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How would you feel if you knew you were financially prepared this month?
What would change if you had no stress or worries about what payments are coming out of your bank account?
What if you knew that you were going to dominate next month and even put an extra $500 into savings?
What if you could feel like that every month?
Lucky for you, you can!
You don’t have time to worry about silly little things and to CONSTANTLY stress about money. You want your family to have financial freedom, and this checklist can get you one step closer to doing just that.
Grab the checklist below if you’re ready to crush it!
Monthly Money Checklist
Now that you’re convinced how much you really need this checklist in your life, we’re going to go over each check point.
This checklist isn’t something that should be a nuisance. It was created to help you get organized and prepared for your life and money.
It’s there to make your life easier, and it totally will if you let it.
Make a Spending Plan
1. The first thing you want to do is to make a spending plan.
This is kind of an obvious one. But I struggled SO HARD finding the motivation to make it.
Why was I going to create a spending plan just for it to be disregarded and trampled on by the end of the month?
And it was always followed by guilt and shame because I wasn’t good enough to follow through.
But, I also hated not feeling in charge of our money.
I would always wonder where our money went at the end of the month. I had too much month and not enough money.
I knew something had to change.
So, what did I do?
I did what any stressed out, frustrated person would do. I Googled.And I found out that there are soooooo many people who feel this exact same way!
Yay, I wasn’t alone!
I found out that aspending plan isn’t supposed to limit how much you can spend, it’s there to help you take charge of your spending.
I was literally setting myself up for failure every month!!
I had no idea how to create a spending plan, I was just throwing around random numbers on a paper every month and hoping that one day it would balance out.
After researching Google and basically getting a master’s degree in budgeting, I created the ultimate financial planner.
There was nothing out there that taught me how to create my spending plan, included everything I needed and helped me follow through with it.
Remember all that time we don’t have? I don’t have one second to even spare on silly budget stuff that doesn’t work.
Now, I can’t live without myfinancial planner. It makes each month SO. MUCH. EASIER.
(Want a little more detail on creating your very own spending plan? Check out this post on how to budget your money for a beginner.)
Plan out your Bills
2.You can start by putting what you can on automation.
Automated bills are a life changer.
I know you can think of 10 other things off the top of your head you’d rather be doing. And honestly, I don’t want to worry about that either.
Automation is my saving grace. It’s like that friend who gives you a gift card when you when you least expect it and says, “Hey, I’ve got your back,” and then BOOM – your bill is paid!
And you didn’t even have to do anything!! Except make money to pay that bill of course …
If it wasn’t for automation I’d be in serious trouble.
Paying a bill is not something I want to forget. That’s how you get bad credit AND can get into debt.
There’s too many other things we need to be remembering, this is a time where you can “set it and forget it”.
It’s super easy to begin to automate. Just write down a list of the bills you have. Whether it be your mortgage/rent, utilities, any kind of debt, et cetera.
Most (if not at all) banks now have the option to bill pay. Log in to you bank account online and find the bill pay/automate option. From there you can set the specific amount you want to send each month from your bank account.
For instance, we bill pay our rent every month. We put in where the money needs to be sent to, for how long and the amount. Then BAM – automated! Out of sight, out of mind.
What about bills that aren’t the same amount each month?
You know those bills, like utilities, that are a surprise every month? And not the good kind of surprises, the ones that make dads crazy enough to take out all the light bulbs just because you forgot to turn off the light?
We don’t like those surprises at our house either. (Surprisingly, I’m actually the light nazi, not my husband!)
If you can log in to it, you can automate it. If you can check your bill online then I guarantee they have an option to automate. And if they don’t then they’re extremely behind the times and might need a little help catching up to the right day and age!
A certain number of days after sending you the statement via email or mail, they’ll automatically take the money from the bank account that you want it to come out of. It’s seriously that simple.
No more surprise water shut offs because you forgot to pay your bill!
Now, for those places that are a little slower than others and don’t have an automation system yet, I’ve got your back. All I want you to do is get a calendar and write in the bills you need to pay according to their dates.
Put that calendar somewhere you’ll see it everyday. Put reminders on your phone, have sticky notes all over – to remind you to pay your bill on time.
Set yourself up for success and know exactly what days your bills are due.
Make Some Goals
3. Plan your goals for the month.
Yes, I know. Goals suck. I hate making goals. But statistics don’t lie. I achieve SO MUCH MORE when I make a goal.
I want you to include these specific goals for the month …
Goals:
A.How much you plan on saving
B. How much debt you plan to pay off
C. Something you and your family are working on related to your finances.
D. One personal goal that you have for yourself. If you’re not consistently trying to improve yourself then what are you doing with your life?
The type of goals that I typically have are things like not spending so much eating out (we eat a lot of Cafe Rio and In-N-Out), finding different ways to save on stuff we’re buying, and even learning about better ways to invest our money.
I have the same goal every month and that is to read one book. Most of the books I read are finance or business related because that’s what I do. But I do have some favorites that I regularly come back to.
