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Last updated on April 10th, 2022 at 04:01 pm
During the last few weeks, we’ve instituted a “commission” system for my 6-year-old to earn money. The purpose isn’t really for her to earn money —it’s to teach her how to manage money. Even at her age, she can learn an easy weekly budgeting practice that will help her manage her money in the long run.
Every Saturday, I give my 6yo her “commission” for the week. We separate her money into three separate envelopes (recommended in Smart Money Smart Kids): save, spend, and give.
She’s getting into the habit of “managing” her money every week. I’m in the habit, also, but it’s a little more involved than just envelopes.
Since I’m not thrilled to budget every week, I’ve instituted an easy weekly budgeting practice to help me stay on top of my finances.
The practice is this: I collect all our receipts and statements for the week and enter them into the budgeting app we use (we’re currently using EveryDollar ).
Yes, this is so simple and doesn’t seem to warrant a blog post.
BUT the difficulty is doing it!
Here are some things I’ve done to make this an easy weekly budgeting practice:
01. Use an Actionable Paper Hub.
An Actionable Paper Hub is the place where all your papers, regardless of what they are, are compiled throughout the week. In the case of budgeting, this means all the receipts I need to enter into EveryDollar are in this one spot. I don’t have to hunt all over the house searching for receipts.
02. Do the budget on the same day every week.
Setting aside a consistent day to work on my budget means it actually gets done. I use Friday mornings to quickly enter everything into our budget and check all our finances. At this point, it’s part of my weekly rhythm and things don’t feel right unless I do it.
03. Use a budgeting app
In the past, I would use a spreadsheet to track our budget. However, using a budgeting app makes the process a lot smoother.
Before, I used Mint because it connected to my accounts for free. These days we’re using EveryDollar because the layout is simple, and we like the way Dave Ramsey does finance.
This whole weekly budgeting practice is part of my CEO Day Framework that I teach in The Paper Hubs System and The Essential Home Organizing Blueprint.
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