One of the first steps in my Journey was to start a budget.  I got the idea from Small Notebook and made my own in Microsoft Excel.  I am not lavish nor am I a spender, and I have no debt.  However, I have not been saving as much as I wanted, and preparing a budget has helped me see where I was spending the most money. 

One of my goals is to contribute the maximum to my Roth IRA – $5,000.  I set up automatic bi-monthly transfers of $250 (I am a teacher and thus get paid 10 months out of the year).  I also decided to try to save $1,250 a month towards buying a house.  To reach this goal, I set up automatic bi-monthly transfers of $625.

Having a budget can mean different things for different people.  In my case, I use it as a guide where I can visualize my spending in each category, and try to find areas where I can save.  For example, in September I noticed that my cell phone bill was about $20 more than usual.  I checked out my detailed bill and realized that the extra amount had come from texting, and mainly to my boyfriend.  We decided that we can save a lot more money if we were both on the same plan.  It might take a while for the savgings to add up, but having unlimited texting to each other will be a big savings. 

Do you have a savings budget?  How has having one helped you?