I just… have a muffin problem.

Actually, I have a mid-morning snack problem. And probably a mid-afternoon snack problem… as well as an after dinner snack problem.

I snack a lot. All day long. Because every morning I leave the house  around 5:30 , I pack both my breakfast and my lunch and take them with me to work. Everything goes into the same bag, and breakfast and lunch kind of blend together, morphing one mega-meal that’s consumed at a slow but constant rate between the hours of 7:00am and 3:00pm.

Rarely is there a time of day when there isn’t something edible sitting on my desk, slowly disappearing as I work and munch. And oftentimes, that slowly savored snack (see what I did there, with the alliteration?) is some variety of muffin.

Because my relationship with muffins is such an important one in my life, I’ve established some standards. Muffins should be:

1. Texture-wise: Sturdy (not a cupcake); Moist (not a rock).
2. Taste-wise: Good (um, obvious); Not too sweet (again, not a cupcake); Hopefully unique
3. Nutrition-wise: Not a sugar bomb (yep… still not a cupcake); Contain some redeeming value in terms of protein, fiber, healthy fat, etc.

Most of the muffins on my site fall within these standards (I’ll admit that the Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Muffins suffer slightly in terms of nutritional value… but they obviously have other strengths). Where these Banana Cappuccino Chip Muffins stand out, though, is in the taste department.

These are distinctly coffee-flavored, naturally sweet from the banana, a little spicy from the cinnamon, and slightly richer due to the chocolate chips — which also gives them texture. The oats+ ripe banana combination really give these a sturdy-yet-moist muffin texture that, happily, is also nutritious and satisfying.

Have I convinced you yet? They’re also easy to make, and quite unique! Go ahead, make yourself a snack. The recipe makes exactly a dozen — if you eat one in the morning, one mid-afternoon, and one at night, this batch should last until… Friday!

Nutritional facts (per muffin): 160 calories, 5 grams fat, 1.5 grams fiber, 3 grams protein

Banana Cappuccino Chip Muffins

Adapted from my Best Healthy Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• 2 tablespoon milk (I used skim)
• 2 heaping tablespoons instant coffee
• ¾ cups oat bran
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½  teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed black bananas
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a small bowl or microwave-safe mug, heat the milk for 15 seconds in the microwave. Stir in the instant coffee, and keep stirring until the coffee is totally dissolved.

In a large bowl, combine the oat bran, flours, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the bananas, egg, milk/coffee combination, and vanilla extract. Fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Do not over mix. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake 18 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Cool on a wire rack.

Guys, I love these goal posts. First, I love sharing my goals because I LOVE being productive (if you were around for the month of January, you already know this), and setting monthly goals give me at least the illusion of productivity. I love the idea that for March, I’m working on taking my life in this direction. It gives me a sense of movement.

Second, I love sharing my life with you guys. One of the reasons that I made-over Bridezilla Bakes is that I wanted it to be more than a food blog. I love being able to write about organization, real-life issues like being true to ourselves, etc., and I love being able to share what is going on with Sean and I.

SO much has happened in February – and while my “Get Real” posts tend to cover what I’m learning through these experiences, the monthly goal posts are as close as I can come to sharing the actually happenings of the Park family. It also means that I can ask YOU how your month went, and what you are going to be up to in the weeks ahead! I LOVE that we can connect through this blog. How fun!

1. Pray with Sean every night before bed.

Bomb. Sigh. I’m starting to wonder if before bed just isn’t the time for us to pray together. But if it’s not then, I don’t know when we’re going to do it, and I think it’s so important. Something to consider as we do our next month’s goals.

2. Core Fusion Obsession (3x weekly)… and supportive spousal gym visits (3x weekly).

Not too bad… not too good. Between the blizzard (I will NOT say snowmageddon… or snowpocalyse… it was a blizzard, and some words stop being so funny after a while) and being sick for half of the month (seriously – double ear infection? Am I eight years old?), working out was difficult for a couple of weeks there. However, when we were able-bodied and able to dig the car out, we actually did make it to the gym three times a week.

