by Beks
Has it been two weeks?!?! I had planned to take a week off for the holiday and suddenly looked up and TWO weeks had passed. Geez! Sorry! To be fair, work has been off the rails and well, obviously there is quite a bit of things distracting me in the political world. I don’t care what side you are on, our hearts are hurting.
We are making our way back home from Texas which usually means days on the road and crazier (I didn’t know that was possible) schedules. I have a lot of experience of times like these thanks to the last several months so I’m keenly aware of the first things I let slip – Finances and Fitness.
Get your FREE trial of the Best Budgeting App, Simplifi by Quicken
Fitness
When things are crazy, it’s very easy to tell myself that I can’t possibly spare 30-60 minutes to go running. It’s cold outside. I have things to do. I had a 305 day streak of a 30 minute or more workout. I dropped that streak in December. I ate whatever I wanted over the holidays. Ugh. My favorite running stopped fitting. I felt crummy. Last week, I laced up my shoes and started running again. After 3-4 miles, I come back and do runners yoga. I feel so good starting work after I calm my mind. I forgot how much I need this mentally and physically. It feels good to be back.
Finances
I haven’t gone on another spending spree but I haven’t been logging my budget which is nearly as bad. How much is left in the grocery category? Beats me! Buy those expensive avocados! Manually logging each purchase takes a ton of time and I don’t have it. I caved and connected my bank account transactions to my budget app. I hate giving ANYTHING access to my banking information. I recognize that allowing access increases the likelihood of fraud on my account which could result in a loss of money. I also recognize that not budgeting at all will 100% of the time result in a loss of money. I can’t afford not to budget. WOW, automating my budgeting has been a game-changer! I’ll likely remove access and change passwords later but for now, this has been wonderful.
Here are some budgeting apps you can use.
| Platforms | Fees and Minimum | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Capital | Free | Monitoring wealth and spending |
| Simplifi | Free | Manage money everywhere |
| YNAB | $84 a year or $11.99 a month (after a 34-day free trial), free for students for 12 months. | Personal budget tracking |
Things are crazy for everyone. Recognize what you drop first. Address those things.
Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.
I download my transactions and import so that I don’t give direct access, but still can track every transaction without having to put them all in. I do it with everything, credit cards and back accounts.
Fitness is always the first to go for me…not that I had much invested in it to begin with. But I’m doing better.
These days, my sleep suffers more than anything. Definitely not sleeping enough.