I have started using a personal budget a little bit more now since I'm in the market
for buying a house. I've dibbled and dabbled with budgeting in the past, especially
when it came to wanting to purchase something of value for myself or for my son.
Honestly this time is a little more stringent because I see that in order for me to
reach the goal I want for myself and my future family then it's a lot of things that
have to be cut out and something's I'm putting on the back burner until I satisfy this
financial goal. As far as keeping track of my spending, I know I need to and I think
that would help out a lot more if I did. I do keep track on any debits that come out of
my checking account, but I know it's more to tracking my expenses than just
glancing at my account every 2 or 3 days. I think the biggest strategy that I have
learned this week has to deal with building a personal budget. I feel that is
something my fiance' and I can get into together to help build towards our home
purchasing goal and it's also a good method to teach to our son's. I have found out
that tax withholding definitely has an affect on your budgeting and financial goals by
how much or how little taxes are coming out. I know when I used to work a lot of
overtime I would have to find that median where I would work enough hours so that I
would see the affect and not let taxes take everything. My withholding has an effect
on how much I'm able to put aside each month for a rainy day fund or emergency
backup, especially if I want to keep the amount uniform month by month.
