monies

first of all. big time hoorays and celebrations because as of the end of last month ONE of my student loans is paid in full! WOOOOO! crazy.

meanwhile. i am constantly trying to find ways to efficiently track my monies. the cash-only method is nice i guess, but has never worked for me because cash reminds me of being a waitress and doesn't seem real somehow... it is way easier for me to burn cash than it is to spend on my cards. so. cards. (also cards get you points for things. so. cards!)

about two months ago i started a sticky-note system. I wrote out the balance of monies on each card and then tracked as i spent. so i'd always know exactly how much was left in chequings, or how big the balance on my amex was...

it was a good idea. having that number be RIGHT THERE every time i pulled out a card. but hard to maintain. finicky and wasteful... all these little sticky notes. i wasn't keeping up.

but then, yay! rachel over at heart of light posted about her 2013 budget plan. (you may remember rachel from last year when i tried out the purchase-posts. like me, she didn't manage to keep that going long.) she and her husband made these awesome little tracking cards where they'd tick off amounts as they spent them. brilliant. now my own budgetting is a little more loosey-goosey when it comes to categories. there's my food and margene's food, and various other areas of spending, that are all a bit unpredictable and thus hard to allocate THIS MUCH to each month. (sometimes margene needs to go to the vet! or i only need to buy foor for her every month and a half... etc.) so i've mixed up the idea a little and made little tracker-cards of my own! i just have to write down each purchase or deposit as i go and i know exactly how much monies i've got. (and after a few months of this i can get a decently clear picture of what i spend where, tra la la. i'm a grown up.)

just like that! so far it is working really well. feel free to steal this great idea (seeing as it is already stolen once). (and also, let's talk about why kids aren't taught how to manage finances in, like, 3rd grade. because it is ridiculous that i was NEVER taught any such skills in all my years of gettin' educated. crazy talk. but that's for another time. that conversation. super.)