Personal Finance is a tricky business. When you have a decent amount of money coming in each month budgeting seems almost pointless. As long as there is money in the bank then buying a few things here and there shouldn’t matter. Should it?
Well that’s the way my wife and I used to think. Luckily we have no debts, except the mortgage, and manage to pay off our credit cards every month. After a while though this started to become a little harder each month, having to move money around from one account to another to make sure there was enough to cover each bill.
One way to cope with this is to create a budget and try to stick to it. This sounds like the perfect solution but it is very hard to keep track of every part of a budget. The more I focus on one area of the budget the further of track another part seems to get… I have a project to create an app for that, which should help me keep on track on all areas of the budget more easily, but that is still a way off yet.
Overall though budgeting is definitely a good thing as it highlights where the money is going and allows you to make changes as you deem fit. It has certainly helped Shirley and myself become a bit more frugal without feeling like we are missing out on anything.
There is another way though… Earn some extra money!