I am happy to announce my first Christmas giveaway and it’s a good one! If you are interested in taking charge of your money this year, read on…

As a Christmas gift, I’m giving away a 1-year subscription to EveryDollar Plus!! EveryDollar is a budgeting tool created by the Dave Ramsey team. This is a one-year subscription is valued at $129. That’s a nice little Christmas gift, yes?

You’ll need to read through the entire post to learn the rules of the giveaway but I’ll make it worth it. 😉

EveryDollar is a great tool for budgeting! I’ve used it off and on in the past but more consistently have used Microsoft Excel. However, this year, I’m committed to using EveryDollar wholeheartedly. What better way to start out the new year than with a new budget?! And we can do it together and share tips.

Details About EveryDollar

• In the first month of budgeting with EveryDollar, the average user finds and extra $332 they were spending without even knowing it
• EveryDollar Plus comes with access to Financial Peace University
• This giveaway is the equivalent of $129
• EveryDollar gives you a game plan for winning with money. It’s built around the 7 Baby Steps to take budgeters through paying off debt, saving and building wealth.
• You’ll learn how to use a zero-based budget – where all your income minus all your expenses equal zero.

Start Out the New Year Building New Habits

I was listing to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, on the ChooseFI Podcast this past week. A lot of what he said really resonated with me (I plan on purchasing the book now!). Anyway, one thing I wanted to highlight here is the value of setting habits rather than goals.

As James talked about in his interview, we can set goals but then any habit change becomes all about the outcome. What happens when you hit the goal? What motivates you to keep going? For example, let’s say you decide to start a budget in order to pay off your debt. Will you keep going after your debt is paid off?

I would argue that budgeting and tracking your money is just as important after debt payoff as before because you can really start to focus on saving post-debt-payoff.

James challenges us to build habits rather than to set goals. Build habits to become the type of person you want to become. What does a debt-free type of person look like? Well, probably someone who budgets and tracks their money. So this year, let’s work to build the habit of budgeting and tracking your money.

The Value of Budgeting

When I vowed to start working on my financial life back in 2014, a friend taught me zero-based budgeting. That was the first key to gaining control of my financial life. Once I got on a budget, I could see exactly where my money was going. Moreover, I could tell my money where to go.

If you don’t take control of your money, it will take control of you.

Whether you are paying off debt, saving for retirement or doing a bit of both, budgeting and tracking your expenses will help you.

The idea behind zero-based budgeting is that you tell every dollar where to go. You do this until you you’ve assigned every dollar to a category and have zero left. Simple.

How to Create Your Every Dollar Account

I’m going to show you how to redeem the voucher for the blessed recipient. First, you’ll need to create an account on EveryDollar.

Go to everydollar.com and either click on “Get Started” in the upper right corner or “Sign Up – it’s Free” in the bottom left corner.

Next, you will enter your personal information in order to create your account.

Then, if you are the winner of the contest and you’ve finished creating an account, you’ll click on the little gear in the bottom left corner.

This will take you to your settings and now you can click on “Redeem Voucher”

Here’s where you can see the differences between the free version and paid (plus) version. So if you aren’t the winner you can still sign up.

Now, you can enter your voucher code which I will send to the blessed winner.

How to Use the EveryDollar

Once you create an account, you’ll be asked to choose your money goals.

Then, you’ll share a bit more information about yourself.

Now, you’ll enter your net income (post-tax and after any other deductions).

Okay, now you’ll move onto your monthly expenses, starting with housing.

Next is transportation.

Then, you guessed it, is food!

Another great thing about using EveryDollar is that it does the arithmetic for you. It subtracts your expenses from your net income and shows your balance as you go.

Your personal expenses will be entered next.

There’s even a spot to enter giving which is oh so important in my humble opinion. 😉

Now if one of your goals is paying off debt. And if you have any consumer debt, I highly recommend this becoming a big focus for you in 2020. Debt is debilitating. As Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung say in, Quit Like a Millionaire, if you owe someone, they own you. Furthermore, the bible confirms this:

“The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.” – Proverbs 22: 7

Adding Groups in Every Dollar

If you would like to add another group (another category of expenses or savings) to your every dollar account, you can. You’ll want to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on “Add Group.”

While I do the bulk of my savings with pre-tax dollars by maxing out my employer-sponsored Simple IRA and an HSA, I additionally do some post-tax investing and saving. The way I track this is by adding a group inside my EveryDollar account.

Mobile App

Once you’ve set all of this up on a desktop computer, which you’ll need to do to redeem the voucher, you can download the EveryDollar app to your phone. This makes it nice to check your budget anytime you are on the run and/or rely on your phone more than a computer.

How to Enter the Contest

Okay, now for the fun part. I have one voucher for some blessed winner which will give you a year’s subscription to EveryDollar Plus for free. That’s a prize valued at $129! Here’s how you can enter the contest:

Email me (RecoveringWomenWealth [at] gmail.com), contact me here or leave a comment on this post. Please write me a paragraph with your money goals for 2020 and explain how creating the habit of budgeting/tracking your expenses will change you into becoming the type of person who____________ (fill in the blank). Keep your essay to 200 words or less.

All entries are due by Friday, December 27, 2019, 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST). I will review all submitted entries and announce the winner on Wednesday, January 1st, 2020. This way you’ll be able to start out the new year with a fresh slate!

Closing Thoughts

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderfully peaceful Christmas and a fruitful new year! May your 2020 be filled with faith, family connections, the fruit that comes from inner work and financial peace!