February Challenge: Tracking Everything Down

The February Challenge will be organizing your finances. This month's challenge posts will be every Wednesday.

My upfront disclaimer: I am by no means claiming to be a financial guru. I definitely am not. But we can get our finances in order, together, so that our homes will run more smoothly each month when it comes to paying bills.

Here's the schedule:

• Week 1: Tracking Everything Down
• Week 2: Organize the Paper Clutter
• Week 3: Create a System/Schedule for Bill Paying
• Week 4: A Look at Some Online Tools That I Use

Why tackle finances this month?

It's the beginning of the year. It's tax time. It's always a good time to get finances in order, etc., etc. Why not is the real question?

How many of you spend each month, scrambling to find bills that came in the mail within the last few weeks that you "think" may be due soon, but you're unsure because a.) you can't remember where you put the bill, and b.) you didn't write down the due date or amount, so it's just fog in your mind? I'll fess up - GUILTY!

Here's my confession: I have an awesome system set up for everything related to finances. My issue is, I've been too lazy (since November) to actually do anything with it. I've been lazy in so many ways - which is why I'm doing these challenges. I'm just nice enough to share. =]

Where do I begin?

So, to start you off I'm giving you a monthly budget worksheet printable. It's one of the best sellers in my etsy store. The version I'm giving you, for free (just for the first week of the challenge - it will disappear on February 8) is blank and not editable, unlike the one in my store. This document is 3 pages. Download it below.

This printable is no longer available for free. Purchase the editable version in my Etsy store.

purchase the editable monthly budget worksheet

Before filling in the categories in the left column, you may want to make a list of how/where you spend your money. You can look at receipts, your bank account online, or bank statements. If you have credit cards, look there, too!

Here's my list of categories that I created:

After deciding upon the categories, I transferred over to the worksheet.

Now that you have your list of what you need to pay or save for each month, you're on the right track to organizing your finances. We honestly don't budget our money. We should, and we talk about it, but we never follow through. I'm hoping getting organized with inspire me to. We'll see.

The most popular printable in my etsy store is the bill and payment checklist. I've been using this for years. It's been changed so much, but the colors generally stay the same. Love this. As a special price for the month of February, you can get this checklist (as seen below with the new font) as is (not editable or customizable) for just $2!

purchase the bill & payment checklist

A note about my printables: they are for personal use only. You may not redistribute them on any website or to anyone else. If you'd like to share them with people, please give them the link to my website or the post linking to the document. With the recent popularity that Pinterest and other websites have taken, copyright infringement is on the rise. I have already had one incident that I'm aware of where someone was redistributing my work on a document hosting websites. Please respect my hard work and give credit where it is due. Once these printables are taken down, please do not share them. Thank you.

Now that you've created a tracking system for bills and expenses, you're on your way to financial organized bliss. No more late payments = less stress. Ahh...can you feel it already? =]


I'll be back next Wednesday with tips for organizing your financial paper clutter. Good luck!