On a Budget Series – Part 3: Being Aware of Your Finances

If you’re following along with my “On a Budget” Series, today I’m covering how I’m going to accomplish my budget re-vamp and re-focus. I have created a 2013 Personal Finance & Budget Workbook that I am using to track all of my expected bills along with all other transactions throughout each month. 

I won’t bore you with my monthly bill specifics; instead, as stated yesterday, I’m going to focus on getting my expenses in line with the recommended percentages. You probably noticed yesterday that I am definitely guilty of living above my means and it’s time I changed that.

Yesterday I shared my percentage goals based on Dave Ramsey’s suggested percentages. Today I’m going to share with you where I ended up in January (note: this was my first month of tracking so prepare for some red flags)…

I use this prettified graph to display the currently ugly data of where my finances are going each month.

Here’s the data in its ugly form:

Item	Actual %
Savings	0.0%
Charitable Gifts	0.0%
Housing	65.2%
Utilities	22.9%
Food	19.9%
Transportation	17.4%
Medical/Health	1.1%
Clothing/Miscellaneous	0.0%
Personal/Daily Living	1.1%
Recreation/Entertainment	11.0%
Debts	4.3%

As you can see, my housing expense takes up a huge part of my finances and I am way above the recommended percentage of 25%-35%. I definitely have some areas to focus on. However, before I can work on the areas currently showing 0.0%, I need to free up some finances in the areas that exceed my goal %. I need to revamp my finances and fast.

Feel free to join in if you’d like to share your budgeting tips and/or progress.

Check back tomorrow for “On a Budget Series – Part 4: Steps to Success.”

Until next time!