Habits...

“Bad” habits are EASY, aren’t they? Seriously, think of all the bad habits you can. They didn’t take practice, did they?

We have our cash envelopes and a budget and we are sticking to our plan. Now we know where all the money is supposed to go…but where is it actually going? The big things are easy to track like: the house payment, student loans, utilities, insurance and all our friggin’ debt payments. But it’s the little things like: groceries, stamps, gas, dog food, pool passes -- those things that seem small, but really add up.

That’s where the daily ledger comes in. Our coach suggested keeping track - daily - of where our money is going. We suppose it’s to make sure our budget and real life actually work together. We are both neat freaks -- “a place for everything and everything in its place” kind of people, so you would think this simple task would be an easy habit.

But the rub is actually doing it. Opening the ledger each day, and saying, “OK, what did we spend today? What did we earn today?” and writing it all down.  Not every other day or putting off for the next day or the end of the week. Even if there is nothing to enter, just opening it up and acknowledging that it’s there and that it is the key to our success. Good money habits will keep this financial journey on a smooth path.

“They” say that it takes approximately three weeks for a habit to stick. So if we had started entering our data daily, by the end of the week it would have been a habit. So let’s see…three weeks from today, we should have a really nice habit of checking our envelopes, verifying our basic living expenditures and of course, making daily entries into the daily ledger.

Now, if we can just crack the nut of getting the boys in the habit of putting their clothes in the laundry basket…

This week, we are celebrating our cash envelopes -- and not spending more than what’s in them!

Comments

[Jen Faber]

It has now been 3+ weeks since the start of your cash envelopes...cheers to you for making it a habit and sticking to it!

Lots of luv,
Sista J