These 8 reasons you should be budgeting with Every Dollar will show you how this tool can simplify and streamline your monthly budget process!
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I believe a budget is key to achieving your financial goals and putting your money to work for you. When you create a monthly budget, you set up a plan for your money, according to your priorities and your situation. Budgets are very personal and should reflect your goals and desires. As I mentioned here, we discovered Dave Ramsey and his teachings years ago and were transformed. Creating a monthly budget has been a huge part of the massive progress we’ve made in our debt free journey.
If you are new to budgeting, I’ve written a tutorial for creating a basic budget, which includes a free printable budget form. I’ve also written about how to budget when your income fluctuates from month to month, which also includes a free irregular income budget printable. If you are new to budgeting, I absolutely think it is important to start out with a paper and pencil budget. This is the most basic form of planning for your income and expenses, and the act of physically writing it down and looking at it on paper is especially powerful. The practice of writing your budget on paper brings it down to the simplest level, which is important when you are trying to get used to budgeting.
(My husband and I first started out with a cash envelope budget, and that’s what we used for years. It was hugely foundational to how we view and handle money. You can use a cash envelope budget whether you use the paper and pencil method or the EveryDollar method.)
Once you are comfortable with budgeting on paper, after at least a few months, you should definitely switch to Dave Ramsey’s Every Dollar budgeting system (Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Dave Ramsey or Ramsey Solutions. I just love Every Dollar and think you will, too!). After years of doing paper and pencil budgets, my husband and I switched to Every Dollar shortly after it launched. This easy to use and intuitive budgeting tool has definitely simplified our budgeting process as well as our method of tracking our spending and saving. Below are eight of my favorite aspects of this method, which are also the reasons why I recommend switching to Every Dollar as your method of budgeting.
1. The monthly budget is pre-loaded with several categories.
Having a list of categories in front of you from the get-go helps you to remember certain expenses you might otherwise forget. However, if you need to add categories that aren’t already there, you can easily do so. You can also delete categories that don’t apply to you. This ability to customize is really helpful to make the budget work for your specific situation.
2. After you have created your budget, you can easily record your transactions into the appropriate line item category.
After recording your transactions and assigning them to the appropriate category, you can easily see how much you have spent in that category and how much remains in that category. *Note- If you purchase the Plus version of Every Dollar, you can link your bank account to your Every Dollar account, and transactions will automatically be entered into Every Dollar, at which point you can simply assign the transactions to a category. This eliminates the step of manual entry of transactions. I personally use the free version of Every Dollar, but you may benefit from the paid version if you are prone to forgetting transactions.
3. Every Dollar is a web-based budgeting tool that is available on computer and also on your mobile device as an App.
This makes it extremely easy to use while you are on-the-go. Out shopping and want to know how much is left in your clothing fund? Just check your budget in the free Every Dollar App for your mobile device. After you are finished shopping, you can enter the transaction into the corresponding budget category before you even leave the parking lot. If you are married, this is especially helpful, because each spouse can enter their own transactions, making it easy for the other to see how much is left. While my husband and I still sit down together to do our budget each month, we can refer to it independently throughout the month and still stay on track.
4. You can track budget category spending without using cash envelopes.
For years, my husband and I used cash envelopes for several of our budget categories. That was fine for a while, but I will admit that it was sometimes cumbersome. Especially if my husband was out of town and didn’t have the envelopes with him, or if we were out shopping and realized we’d left our envelopes at home {facepalm}.
After we had kids, it became even more difficult to use the cash envelopes consistently. Let’s be honest–nobody wants to stand in line at Target with a screaming baby while sifting through various envelopes for cash for toiletries, household items, diapers, and clothing, all while fending off evil eyes from the customers behind you in line. With Every Dollar, I can enter one Target transaction into the App and split it between the various applicable categories. This is so much faster and way more convenient, yet it still provides the accountability to stay within my budget, much like cash envelopes do.
5. Your budget categories and amounts can copy over from one month to the next, eliminating the need to completely start from scratch each month.
Having the ability to copy last month’s budget is great for categories that typically stay the same every month, such as your mortgage, insurance, etc. You can easily alter amounts in categories that vary from month to month.
6. You can track your progress toward certain goals each month, such as debt payoff.
The Every Dollar system keeps track of how much you have paid toward a particular debt, as well as how much you still owe. It can be great motivation to see those numbers change from month to month as you realize you are making progress!
7. You can add various savings funds to your monthly budget.
For instance, if you want to save for a new car, you can create a line item in your budget for “New Car Fund.” If you want to save all year for Christmas gifts, you can create a line item for “Christmas Fund.” Being able to delineate multiple savings categories can make it more likely that you will achieve your goals, as opposed to simply having a general line item for “Savings.”
8. You can view monthly financial data.
Every Dollar provides a birds eye view of your monthly financial data. This includes visuals such as a pie chart showing what percentage of your income is being spent in your various categories. You can also see at a glance what you have spent and how much remains in your categories. Having this visual available can be an eye-opening tool to help you take charge of your money.
If you’ve been budgeting on paper for a while and are comfortable with that basic process, you should definitely give Every Dollar a try. The free version is actually very robust, but if you’d like to link your budget to your bank account, you can check out the Plus version. Either way, Every Dollar will save you time and simplify your monthly financial practices!
How do you do your monthly budget? Have you tried Every Dollar?
I really enjoyed this post! Budgeting with every dollar is such a game-changer, and I appreciate how you broke down the reasons so clearly. It’s inspiring to see how small changes can lead to significant financial improvements. Can’t wait to implement these ideas in my own budget!