.. with potter style’s My Budget mini journal from clarksonpotter dot com.

$8.00
isbn: 978-0-307-34511-0
random house, inc. by clarkson potter publishers

this is a simple, and very cute budgeting book.  its somewhat non-traditional flavor makes it fun to use.  it’s small, so it’s easy to carry around.

the most useful part for me is the bulk of the book — the blank, lined, column-filled pages where you scribble down what you paid for/bought, on a given day.  it’s simple: put date, quick description, and price. not rocket science.  then throw it back in your bag or pocket.

do this for a month.

then, categorize and group your expenditures, to figure out into which areas of your life (ie, food, dining out, utilities, transportation, etc.) the money is going.

then comes the fun part.  go the the first several pages of the book.  there, you will find the following pages:

• the ideal monthly budget
• the actual monthly budget

after the first month of recording, you fill in the information in the ‘actual monthly budget’ page.  the sections are:

• monthly bills
  • rent/house payment
  • phone
  • electric
  • gas
  • water
  • debt
  • other
• variable expenses
  • food/drink
  • transportation
  • entertainment
  • shopping
  • health/fitness
  • miscellaneous
• total monthly expenses

of course, if you don’t like the sub-categories or they don’t apply to you but you have others in mind, you could cross them off and replace with a different type.

there is also a page for doing the final math, with ‘for the month of:?’ at the top:

(monthly income) - (montly expenses) = ? + (extra money earned/received) = (leftover money)

amount into savings = ?

notes/plans for leftover money: ?

finally when you are done, you return to the ‘ideal monthly budget’ page, and you fill in similar fields as above, with dollar amounts you would rather spend instead in the various categories.

moving forward, you try to keep your future expenses within the limits of your ‘ideal monthly budget’ figures.

you can do this only for 3 months’ worth of data in this book (it is small after all) before you must purchase a new one.

other fun pages in the book to fill out:

1. dollars and sense: setting financial goals — jot down why you’ve decided to use this budget journal and describe any financial goals you’ve set for yourself
2. cha-ching! major upcoming expenditures — fill out name of expense, and estimated cost
3. rags to riches: money-making schemes — think of a few ways to get rich (garage sales, freelance work, and ebay)
4. keep the change: money saving solutions — think of ways to pinch pennies without feeling the pain

i will be honest and say i haven’t exactly been filling out my entries for the past month.  i generally use my atm debit card for 99% of my expenses, so i can keep track for filling out the pages at the end of the month.  however, i would highly recommend (’do as i say, not as i do’) writing down your expenses daily to get the full experience.

happy budgeting!