The Inevitable New Year’s Budgeting…Oy

I was on a group text with some girlfriends the other day and we started talking about budgeting in the New Year. We were all joking about it, but I realized that it’s not just Blake and I who have been sitting down to talk about finances. THAT was comforting amidst the stress of budgeting/planning for the New Year  – I meeeeean, that’s what girlfriends are for, am I right?!

So I got to thinking – how could we talk about it in a helpful way on the blog? I tease Blake all the time about how he nerds out on spreadsheets, but he’s actually created a really detailed and helpful spreadsheet that tracks our income, expenses, and spending. I asked him if he could zero it out to create a sort of template to share on here, and he did! I don’t want to stress you out with the details of OUR finances, just your own ;). I’m hoping that you can take this template and fill in the numbers to help you get in the right mindset of where you’re at financially in the New Year.

You can download the template by clicking here: 2019 Budget Template

Be careful as you’re filling it in – Blake’s included a lot of formulas that calculate from page to page (tabs are along the bottom) to give you your totals! For example, the first tab called “Balance & Budget” will auto-fill with results based on what you fill in the spaces on the other tabs…so leave that first tab alone ;).

If you’re wondering where to get all of the details, we use Mint for a lot of it! If you’ve never used Mint before, it’s super thorough and it’s free. Blake also says Albert and Clarity Money are good apps to suggest to you as well :).

It’s hard to not just get stressed/overwhelmed when you’re looking at finances, so we really try to flip it into something positive. Planning now will save us lots of stress and give us more freedom down the road. That’s a good way to think of it, work it all out now to get that vacation later!

And speaking of budgeting, this sweater dress is on sale for $54 (regularly $90) and these over-the-knee black boots are a great dupe for just $39! Shopping smarter (and shopping sales) will definitely help your budget ;).

Black Sweater Dress | Black Over-the-knee Boots | Sunglasses  | Shorter Necklace | Longer Necklace

Black Sweater Dress | Black Over-the-knee Boots | Sunglasses  | Shorter Necklace | Longer Necklace

Good luck with your budgeting – your 2020 self with thank you if you do it in 2019 ;).

xx

Jen