Not budgeting properly for non-monthly expenses is one of the biggest budget busters that I come across when working with individuals and couples. In addition, not knowing exactly how much you have in savings for car repair, vacation, and Christmas gifts can really cause some strain when it comes time to use the funds. To help you keep track of these amounts I have created a savings and non-monthly expense spreadsheet.
It is a fairly simple spreadsheet to use. First, you create the different categories you want to keep track of. They can range from auto insurance, life insurance, to birthday gifts on the non-monthly expenses side, to vacation, car replacement, or even emergency savings on the saving side. Then, anytime you have a deposit or withdrawal from savings you record it on the spreadsheet. Not only are you recording the amount, but you are also allocating the amount among your different categories. Finally when you are ready to pay the non-monthly expense or take a chunk out of your savings you will know exactly how much you have for that particular item. How sweet is that?
So if you struggle with keeping track of your expenses and savings, consider trying out the spreadsheet. I would love to hear feedback if you use it. As a reminder you can always find other spreadsheets and documents on our free financial resources page. So now you have no excuse to not have the money necessary to pay you non-monthly expenses.
Handling your money well does not come naturally to any of us. When a baby is born no one says “Look that one is going to be good at money.” It might come more naturally to some of us than others, but it is a learned skill. Just like other areas of our life. When we were in sports, we had a coach to help teach us the skills necessary to play the game. When we learned how to play music we did not just learn how to play on our own, we had someone there to teach us the right notes. When we want to lose weight, we often visit a trainer or get in a group to help coach us through the process. The same thing works for finances; sometimes we need someone to teach us how to handle our money. Someone to help instruct us on what to do, someone to help correct mistakes we are making, and someone to tell us what we are doing is incorrect.
Family issues are probably the most common and biggest barrier to get around. Like it or not, we learn how to handle money from our parents. So if your parents always argued about money, you think that is normal. If they never talked about money then that is normal. In addition, if you decide to go against the grain you might hear some discouraging remarks from your family. It’s tough to hear that from your family, but I really feel that not caring what others think of your handling of money is the 
If we are honest with each other we know that we have stuff in our house that we do not use that is just sitting there taking up space. Whether it be old clothes we do not wear or cannot fit into anymore, or all those DVD’s that we do not have time to watch anymore, or our kid’s old toys that they have not played with in a year. In addition, that stuff is part of the reason we are in debt in the first place- stuff we do not need but talked ourselves into buying anyway. So by having a garage sale you can kill two birds with one stone; get rid of things in your house and knock off your debt. My friend Jenny McCutcheon from Ex-Consumer.com wrote a great article last year on 
