I developed this Free Printable Budgeting Binder for a few reasons. The first is because my readers have consistently visited and commented on how helpful the originals were. The second is that I’ve learned a lot and I wanted to share it.

My knowledge of budgeting is two-fold: personal and teaching at a homeless shelter for women. My personal knowledge is the same story almost everyone goes through. In our early 20’s, my husband and I discovered that somehow our paycheck was disappearing. I was watching the bank account like a hawk on payday to see when it hit. After analyzing expenses (and being slightly shocked at where our money was disappearing to), we set a budget. And stuck with it. I can now say worrying about money is very, very rare (and involves whether we want to dip into a large amount of savings!)

I learned a lot more while volunteering at a homeless shelter. It was not only nice to be able to share some of my stories, but I learned about living on a much smaller (sometimes non-existent) income. Luckily, I learned what knowledge applied to both myself and them. And a surprising amount of budgeting knowledge is universal.