MONEY MONDAY : Week 4 of the 52 - week money challenge

I have a confession to make... I failed to put my 4th installment to the 52-week money challenge last Friday in my jar (which I keep in our office). I attended to a 10am meeting, a lunch meeting that lasted for almost 5 hours and had to finish something that was needed first thing on Monday. Left the office a little after 8 pm and was already waiting for my shuttle ride home when I realized that I totally forgot about my jar. 

So, the following day, after a little gym-pigout  session with my cousin Ken at Glorietta, I went straight to the office to work on something with our finance department and at the same time update my jar money.Today, I placed my 5th week installment since I will not report for duty for the rest of the week. January is almost over, and I can almost smell the next payday. I revisited my budget, or as I call it my money envelopes and it looks like financially speaking, January has been a good month.

I saw this interview with a former beauty queen and she explained that she uses money jars to manage her budget. Since jars are a bit bulky and I do not have tons of money to place inside, I decided to modify it and use an expanding envelope instead. 

I prepared a total of 9 envelopes, each representing an expense that I have to allocate money for, with a corresponding index card to monitor the flow of cash. Then I bought one of those expanding envelopes and labelled each division according to my expenses. So every payday, I withdraw everything from my bank account and divide my earnings. 

MORT - MORTGAGE

The amount of money I set aside for the monthly amortization of my housing loan.

BILL - BILLS

That portion of my salary that I set aside to pay for my share in our electric bill.

DINE - DINNERS/ COFFEE

I would allot a small amount. Something I can spend for little coffee chismis nights with my friends or any of those little unplanned dine outs. 

PEFX - PERSONAL EFFECTS

Toiletries, foodstuff, pens, books,  gym expenses... anything I would like to buy for myself... a dvd of a movie and some chips to have a movie marathon with my nephews.

BDGT - BUDGET

My 2-week allocation for my expenses to go to work.

MISC - MISCELLANEOUS / UNEXPECTED EXPENSES

food for our cat Motmot, emergency fund just in case anything in the house needs to be repaired or bought, little gardening hobby expenses... stuff like that. 

RTRE - RETIREMENT

The "thou shall not touch" envelope. I know I should have started with my retirement savings the moment I received my first ever paycheck, but it is never too late to start. This savings will ensure that I will have a lot of time reading a book while sipping an ice-cold glass of fresh juice when my knees are already too weak to walk while wearing 4-inch heeled stilettos.

TRVL - TRAVEL 

"Travel brings power and love back into your life" - Rumi

Last year, I spent money I don't have to travel. I availed of a loan and now I am in debt. I am still paying, and will continue to do so for the next 12 months for that 21 day- US trip 3 months ago.  I am not saying that I will never do that again, but this travel savings will ensure that my next travel will not make me think about selling my kidneys. 

SAVE - SAVINGS

Whatever money I have allocated for other expenses that I did not spend. 

I do not have a budget for clothes, bags and shoes... because we are given a clothing allowance, if there is something I really really really want to buy, I will wait until the next payday to see if there was anything left for me to spend.. or maybe use the money I have set aside for coffee nights to buy a new blouse. 

So there. That is how I budget my money.  modify it according to how you spend your money, maybe fewer envelopes? or a few more to cover car amortization, or if you are strict about tithing or for the kid's school expenses. It does help in making you aware where your hard-earned money goes.