2015 Goals: Budget Better

As of right now I've done a pretty good job of budgeting (if I do say so myself) but I can always be better. Here is my budgeting system so far. (There may be tweaks made in the upcoming months.)

"Jot It Down" Notebook// Whenever I use cash I record right away what I used it on. Every week I go on my credit card and write down everything I spent my money on, which is normally just gas and Amazon charges. Every two weeks I go into my spread sheet and write down my expenses

Budgeting Spreadsheeting// True to being the daughter of an accountant, I have a budget spreadsheet. I might do things a little differently than most people, but I like to see my predicated and actual spending. Also it's been 6 months since I've had "normal" expenditures so January and February are my test months.

1. First I created a predicated budget for each month.

These are all made up numbers 

I also included my earnings and what the net budget is. 

2. Next I created a box for my actual budget right below it.

This is just an example, but I have more categories here because January and February are test months, and I want to see how much I will spend on these extra categories on a  monthly basis. 

3. Create extras

I created goals and possible extra costs for each month. I have a savings goal for the semester and year. To budget better, I put extra costs such as trips to see MB, club dues and conference trips underneath each predicated month box. 

How do you budget better? Do you have a savings goal?

xoxo