we're looking forward to a summer of hopefully lower electric bills.  And I need to get the AC tuned up because our electricity use was up a lot from the previous year.

I'm a big fan of the Dave Ramsey cash system.  I'd have gotten us into more trouble if I hadn't had that level of accountability.  I do get into trouble though by not really being on top of online purchases.  Drat!  I need to do better there.  That's why the money just seems to fritter away and I can't figure out where it went.

So here's to a simplified financial scene and to more accountability, ie monthly balancing. 

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