how i budget

For some reason, lately I've been talking a lot to friends about budgeting and how I handle my money versus how they handle theirs. I find it fascinating to hear how other people divvy up their paychecks and how they prioritize versus what I do. I could talk about these things for hours. Probably because deeply at the root of my being is one simple fact:

I love money.

I love making it, I love spending it, and I love saving it.

I know that in order to have the life I dream of I need to be smart about my money. No one is going to hand me billions of dollars. No one is going to provide these things for me but myself. I've been making a conscious effort lately to really up my game as far as my financial planning goes. I am by NO MEANS an expert and it's been a lot of trial and error along the way to find what works for me (I've talked about this before). But I think I've finally found a plan that works for me and I figured I would share it in case it helps anyone else.

First off, I am obsessed with LearnVest.com. It's a financial website geared towards helping women be more financially savvy, but I think it is a great resource for anyone. I have an account set up there which links all my bank accounts and credit cards and gives me a nice (and pretty!) overview of my finances. It has made it ridiculously easy to keep an eye on where my money is going.

There are lots of other sites out there like this one - Mint.com is another popular one. I used to use Mint, but, simply put, I didn't like it. Use what works for you, be it another website, an app on your phone, a spreadsheet, or crayons and scrap paper. Whatever! As long as it keeps you organized and accountable you're golden.

The best tip I have for budgeting your money is one I got from LearnVest. They recommend the 50/20/30 rule: 50% of your take home pay should go to necessities - rent, utilities, transportation, food. 20% goes to debt repayment and savings/retirement. 30% is leftover for your lifestyle - eating out, shopping, etc. It make it really easy to see where you're spending too much or too little and adjust accordingly. For instance, it turned out I wasn't spending 50% of my pay on necessities, so I was able to bump up my savings and lifestyle sections.

The 50/20/30 rule is so much easier than tracking every cent that goes in or out of your wallet. It allows you to focus your spending and saving without having to be a stickler. And if you're already using a money management website or system it should be really easy for you to see where your money is going.

The next financial challenge I plan on tacking is investing. I'm not kidding when I say I want a plushy life, so anything I can do to up my net worth is something I want to look into. Investing is something I know NOTHING about so this should be an interesting adventure. I'm thinking about starting to set aside some money purely to invest and seeing how it goes.

Any of you financial experts? Have any tips on investing or budgeting? I want to hear them! No, seriously, tell me because I wasn't kidding when I said I am obsessed with money.

Which now that I think about it is super weird since I hate math. Huh.

*This post is in no way affiliated with LearnVest. I'm just seriously obsessed. So dorky.

photos via learnvest.com and mint.com

twenty minutes

I ran for twenty minutes without stopping today. Who am I?! That has been the one day of Couch to 5k that I've been stuck on. My legs kept giving out, my calves screaming in pain after barely ten minutes. 

I switched up my sneakers and now the calf pain is essentially gone and I can run much further than I could before. I decided to finally tackle the 20 minutes of running, no walking. It went so well! I felt like I could even keep going once the 20 minutes was up (I didn't, baby steps here people). I'm still extremely slow, but right now I'm focusing on endurance rather than speed or distance. 

Next week I'm going to work on improving my time for a mile. I'd like to try to add in more running days, even if it's just a mile. My town has a 5k coming up on November 4th, and I'm thinking about signing up. I'm NOWHERE near being ready for it, but maybe it will give me something to work towards?

Labor Day Weekend

Three day weekends are both the best and worst things ever. On the one hand - three days off! On the other hand - not enough. This Labor Day weekend was surprisingly jam-packed, now that I'm looking back on it.

Friday night Boyfriend and I went out for fondue. He'd never had it before and I don't pass up the opportunity to eat melted cheese and chocolate.

Saturday was a much needed day of cleaning and shopping. The shopping was a reward for all the cleaning I did, ha.

Then Sunday Boyfriend and I had big plans to go skydiving. The skydiving place we were going to is about an hour away so we got up early and stopped for breakfast on the way out there. And it was the best. Breakfast. Ever. Oh my lord.

I don't normally eat eggs - I don't even LIKE eggs, but for some reason I felt like ordering eggs. So I did. And they were delicious.

We ended up not skydiving due to heavy cloud
cover, so we had to re-schedule our jump. The good news about having to drive back out there is getting breakfast again. ;)

 We did manage to take a bunch of pictures while we were waiting to find out if we could jump:

... first time he sneezed in the middle.

Then he blinked.

Nailed it.

 Today was spent doing MORE shopping with mom (really just accompanying her on her errands) and then hanging out with Mia, who is being a geisha girl for Halloween:

All in all a successful weekend!