This is Day 5 of our month long Financial Literacy Month project. You can continue using my budget or spending plan worksheet for this.

Now for those variable expenses – groceries, eating out, entertainment, gifts, travel etc. I find this the hardest category to come up with a number. The easiest way is to check your bank and credit card statements for the costs to come up with a number. Try looking at three to six months and taking an average to see what you “normally” spend on these kinds of expenses.

Don’t forget to include the things that are paid for in cash – tips, babysitting, coffee, newspapers, lottery (you get the idea).

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This is Day 3 of our month long Financial Literacy Month project. You can continue using my budget or spending plan worksheet for this.

Now, let’s look at your fixed expenses – mortgage or rent, insurance premiums (home, auto, health, disability, long term etc), utilities (if possible, take an average of the last year), and any other fixed recurring payments that apply to your situation

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To take charge of your finances you have to know where you stand. I know that some people will want to shut the book at this point, but don’t. It’s not going to be that hard for you to do this. This is not a one day project, so don’t panic. You have a week to do this for yourself. No one is going to look at this, but you will need this as a starting point. Take the time to do this.

Start with my budget or spending plan worksheet. If you’ve already prepared your taxes, you will have this information readily available. For your income, look at your W-2 forms and divide by 12. This will give you a monthly figure. If you have 1099’s then you can do the same. Or take your pay stub and multiply by the number of pay periods in the year. Remember to add any other income – pensions, rental income, investments etc to get a clear picture.

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In honor of that, I’ll be posting an entire chapter from my book, Thrive in Five, in 1 post a day.

My micro-tips will ask you to think outside the box and push your saving even higher. For starters, you’ll have a week to record your monthly expenses. Then I am going to suggest things to you that you might not want to do. Other things might intrigue you, try them.

Each effort you make will save you money.

Watch for my first post on April 1st. 🙂