Financing Dining Room

You will be shocked at how much you didn't realize about your debt: its total, its monthly expense; how much you are paying in finance charges (the amount you are paying just to have used the money). Your monthly debt payments may be eating up so much of your take home pay, that you don't have the money left over to pay your everyday expenses, let alone all the extras that we like to have in life. The second product I am going to recommend is financial tracking software. I've probably spent 10 hours on it in total: there was virtually no learning curve, every moment I have spent on it has been spent keying in information. The third product that I have found extremely helpful is an excellent filing system. I'm a teacher; therefore, I spend a lot of time during the school year avoiding my personal mail, etc., and just paying my bills once a month on-line. Each debt got the same notes: Total amount left, interest rate, monthly payments, and "minimum payments." As I paid the bills that month, I put a running list in my spiral notebook - new balances and amounts paid.

The next step is to create a Quicken cash account. In the center of the table lay my fathers pay check for all to examine. If it was a penny, nickel or dime the decision was easy; save it. Twenty-five cents was the lowest amount of money that would buy something for every member of the family at one time. We rarely asked our parents if we could buy something. Why? Because we knew how much money there was available. If we were lacking we didn't know it. And we were included in a major aspect of family life - finances.

If you're like most people, your personal financial records are most probably kept in less than "Good Accounting Practices" standards. For example, stashing old ATM receipts and hanging on to a stub showing what you paid for a pack of mints two years ago (cash, of course), might be filed with your paycheck stubs, credit card statements - paid and unpaid alike - as well as a few tax forms, a stray paper clip and a penny.
1) Plan for a few hours of "alone time" with your financial records. Make sure you have enough organizing supplies close at hand: sticky notes, file folders, a tub to hold them with hanging file folders, large envelopes, a check file, ring binder/s and a three-hole punch if you like, an open stacking file, and an organizer/sorter.
2) Get everything from everyplace - shoe boxes, check files, file folders, etc.
Decide what you're going to put where: e.g., checks and statements go in a specific file for checks and statements, credit card statements can be unfolded and placed in a file folder, etc.
3) Start sorting on the table. Checks go here, ATM receipts go there, paycheck stubs go over there, paid bills go on the other side, etc. until all the "stuff" is divided into neatly organized piles.
4) Put all the "paid" items away first.
5) Put the rest of the inactive items in the envelopes, file folders, check files or other storage devices as are interesting, functional, and readily available from your local office supply store.

Programs like Quicken and Microsoft Money will help. Have a category for each life area you spend money. Once a week or month take your receipts, checkbook records and scribbled notes and record where you spent ALL your money....every penny.