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“Where’d all my money go?”

She was staring blankly at the W2 form showing her supposed income from last year and wondering why her bank account was dry.

She decided to go for a ride to clear her head and passed McDonald’s.

“Yep, some of it went there.”

She thought of all the times she stopped there after work to pick up a quick dinner for the kids because she was too tired to cook.

Continuing on, she drove past countless other businesses who had each claimed part of her paycheck.

We tend to think of budgets in the same category as dirty four-letter words. A sigh and a roll of the eyes and trying to convince ourselves that we’re doing just fine.

Living on a budget doesn’t have to be frustrating and rigid.

I happen to love my budget.

I keep it simple and it gives me peace of mind that I have money when I need it. Here are five budgeting tips I've discovered to make budgeting easier.

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I recently met a man who had been financially ruined.

It all started when his health went south and he could no longer work. He lost his house and was living in a small apartment on oxygen with his wife and children. His wife was the sole bread winner and didn't earn enough income.

His faith, dreams and positive outlook on life were shaken. I could tell depression had sunken in. Where he once thrived, he felt all was lost.

Health issues, accidents and job lose happen all the time. You never know when they will strike your family. It doesn’t have to take a natural disaster to send your situation into a tailspin of devastation.

Many American’s live paycheck-to-paycheck where missing a single payday would cause serious money problems.

Let’s take some time to talk about mistakes you can avoid now to put your family in a better financial situation so that when unfortunate circumstances show up, big or small, they don’t knock you into financial ruin.

I’ve be using a cash envelopes budget system for nearly 10 years now and it has been life changing.

Before using my envelopes, I solely used credit and debit cards. The problem was I always seemed to run out of money and could never keep up on my budget.

The temptation to buy stuff was always lingering and burning big holes in my pocket. I'd buy whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Just put it on the card and make the payments. Sound familiar?

When I decided to get serious about paying off debt was when I switched to using envelopes, it has a lot to do with why I was successful and can stick to a budget.