So, when I first started learning about budgeting and getting control of my money, I kept hearing the term “zero-based budget.”

According to daveramsey.com “zero-based budgeting is a way of budgeting where your income minus your expenses equals zero.” I could not, for the life of me, figure out how you were supposed to save money or put anything towards debt when your expenses totaled your income.

Eventually, I realized that savings and debt payments count as those expenses.

So, if you’ve budgeted for all of your bills, payments, food, housing, etc, and you’re left with $700.00, zero-based doesn’t mean you spend it, you just have to do something with it. Saving it counts.

What zero-based budgeting really means is giving every dollar a job whether it be spending, giving, or saving.

Once we started doing a zero-based budget, it made it much easier to keep track of all of our money. Once we paired a zero-based budget with sinking funds and savings account management (more on that here –> Sinking Funds & Savings Account Management {with a free tracking spreadsheet}), we really started to see progress, and it was easier to see what we really had to work with in our checking account.

Stay tuned, I’m going to share one of our most effective secrets for budgeting soon!!!