If you're like most of us, January began with a commitment to having a stronger hold of your finances.  February was good, too. I mean it was only 28 days! Then all of the pretty things caught your eye and - whoops! What budget?

Marketing, spring fever, retail therapy - whatever caused this budget slip, it happens. The great thing is, you can get back on budget TODAY. 

Before we get into the steps, I do want to say that l believe a budget should have built-in opportunities for you to have fun. There should be fun money/blow money/allowances for you to enjoy things that you like. Even after going off track. 

Okay, so...

1: Start today!

Mistakes happen. Don't beat yourself up about it. Get back on track by recommitting to your budget today. Maybe the mistake was that your budget needed a little tweaking. Did you forget to build in that fun money? Whatever it was, focus on moving forward. 

2: Write it out.

If you are not writing out a plan for your budget,  stop reading after this step and get to it! This is essential for getting back on track. Write down what you plan to use your income for. Plan for it all of the way down to the last penny. (Zero-based budgeting) Hello - savings! I'm a tried and true fan of The Total Money Makeover. A [written] budget is telling your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went. (Dave Ramsey)

3: Assess What Happened

It's easy to get off track with your budget if you cannot see where your money is going. Not only should you write down what you plan to do with your income, you should write out what actually happens. Last month, we were hit with several Dr. visit co-payments when our youngest caught a nasty virus. Fortunately we'd started a sinking fund for medical payments. I wrote all of that out in my budget notebook because it helped us to better understand where our money went and how much we need to adjust our budget for future months. 

4: Make Adjustments 

As I mentioned before, you should have fun. Budgeting is not a way to eliminate the things that you want. Following a budget should put you in a place of confidence when you're making a purchase. Confident that the money isn't needed for something else, confident that your necessities are taken care of, and confident that the card transaction won't be declined. Each month will be different. Some months you'll need a oil change or a new transit pass. Some months, you won't. It's so important to plan out each and every month. I really like having the budget notebook because I can see when certain annual or semi-annual payments are, right away. Revisiting your budget each week may even be necessary for the first few months. Things shift and you will have to plan for it. 

5: Celebrate your success 

Going from no budget to a zero-based budget may feel like a big step. I get it. How do you keep on track? You celebrate the baby steps. Stay within budget, of course. Small celebrations don't have to cost money. Let's say you get back on track and have a full two weeks of on-budget-spending. Celebrate! Spend an extra 10 minutes in your bubble bath or watch an extra episode of whatever show you're trying not to completely binge watch. You deserve it! You adulted and adulting is hard. 

Let me know in the comments how you're doing on your 2017 budget. Also, check out the budget notebook that I use in the Limelife Planners Shop. 

Hey fellow Limelife lovers! I’m Erin, one of the new Media & Creative Team members. Today I want to show you how I’ve been using my Sermon Notes notebook! As a college student living away from home, I typically watch my home church’s sermons online. I do this either by live-streaming it or watching the recording later in the day/week. I’m thankful that my church provides the sermons online so they can be viewed at any time, and over and over again! While it’s not the same experience as being AT church, it is better than nothing!

I wasn’t really a note-taker in the past at church, but sometimes I would find myself wishing I had written something down. Then I discovered Limelife’s Sermon Notes notebook! It’s a beautiful 7x9” notebook with space to take notes for 64 sermons. I love the size of the notebook; it has a good amount of writing space for each sermon, but it’s not too big to toss in my purse! While the cover it comes with is wonderful, you can also pick a different cover if you’d like (I got the standard cover). For those of you who are loving traveler’s notebooks right now, it also comes in Cahier and A6 (both have room for notes on 13 sermons).

One thing I like about watching it online is being able to pause the video when I want to write something down. I am able to watch the sermon at my own pace, which is great. Here’s what my first spread in my Sermon Notes notebook looked like!

I love the flexibility that this notebook offers, while still providing some structure for the date, speaker, and title of the sermon, along with a box on the left and a quote and “what I want to remember” area on right. For example, in the box on the left side of the spread, sometimes I hand letter a short phrase or quote from the sermon, while other times I write out something longer like a Bible verse.

The notebook is made of the same lovely paper that Limelife uses for their planners. I’ve been using a purple Ink Joy Gel pen (my favorite pens at the moment), and I haven’t had any issues with the ink bleeding through, even where I did some hand lettering. It shadows just a tiny bit, but that doesn’t bother me at all!