And my Core Fusion obsession continues… although three times a week is a little much. I’m definitely feeling stronger and more able to keep up with the moves and challenge myself, though, which is really fun. Lack of core strength (probably stemming from being sliced open like a hot dog bun during major abdominal surgeries) was a major cause of my knee injury, and I’m stoked to be building up my core.

3. Read a Psalm a day.

Pretty good. I found myself doing this more on the weekdays rather than the weekends, which is a good rhythm for me, I think. I’m still using USCCB.org, and tend to look up the Psalm for the day at Bible Gateway, and then keep it open in a tab in my browser at work. It’s great to have it there all day long, just so I can click over and read it again when I need a little encouragement or peace. This is one I’m going to keep for next month, I think!

4. Lay off the grad school online forums.

Not so bad… not so good. At the beginning of the month, when I was SO anxious to hear my grad school results, I actually did set up a system to keep myself from checking the forums a thousand times a day. Then, towards the end of the month, when I had already gotten some results (!!), I was a LOT less anxious and tempted to give into distraction.

So yes… I have heard back from most of my schools! I got three offers (amazing! never thought I’d have a choice…), and I’m spending a lot of March travelling to the different schools and to help make the decision. Sean’s coming with me to a couple places, where we’ll also get to see family and friends. SO MUCH to be thankful for!

–

Two other quick announcements: 1) Happy Birthday, Mom!! 2) Tomorrow I’ll be back with a recipe, and later on this week I’ll be setting my March goals.

Your turn: How did you fare in February – the shortest month of the year? Did it fly by, drag out, or just pass on pleasantly? What were your highlights?

Welcome back to the Bridezilla Bakes personal finance series! To give you a refresher, so far we’ve discussed general principles and an overall approach to utilizing a budget, followed by the first step in budgeting: setting aside money that doesn’t belong to you.

Since you’ve already set aside money that doesn’t belong to you, now it’s time to turn our attention to what’s left. This remaining portion is typically categorized into two buckets: discretionary spending and non-discretionary spending, or fixed costs. Somewhere back in history, the budget wizards decided that it would be helpful to divide up your expenses based on whether a particular cost is a need or a want. The discretionary category is a tool you can use to rein in your budget, since fixed costs are, well… fixed. Discretionary expenses are those that you can manipulate (shrink!) in order to spend less, which helps you make a budget that fits your income.

As Bethany and I spent time working (and reworking) our budget, with each iteration we started asking the question, “Well, how fixed REALLY is this fixed cost?” We eventually started to question the conventional framework itself (this probably really angered the budget wizards…). Where we ended up was this:

The more we can challenge the notion of a particular cost being truly necessary, the greater opportunity we have to reduce the spending associated with that expense.

Instead of categorizing a budget item as strictly discretionary or non-discretionary, it helps to think more about a spectrum, ranging from “most fixed” to “most discretionary.” Then, try to push as much of your budget as possible into the “most discretionary” side of the spectrum. Once you are able to mentally treat a cost as more of a “want” rather than a “need,” you have the freedom to choose how much you actually spend on that category.

For Example…

Most people have “food” as part of their budget – and most people treat that as a fixed cost. We all have to eat, right? But let’s say you’re starting with a general food budget of $400 per month, which includes groceries, restaurants, coffee shops, and bars. You could potentially commit to saying “$300 of my food budget is really necessary money for groceries. The remaining $100, I will challenge myself to treat as discretionary spending, since I could actually survive without it.”

In this way, your $400 “food budget,” which in the form of a single category was an entirely “fixed” and therefore inflexible expense, has turned into an opportunity cut your costs by up to $100 a month. And the main switch here was a mental one: you’re just reminding yourself that what was once a “most fixed” cost can be moved along the spectrum towards the “discretionary” end.

Counterintuitive?

I guess it’s unnatural, at first, to think about pushing the majority of your costs towards the “discretionary” end of the budgeting spectrum. Conventional wisdom (the budget wizards!) would suggest that you have the most control over fixed costs, since they fluctuate less. But this is just one more step towards controlling your spending.

