Money Management Week: Day 3 {& A DAVE RAMSEY GIVEAWAY!}

Welcome to halfway through Money Management Week! To celebrate we're kicking off our Dave Ramsey giveaway. One lucky reader will receive a fresh off the press, newly revised edition of Dave Ramsey's Money Answer Book: Quick Answers for Your Everyday Financial Questions.

Dave Ramsey has got our new little family off to a great start financially. Because of him, we have a PLAN. We have realistic {and slightly weird} goals and we know how to achieve them. I immediately fell in love with Dave's financial philosophies when C & I took Financial Peace University right after we got married. His personality and motivational nature is addicting. He breaks things into little bite sized pieces to make them easier to understand and undertake. This book is no different than watching the man speak to a live audience. His charismatic, encouraging, and logical voice is prevalent on every page and you feel energized and ready to DO something as soon as you put it down.

What I most appreciate about Dave's outlook, is his understanding of marriage and how money affects it. He is a huge advocate for balance. Most of all, his recommendations just make sense! If I can logically put together and understand what he's teaching, I can move forward in confidence.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a little bit more direction in their financial life. So what are you waiting for?!

To enter the giveaway, tell me 1 thing you want to be/do/have/etc. in the next 5 years.

I'll pick a winner after there are 50 entries. You can get additional entries by mentioning this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, or your own personal blog. Just be sure to come back here and leave a comment telling me what you did & a link to where you mentioned it!

Now, back to Money Management Week.

#3 Track your Expenses

Hi! It's Lindsay again. How did your budget turn out? Today we're talking about the grunt work of actually using your budget.

When we moved into the real world, we found out a very important lesson.

LIFE IS EXPENSIVE.

Bummer. Rent, food, gas, entertainment...it seemed like everything cost more than it did when we were in college.  It was so frustrating to see our happy paycheck come into the bank and then a couple days later, we wouldn't have any money. Where was it going? I mean, really.

A lot of people use Quicken to figure out the question, where is my money going? Quicken frustrated me-so I rely on Excel instead. Either one works. Basically, I just type in the amounts from each transaction into their category...and add them all together.  Excel lets me split receipts and put those diapers in their rightful place. So $30 goes in the diaper budget and 100.54 goes in the grocery budget. Here's an example of ours.  I made up the numbers, but you get the idea.

In truth, I don't track my expenses as often as I should. But it's useful when I feel like our money is disappearing.

Lindsay graduated from Brigham Young University with her Bachelor’s in English. She has lived in Colorado for a little over a year. Her husband loves her because she makes him laugh. Her daughter loves her because she makes the best food in the world. :) Lindsay loves her book club, quilting, her family, and going places-the library, the zoo, hiking, sporting events. She loves to GO!

Note: I received a free copy of Dave Ramsey's book, but the opinions and recommendations expressed in this post are my own. I intend to keep all reviews completely honest.