This sermon notebook would be great if you usually take notes on the back of your church bulletin, or if you’re like me and wish you would take notes but not have a place to keep them. You can also use the notebook for taking notes on special church events, conferences, or guest speakers in addition to taking notes on the regular weekend sermons.

If you’re new to Limelife and would like to try the Sermon Notes notebook, you can get $10 off your purchase!

Follow me on Instagram @live.life.inspired or check out my blog to see more of my sermon notes and planning goodness!

Hello again planner friends! This week I am showing you how I am using my Limelife Notebook to plan our youngest son, Elliot’s birthday party. Elliot was born 4 weeks early, which means his birthday is 10 days after Christmas, instead of a month after Christmas like we had thought it was going to be. Every year, we have the best intentions to plan ahead more for his birthday, but always end up feeling rushed and guilty about frantically pulling it all together last minute. So maybe this 7th birthday we will do better with the help of actually putting pen to paper and planning it out!

Have I mentioned how much I love this Limelife notebook? These notebooks are customizable too, just like the planners….you can choose your layout option! I chose Layout 1 because it seemed the most versatile to me. I can use it so many different ways for so many different reasons. So lets get started! First, I put my washi tape down.

I love the look of a fat notebook with different colored edges to the paper from lining the edges with washi tape. I don’t do that often in my planner, but I think it’s going to be the norm in this notebook. I used my white gel pen to label my boxes. I find that white gel pens can be temperamental in writing smoothly. I didn’t have my good one handy so I used a cheaper one, and to make the ink write smoother, I  first made little circles on my thumb to ‘warm up the pen and ink’ for a lack of a better term. The ink seems to flow easier and write smoother when I do this. I learned that tip from a super talented planner friend!

Next I stamped. And yes, the paper is as equally amazing in the notebooks as it is in the planners, so this paper is perfect for stamping. I’m terrible at lining up letters correctly to spell at words when stamping, so a quick way I lined up the letters was to put my stamping block over one of the lines on the page. I added checklists for marking off RSVPs and added some dragon stamps to the page since that is the theme of the party. I decided not to color them this time, I like the simplicity of just the stamp for this page.

I know that I will have lots of added notes, reminders and things to keep track of, so I’m going to use the back of this page as well. It will end up being a brain dump for me, so I want to keep it simple with lots of room to write. I used stamps to label my boxes on this page, a section for details, thoughts, gifts, remember this, right now, and highlights in hopes that it will stay organized.

If you haven’t had a chance to head to the Limelife website to check out the notebooks, now is a good time to go take a peek! I hope I was able to provide some ideas on how versatile these notebooks really are!

Thanks for stopping by and visiting the blog!

~Lindsay

Instagram: glam2plan_pnw

Happy 2017, everyone!  With a New Year comes new goals, right?

Now, I'm typically not a New Year’s resolution girl. But, this year I really want to get better about meal planning. I tend to make healthy choices when it comes to food and exercise, however, there are often days when it's 4:30pm and I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to make for dinner.

Having a plan will not only cut back on this stressful mealtime-scramble, but also save some money on groceries since I will know exactly what we will be eating that week. (No over buying!)

I’m not into the complicated.  (Who is?)  So I've been looking up meal planning tips to try to make this as easy as possible for myself...and for all of you interested!  The tips below are a few of my favorites.  They’re simple, they’re easy, and they account for “life happened” moments.  

Write it Down

This is the most obvious tip. Writing it down will, of course, help you to keep track and remember the meals you are planning. I'm a planner girl, so I've decided to use Limelife Planner's Meal Planning Notebook to help me stay on track. (Plus it makes things that much easier to organize!)

Save Recipes

Save yummy/healthy/easy recipes as you find them. I save mine on Pinterest so they are there to refer back to when I'm ready.

Schedule a Few Leftover/Easy Meals

Let's face it. We all have those days that are so rough that we make the “I’m not cooking!” declaration. Having a quick, easy meal on hand can save you from spending $25 on pizza delivery. Crockpot meals are also awesome for THOSE days.

Theme it Up

Having a favorite meal weekly can make planning just a bit easier. Plus, it gives everyone something to look forward to each week. Who doesn't love Taco Tuesday?

Shop Sales

Use sale items to your advantage. Check your grocery store's weekly sales and try to plan meals using those ingredients.  Some stores make this process super easy with a fully integrated app.  Shopping weekly sales can not only save you money, but also may dissuade you from repeating the same recipes over and over.

Do you have any meal planning tips? Let us know!