My number one favorite AND recommended book that totally changed my life? Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover.
Write these goals down so you can be held accountable.
Stick it to your fridge so that you’re forced to remember them. And don’t be afraid to talk about it with your spouse so you’re on the same page.
Plan out your Month
4. Plan out the month with your family.
There’s nothing worse than not knowing what’s going on, or being the last to know something.
Like finding out that your kid has a school project that was due – the day it’s due. Sometimes that’s unavoidable. And kids (even adults) tend to forget to communicate what they have going on.
This makes for a crazy, stressed out month. And it can cause you to spend even more money!
At the beginning of each month have a “family meeting” and go over everything that’s going on for the coming month. Any activities, questions and concerns, or plans you need to make.
You can go over what days you need to make dinners so you can start setting up your meal plan. And especially find out what projects your kids have due!
At the beginning of doing this not everyone will remember what they have going on. But, as you keep doing it each month it’ll become a habit and you’ll realize how much more cohesive your month goes!
Check your Car Maintenance
5. Staying on top of your car maintenance can literally be the difference of $20 and $5,000.
Are you surprised this was on the checklist?
On average, people spend 1.5% of their annual income on car repairs.
The amount of money we put in to our cars is ridiculous. Sometimes we neglect our vehicles and forget that they have needs to.
This is your monthly reminder so that you won’t have to spend any extra money to get your car fixed just because you forgot to change the oil.
On the monthly checklist there’s a checkbox where you can fill out the current mileage your car is at. Underneath it you can include how many more miles until you need an oil change.
You’re not going to save any money by not taking care of your stuff.
Check your Bank Statements
6.You know the saying, “You don’t know what you had until it’s gone,”?
Same goes for your money.
Have you ever found out that you’ve been getting charged for 5 months of Netflix even though you totally thought you canceled it?
By then it’s too late to get your money back because you’re 5 months in!
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see.
I know, I know … Sometimes we feel guilty when we look at our statement for the month. I feel that too.
Don’t be afraid to look at your statement. Let it motivate you to do better the next month. And you just might catch something that’s not supposed to be there!
If you started a spending plan you should be going through your bank statement any ways. That way you can track exactly how much you spent.
(This is part of controlling your money. If you’re afraid to see what you spent, your money is really controlling you.)
P.S. You know that spending plan you got in the Freebies page? There’s a free expense log in there to help you track all your expenses! You’re welcome.
Check your Credit Score
7. Credit scores are a pain, and unfortunately for most of the American population they are necessary.
Please don’t be one of those people who stick their head in the sand. You can’t avoid your credit score.
It’s still there even if you don’t like it.
They do make mistakes and you don’t want to find out that there’s a mistake on your credit report until it’s too late.
There’s this misconception that it will hurt your credit score if you check it online. And that is far from the truth!
There are plenty of places to check your credit score without actually hurting your credit score.
I check mine usingCredit Karma. It’s all free and they give you your scores from TransUnion and Equifax.
Go over your Retirement
8. Evaluate your 401K and retirement starting now.
If you’re just going to rely on social security when you retire, then I hope you can live on $1,500 a month. Otherwise you need to start planning on some other source of retirement.
If your company offers a 401K then take full advantage of it. Learn about it and use it, and don’t touch it until you actually retire.
Your company doesn’t offer a 401K? No problem! You can start a Roth IRA. Starting your Roth early is key for the money to grow. The more time you give it, the more money you’ll have when you retire.
Make a meal plan
9. Making a meal plan for your family will change your life.
I actually don’t like cooking.
I dread dinner time and I’m always the first one to suggest eating out.
Not only do we spend a bunch of money eating out, but it’s so unhealthy.
Meal planning is the only way that I can actually get dinner done for my family. If I don’t have a meal plan then we don’t have dinner at home. You can bet we’re at In-N-Out!
I do my meal plan for every two weeks.
Along with making a meal plan, I make my grocery list (yes, of course I have a free meal plan and grocery list template on my freebies page. Who would I be if I didn’t give you a freebie every chance I get?!)
If you’re going to the store every single day to get stuff for meals that night, you’ll end up spending three times as much on stuff you didn’t need.
Plan out your meals, then figure out what groceries you need and only buy what’s necessary.
Make sure you’re checking your rebate apps to see what groceries you can get cash back on.
(If you don’t know what rebate apps I use then click over HEREto find out so you can get a little extra cash back every month.)
Bonus Tip:
Just because I like ya, I’m going to give you a little bonus tip.
Stay positive.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, you’re trying the best that you can! I know those 9 tips may seem like a lot, but just taking a half an hour the first of every month and making your game plan by using the Monthly Money Checklist, you’ll be set upso you can have financial stability and success.
Be sure to grab the Monthly Checklist before you go:
Have faith in yourself and know that you can accomplish financial stability.
It may take a little bit of time, but following these simple steps will get you there faster than you thought possible.
Good luck and happy saving 🙂
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