The Best Way to Organize Your Finances!

I am pretty much in charge of the spending and recording it to make sure we are spending it on what we need to. Well, This month I recently took it over. Its been hard, but I am finally pulling it all together.

So I saw this idea on pinterest, but I never got the chance to put it all together. It is a finance folder where all of the money, budget and other important bill paying information, which helps when it comes to pay day and bill paying days. 

The first page I added in was and index. I had listed out all of the pages on it. Now, I have added Money saving tips, big purchase receipts/warrant information, and doctor's appointment information and cards. This is my way of laying out what is in here and in what order, because I like that kind of organization.

    Then I added in a calendar. I wrote in all of the bills that we need to pay and the days we get paid. Since we both work together we have the same paydays, but I also have my drill payday (which I normally just leave in my savings account.) After we pay the bills, I highlight where I wrote it so I know what we have left for the bills to be paid this month. I also try to write how much each one is so I know what is due that week. It is helpful because I can easily see it all in one spot instead of having each statement to look at.

The next sheet lays out all of our spending. I have printed out four of these sheets. One for each week of the month. That way each day when we spend money, we just record it in that days column. There is a column for the categories, goal spending, one for each day of the week, total spending, and the difference for the week.

After starting this, I decided to print one sheet off at a time and update the goal spending column so it carries over from week to week. 

     Next is our income sheet. Since Sean and I have irregular incomes, I chart each of our checks for the month, then any unexpected income from selling something, or just anything else. This is a way of showing how much we are bring in each month.

I have a category for repaying hospital bills slowly. Sean has had medical problems and now we are working to pay them off. I haven't sat down with the statements yet to figure out how much a month/ how long until they will be paid off. I will be doing this soon.

After the income is our wish list. These are the extra things that we slowly want to save up for. Things for the house and for us. Some of them have estimated prices with them and some don't. But this is a good way to lay out the things that we want or need, but can't just go out and buy it right away. With my tax return, we did buy a new vacuum and the laundry sorter. It was great to cross things off of this list. While the list will never be gone and there will always be something we want for the house. It is a good way to plan for bigger purchases. 

I have included some simple money saving tips in the folder. Simple things like selling stuff, cleaning out my closet and the things we have already started doing to save money. I put them in there as a reminder for me of why I sit down with all of the finances and budget. It is little tips to put me back in the swing of things when I get off sometimes.

    I have a folder for all of the paid bills for the month in case I need something from one of them. It is a good way to keep everything in one place. After the month is over, I will get a filing cabinet to put the months bills in until the end of the year. This way I can set everything aside, but I know what was spent. This is a great way to set up the long term budget because going month by month can be hard when different things happen in a month. This is a good way to chart a months spending. Ie. How much was the electric bill last January. so on and so forth.

Last but not least, I keep all of our online account information. This is where I keep our Charter account name and log in, bank account information and other certain things like that. This way it is all in one spot for when I need to pay bills.

So, another success from pinterest, I would say. It is great to keep everything organized. Not to mention make sure bills get paid on time. I keep this folder in a basket with a folder that holds all of our receipts, and other important tax information. I am really glad that I sat down to do this because it is a great way to lay everything out. Thank you pinterest.

This blog also has a really great spin on this folder as well. I like how she has different folders for each category of my budget.

So start your finance folder today, because this is the best thing I have ever done for our finances!!