When you have a lot of them, fixed costs can be overwhelming – by definition, they are expenses that cannot be avoided. When expenses – even good expenses, like food or entertainment – slip from “nice to have” to “HAVE to have,” you can end up in a situation in which your money is spending you, rather than you spending your money. And that’s what we’re trying to avoid!

What categories in your budget are harder for you to think of as “discretionary”?

Hi there! How about a healthy snack? I mean… a healthy breakfast treat? Or, uh… a healthy dessert?

Friends, I’m not even really sure what to call this one. You’ll notice that I graced this recipe with the “dessert” tag as well as the breakfast” tag… I guess those two categories can overlap once in a while… especially when combined with the “chocolate” tag

Remember those Healthy Banana Apple Pumpkin Pie Muffin Tops that I made a few weeks ago? Well, I was so attracted to the concept of a healthy muffin top — a chewy, sweet, satisfying combination of the best part of a muffin and cake-like cookie — that I made another version. These Banana Cocoa Muffin Tops are just as healthy (per serving: 82 calories, 1 gram fat, 2 grams fiber, 2 grams protein), but the addition of cocoa make them richer and more dessert-like.

These are just as dark, dense, and chocolatey as they look in the pictures. They’re a little sturdier than the Banana Apple Pumpkin Pie version — and just slightly flatter. But what I adore about these Banana Cocoa Muffin Tops is that while they absolutely satisfy my chocolate cravings, they’re also healthy enough to be an everyday food, rather than a sometimes treat. It’s a win-win!

By the way, I should note that when I made these Banana Cocoa Muffin Tops, as well as the Healthy Banana Apple Pumpkin Pie Muffin Tops, I baked them, let them cool, packed them in plastic containers, and froze them right away. I’m not sure what kind of countertop-life these muffin tops have in them, or whether they get dry or sticky or something strange in two days. I almost always freeze my baked goods — with two people, we don’t have the belly space to eat everything I bake! But, that also means that I don’t know how well these little guys age. If you make them and find  out — let me know in the comments!

Healthy Banana Cocoa Muffin Tops

Very loosely adapted from Fat Free Vegan

Makes 16 muffin tops

• 1 cup regular or quick oats
• ¾ cup white whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup cocoa
• ½  teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 overripe (almost black) bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
• ½ teaspoon vinegar
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375.

Combine the oats, flour, cocoa baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, vanilla, mashed banana, vinegar and brown sugar. Whisk until well combined. Pour into the dry mixture and stir just until the texture is consistent. Do not over mix.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat or parchment paper. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly pressed. Don’t overbake – these are cake-like, not like a crispy cookie!

Hi friends… I need your help. For a few weeks now, I’ve been advocating the idea that we need to be who we are – not who others want us to be, or who we think we ought to be. Here’s a mini recap:

1. Social Comparison and Self Acceptance: When we compare ourselves with others, we are comparing our insides with others’ outsides, which is often leads to damaging expectations and views of ourselves. No one is as perfect as they seem on Facebook!
2. Mission Drift: Make your life about what YOU want it to be about – not about what other people are pursuing and think is important.
3. Live your own life… and take responsibility for it: Nobody has ever reached a goal accidentally. If you’re going to GO for something, you might have to tune out other people, who don’t understand why you’re going for it.
4. Comparison trap: Confessions of an introvert. One of the hardest things for me to not compare with others is my introversion.

I’ll be honest. When I was outlining this series on “Living your own life” (pretty much what you see above), I began to wonder: If I’m so focused on self-acceptance and not comparing myself with others… will I be open to learning from other people?

In other words, if I’m so intent on not listening to other people’s criticism… is there room for feedback in my life?

I’ve been mulling over these questions a lot, recently. To be honest, I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time as a doormat, instantly negating my own opinions and values and adopting those of other people. As I said in my first post in this series, the reason for that is rooted in self-confidence: I compare myself to other people, figure out all the ways in which I come up short, and meekly nod in agreement to whatever they’re saying.

And really, the only thing that I have found that works to counteract this is to totally BLEEP out the negative social comparison that’s happening in my head… and then BLEEP out whatever the person is saying at the time.

