Sharpen Your Pencil

Greetings and Salutations-
  So- shall we take a break from studying and put some lead to paper so to speak? You have gotten your calender and now you need to start filling it in. I will tell you how I do it, but please don't hesitate on working out your system that is best for you. How I do it will get it done until you can devise your own way as you get comfortable with the process. I use a green highlighter to mark my paydays. When I see green I think $$. I will mark them ahead as many months as I have the patience for at that time that I am doing it but at least 2 months head. Gather your bills (this may take a few cycles to capture all bills including the irregular ones) and mark them when they are due and I pencil in my estimates for the variable ones (for example the electric) and in pen when I know they are fixed (like rent/mortgage).
  I have all my bills on auto-pay, and depending on your situation, I recommend this. Even if you have to start out with one bill-- It does a few things. Number one it starts the automation process for setting something and letting it do its thing. Today it is a bill payment- tomorrow it will be auto-payments into savings. The second thing it does is it makes you more honest with yourself and your bills because you know that on the 15th of the month your cell phone bill is going to be drafted and so you can't pay it late to have fun with until payday and play makeup. It helps you get away from robbing Peter to pay Paul. Its due and you better have the money in your account. I would recommend that you think this through and if it isn't something that you can do now, try and make it a goal in the super near future again even if it is one small bill. Remember small victories are what makes big changes.
  Every 2 weeks after payday (usually saves me from spending/going out on a Friday) I pick a day that weekend and set aside time to plan my next 2 weeks of bills,savings, and pre-spending. I also balance my checkbooks. I estimate my total in bills and add a cushion (I choose $100 but I am already to the point I can lower that amount) just in case a bill hits that I wasn't planning on, forgot, or drafts on the "wrong" date. I write that amount down on my payday. Then I take my paycheck and subtract the difference and MOVE IT TO ANOTHER ACCOUNT. then the money I have left over in that "main checking account" tends to itself and I never dip into it. Because all of that money is as good as spent. It is just waiting for the drafts to kick in.
  The hardest thing I ever did was move that money the first time. I was sooo scared that I messed up the calculations. That I would overdraft. I pushed past that fear and did it. Closed my eyes and nothing bad happened. The bills were paid and I did nothing to see that it happened except that I arranged them to auto-draft. Should you not be able to do this you can let the money sit in the account until it is time to pay the bill. The rule is that the money that you left in this account can't be used for anything else other than bills and can't cover a night out with the girls/boys and now you are short.
  That one giant move is when things started really happening for me. I started accounting for my money and putting it where it needed to go. Next time we will talk about where the balance went that we moved out of the main checking account and what happens to it. Keep up your reading. I have added more books and will continue to do so. Please don't forget questions and feedback is truly appreciated and welcomed!!

Tootles
Heather