Organizing my Finances

So if you recall, a couple weeks ago, I stated that my personal New Year's Resolution was to finally get my finances in order. I think I've actually made this resolution every year for the past couple years and just haven't stuck to it. But this year I'm committed and I know if I don't do this now, I'm never do this.

In the past, I've tried tracking my financials on Google Slides (Google's version of excel). I found it was really easy, but it was hard to manage properly with everything being on the computer. (And having two little boys that always want to help when I'm on the computer). So for this year I decided to keep it simple and just use a journal.

So to kickoff the new year, I bought myself a Mara Mi Slipcover Journal.

I love that in the slip cover has a little pocket that I can store reciepts or pens or whatever else I need. And there's also zipper pocket along the side that I store bigger items in (or the little bit of cash I sometimes have on hand)

I had to get a little creative in setting up the journal to track my finances (since journal is just a lined journal and not necessarily for tracking finances). So I decided it was best if I split the journal in half.

The front half I decided would be used for a yearly overview on how things are going. 

Along with monthly reviews after it.

(I'm still figuring out how I want this to look)

And then, starting in the back of the journal, I created my own little checking ledger. 

On one page I created a grid to mark where I shopped, the category the item falls in, how much is spent/ earned and how much money I saved.

And on the other page, I made columns for all my various accounts. So at any given time I can check what my balances should be. (Except for cash. That's only there to see how much money I spend in cash each month.)

So far so good. At least with the tracking that is,. we'll see how things are going after I make it through January!