If you are someone who feels like you are playing whack-a-mole with your money, you know you need a system.

The Buckets of Money Budget is both a system that helps you set up your budget and adjust as needed, as well as the tool you use to track what you are spending monthly and in the long term. It helps people build better money habits while increasing their confidence.

It is built on the 2–3 Budget Method—to give you a simple, structured way to manage your money that actually works in your real life.

When people want to be better with money, their first instinct is to stop spending money, and that makes sense. It's even what some gurus say.

However, simply not spending money won't help you get where you want to be financially.

If you don't like where you are financially, you have to change the system you are using to manage your money.

An investment in a budgeting tool might be the best place to spend $20 a month, but when money feels out of control, spending that $20 feels like a bad idea, so you ask yourself, "Can I just use a free app or spreadsheet?"

Yes, you could use a spreadsheet instead of paying for the Buckets of Money Budget.

I used a spreadsheet for years because I couldn't find a budgeting tool that tracked what I needed to be tracked and didn't make me categorize all the same things each month.

The spreadsheet worked because I designed it based on what my clients and I needed to move them forward financially. (Buckets of Money Budget was built based on these spreadsheets, but designed so that the system is easier to manage.)

Tracking Took A Lot of Time With A Spreadsheet

The spreadsheet worked, but tracking in a spreadsheet took much more time than it does now that I use Buckets of Money. It was harder to see what was available to spend because my partner and I would wait to enter things in the spreadsheet together.

Now we each have Buckets of Money on our phones.

Whenever I go to see how much we have left, it's up to date because we both enter our spending right after we spend. Then the system shows what we have remaining in each bucket. Buckets of Money Budget makes tracking easy and quick.

For most people, their budgets don't fail because they are paying or not paying for a tool to help them.

They fail because the system to set up and track their spending does not match up to real life.

The way you set up your budget is one part of the process. The second part is tracking. Both parts of the process have to work together.

Spreadsheets Require Multiple Tabs To Create a Cohesive Budget

In my spreadsheet, one tab was the budget set up, and what I used if I needed to change something.

I also had another tab to make the math easy. This one I set up for my clients, so if they had a quarterly or semi-annual payment, they wouldn't have to do the math. The spreadsheet also calculated monthly amounts for things like saving for vacation.

If you are setting up a budget that will be successful, you have to account for things that you don't pay for monthly, like:

Quarterly bills

Kids' birthday parties

Car repairs

Vacations

If you don't think to add those to the spreadsheet and account for them in your budget, you're going to have an expense you did not plan for pop up.

For most people, that means their budget gets off track, and lots of times they quit because of it.

Buckets of Money Budget shows you all these things so that it's easy to set them up in your budget.

Spreadsheets Need Multiple Tracking Tabs

The other tab I had was the way to track things I was saving for, like the kids' birthday parties, car maintenance, and quarterly or other non-monthly bills.

The tab has to track all the things you set aside money for each month, and then there has to be a way to subtract from the amount when you do use the money.

It's a lot to keep track of in a spreadsheet, but Buckets of Money Budget has ongoing buckets so that it's easy to set up, track and see what you have in your bucket.

Buckets of Money Budget Is More Effective Than A Spreadsheet

I used a spreadsheet with multiple tabs for years because I couldn't find a budget tool or app that did everything I needed it to do in order to maintain a successful budget.

I also provided and taught the spreadsheet to many people.

They all improved financially using the spreadsheet, but…

There were still things I wanted to make easier for them because I know the easier it is to manage your money, the more likely you are to do it.

That is why I had the Buckets of Money Budget built.

The Buckets of Money Budget guides you through the process I designed to help people get clear about what they have to pay for, so they know how much that had available for what they want to pay for.

It's based on my 2-3 Budget Method.

When you start your budget in the Buckets of Money Budget, the first expenses you put in are for your housing, because that is the most important thing you need to pay for.

Next is the grocery category because you have to eat to survive. Then, transportation because you have to be able to get to and from the job that pays you.

It then goes down the list of other things you have to pay for, like pet food if you have a pet.

This was systematized to support your brain in seeing what the most important things to spend money on first are.

Buckets of Money Makes Tracking Simple

The system sets up the tracking for you.

If you enter something as a consistent expense, the system does not make you track it because you don't need to.

Yes, you may need to update the payment amount once or twice a year, but you don't need to track it each month.

What you do need to track are your variable expenses, like groceries and fun, and the things you have to save for, like car maintenance and vacation.

When you set up your budget and select an expense, like groceries, as a variable expense, the system sets up a variable bucket.

Then every time you go to the grocery store:

1. You enter a transaction with the amount you spent
2. The system deducts it from the total in your bucket.
3. The bucket then shows you how much you have available left to spend in the month.

When I had a spreadsheet, I had a separate tab for tracking the expenses I needed to track monthly in order to keep us on track.

It worked okay, but it wasn't easy to enter right away, so I would put off entering what I had spent for a week or two.

