Scheduling Your Budget (Part I)

Previous Blog Topic: Following Your Budget

Once you have created a written budget to tell your money WHERE to go, it is now time to tell your money WHEN to go. We often find ourselves living "paycheck to paycheck." We circle, highlight and mark our paydays on the calendar and look forward to them like they are National holidays.

Before I started following a budget, I used to count down the days til my next paycheck practically the day after I got paid. Now, I find myself not even realizing that it's a payday. My co-workers often tell me "Must be nice to have a lot of money that you don't even know when payday is!" Well, it's not that I have more money than them, because we get paid the same amount. It's that I already know where my money is going and when it is going to go because I gave my money clear directions on what to do and when to do it.

To begin following your budget, it helps to schedule your budget. Here are the beginning steps to scheduling your budget:

1. List your Fixed (monthly) and Fixed-Variable Expenses in order by due date. For example:

2. Add in your paydays in where they occur.

Take the time to quickly assess your budget at this point. Look at the amounts due between pay days. Does it look like you have any rough spots in the month? This family looks like they might be in a pinch towards the end of the month moving in to the beginning of the next month. Keep this part of the month in mind when continuing to schedule your budget in Part II. 

At this point, you have now begun to schedule your budget. In the next step you will schedule in your Fixed (Annual) and Variable Expenses into your budget. Because these amounts need to be spread out through the month and because you are putting aside amounts monthly for when those annual fixed expenses are due, Part II of Scheduling your budget will be more intensive.

Next Blog Topic: Scheduling Your Budget (Part II)