Notice, I said “feeling” poor, not truly being poor. Although, even truly poor people would benefit from a budget. Lately, our friends and family members have been sharing financial information with us out of the blue.

Many people think to save a lot of money you have to “go without”. That simply isn’t true. There are many things in your life you can continue to enjoy, but you just want to make sure you aren’t paying too much for them.

When you’re looking at your monthly expenses, the first thing you’re going to look at is how much you need to spend each month just to stay afloat, which is to say what you’re spending on keeping the lights on.

You say you know where your money goes and you don’t need to track your expenses to keep up with it? I issue you this challenge: Keep track of every penny you spend for one month and I do mean every single penny.

Ever since I’ve gotten myself in the habit of tracking our income, expenses, and recording every penny, paying bills has actually become…dare I say….. fun. Yes, it’s still mundane and a task that must be done, but once I actually sit down and do it – which is once a month – , I find it calming.