Even if the Senate can’t figure out how to balance its budget, you can figure out how to do yours! It is sooooo doable! Just a check in with you on my monthly Proactive Pursuit I posted about in the beginning of January. I am getting my personal budget set up  and a small business I run on a budget as well. I am using the 34 day (quirky, random number they have offered) trial to set up both budgets and initially it seemed tedious but it’s so exciting to get organized. It feels like a deep, seeping  calm pouring into every crack of irresponsibility and regretful purchases .  When you are on top of your finances, it feels like a superpower. Worry leaves, and you can focus on being wise with your money instead of reactive and stressed, like paying for a 17.00 pizza to be delivered, hot, to your door. If I had planned ahead I would have  of stocked up on 5.99 Frescheta pizzas at Winco, which I did after I had pizza regret. Hey when you have two hungry 17-year-olds at your house at 5:00 in the afternoon,  you feel pressure!

The first week I had to be patient while my budget was being synced with my bank. I had to reach out to customer service a couple of times and the problem got resolved quickly. As I put each item in my checking  account into a spending category I realize how exact this system is and how much I have been spending carelessly. After getting my business budget organized under my same YNAB account, just a different budget, I realized I won’t need to hire a bookkeeper anymore for my business, well worth the 6.99 a month I pay for both budgets.

My daughter Nikki has said it is addicting, and that is true. I delight in jumping on the website and updating my transactions from my bank account to my budgets. You have to push through the effort it takes to get started. That truly is the hardest part.  Once you have categorized something, it will be categorized forever. So any shopping done at Winnco will show up automatically in my Groceries category for the rest of my life. I had to suck it up and focus and concentrate to get both budgets set up. I did the personal one with my husband and it was illuminating when we went through our bank statement and kept finding categories to set up. We had some trial and error—like we didn’t like some of the existing categories  that were automatically included, like “gaming”, but then you click on the existing category and either change it or delete it. Getting through the first budget gave me momentum to do the business one.  Anyway, this is just a mid-month report on tackling this goal of mine that I never seemed to get to. I am glad I picked it as my first Proactive Pursuit of the year. It has already added so much to feeling in control of our spending.

Here is a one minute  and 18 second tutorial on youtube by YNAB. They have many of these short, informational explanations. There are also  reviews on youtube by other people as well and it is helpful to watch these and get your mind around it. Nikki loves all of the online workshops that YNAB provides for free as part of the service. She said she has learned a lot by diving in deep and the more she does, it feeds her motivation train to keep chugging along. What do you think? How do you keep track of your spending?

https://www.youtube.com/user/YouNeedABudget

Disclaimer: I make no money on the above product and that is not my budget above, just a Google image.