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Home > Easy on Paper, Harder in Real Life

Easy on Paper, Harder in Real Life

June 4th, 2011 at 04:18 pm

I do all my budgeting on paper and it appears to look/sound/smell/taste good but in real life it is a lot harder to make it work. I suspect it is b/c I'm not allocating enough money in addition to the fact that we ALWAYS have something pop up for that month. These little suprises have thrown my debt reduction plan off track b/c I'm regularly saving LESS to put towards debt. But I have a new plan now -- a 'take no prisioners' plan that will help me say NO b/c the money will NOT be there.

Original plan - stockpile money. I thought to save up about $3700 a month in my savings account to pay off the car in Sept/Oct timeframe -- in one lump sum. The problem is b/c that money is just 'sitting there' it is easy to pilfer from it. No more my friends -- that money will now go as a 'car payment' and it will be OUT of the JMONEY household system so we can no longer take $50 here, $100 there, etc.

I will only keep the $1,000 emergency fund and that will put things in very real perspective for me. You see, drastic measures are almost always necessary for me to get with the Gosh Darn plan that I put together.

wish me luck :-)

Posted in Budgeting, Debt | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Easy on Paper, Harder in Real Life”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    June 4th, 2011 at 04:49 pm 1307206142
    1307206142

    I have found that living on less does require minimizing the amount of cash available to spend. If you don't have it, you won't spend it.

    Good luck!

  2. KiwiJo09 Says:
    June 4th, 2011 at 04:51 pm 1307206283
    1307206283

    It always works that way. Getting within your budget takes practice. Maybe you should consider getting an online savings account like smartypig or ally. The fact that you don't see it with your checking account and it takes a couple of days to retrieve it makes it easier not to spend. Just an idea. Wink That's what I do!

  3. scottish girl Says:
    June 4th, 2011 at 05:01 pm 1307206860
    1307206860

    Good luck!

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