I was talking to a friend and member of our Covert Community today and she was telling me about some budgeting tricks that I have asked her to share on the website.
For a sneak preview, here are a few things to think about. She promises to upload the budget in a future blog!
1. Write down top ten expenses every month. This was a key piece of information because I’ve filled out a form for my financial advisor that was TWO PAGES LONG of annual expenses and I never felt it was complete!
2. Look at patterns and start to assess where you can cut down. For instance, are you spending $400 at Costco a month? How can you make it $300?
3. Create reasonable categories. My friend tells me that she has utilities, food, gas, mortgage and other fairly routine expenses listed out in buckets, but for things like coffee and costco, she has separate line items because there might be excesses in both cases and things she can cut out immediately.
4. Stick to a budget once you’ve defined what you need to save. It’s REALLY hard to trade off lifestyle excesses. For me, it will be those damned lattes.
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