Forgetting something?

101 categories to include in your budget to avoid surprises [Image] ThePennyHoarder.com July 15th, 2019 Hey, how was your weekend? How’s your Monday shaping up? Feeling pretty good? Good! Then it’s time to kick it into gear and face the week head on. First up on this week’s agenda? Doing a once-over on your budget and making sure there will be no surprises — and then maybe even a little no-spend challenge. But first… Ah, the Age-Old Question… If you end up with some “extra” money in your budget (we’re saying “extra” like that because you might have forgotten something when you created your budget — you’ll see what we mean), should you pay off debt or invest? Or both? We’re sorry to disappoint, but there is no one-size-fits-all answer here. [Let’s talk about why](. Going Old School Want to turn your finances around? It could be as simple as ditching the newfangled budgeting apps and grabbing a good old fashioned pen and some paper. Yep, we’re talking bullet journals, and we’ve got [five easy ways you can use bullet journal spreads to fix your finances](. (Not feeling particularly creative? No worries. You can totally use a bullet journal to track your budget, bills, spending and saving without having to do all the fancy doodles. Seriously: it’s not as scary as some of the people on Pinterest would have you believe.) Forgetting Something? [Budget expenses]( Step 1: Start a budget. Step 2: Realize you forgot to include cat food. Adjust budget. Step 3: Wait a week. Surprise! Gas prices just shot up. Adjust budget. Step 4: Feel good about your budget, finally. Step 5: Realize you didn’t include your annual tag renewal for your car in your budget. Give up on this whole budgeting thing. Step 6: Panic about your finances. Start a budget. And on and on (and on) it goes. Deep breath. We’re here to help. We’ve scoured the internet and our bank transactions, learned from our own budgeting fumbles and assembled [a complete list of the 101 most common personal budget categories]( so you can include everything this time. [Image] WORD OF THE DAY No-spend days (n): A simple savings challenge you can impose on yourself by establishing a certain number of days per month when you won’t make any purchases. Once you see how easy it is to go a few days here and there without spending anything at all, you’ll start to reform your spending and saving habits over time — and you’ll find wiggle room in your budget you didn’t realize you had. There’s more than one way to implement a no-spend challenge, but sprinkling in a few no-spend days can make for an easier transition than quitting spending cold turkey. The first month, start small by challenging yourself to five no-spend days out of the month to get the hang of it, and then try something more challenging, like 15 days. Once you become a no-spend-day pro, you can move on to [these other no-spend challenge ideas]( that can help set you on the right financial track. [The Penny Hoarder] [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( The Penny Hoarder | 490 1st Ave S, Suite 800 | Saint Petersburg, Florida 33701 | United States You can [update your mailing preferences here]( or [unsubscribe]( from all email from The Penny Hoarder. Questions? View our [Privacy Policy](. Having trouble reading this email? You can [view it online](.