So! It is 2019 and you are probably wondering where all the year end heat of the moment that you saw towards the end of 2018, went. Now so that we do not let ourselves be carried away by the new year excitement as well (hmm... there almost always seems to be one form of excitement or the other), bear in mind that before the year goes any farther, you need to pause in your tracks and do a self check before the year goes any farther. First off, have you already taken stock of your journey through 2018? I mean really reviewed your 2018? Have you noted your wins and/or fails? Have you
pondered on why you had the outcomes you had, whether you won or you failed? If you won at planning then well done! That is a pointer to something to do even better at. If you did not win, failing only means you did not do certain things properly. It just makes you see how not to do certain things. It does not mean that you are hopeless at planning so do not let yourself decide that you have done your best at trying. Do not beat yourself over it. Just determine to try again and put in a bit more effort this 2019.If you have friends or even online buddies you follow who are on the same journey as you, then compare their methods that appears to be working well and see what ideas you can borrow that would work for you. So, if you have not reviewed your 2018 yet, I suggest you stop what ever you are doing and do so right now, and I mean right now! Not to sound like some headmistress ....lol (no pun intended headmistresses).
Anyways, here we are in 2019 and right now is a very good time to have already had your plan and budget underway for February. If you still haven't, stop whatever you are already doing and do first things first! Do Not Go Another Day Without A Budget! I expect you followed through with that for January.
I did a quick look through my planning for 2018 and although I made swerves here and there, I was able to say 2018 was a good year for me in general. I hope you can say so too. As a result of that, I am fired up to do even better and go even bigger this 2019. Interesting how one good result makes you see that all is not lost after all. You get excited to keep up with the good result thereby making you succeed even more.
So with such progress made last year, it is a good idea to take more planning in stride in 2019. I decided to take a look at my budgeting process and though it looked cumber sum, it is good when you put it to work. I had mentioned what I use in a post 'New You, New Habits * Don't Live Another Day Without A budget!' Budgeting can never be overemphasized you see. A life lived with constant budgeting goes a great deal of a long way in life. Planning actually, of which budgeting is a vital part.
I finally found the Simple Budget App that (I had mentioned this in a previous post) seemed to have disappeared from google play store. It just sorta showed up whilst I was scrolling right through the offered options for budget and money manager apps. Initially I was scared to even hope that I had found my love app until I took a good look through and was like 'well, hello!' I had mentioned this was simple, and I mean very simple cash envelope budgeting using an app. Just think of virtual envelopes and you've got the gist.
Saying I was elated is putting it mildly. I was so excited that I immediately went to work setting things up using the app and thankfully, this is the start of a new month. So right on time!
I have decided to give money manager app a short break and see how using just the simple budget app would help me, bearing in mind that I still have my excel Pearbudget spreadsheet to cover all types of expenses as well as another spreadsheet for my checking account balances so that I can monitor what leaves my bank account and for what reason it left.
I had mentioned previously that I stopped daily cash envelope recording in the Money Manager App and just indicated my incomes such as salary besides other accounts and then input a lump sum amount that I had apportioned to cash envelopes. I just had a cash account labeled envelopes. It is this lump sum that I then go on to record in the Simple Budget App, sharing them into their respective envelopes and from there, break it down to daily expenses as allocated to the different envelope categories. Know that your regular expenses per period (paycheck) are those spent from the cash envelopes. This is because all other expenses (such as rent, utility, debt if any etc) are usually once off payments per stipulated period of say a month for those workers who receive their paychecks monthly and bi-weekly for those whose paychecks show up every two weeks for instance.
I know that I am crazy about the Money Manager App and will certainly purchase the premium version which is linked to PC access(yes I finally sorted out the card payment challenges that I was having on google play store ..Yay!). For now, before making the purchase (which unfortunately has increased from about
I was able to find an app for recording daily transactions on the go (Expense Tracker by Pedro Carrilo).
Let me say here that if you are so organized to do all that directly from your envelopes, great! Maybe you do not need this extra step but for the most part, I still believe that it is useful to keep a record of your daily transactions. Not just for your envelopes' sake but for record purposes. Something to make reference to at some other time in the future. I find that it is more convenient to use an app to do this rather than write down things at every point in time (except of course if you do not mind that very much. Whatever works better for you is okay) and then later at the end of your day, open up your app and write down all of these transactions for the day in an actual budget or financial planning book.
Now like I mentioned before in a previous post, this is not a sponsored post. I am only sharing what I have tried and using while giving my opinion based on my own experience. Also like I had mentioned previously, there are other apps that you might even prefer to these mentions of mine. So, while you do you, stick to a plan!