Learning to Budget like a Yogi

For about a year I have been working really hard at saving.  I had the goal of saving around $2000 for my summer trip to Wanderlust California. This covered all of the travel costs including the rather expensive ticket to attend, and left me some moula for a second weeklong road trip to visit some family!  I more than impressed myself, not only did I make it happen, I managed to live comfortably without making many sacrifices to my day-to-day spending - I just found new ways to make a bit of extra cash.

Now that I'm on the other side of this personal project ,it's high time for me to address my ability to save and my very unfortunate habit to spend what I save.

It's taken me years to figure out the best way to keep me from spending spare cash, and that's by not allowing day to day access to these savings.  A normal person might use a savings account, unfortunately I find it too easy to transfer that money into a spending account, or simply attach it to my bank card.  I've had it all!

The best method for me is with an old school piggy bank. Any time I have cash or I earn a little extra outside of my regular wage, that money goes in. And I have very strict rules on how I can spend it.  Generally speaking, that rule surrounds yoga and training, but if I was going to take a holiday or needed it for an emergency, medical or home, then that's where that cash will go.

But I've also realized I need to try to cut back on some of my spending. Between my husband and I, we spent over a $1200 last months on food and drink in and outside of the home. That was OVER a THOUSAND DOLLARS! what???

I would never have seen that statistic if I hadn't started using a free online program, mint.com.  I had often considered purchasing one of those finance programs that are on the market, but always hesitated to put money into something I most likely would not use, or use properly. Something I do more often then I like to, and naturally that would become more wasted money! The irony of the expense was too much for me to dive into.

Not only is mint.com free, it's really simple to use, guaranteed SAFE!, and best of all it's aesthetically pleasing.  You don't do any of your banking from the program (so that means money will never be transferred, which adds to its safety).  It's simply a tool that you use to keep track of your expenses, create budgets, and a place to witness your spending trends(the good and the bad!).  Amongst the different email notifications like warnings of irregular spending or getting close to or going over a budgeted expense, my favourite is the summary that you can receive weekly or monthly.  A great snapshot or your habits so that you can hopefully catch any red alarms before they happen!

It's only been a month so far, but I'm hoping that by being able to see where my money goes on a weekly basis I'll be able to rein in more of my spending habits and start paying some of my bills a little bit faster.  I would really like to start saving more money so that some of my bigger life plans can happen.

Go check it out, so far i'm REALLY impressed!