For example, imagine me talking to a friend:

Friend: “Bethany, I was thinking about what you said about your fight with Sean, and…”

Inside My Head: Crap, she’s about to criticize me, which totally makes sense because her marriage is perfect… NO, STOP COMPARING, NO ONE IS AUTOMATICALLY BETTER THAN YOU!!

Friend: “One thing I’ve found helpful in that situation is …”

Inside My Head: STEP OFF, FRIEND, JUST STEP OFF.

Outside My Head: Stony silence.

Yep, my friendships are going great.

So, I actually wanted to ask you guys – because, judging from the comments you’ve been leaving on this series, you all seem pretty darn insightful – how do you receive suggestions, opinions, and even criticism from friends, while maintaining your inner direction and self-confidence? I love my friends, and I’m sure that if I was really listening, with an open heart and levelheaded stance, I would glean really great advice from them. As it is, I’m either 1) timid and wishy-washy, or 2) extremely guarded.

So… how do you do it? To what extent are you able to live your own life, while remaining open to feedback? When you try to be assertive and yet open to others’ opinions, what are the strategies or thoughts that you have found to be helpful?

Welcome back to part two of the Bridezilla Bakes personal finance series – written by Sean, my husband… aka, Groomzilla. If you missed it, check out Part 1 (You need a budget), in which Sean talks about why budgeting is so important, and explains how to figure out your monthly active income: how much money you have to budget.

Here’s some unconventional thinking. Your monthly active income – the amount of money that makes it into your bank account every month for budgeting – consists largely of money that doesn’t belong to you.

Last week I talked about how Bethany and I want our finances to reflect responsibility and generosity – regardless of how little or how much we may have, now or later. One of the methods that we use to keep ourselves aligned to those principles is to characterize part of our income as “not ours” – that makes it conceptually easier to set it aside, and not spend it on ourselves.

So, what kinds of things belong in this category? For us, it is primarily three things: savings, charitable giving, and loans.

1. Savings.

We consider savings as money that doesn’t belong to us in the sense that it belongs to the future version of the Parks (this may include kids… yikes!).  A home (its down payment), graduate schools (tuition and living costs), or retirement (cost of living) are all things that will directly or indirectly contribute to the well being for the future “us” – and thus we choose to set aside money for this category first.  Carving out this portion first ensures that delayed gratification actually happens.

2. Charitable Giving.

Setting aside charitable giving is our attempt to tangibly live out a life of generosity and compassion. Our focus shifts to those outside of the Park family, and this money automatically gets categorized as resources that don’t belong to us. Between savings and charitable giving, we try our best to match the levels of the two. If we have an extra dollar to save, that means we can just as easily give that exact extra dollar away. So why not do both by saving $0.50 and giving away $0.50?

3. Loans.

The last set of money that belongs in this category is loan payments, since by definition a loan is money that is borrowed from someone else, and therefore ultimately is money belonging to someone else. The payment to that entity is marked out of our budget first.

Groundwork.

We consider this the groundwork that we lay before dealing with the rest of our budget – these three categories of money don’t belong in the same “wave” of discussions as things like rent, food, shopping, etc. Saving, giving, and paying down out debt happens first, before we decide what kind of apartment we can afford, how many 8-course meals we’ll eat per week… etc. And, just kidding.

As you work out the savings portion of your budget, you have an opportunity to calculate your overall savings rate, which is the proportion of your total income that is allocated toward savings:

Overall savings rate = (monthly savings / monthly gross income) * 100%

A few things to note when you calculate this ratio:

• Monthly savings: make sure to include any automatically deducted savings such as 401K that is not actively portioned out of your budget
• Monthly Gross income: make sure you use your monthly gross income (pre-tax, pre-deductions) instead of your “monthly active income” that is used for budgeting.

By calculating the rate this way, you can accurately capture a holistic picture of your overall savings in relation to your overall income.