Then I would have less money than I thought. Plus, I would have to try to remember whether I spent that $100 at Costco on food or household items.

Buckets of Money Budget Has Ongoing Buckets to Make Specific Savings Simple

In my spreadsheet, I had another tab for expenses that were ongoing. These are things that we needed to be saving for each month so we did not get blind sided by an "unexpected" expense. Then I had another tab to save and track spending from our vacation bucket.

Creating a comprehensive budget includes setting up savings buckets for things like:

Vacation

Car maintenance

House maintenance

Miscellaneous things that came up during the year

Saving for a child's expense that is once a year

Quarterly trash bill

Semi-annual stormwater payment.

We have many things to save for and track so that we always have money for what we need.

Anyone who sets up a really good budget will also have a lot of things to set money aside for each month as well.

In the Buckets of Money Budget, these are set up as ongoing buckets.

You can see the amount you have in each bucket.

You can also see the total amount you have in all your ongoing buckets, so that if you are short in one bucket, you can use money from another bucket to cover it.

We are doing this right now. We set aside an amount for car maintenance, but last year we exceeded the amount we had saved. We had money in other ongoing buckets, so I could pay for the repair and keep saving each month until we are back to even in our car maintenance bucket.

In essence, we're acting as our own bank, so we don't have to pay interest when the car expenses are more than we planned.

Setting Up Your Budget Helps You Understand Where Your Money Has To Go and Helps You Figure Out Where You Want It To Go

Once you have gone through the "have to" part of your budget, the system will show you what is available for things you "want to" spend your money on.

As you enter each item, you see what is remaining to spend.

I set the system up this way because it helps your brain determine what is most important to you. It also helps you understand where your money is going.

In many budgeting apps or if you are using a spreadsheet, there is no structure as to how you enter things. You just start filling it out and hope you have enough money when you get to your car insurance.

As you enter the things you want to spend money on, you also assign a consistent, variable, or ongoing bucket to make saving and tracking easier.

Something like a streaming subscription is marked consistent. So, you don't have to track it.

If you set up a fun bucket, you will set it up as a variable bucket because you are going to allocate an amount of money each month to fun.

Then, as you spend it, you enter the transactions (the amount you spent).

It's easy to see if you need to plan on hanging out at home this Friday night, or if you have money, you can spend it going out.

Tracking vacation spending with the ongoing bucket is so much easier for me than it was with the spreadsheet.

When you set up your vacation bucket, you can either enter the amount you want for the year, and the system will calculate it monthly.

Or you can tell the system what you want to save monthly.

If you book the plane tickets for a trip in six months, you enter the transaction now.

If you put a deposit on the hotel now, but don't have to pay until you get there, you can enter the full amount as a planned transaction. That way, you have a clearer picture of what is in your vacation bucket. This helps you decide if you have the money to take an additional vacation.

When you use the Buckets of Money Budget, you are going to get a clearer picture of your finances than ever before.

You are also going to feel more in control because the system is designed to build your budget based on your life, not someone else's idea of how much you should spend in what category.

Tracking will be easy, so you can build the habit over time. You can add the website to the home page of your phone and enter transactions right after you spend money.

I love entering the amount I spent before I even get through the line in Costco, where they check your receipt. It feels good to enter the transaction and know right away where I am at.

Once you have set up your budget and are tracking your variable and ongoing buckets…

You are going to feel powerful with money.

You are going to have less stress because you know when you to spend money that you have it.

You can quickly see if you have money left in your bucket to spend or if you need to hold off.

You will start making choices instead of guesses.

You are going to feel good, maybe even proud of how you are handling your money.

Here is what Susie says about the difference between spreadsheets and the Buckets of Money Budget, "I used to rely on spreadsheets for financial clarity — and they did help me see the numbers. But the Buckets of Money App is what finally made me feel accountable in real life. It gives my money a job, makes my priorities obvious, and helps me follow through consistently."

Are you ready to get started?

Buckets of Money Budget Was Built For You And YOUR Life

If you're ready to start moving forward financially, sign up for the Buckets of Money Budget.

Still hesitant to spend the money? Sign up for the one-time payment that gives you 30 days of access to the budget. Then you can:

Set up your budget Start tracking Decide for yourself, it's better than a free app or spreadsheet.

If you don't love it, it won't automatically renew, so you don't have to worry about canceling anything.

If you do love it, at the end of 30 days, sign up for a monthly or annual subscription.

The Buckets of Money Budget system will walk you through setting up a budget based on your life.

It will guide you through a proven, step-by-step set-up approach to creating a budget you can set up and easily maintain.

You'll get the tools, structure, and support you need to:

• Set up a budget on your terms
• Make tracking simple, so you actually do it.
• See what money you have available to use
• Enter planned transactions to make sure you have money left for the good stuff
• Make it easier to stick to your budget with the weekly view option

And you don't have to figure it all out alone.

Every part of the Buckets of Money Budgeting tool is designed to help you get better with money — and feel confident doing it.

→ Click here to sign up. Use the coupon code BLOG for a discount!