So, you always hear that you need a budget to be effective, right? You need to track your money to get control of it so you can plan to spend it the best way so that it doesn't end up just leaving you going to many unknown places.
This is the section where I want to focus on doing a budget update once a month to show you how I'm doing and how I'm growing. I think that showing people that it can be done on a normal income is a huge motivator and will hopefully encourage others to start their own financial journey.
We follow a simple program for money management that includes 7 Baby Steps. Here they are:
Updated 8/30/16: Currently, we are working on Baby Step 3: Saving 3-6 Months of Expenses In Savings again. We actually have 96.5% of this funded at this time. It takes some time to get the money together, but we are working hard and should be able to complete this in a couple months!
We have been following these Baby Steps since May 24, 2011 and have seen great success. Our net worth has gone from actually being negative to growing more and more positive each month.
I am basically looking to list out our income and our main expenses. I am also going to update with our Net Worth report and will show how we grow it every month. I think that by doing this it will hold me accountable and will show how it's grown in real time.
Past Monthly Net Worth Updates
August 2017 – $119,015.06 – Net Worth Update (+$1,960.61)
Another solid up month, we put more money into the market, built more home equity and
saved the rest. Check out the details here…
July 2017 – $117,054.45 – Net Worth Update (+$3,801.02)
We had a solid up month, putting more money into savings and riding the market movement upwards. Check out the details here…
May 2017 – $113,412.39 – Net Worth Update (+$13,485.08)
We had our biggest up month to date this past month. Through a refinance and market growth, we are back on track for the year. Find out more about it here.
April 2017 – $99,927.31- Net Worth Update (-$7,248.73)
We saw our first down month in April due to a large expense. Find out more in our April net worth update.
March 2017 – $107,176.04 – Net Worth Update (+$2,196.45)
In March, we saw our first all positive month! Get the details inside as we look through how we did with our money and any lessons we can part with.
February 2017 – $104,979.59 – Net Worth Update (+$1,817.24)
February was a quiet month with steady growth. Although we had some overspending, we did grow. Check out the update here.
January 2017 – $103,162.35 – Net Worth Update (+$1,113.32)
January showed steady growth with the markets rallying. We reflect on overspending on groceries, sinking funds and a new phone purchase.
December 2016 – $102,109.16 – Net Worth Update (+$2,961.25)
December allowed us to finish up the year on a new milestone with our net worth and we had strong growth in areas like investments, cash, and even cars!
November 2016 – $99,147.91 – Net Worth Update (+$3,221.24)
We rebounded well from last month’s decline. Stocks were up and we received some nice refunds to save and grow.
October 2016 – $95,926.67 – Net Worth Update (-$2,633.43)
Our net worth declined $2633 this month as we battled Murphy with our vehicles as well as made a couple big purchases.
September 2016 – $98,560.10 – Net Worth Update (+$899.90)
Our net worth moved up by almost $900 this month as we spent our first month truly on one income. Check out how we did it.
August 2016 – $97,660.20- Net Worth Update (+$8,080.81)
This was a great month for our family’s net worth. Despite big changes to our work situation, we were able to increase our net worth by over $8,000!
Are you ready to finally take control of your finances? Let my budgeting spreadsheets help!
Just fill out the form below and I'll send you the link to get the same exact budgeting spreadsheets that I use each month!
Included in the workbook:
- Monthly budget form
- Breakdown of savings form (for your sinking funds)
- Overview of your financial plan
I've been using these same forms since August 2011 and have grown my family's net worth 500% tracking our money using these forms!
I love this ‘accountability’ testimony for other families to watch.
Thanks! Yes, I need to get back to updating it more frequently. But, it is nice to track and show that I’m “walking the walk”.
I LOVE the graph. How great that you have data from the past 8 years! Seeing your progress motivates me… I want us to have a similar trend.
Thanks! Yeah it’s awesome although I wish I had journaled my way through us getting out of debt while we were doing it so I could have captured the emotions we went through! Since we became debt free (other than the house) in 2013, it’s hard to go back to how it felt at that time other than knowing it wasn’t as free as now and that I don’t want to go back!