My Budgeting Journey..thanks Radi8

[uptomyneck]

I used to use the Mvelopes program way back in the day before credit boards. It was ok, but it was very slow and I got tired of it fast. Then I started using my own excel sheet which worked very well. I then tried quicken and MS money because I wanted to see things more graphically, and MS money let me view it anywhere online which helps me alot seeing as though I am not always home. That became to costly, where I could be putting that money towards bill. So I retreated back to excel, and have been there since. I have in the last 5 years partnered up with Online Bill Pay which is great when used with excel....

 

I use the excel sheet to do a visual of the "envelopes" for each biweekly paycheck. Then I go on BOA online billpay and enter in the payments for the exact day I get my pay directly deposited, so when I wake up on that day, all my money is out. This stops me from dipping in the allocated funds, and stops me from overspending during the weekend, because you never really have a realistic balance until about Tuesday from the bank.

 

With that being said I love the system, and I have now initiated the system a little harder. I am now in need of knocking all of my debt down with a snowball effect in the next 6 months. My cards had a hard amount of usage in the last year...now... New job, new salary, I now have money left over to allocate and help the process go faster.

Now I put about $1400 away a paycheck for bills. The new job allows me to DD into 4 accounts, so I split my money between BOA and my CU's, and beat the monthly fees cause they each are being deposited into. Also now that many banks including BOA are going to charge for using the debit card features, I am now going to ONLY use BOA for online billpay. Meaning the visa debit card gets sockdrawerd for emergencies only, and Oil purchases for heat 2x a year.

All the other money is tossed into my CU accounts, and one I mainly use for everyday purchases like GAS, groceries and everything else. So far so good. Hopefully I can stay on this budget at least for 6 months, which is what I figure will take to get my utilization down to 10%.

 

Any thoughts to help me save more would be great! Thanks Radi8 cause your posting from 2007 was great help for me to buckle down even better than I was.

[radi8]

Awesome progress! down to 10% in 6 months? I think you're doing just fine all on your own, lol. You are way ahead of me.

[uptomyneck]

Yes, I have it budgeted out, its going to be hard to follow during the holidays, but Im going to try my best to get through the next two months. After that is should be a breeze to stay in budget till April...cause thats when my son's bday rolls around