That I rarely take someone’s “word for it” is both blessing and curse. It’s great when perusing the internet, or shopping. It’s not so great when I rudely fact check people, leaving them upset I didn’t feel they were a good enough ‘source.’ I blame all the English courses. It’s especially bad for learning from the mistakes of others. Parents, friends, respected acquaintances, regardless who gives the advice 9 times out of 10 a lesson won’t sink in until I have made the mistake on my own. The lesson I am thinking of today, I have been learning since I was a child: budget money.

Pay attention to where it is going, make sure there is enough of it to pay for things needed -before spending it on crap certainly not needed. Simple advice, and I’ve done a decent job. By decent job I mean I get by and I only stress a minimum of once a month. The thing I realized recently is that I should not be stressing a minimum of once a month, because even doing simple math in my mind I know I make enough to pay for necessities and other bills I have brought upon myself. It never fails, though, I end up wondering each month where the (albeit small) excess went. I determined I need a budget, I need tracking, I just need to pay attention.

I have attempted — half-heartedly — to budget in the past. But, not like I decided to this morning. I put the Excel skills I picked up at work, coupled with Mara’s Excel knowledge, and the power of the internet to task on creating my personalized micromanagement tool. It monitors and adds and subtracts across multiple sheets, laying out all of the information I need completely personalized to my spending habits and bills. It also requires that I actively keep it up to date. This seemed to be my personal problem with my past attempts. Take Mint for example: this is a pretty awesome site, but once I entered in all my banking and bill information it did everything for me. The ‘alert’ emails were filtered into a Mint folder, and eventually I lost interest. It was so automated I didn’t really have to pay attention. I became bored. It told me everything I already knew, only in a pie chart. I wasn’t really budgeting, I just had the data necessary to try, and I wasn’t trying.

The hope with this latest effort is that all the spreadsheets and numbers will remind me of tabletop game, an accounting tabletop game – but a tabletop game. I hope this works out better, looking at the data provided just getting the thing started has blown my mind. It’s me versus frivolity. Wish me luck.