How is your budget?

It's Friday and yes it is payday....it also means bills (at least for us) and grocery shopping! How do you all budget your money? Is this something that you look forward to?

My Strategies: Bill Payment

• Bill Payment Calendar - how I do it: I have a bill payment schedule with Friday as the payment date. I made 4 columns for each row to correspond to the four weeks of the month (i.e. Aug. 1st; Aug 8th and so on). Under each column, I wrote the bills and amount that needed to be paid in that particular date. I also have an additional column for miscellaneous expenses and free week (extra week that we have no bills to pay). This has helped me tremendously in paying our bills on time, not missing any payment and staying in our budget. (note: I am also is way ahead of my calendar, I have up to April 2009 covered).


• Pay online - this will save you money on stamps, envelopes, gas (if you need a trip to the P.O.).


• If you cannot make a payment online, be sure to mail your check a few days in advance to make sure they get in on time to avoid late payment fees.

Grocery/Food Saving Tip:

• Grocery list - I always have a grocery list on hand and I make sure to just get what is on the list.


• ALDI - do you have an ALDi's in your area. This place should be in your list as one of the best place to get groceries if you want to save BIG and are on a tight budget! We always shop at ALDI's and we buy enough to last us for at least two weeks (instead of going on a weekly trip) to save us gas.


• Cook food that will just be enough for the family. No left over and no food is wasted(especially if your family is the type who don't want to eat repeats).


• Buy meat in bulk then divide it into 1lb increments and store(freeze) it in freezer bags or empty plastic containers you have around the house. This way, you will only cook what is needed.


• Use coupons and avail of the double or triple savings that the stores have.

I am by no means an expert in budgeting but I do hope these simple strategies that I shared with you today will be of help in your budgeting. Please share with us your budgeting tips by leaving us a comment.