Budgeting Advice ;-)

I saw this in a blog and wanted to pass it on to you Angels.

Anyway she wrote a blog about finances and I'm going to have to pass on this awesome advice to people who are:

1) Trying to budget or just track their expenses

2) Trying to balance their checkbooks (which you ALL should be doing)

3) Do a lot of small trips to places like Starbucks (aka Crackhouse, Inc.)

"If you are making the same purchase everyday, make it easier on yourself and get a gift card. I, for example, drive to get a coffee at Starbucks in the morning with my husband before we head off to work. I make this purchase every weekday. Now, admittedly, it is a pain in the rear to make a $1.97 entry every morning in the check register. So here's the solution. If I KNOW I'm going to be going to Starbucks every morning, I withdraw $50 and buy a gift card. That way I have $50 on the check register for "Starbucks - May" and then you just make your purchase every morning with that! So much easier."

Here's the link if you want to look at the whole entry: http://hyperhomemaker.blogspot.com/2008/05/starting-fresh.html

You could use this same theory for eating out, even if it's at different resturants...

Here's my suggestion:

If you are a fast food addict or find yourself eating out to much at sit-down places you could buy a Visa Gift Card and then use that as your budget.

For example: You budget $50 a month for fast food (definition: any place with a drive-thru or a in which your food comes in a bag.) You buy a $50 Visa Gift Card and make all your fast food purchases with that. When it runs out, no more fast food for you. If there's some left over, you 1)reload the card with another $50 and you either get extra fast food 2) Only reload the card so that the balance will be $50 (like if you had $12 left over you just add $38, so the total's $50) and then you have extra money in your checking account for a nice dinner, a movie, or an extra 3 gallons of gas.

Either way it will help you see what you're spending and regulate it.

Hope this helps ladies. Peace out Angels.