Imagine a world where you have a clear financial plan, your savings account is growing, and you’re stress-free about money. Sounds too good to be true?
Let’s find out.
Let’s take a closer look at the new Budget Mom Budget by Paycheck Workbook! This year, she has launched it in a new, smaller szie. The smaller version measures 7×9.5 and retails for $44 on sale. You can also get the large size, listed as 10×11 listed on sale for $48. Both are listed at $50 regular price.
The covers are removable but I stuck with only the beautiful wildflowers design. I wasn’t really a fan of the other couple that are available. And no, you can’t use your Erin Concren covers on it because it’s 9.5” tall, not 9. I was slightly disappointed because for some reason I had it in my head it was 7×9. But that’s on me!
In the back, you get three sticker sheets. Two are on matte paper and the other is shiny. There are stickers for each monthly tab and enough date dots to cover all 12 monthly calendars (but not monthly and meal plan calendars). There are plenty of other stickers like payday, bills due and some decorative ones.
There is also a folder in the back. It is not a heavy cardstock or coated like the cover. It is a slightly heavier paper but I’m not sure it would hold up for all 12 months. It feels a bit flimsy. The pocket is 6.75” across and 5” tall at the highest point. It would be a good spot to stash your receipts until you were able to enter them in your workbook.
The first page has a QR code and link to the instructions, which includes both video and PDF. I really like this because as you are filling in your workbook, you can pull up the instructions on your computer instead of having to flip back and forth between instructions and pages. The opposite page has space to work on finding your why.
Next up is the goal worksheet with room for short, middle, and long term goals and a page for memberships & subscription. I really like the membership page as I will review mine every quarter and see if there are any I’m not really using or can maybe change levels. These two pages are followed by savings trackers. You get a total of eight savings trackers.
Next up is the yearly spending and balance. I really like how she combined these two pages. The previous yearly balance pages seemed a little redundant. It was spread over two pages but the graph was for the full year on each page, so for two graphs to track your net worth. It never really made sense to me and one graph was never used. You don’t get a graph this year, but that’s ok for me. I can look at the numbers and compare month to month on the tracker.
There is a page for your budget categories and two notes pages.
Then we go into the monthly spreads, starting with a monthly calendar. It is blank and you can choose either a Sunday or Monday start. My favorite part is you get six rows so each day of the month can have its own space or you don’t have to put the end of the month either at the top of the current month or move it to the next month. Some planners only give you five rows and that means sometimes the 30th or 31st will be SOL. The side columns include room for important dates, notes, and financial goals.
Then we have five sets of the Budget by Paycheck and Cash envelope pages followed by six expense trackers, debt repayment, and net worth tracker. At the end we have the Budget Breakdown, which is a little different than previous versions. There used to be a page to compare the previous month’s budget spending. It always felt a little redundant to put my monthly budget/actual in so many different places. Now we can look at the monthly breakdown then compare the month to month on the yearly balance page, which makes sense. I can see how it is from month to month across the year, not just the current and previous month.
After the Budget Breakdown is the monthly meal plan calendar. Again with six rows so plenty of space. Lastly, there is a notes page with a spot for “how can I improve next month”.
Overall, the Budget by Paycheck workbook works well for me. I appreciate the changes she made to make some of it more streamlined and less redundant. There are pages I won’t use. We are cashless so I have no need for the cash envelope break down sheet. I am trying to think if I could repurpose it to track my category spending, especially the variable items (food, personal, other). I also don’t need the debt payment page as we don’t have any credit card debt or loans aside from house and cars. I’ve always counted the house and car payments as bills, not debt. That’s my personal choice, you may do it otherwise.
