How to Survive on a Budget (Contd)

Entertainment:
In the example from last time, our Biz Girl had only $125/month for entertainment (I can only imagine your reaction right now :-D ). But that is reality, and we tend to forget that escaping reality (through entertainment) is luxury! So be creative, instead of spending money on expensive dinners organize potlucks, cooking nights, have dinner at home before going out to a movie, or just rent the movie instead. In other words, be creative, you can have a lot of fun on a small budget!
Also check if your company offers discounts on shows, movie tickets, etc. through employee discount programs.


Budget Tools:
Ideally, you should write down you daily spending to have an idea about how and where you spend your money – but who has the time, especially when you are a Biz Girl? That’s where budget tools are useful to track spending, types of spending, credit cards, and any other finances.

My favorite tool of all is Yodlee*:
http://corporate.yodlee.com/moneycenter/index_postlaunch.html

By listing all your accounts, credit cards, etc. along with your log in credentials to the corresponding websites, Yodlee logs into these sites for you to provide you with a real time view of all your balances and transactions.
This way you can see how much is your net worth. If you remember anything out of this blog, it should be to find out how much is your Net Worth.
Net Worth = what your own - what you owe
Of course, the aim is to build a positive net worth.

Please take some time to learn how to use Yodlee and feel free to post any questions that you might have, I will make sure to answer them.

* some people might be concerned that you have to put your account information in Yodlee – so far, I have been using Yodlee for the past 2 years and was extremely satisfied with their service

Check out the Tuesday posting titled “There’s No Crying in Baseball!”

xoxo
The Biz Girl