Hi friends- Brittany here! Over the last couple months, I’ve been trying really hard to focus on my finances. I, like a lot of people these days, have all of my bills set up for automatic payment, my income is direct deposit, even my savings are automatically transferred. That system has worked really well for my husband and I in the 7 years we’ve been married but over time it has made us careless with the rest of the money. I wanted to be more intentional with the way we are spending our “extra” money so I decided to start tracking our spending, bills, income, and savings on paper. I also started channeling small amounts of our left over money each week into savings for different projects and/or goals. This paper tracking system has been working really well for me and I want to give you a look at how I’m using stickers to aid in staying on top of our finances! (This is a real week in my finances but I have left out some dollar amounts {like account totals, pay checks, etc} that were a little too personal to share)

I already had quite a few finance related stickers but I decided to pick up the weekly savings challenge stickers as well as the new corner payday stickers. Being a planner girl I also like to decorate my pages just a little with some bright washi tape. Anything involving the use of washi is easy to make a habit so clearly I had to use it ;) And finally my favorite pen at the moment- the PaperMate InkJoy gel.

Throughout the week I break up the day into 3 sections- bills and credit card payments, spending, and then our account totals at the end of the day. Since our weekend spending goes through on Monday I only track what goes through Monday-Friday and the weekend amounts get counted on Monday. I love pulling out appointment labels from PopFizzPaper and layering them with icons- this would work with either the credit cards or the dollar signs! I love days where neither of us spend any money so I make sure that is prominent on the page. Hopefully we’ll get to a point where we can have a few of those a week!

The corner payday stickers are the perfect size- these are the larger style but there are mini ones as well if you’d prefer those. They’d be great in a monthly view or even on your weekly pages. I love using the bill due stickers because they help them stand out and remind me when something is going to go through. They also have space for me to write the amount which I like so I don’t have to squeeze it in around the sticker. In the weekend slots of these inserts I’m tracking our transfers into savings as well as totaling up our spending into categories. At the end of each week I review what I’ve written in and add up how much went to bills, necessary spending, and how much was spent on frivolous purchases. (I like putting down a few mini emojis from PopFizzPaper because it keeps it fun but obviously it isn’t necessary.) Seeing these numbers at the end of the week motivate me for the next week to see how much less I can spend and more I can save!

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at my finance tracking and how I use stickers to keep the process functional, motivating, and fun! I mean who says it has to be all boring spreadsheets on the computer, right?!