I budget like its my JOB.

As a new homeowner, new mother and new wife I have a lot on my plate but I am also our family's chief financial officer! As stressful as that can be at times, I have a few strategies that help me stay on budget:

1. We don't charge. My husband and I do not have credit cards because we feel that spending our own money is one good way of increasing fiscal responsibility. What would we do in an emergency? Well, we have the option of taking out a home equity line if it were a BIG emergency but we also save a little bit (sometimes its only 20 dollars) each month for car repairs, air conditioner tune ups, and vet bills because our Doxie has more health problems than a 90 year old. 

2.  We have specific spending/saving accounts. I have set up 3 main accounts for us which are: spending account, bill account and savings account. Our spending account is ONLY used for groceries, gas and extras like a movie or dinner (which are rare) and this money is ONLY what we have left over after we deposit into our bill account. Our bill account has a set amount transferred into it each pay period to cover the bills ( ComEd, Nicore, mortgage, insurance, garbage, water, cable, Internet etc.) all of my bills come out automatically so I never worry about missing a payment. My savings account also has a set amount transferred into it FROM MY BILL ACCOUNT. I treat saving like an obligation or necessity rather than an option. 

3. Perhaps the biggest component of my budgeting is my balance forecasting app. This app allows you to enter all if your bills, the dates they're due and it allows you to see what your balance in your account will be months in the future. I only use the app for my bill account because I don't do any unplanned spending from this account. 

I do have a few golden rules of budgeting:

* I don't EVER transfer out of my bill account into my spending account. I have very little wiggle room in my bill account so doing so would mean missing a payment. 

* I check my bank account at least once a day to make sure all goes as planned. I have been stuck in a situation where my account automatically transfers sooner than I thought it would and who likes having their debit card declined when you KNOW you have money... its just another account? Not me! So I try and check every day to avoid such situations.

* saving is MOST important. It's the most important "bill" I have. If you are constantly in a balancing act between debt and profit, it creates a lot of stress. Believe me, I DO NOT HAVE MONEY TO SAVE but I make sacrifices so that what little money we do have, we put away even if its only 10 or 20 dollars.