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My One and Only (New) New Year’s Resolution

Sometimes New Year’s Resolutions are made out of desire, sometimes they are made out of necessity. The most effective ones might be a combination of the two…at least that’s what I’m telling myself!

2016 is starting off in a state of transition for us. My husband is making a career shift, which I fully support, starting this month. It wasn’t necessarily “sudden” because we made the decision two months ago, but it certainly wasn’t “planned”.

2016 is going to be the year we finally set a budget and stick to it! We are choosing to do a zero based budget with only my salary starting in January.

My one and only (new) New Year's Resolution in 2016 Click To Tweet

New Year's Resolution

Budgeting in the Past

Budgeting isn’t a new concept for us – everyone knows it is a good idea to budget. The habit of budgeting just hasn’t been established yet for our family. We have a rough idea of monthly expenses, but have been inconsistent in the past of tracking it every month.

As a newly married person, I read about Debt Proof Living by Mary Hunt. This is where I first heard about the snowball method. She has a monthly newsletter that used to come by snail mail (that was a long time ago!) that I was a member of.

I listened to Crown Financial Ministries’ radio show every day while making dinner. They have a Crown Money Map that I still have and refer to. We even attended a one day seminar that they had nearby us several years ago.

We’ve also had the opportunity to see the Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University dvds. We’ve loosely kept the 7 Baby Steps in mind and are working our way down the steps (is that the proper way to say that?).

Currently my main source of information is podcasts. I’ve listened and still do listen regularly to The Dave Ramsey Show and The Suze Orman Show (now over). I recently started listening to So Money and enjoy her interviews with guests.

Applying what we know

Whew! That’s a lot of head knowledge that needs to be put into consistent action! I’ve tried Mint and Excel Spreadsheets. I’ve tried writing it on paper. Nothing has stuck…so far.

What head knowledge do you have that needs to be put into action? Here's mine Click To Tweet

I’m sold on Dave Ramsey’s belief that you have to tell your money where to go with a zero based budget. I’m giving it a try this month with his free budgeting app EveryDollar. So far I like the way it’s working. It was easy to set up and easy to add the expenses. I also like the fact that you can access it on a desktop and an iPhone because my husband has an Android.

So our 2016 new year’s resolution is to begin budgeting again. I’d love to have you join me if you’re budgeting too. I’ll be writing about our progress at least once a month. I expect this zero based budgeting to take several months to really establish – if not more!

This post will be shared at these link ups.

I’d love to hear your budgeting story and tips in the comments!

Comments

  1. Best of luck in your efforts!! I have budgeted and tracked with varying degrees of success over my adult life but have been on the longest stretch ever (going on 4 years now) starting with my own decision to make a career transition. Being a single person and therefore living on one income I started to track and budget a few years ago in preparation for quitting my job and taking a sabbatical. I tracked and stuck (for the most part) to a budget for 18 months before actually quitting my job. THEN once I quit my job I tracked and budgeted in order to be able to successfully live on the savings I’d accrued for my sabbatical fund. NOW I continue to track and budget as I adjust to my new job and income. Not only do I make less than I did in my previous job (so worth it though!) but I part of my income comes from a bonus system so the amount varies from month to month so that’s a new budgeting/tracking challenge.

    I have to confess that I kind of love that sort of thing so it’s not like it was a huge hardship to track and budget but even for someone who loves data collection and analysis it’s gotten easier and easier as I’ve continued to do it. And of course I have to give God glory because he has perfectly provided in the midst of all these transitions, unexpected major home repairs and medical expenses!

    • I think you’re a natural…maybe we can have you budget for us!!! I guess that won’t help us develop the habit though…

      thank you for sharing your budgeting story Liz!

  2. We are in the same boat, trying to get in the habit of budgeting and I too like the zero based approach. However, we are using paper. We’ve tried online tools and spreadsheets but it hasn’t worked well. I will follow your progress 🙂

    • Same with me Carla. I’m hoping this app for zero based budgeting will help me. So far so good with entering in the numbers on a daily basis!

  3. I’ve been budgeting since 2008 using Google Sheets. That way, it’s on my computer, on my phone, I can access it anywhere, etc. I am a giant nerd, so it also allows me to analyze that data 1000 different ways.

    We still haven’t managed to get out of debt (for various reasons, not all of them legit), but we’re working on it.

