On my own

I moved all  of my stuff out with the help of my brother-in-law. Stayed with her parents for a couple weeks until my place was ready and then I was good to go. Moved out latter part of May and moved into my own place in mid-June. It was weird.

Here I was 25 years old and for the first time in my life I was officially on my own. I had roommates all throughout college and then my ex and I lived together until then. My family helped me get started. Gave me money for food and to get my utilities and everything, which was great! I was finally going to fully delve into getting my financials in order as well.

First thing I did - gathered every bill I had and created a spreadsheet. Put all of the bills in order from date due as well as what their estimated cost was. Next I split them up first to middle of the month, then second half of the month. I did this since I got paid every two weeks. What I've been doing ever since is as soon as I get paid I open up the budget sheet and pay everything due in that period. After around 4 days everything's clear then I control my spending until the next period and rollover everything. Another way to control spending is the envelope method where you put a certain amount in envelopes for "eating out", "play", etc. Once an envelope is empty, you're done in that category until the next payday. 

At my job I was able to pay just a little on everything to make a little progress, but even on my own I was not going to get caught up anytime soon. Was nice that on my next pay period I was able to roll over a little bit. Was ready to start the push and start the next chapter of my life!