I declared war on debt years ago once I got a taste of being in it for a while. I was probably destined to battle debt as I am naturally a bit of a control freak, and by that I mean being in control of my cash, which is hard to be over cash that you owe to others.
And so between my need to be organized and debt free and to be in control of my hard earned cash, over the years I developed my own ways and little tools to help me keep track of my finances. One tool that stood the test of time and really helped me carry myself to a better place financially, was a simple Excel budgeting spreadsheet that I created. Every aspect of my financial picture was in that Excel sheet, and it worked back then and still works wonders for me now because I know about every penny that I have coming in and going out, and oh how easy it has become to steer away from all kinds of pitfalls such as spending more than I can afford.
Through my journey and personal experience with budgeting I have learned a number of things that were not obvious to me at the outset. They are somewhat simple things and looking back now I believe it would have helped to have heard those things from someone else at the time. For example, seeing budgeting as me directing my money where to go rather than wondering where it went, letting budgeting empower me over my hard earned cash, knowing that being fiscally responsible does not have to be a boring chore, and realizing that those small amounts of over-spending on a little thing here and a little thing there will put us in the debt prison before we know it, while those same small amounts used as surpluses instead can make our little or not so little fortune. And that the difference between over spending into debt and living within our means to achieve financial freedom is this little thing we call budgeting.
I also learned that budgeting is a little like using a car, we can’t get one that suits our needs and then leave it alone. We need to maintain the car constantly, replenish it with gas and other necessities as we go, periodically review its size for our changing needs and possibly get a larger or smaller car as our needs change. A budget is very much the same, we cannot set it and forget it, in fact there is no point in spending any time on a budget if we are to set it and forget it. Proper budgeting starts doing its job only after we set it and start living by it, because what we are doing here is not only saying that we cannot afford more than $90 per month on restaurants, but also living within this restriction month after month until we can either afford to spend more or perhaps even cut back if need be. Living by it is the purpose of budgeting or it becomes a meaningless list of numbers. Living by a good budget is what we call living within our means.
Two of the most important things we need to do with budgeting after we put a budget together are reviewing it constantly to reflect changes in our financial picture such as more or less income, and then ensuring that we actually live by our budget by tracking our cash flow each month against our budgeted amounts. Sounds like a lot of boring work does’nt it? But this is where good budgeting tools can make the difference between doing it and giving up on the chore. This is what motivated me to spend much time over the years finding ways and building tools to help master the art of budgeting without it being another dreary task in life.
Last year I got inspired to apply my web design passion and skills for building a free online budgeting website, so anyone in the world with web access could use the same budgeting tools that I’ve now used for years, as a free web utility. This resulted in the Out Of The Dark (OOTD for short) web site that I launched in February this year. I had no idea how successful it would be, but judging by the number of users who found it already and started their own budgets there, it must be working for others who are interested in personal budgeting. What a wonderful feeling to know that something one designed and built out of necessity is also proving useful for others.
In addition to this being a free online utility available from anywhere you are in the world with Internet access, it is also totally anonymous so you are not revealing your personal identity and not involving any of your bank accounts, as most of the online financial services I’ve noticed require you to do. With this utility all you give is any active e-mail that you have, and your private personal budget is attached to your e-mail (which can be anonymous too).
Another provision I built into OOTD is the Self Serve Account Cancellation which means that should you no longer need your account or just want to cancel it for whatever reason, you need not go through the hassle of requesting an account cancellation, you can do it yourself and have your personal budget account erased from the system without leaving a trace behind.
Please feel free to leave any comments you may have, at the bottom of this post, and as I get these messages on specific issues regarding the OOTD utility, I will do my best to stay in touch and provide specific responses in a timely manner. The Users Billboard from the OOTD website is also an excellent place to converse with other users and myself, and it’s probably a more immediate forum for getting responses. You can access the Billboard from the footer section of any OOTD page.
Also in this blog are threads for students (by institution) who wish to maintain open channels of communication regarding matters of personal finance and budgeting specific to their institution. You can find the current thread pages listed on the right hand side here (scroll up). If you wish OOTD to open a new thread for your institution, please e-mail us at: mail@myexp.org with the name of your university or college and your location (city and country).
Here is the direct link to Out Of The Dark (OOTD):
http://www.myexp.org/OOTD_gate.php
You can return to this blog from OOTD quickly via the Contact menu option once logged into your account or via the OOTD Blog link on the page footer whether you’re logged in or not. To view the comments here and add yours, click the Comments link below.
Happy budgeting,
Shony