  4. We use this type of budget and it has been freeing. We also took Financial Peace University and loved it. We simplified our budgeting strategy by withdrawing cash to spend on groceries and all other shopping (besides our bills which are auto-drafted and gas). That way we don’t have to put every nickle into a spreadsheet. We just keep an eye on our cash and don’t outspend it.!

  5. Angela, thanks for sharing your journey in budgeting! It’s a challenge for sure– and I look forward to keeping up with your one resolution for 2016! My husband and I use Mint to track our spending; this month I’m working on lowering our grocery budget without compromising on food quality. Should be interesting!

  7. We budget following a format similar to the zero based budget using the YNAB software. Their instructions are to give every dollar a job. Learning to make and follow a budget was my goal last year, and I’m happy to report that I think we did a good job with it and I feel like it is more of a habit that we need to continue now, rather than something to work towards.

    • That is so encouraging that it was your goal last year and now you’re in the maintenance stage. I’ve heard very good things about YNAB.

  9. Good luck with the budget and tracking expenses. I’m an accountant by training and even I have trouble budgeting and tracking my own personal expenses. I’m catching up now on tracking December expenses. I am much more diligent with it since I left my full time job a couple years ago. Thanks for sharing with Small Victories Sunday Linkup. Pinning to our linkup board and hope you found some great posts to visit this week!

    • I’m glad to hear that an accountant also finds budgeting and tracking slightly challenging! Thank you for your encouragement Tanya.

    • Wow, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that someone firmly doesn’t believe in budgeting. I know we all tend to live like that though. Thanks for sharing Stella Lee

      • I used to manage all our bills and he would pay our mortgage so he didn’t have to think about it. Since I’ve stopped working I decided he can learn all about it and I’ve gone totally hands off. I’m hoping he might pay more attention to turning that light off and not just throwing stuff in the shopping basket now he’s the one responsible for it all. It’s been interesting.

        • You are a brave woman Stella. I don’t know if I could go completely hands off but I have been tempted in the past. Thank you for sharing!

  12. My husband and I did FPU also. Love Uncle DAve!
    I need to do a zero based budget too. I do all my bills when I get paid monthly, then just sorta spend the rest. So, yeah, I need to do that budgeting thing-badly!!
    Thanks for the reminder.
    Melinda

  14. One of the joys of married life for me 18 years ago was joining my finances with a geeky guy who “got” zero budgeting and also doesn’t mind dealing with Quicken and bills and all that. He is awesome at it. I do look over his shoulder and check the spreadsheet periodically, but he does most of the financial work. The interesting thing is that I’ve always been frugal, but in my single days I never knew exactly what was in my checking and savings (as I was lousy at balancing) so I struggled with much anxiety about money. I love the zero based budget, I love knowing where the money is going. I love that I don’t have to organize it all. I already said that, didn’t I :-)?

    • Good for you! I’m not sure why it seems to come more naturally to some than others…I’m hoping though that with diligence and repetition budgeting can become a habit. Thanks for coming by!

  18. We are working on this as well. I’ve always been really good at sitting down and looking at where our money went, but not telling it where to go! I’ve had YNAB for awhile but just gotten serious about using it in the last couple of months. What a difference it’s made! Good luck on your resolution!

    • Hi Mandi! Yes, this does seem like a very common resolution for everyone – single, married, families. I’m really liking the Every Dollar app so far. Thanks for commenting and sharing your journey as well!

  20. Excellent resolution! Our finances have gotten out of control and we need to apply the same goal. Hope you have success!
    Found you at the Learning from Each Other Linkup. 🙂

    • Thank you Lindsey – good luck to you too! I’m entering into it with the thought that each month is a new opportunity to try again if it doesn’t go as well as planned the previous month!

  23. I am excited for you about your budgeting journey, and wish you the best of luck on your goal. May the Lord bless you as you go through a time of transition with your husbands job.

  25. This is a great thing Angela, I wish you the best of luck with your resolution!!
    I never used apps or digital systems, I think that for me the good old pen and paper has been working well so far. I love monthly budgets because they allow me to keep track of every single cent I spend and how, and they prevent me to buy unnecessary stuff or prioritize my expenses.
    Keep us updated!! 🙂

    • Thanks Jenny! So far so good. I’m actually entering things on a daily basis into the app. I’m a pen/paper gal too usually, no apps have worked before this one.

  27. That is a great area to focus on this year! It covers so many things. I am excited to hear how it goes. Thanks for sharing with us!

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