It’s up to you to decide what a “healthy” savings rate is – in fact, in the end, what your budget priorities are is also entirely up to you. Your values are probably not exactly the same as ours, but setting aside a portion of your income, before considering what kind of lifestyle you can “afford” (and locking yourself into a lifestyle that necessitates a certain spending pattern), will help your budget reflect your values. What we are hoping is that this method will free you up to make these decisions intentionally and purposefully, so that you are spending, saving, and giving in a way that you are proud of.

Most people, when they graduate college, miss the camaraderie. The social network, if you will. The buzz, the parties, the constant feeling of connection and belonging. They miss their roommates, their classmates, their sorority sisters, the cafeteria staff – most people I know can talk about their college network for hours, and get teary just thinking about all the people that they left behind and now miss terribly.

Me? I miss the solitude.

I miss walking around campus (by myself). I miss walking too and from work (by myself). I miss sitting in my favorite coffee shop and reading (by myself). I miss slipping into the campus chapel for a few moments of peace (by. my. self.).

I am a classic introvert. I gain so much energy from being alone – and I lose so much energy from being in situations in which I have to constantly engage other people. It’s one of the things that most stresses me out about working in an office (rather than in the library). I actually have no problem simply being around people – I love the buzz and activity of a coffee shop, and ambient noise doesn’t really get to me – but I really just get stressed by being constantly required to interact.

Well… I guess I’ve really raised my freak flag now. Hi, my name is Bethany, and whenever you engage me in conversation, my gut reaction is annoyance and stress. Physically manifested by hives and sweat.

I’m mentioning this tendency towards voluntary solitude because it is one of the major ways in which I compare myself to others. I guilt myself into accepting invitations, when I know that I need to just be alone to recharge and re-energize. After all, what will people think of me when I explain that I don’t have other plans – I’d just rather wear sweatpants, eat chocolate chips, and read War and Peace (typical evening at home)? On the other hand, when I do give in to my need for solitude, I compare my social calendar with other people’s – and how they seem to always be filled with exciting doings.

Needing solitude is something about myself that I need to either 1) accept, and just be myself, living my OWN life; or 2) seek to change. Either way, I really want to challenge myself to just take responsibility for it. If I choose to give myself a break and stay home from a social event because I’m accepting and honoring my introvertedness (definitely not a word), then I really need to stop complaining about not having plans. If I choose to push myself and go out anyway, then I should accept the consequences – more social ties, and the inevitable exhaustion that follows.

What about you? What is it about yourself that you tend to compare with other people? How can you take responsibility for it?

These kinds of meals define my daily repertoire: fast, easy, healthy meals. Almost all of my dinners are fast, because I don’t make anything that takes more than 30-40 minutes, maximum. And, most of them are healthy. And all are easy… because we eat a lot of soups (dump and stir) and stir fries (dump and stir… fry).

But these Edamame Teriyaki Noodles are special. They take (honestly!) 15-20 minutes to prepare. In terms of technique, they are extremely easy to pull together — if you can boil water, you can make this dish. And in terms of health, this is a meal that I’d call “accidentally vegan” — I didn’t set out to make a vegan dish, and you wouldn’t notice right away that this meal doesn’t include any animal products. But it sure doesn’t! It’s based on plants, whole grains, and the lovely roasted flavor of edamame.

This is another dish adapted from Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook — can you tell that it’s a favorite? I’ve modified his method and substituted my new favorite vegetable — bok choy! — for his suggestion, which was asparagus. I don’t do asparagus in my stir fries — tried that, gagged on the bitter stringiness, and never went there again. Asparagus was made to be roasted or steamed. Not stir fried. Besides, asparagus is out of season, and for $1/lb., I can get lovely, leafy bok choy. What’s not to like?

By the way… I promise that this dish is satisfying and hearty, even though it is “accidentally vegan.” Edamame and soba are both extremely filling, and you won’t make it through more than one bowl of this in a sitting. However, I do have to let you know that after I made this for the first time, I did catch Sean hunched over the refrigerator… horking down salami, straight out of the package.

There are no words.

