How I started taking control of my money instead of it taking control of me?

Many people have asked me “How is it possible that you paid off so much debt and you were a one income household?”

I was a stay at home mom of two children and when I finally started working, I only worked part time.  To be honest, family of four in a low-income category struggling paycheck to paycheck wasn’t the best feeling.  We needed to make a change.  That change guided us to make a huge difference.  Sometimes I can’t even believe how much we have paid off ourselves, but I know it isn’t impossible.  It is a lot of work, but definitely worth it.

SO, WHAT IS THIS TEMPLATE?

I personally always needed a visual of what bills are coming out in each paycheck, so I developed a system for myself.    This is what I found would be the best way for me to not only keep track of my bills, but also to budget for expenses too.  For years, I used a notepad and I would write down the dates I received a paycheck every two weeks and under the date what bills had to come out of that check.  I would also write the date the bill was due as well as the amount that was due especially if it was an amount that didn’t change like the mortgage.  I would have this laid out for months, so there were no surprises.  There was no way for me to forget what was due.  This also assisted with knowing what I had leftover. 

Before the financial free journey, I would just keep track of the bills and that’s all.  I would just spend on unnecessary items for whatever money was left over instead of putting it where it should have gone, but most of the time we didn’t have money left over.  At times, the bills exceeded the income that we were bringing in. 

When we finally started our financial free journey, that is when I really started to keep track of lifestyle expenses and including it using the “>ENVELOPE SYSTEM.  We do a zero-based “>BUDGET where every $1 is attached to something even if its miscellaneous.  Most of the time, it would be attached to funding the “>EMERGENCY FUND if it weren’t apart of my envelope system.   If your starter emergency fund is fully funded, then it goes straight to paying debt.

I wanted to share the form I created with all of you.  It is a template instead of using a notepad, you can add this to the other templates I have offered as well.  If you haven’t downloaded the other ones, CLICK HERE FOR FREE TEMPLATES.  You can punch some holes in them and add it to a binder.   In this way, you can have everything in one place and not scattered.  Keep all your financial budgeting items in one location. 

My question for you is ARE YOU READY?  ARE YOU READY TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MONEY?  Don’t let it run you… You are the BOSS!!  Tell your money where it is going!!

GO GET YOUR FREE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK TEMPLATE AND IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK VIDEO YET. 

WATCH BELOW!