Cents to Freedom

Well Day 1 was not an ordinary day, so even though I tried to record all expenditures, it kind of got out of hand.  Today's bills:  Car Lease, One Credit Card. Today's other expenses:  New kids shoes, new kids bathing suit, vending machine snacks. I hope tomorrow will be more "normal" so I can record what I spend, while trying not to think about what I am spending.  I need to see what my baseline is so I can adjust accordingly. 

As I stated in the previous post writing things down makes them real.  In doing this I have started what is a very rough Budget.  I have been using Google Sheets for right now, getting down the basic information needed. I have a section broken out for different pay amounts with starting salary, first pay bump, and the hopefully next pay raise.   This is based on a yearly salary then broken out to paychecks.  I made deductions for the taxes (based off currently salary, and my 401k payments (10%) currently. With my known income, I next needed to see all my expenditures.   These are things like rent, cable, cell phone, car, water, electricity, food, insurance, entertainment.   I should be in the black each month, but I am not.  So clearly I am not tracking anything very well.  My budget sheet is just a bunch of numbers not really worth it yet.   I used to use Mint, maybe I should check it out.  ...

Welcome to Cents to Freedom, a personal finance blog where I will be talking about what I am doing to try and clear up racked up unsecured debt.  I have read that by talking/writing about your debt it forces you to take a harder look at where you stand.  I hope that by doing this it will help me chip away at the mountain and by chance help others who may be struggling.