Finances & Home Information Binder: Budget, Income, & Business Expenses

Miss the first post? Click here to read it.

Now, I've took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University online last year. I learned a lot, but haven't applied it to my life - yet. Since I graduated, in May 2011, neither one of us has had steady employment long enough for us to get a debt repayment plan in place. I didn't get a job until October. Then I took a teaching job in November. Chris was laid off in February. I found my job {from this year} was possibly being cut in March. Chris found a new job in April. I was hired at my new school in June. So now, I think maybe we're possibly ready to create a plan - once I get my first paycheck from the new job, so I can see how much I'll be bringing home. It's all been so exhausting over the last year.

I've had a lot of people comment on the finances post in my home management binder from last year. Quite a few have said that doing all of this on paper is a waste of time and I should be using Mint.com, Excel, Quicken, etc. {Something that is electronic.} I do use Mint.com. I actually love it. I have my bank accounts, student loans, and credit cards linked to it. It allows me to quickly see our total debt amount and cash flow, all at once. I've tried using the goal and budget tools on there, but they're not motivating for me. It works better for me on paper when planning. If electronic works better for you, great. Please don't get on my case because you think this is a waste of time. You're more than welcome to skip these posts. =]

Disclaimer: Don't take any of my "finance" related posts as expert advice. I'm not claiming to be an expert. Eh, I'm far from it actually. This post...and the few that are coming up next...is purely for me to show you how my husband and I handle our finances. We're a financial mess, but this is how we organize it in style.

{Due to not wanting to blur out all of our financial info, I'm just going to show you screen shots of the forms I used, where applicable. I'll use actual photos where I can.}

The third section in my binder is budget. Still not my favorite word, but I'm just going to call it what it is.

simple budget

This form is so good to take a quick look at your necessity expenses. It's not looking at debt at all, unless we're talking bills that you're behind on, mortgages, or car payments. {No credit cards or student loans here.} This form really helped us see what our needs for spending are.

monthly budget worksheet

I have two monthly budget worksheets. This one is new. It's broken up into 4 columns for the 4 weeks in a month. I, personally, like this form better than the other. Chris gets paid weekly, I get paid twice a month. This budget worksheet allows me to lay it all out, week-by-week, so I can see what income we have, and what expenses we have. It's kind of like a spending log in a way, but weekly instead of daily.

gift tracking & budgeting list

Gifting is fun, but a lot of family members to give gifts to when you're paying off debt, can be difficult. {And it can be difficult to remember what you've given in the past, so you're not known as the person who gives the same gifts to the same people every year.} This form helps me plan for gifting, track what's been given, and budget for it all in one place.

The fourth section in my binder is income. Sure, this section may seem unnecessary for some, but for me, it's needed. I have extra income from selling things online {like on Amazon & local classifieds), my blogs, Etsy, Teachers Pay Teachers, etc. I need to track it all, or I'll spend it - it needs to go towards our savings goals & debt repayment.

income sources

This form helps me easily see where we generate income, that way we can estimate how much we can expect to bring in each month.

total income for the month

This is where I track weekly income payments. I haven't had one month yet where we've had a consistent total of income.

total income for the year

I have two of these in my binder. One for our career incomes, and one for all of the extra income. I want to be able to see it separately for the year, as well.

extra income

Self explanatory? This one is for everything but Etsy, which has it's very own form for tracking daily sales.

The fifth section is business expenses. Again, maybe not something you'd add to your binder, but I need it.

blog expenses, Etsy expenses, classroom expenses

I only have one example picture, because they're all the same, just different title.

Blog expenses include domain name registration fees, paying for commercial licenses on fonts I use on my blog, buying images from iStockPhoto, services, etc.

Etsy expenses include listing fees, advertising, etc.

Classroom expenses = self explanatory. I'm spending too much, so I need to see where to cut back.

I'll be back Monday - with the last three sections: debt, savings, & home information.

And, in the meant time, if you're wondering where you can get such amazing forms like these, let me tell you. I spent the last two weeks working on a new set with this new font. Maybe not new, new, but new from what I usually use. It's called GeosansLight. This whole set, called fiances & home information set, has the same usual colors I use, but this new font. It's on sale for $30 until Sunday, July 8. {Plus...if you've been paying attention...there's a 20% off code in a post from earlier this week that's still good until Sunday. So you could potentially only pay $24.}