Edamame Teriyaki Noodles with Bok Choy

Serves 3-4

Adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook

• 1 – 1 1/2 lb. bok choy, chopped, stems separated from leaves
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup scallions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 8 oz soba noodles (whole wheat pasta will work too)
• 2 cups shelled edamame, fresh or frozen
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin, or 2 tablespoons honey mixed with 2 tablespoons water

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. If you’re using frozen edamame, add it to the pot when the water boils. After two minutes, add the soba noodles. Let the noodle cook until soft but not mushy, around another 3 minutes (so that the frozen edamame gets 5 minutes in the water, and the noodles get 3). Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid, then drain the noodles and edamame.

Meanwhile, put a large skillet over high heat, and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the bok choy stems and stir fry for one minute. Add ginger and garlic, stir until aromatic, then add bok choy leaves and scallions. Stir fry until the veggies are softened — you can leave them as crispy as you like, it’s a matter of taste.

When you the vegetables are tastefully soft, add the noodles, edamame, soy sauce, mirin, and enough of the reserved cooking water to keep the pan moist (about a 1/2 cup). Gently break up the noodles and work them into the bok choy, combining well, moistening the pan as necessary with the reserved water. Taste and adjust — you may prefer to add more mirin or soy sauce.

Divide into individual bowls and serve hot, spooning any leftover broth over your noodles.

So. When I relaunched my site in January and created a Get Organized category, I knew that one topic I really wanted to get into was budgeting and personal finance. Money is something that can control and trap us more easily than anything else — and when Sean and I got married, we began to realize how vulnerable we are to overspending, indebtedness, and materialism. We’ve set up some systems in our marriage and home life to keep us from those pitfalls, and I wanted to share them.

However, money is something that makes people really cranky. It’s personal, and we tend to get really defensive when the topic is brought up. If you disagree with another person’s spending habits or financial philosophy, it’s really hard to talk with them about it without getting confrontational. I didn’t want to antagonize people! So, how could I talk about money without painting a huge target on my forehead?

I could bring in my husband, and have HIM write about the contentious topic. That’s how. Without further ado, I introduce Sean, my husband. You’ll know who he is by the target on his forehead.

Let’s Talk About Money

Hi, Sean (Groomzilla) here. When it came to money, the Parks, like many other couples, certainly had our share of long “conversations” about how we wanted to approach it. However, it soon became clear to us that ultimately, we both want to be responsible and generous with our money, regardless of how little or how much we may have, now or later. In other words, we wanted our financial life to be aligned to a set of principles that go beyond circumstances.

What came next was to find a way to put these principles to action, and that is what I’d like to share with the world (you) in this mini-series. To give us a little bit of structure to this discussion, I’ll stick to a financial “roadmap” we use – aka, a budget. That’s right… the B word of personal finance. You do need a budget, and here is why.

In order to be financially responsible and remain solvent, you only need to follow one rule: spend less than you make. The only way you can know how much you spend in relation to how much you make is to track this information. The only way you can do that? Build and follow a budget.

Speaking of a roadmap… here a quick roadmap of what’s to come in this series, which also happens to be the three steps that we take to shape/reshape our own budget, in order of priority:

1. Money That Belongs to Others
2. Absolute Necessities
3. Discretionary Spending

Before You Start

Before we dive in, you’ll need a tool for budgeting. Our recommendation: www.mint.com. It’s dummy-proof, cloud based, and automates data aggregation from all sorts of online accounts you already have. It will save you HOURS. Enough said.

Once you have a tool for budgeting, the first thing you need to do figure out your active income. For the sake of clarity, let’s define active income as the income you generate with a large degree of consistency, both in terms of frequency and amount, as a result of the activity that occupies the majority of your time.

Ok, for most people, what I’m referring to is just your paycheck. The portion that is relevant for budgeting here is your net income (after taxes and other deductions), which can be easily located in your paystub.

Depending on how often you receive your income, it is helpful to adjust the amount to a monthly basis, which is the most common and practical time interval. To do this, simply use this formula: [($ per pay period) * (# pay periods per year) / 12]. When you sit down to make your monthly spending budget, you only need to know your monthly active income.

What comes next is figuring out how to spend that monthly active income. But before we get into that, we’d like to hear from you all! What is hardest for you about setting a budget? What is hardest for you when it comes to sticking with a budget?