I’ve been doing a lot of research on Personal and Career Development. One of the things that I’ve noticed in my own personal life that I need some work on (HUGE) is the money department. I’ve taken the first step and downloaded a free spreadsheet from Microsoft.com’s templates. Household Monthly Budget. I used Quicken before, and Microsoft Money.. but this is very black and white… which is what I need. No grey areas, no formulas. This one is great because there’s a pie chart that lets you see the whole picture. I didn’t want to get too much into detail about my earnings and expenses so I plugged in a fictional monthly income. This thing really breaks it down!!
For 2010 I really wanted to focus on the following:
- Seeing the whole picture, not just the bills that come in the mail
- Actually use my checkbook balance sheet because overdraft is NOT my friend lately
- Practice what I preach: everyone that knows me know I’m a huge talker. Time to quit talking and start making moves!!
- Start a ROTH IRA. Suze Orman gave major props to my new fave blog Life After College. She gave a few helpful tips in a video to Jenna. Check it out! Suze Orman Knows WE EXIST!
Okay… baby steps. I don’t want to bring too much on at once. I definitely feel comforted knowing that a few fellow bloggers of mine are trying to stay on track with work, school, family, and friends as well. One of the things that I realized at Weight Watchers is that I tend to hang out with people who always want to go out to eat. Lol. When she asked what some bad habits were I said, “I eat like I’m still in college.” Everyone laughed. They looked at me and realized that this was not something that I thought was funny. That doesn’t only effect my waistline, it effects my pockets too!!
Some things I did to save on eating out for the past couple of weeks:
- Stocked up on Lean Cuisine
- Grabbed a bunch of grapefruit and mandarin
- Gave Goya coconut water a chance and LOVE IT!
- Bought a lifetime supply of romaine lettuce. Spinach doesn’t always sit well with my tummy so I decided to blend it in slowly
- Went wild for chicken breast
- Replaced starchy juices with seltzer water
Like I said… baby steps…
Stay tuned for Part 2- Getting Organized!
Quisha
comments
7 Responses to "Personal Development- Part 1: Budgeting"Love the template you found! Do you know the name of it? I tried searching on Microsoft.com, but there are so many templates!
If you like this template, you should try mint.com --- it's also free (owned by Intuit - the Turbo Tax people). It sucks in all of your bank info and compares budget to actuals. I just started it based on some friends recommending it and am still learning the ropes - but so far, I love it.
Thank you for visiting my blog!
This is a great post! I'm still in school (and living on student loans) so I worry there isn't a lot I can do right now aside from educating myself about finances and being as frugal as possible.
haha i hear ya. thanks for stopping by. i've added you to my list of blogs i'm "following".
mint.com is great. only thing is... they don't update the status of accounts quickly enough. even if you click the update button when you're signed in. hopefully one day they'll have this working. i love the layout of the site and it's very user-friendly!
Hi Jennifer- Here's the link directly to where you can download it. By the way I've never had any problems downloading templates since my dad tought me how when I was about 16! :) You can play around with the color-coding and such.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102905521033.aspx?pid=CT101172321033
I liek this spreadsheet. I need to get this program asap. I noticed a majority of my weight went came from eating out. My friends like to eat out constantly, but now I don't do fast food. I stick to eating out at restaurants,but try and cook all dinners at home and bring lucn to work. Save eating out on weekends...every now and then. I love lean cuisines too!
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts! ;)