January 2013 Challenge {Finance: Week 1}

The most challenging part of my life: finances. Everything is up and down constantly. It doesn't help that Chris and I have unreasonable amounts of student loan debt. {You honestly have no idea.} But, there's no turning back. I can't dwell on it anymore. We just need to chug along and pay it.

I completed the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University online last year. Very eye opening. Then Chris lost his job in April and we lost track of the importance of paying off the debt. Now that we're in steady jobs, I decided to sign up for the year subscription to Dave Ramsey's My Total Money Makeover. A parent at my school had talked to me about the difference it's made in their life over the last year, and I knew that I needed Dave in my life again. I set up a budget through the website for January. I also set up our debt snowball. I used Christmas money to totally squash a small credit card amount we had. With the debt snowball, you take the amount you were paying on the lowest amount a month, and add it to the next lowest payment. You keep going and going until everything is paid off. Genius. {Read more about Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball Plan.}

I can understand and sympathize with those in debt. I get it. It just flat out stinks. But financial freedom comes with being organized first, and then conquering each debt, one by one. I'm obviously not an expert here, nor am I claiming to be. I just know from my own experience and the words of readers that having everything all laid out is eye opening and motivating to get rid of it once and for all.

Due to the sensitive information included on my financial forms that I have in my home & life binder, I don't have photos of the forms in my binder. I do have screenshots of the forms though {& some free printables for you}.

What I've included in the finance section of my binder...

* bill & payment checklist *

This form is the most popular in my Etsy store. I created a special vertical version to share with you. {It will only be available on my blog for download for one week - so download it now!}

* loan repayment log *

Now's the best time to fill out the loan repayment logs for each loan debt you carry. You'll be able to track your repayment through the whole year with this document. {Download}

* budget forms *

Since I'm now using the Dave Ramsey website for this, I print my budget from there. Dave Ramsey has some great free budgeting forms on his website you can download.

* monthly calendar *

I use a monthly calendar to lay out when all of my bills are due. I write the company and the amount due on the due date. It gives me a good idea of when everything is due. {Download}

* extra income *

On this document I log all extra income I receive each month. This includes everything other than that earned through my Etsy store. {Download}

This is all that I've included in my finance section so far. I pay all of my bills online, other than rent, so I don't have a need to file bills. If you're looking to create a bill binder specifically, check out this post from my friend, Katie, at Building a House of Love.

If you're looking for more printables related to finance, check out these sets in my Etsy store: finances & home information set and finances set.

Today's challenge is to organize your bills and/or financial info to make tracking your finances {or debts} easier this year. Create folders, binders, files, etc. - use what makes sense for you and choose a method that will be easy for yourself to maintain. Don't choose a method that will be a chore. Trust me, you most likely will not follow through if it's too much work.