Life on Planet Caddick

I know, I said I would keep my money posts to my Money Matters Page . But I figured this is my blog - I'll do whatever I want! Y'all know I roll that way - don't be surprised! Some might think this falls under YNAB's second rule - Save for a rainy day. I don't though, and here's why: I consider Rule 2 more like "I know it's coming, let me get ready for it now." For me that's things like vehicle tags, membership dues, Amazon Prime - whatever. These are things I know are going to happen, and I need to be ready to pay for them when they show up. Other YNABers (yes, that's what we call ourselves) may think of it in a different way. That's kind of the beauty of the program. I think of RDF's more of Rule 3 - Roll with the punches. We've had lots of punches around here, so we have lots of categories for these "will happen but when?" things. Here are some of ours: vacation, emergency fund, house stuff, car stuff, school s...

OK, maybe you don't - but I know we sure did. I did tons of research. I did some of my own budgeting and failed. Let's face it, we're not the best with handling money. I don't know why I'm not, my dad was very good at it, so I must have got it from my mom. But I even I soon realized that the way we were handling things just wasn't working anymore. Enter You Need a Budget, or YNAB. What a difference this program has made to our finances. Before YNAB I was juggling bills and we were basically living off next months paycheck. In effect, living off money we didn't have. It was extremely frustrating and time consuming trying to time every bill to a paycheck. I was good at it though, we never missed a payment! YNAB has a four step method - give every dollar a job, save for a rainy day, roll with the punches, and live off last month's income. Seem impossible? I thought so, but it really works. Trust me on this, if I can follow this plan anyone can. Give...