Spring Clean Your Finances

Itʻs the first day of Spring, so naturally everyone starts to think about Spring Cleaning. This year try these tips to Spring Clean your home and your finances.

1. The Little Things Add Up
While Spring Cleaning your home and/or car grab an empty jar or cup and collect the coins you find. Use this money to pay off a portion of any debt you have remaining or put it towards savings. Even if itʻs only $20 or less that you find while cleaning, thatʻs $20 less that will be accruing interest and adding to your debt.

2. Garage Sale
As you are cleaning you may find items that you donʻt need anymore, but that you could make a few bucks off of at a garage sale or by selling the items online. Again, designate the money you earn towards debt or savings.

3. Make Use of What You Already Have
Take an afternoon to clean out and look through your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. See how you can get creative with what you already have to plan meals for the next 5-7 days. If you can manage to not have to buy anything at the grocery store for a week, use the money that you normally would have spent and put that towards debt or savings. Make this a regular practice (every 3-4 months or so) and you may be surprised at how much you can save in the process.

4. Clear Out The Mail Clutter
If you still receive paper mail, consider enrolling in e-bills and autopay. This will reduce the amount of mail you have coming to your home and is also eco-friendly. Going online also helps to organize your bills and having autopay helps you to not miss a payment and have to pay late fees or other penalties.

5. Organize Your Debt and Spending Online
I have used both Mint and LearnVest apps and online websites to keep my finances organized. Both of these programs link directly to your online accounts and keeps up to date records. Itʻs nice to see all the information in one place. The apps will also tell you how much total debt and total investments you have too. Itʻs a great reminder on how much progress you have made and how much progress you still have yet to achieve. These apps are FREE, however they will try and sell you credit watch services and credit cards/loans to help you consolidate. DONʻT fall for any of it! As it may seem they are looking out for you and trying to help you out, they are in the business to make money and will try to sell you products and services to do so.

6. Complete Your Monthly Budget 
Start working on next monthʻs budget. If you havenʻt already done so, start working out your monthly written budget for April. Be sure to take in to consideration any parties, special occasions or vacations you may have planned. Itʻs better to stay ahead of the game, instead of acting surprised about an expense you should have known was coming up.

Pick one or two of these tips to commit to in the next week. Share what you are doing with a friend and ask them to join you. Having an accountability partner to share successes and struggles with helps you stick to your goals.

Time to Evaluate your Savings and Spending

Typically, by now most people have either given up or revised their New Years Resolutions. Now that 2 months of 2014 is in the books. Itʻs a good time to evaluate how you are doing with your financial goals. Take this quick assessment to see how you are doing so far in regards to saving and spending:

1. Savings

A. How much have you saved so far this year? 

     Are you participating in the 52 Weeks Savings Challenge? Do you have a portion of you paycheck automatically deposited into a savings account? Do you put your extra change in a piggy bank or jar at the end of the day? No matter what you are doing to save money, keep up with it! Even if you only save $1.00 a day, youʻll have $365 more at the end of the year. 

B. Have you had to dip into your savings this year? What was it for? 

     Did a situation occur that made you have to use some of the money you saved? Was it that one pair of shoes that you had to have? Was it an emergency that came up and you didnʻt have enough in your checkings account to cover it? If it was an emergency, consider funding or using your Emergency Fund for these types of situations. 

C. Is your current saving plans working for you? Should you decrease your plan? Are you able to increase your savings? 

     Is the amount of money you are currently putting away for savings putting a strain on paying your bills? Consider, decreasing the amount. Although you should save or as they say "pay yourself first" you want to make sure you donʻt fall behind on your bills or have any late payments. If you end up with extra money at the end of the month and all your bills/expenses are paid in full, consider increasing your savings amount.

2. Spending

A. How many times have you overspent in the past 2 months? 

     Have you over-drafted at all this year? Was it an oversight on your part? Did you know that you were going to have to have an overdraft? To prevent overdrafts, create a budget and stick to it. Also, manage your bank accounts regularly. 

B. Have you tried an envelope system to control your spending? 

      An envelope system helps you to stay on budget. You put cash for your different spending categories. Once you have spent all the cash in the envelope, that is all you have to spend, until you refill your envelopes (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly). 

C. How many large purchases have you made so far this year? 

     How many purchases have you made over $500.00? Were they necessary purchases? Did you budget them in to your finances? Large purchases are inevitable, so make sure you have a plan to save for or work those purchases into your budget. 

If you could use improvement in any or all of these areas, choose 1 area to focus on during the month of March. Use these guidelines at the end of each month to help you make strides toward financial success.