How to Spring Clean Your Finances

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Spring is in the air! In addition to decluttering and organizing your home for the season, have you considered sprucing up your budget? Keep reading to learn how!

I absolutely love to clear out ALL THE THINGS!

I read Marie Kondo’s, “Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up“, a couple of years ago and basically threw away everything in my house.  It was glorious.

Kids complicate this though…but I still try!

With the rising popularity of the KondoMari Method (due to the Netflix series that recently launched), I thought to myself…

“Can you Marie Kondo your money?”

Obviously, your electric bill and student loan payments are not going to “give you joy”, but you can definitely take a look at your finances and do some SERIOUS decluttering.

How to Declutter and Organize Your Finances

Cancel Unwanted Subscriptions with Rocket Money

Rocket Money is a financial assistant app that you can download and use right from your phone.

My favorite feature of Rocket Money is that it will find all of the subscriptions that you are paying for. This is a paid feature, but it will save you way more…plus there’s a 7 day free trial so you can test it out for yourself!

Those sneaky monthly and annual expenses can really throw off your budget!

We thought we had our February budget completely on point, until our annual Amazon Prime subscription cleared and we completely forgot!

This doesn’t mean you have to get rid of ALL your monthly subscriptions (nobody’s taking my Netflix).  I guarantee there are one or two that you have either completely forgotten about, or could seriously do without.

A few awesome features of Rocket Money include:

• Find and cancel unwanted subscriptions
• Negotiate your cable or internet bill down for you!
• Budgeting, Debt Payoff, and Savings tips and tricks

You can sign up here and start saving money!

Cut Up Your Credit Cards

You might think your credit cards are bringing you joy, but the aftermath of interest and debt are not doing you any favors!

Spring clean your wallet and cut up your credit cards.  You purse will feel lighter, too!

Keep a debit card, and try using cash!  Yes, you will be that super weird person using cash everywhere, but I’ve found that our family feels much less stressed about money when we use a cash budget.

Related Post:  How to Pay Off Debt Fast

Organize Your Financial Records

Make sure you keep important records like life insurance documents or your will in a safe, organized place.

You should permanently keep:

• Birth & Death Certificates
• Social Security Cards
• Existing Insurance Policies
• Will & Trust
• IRA Contributions
• Retirement & Pension records

Mike from MK Library has an excellent resource on how long to keep other personal and business records.

Clear Paper Clutter

Decide on a “one touch system” for your mail to eliminate a forgotten bill or lost check!

If you’re like our family, the kitchen counter can easily become a huge source of paper clutter!

When you check the mail, try to open it immediately and put it where it goes.

• Deal with it immediately
• Save in a folder for later
• Recycle

Is it a bill?  Pay it or move to a folder so you will have it when you sit down to pay your monthly bills.

Coupons?  Cut them out and put them in an envelope to use!  If you’re not going to use it, recycle bin it goes!

Catalogs?  If you’re going to keep them to browse, make sure you recycle any old ones and replace them with the new ones on the coffee table.  I usually just move catalogs or junk mail right to the recycle bin so I’m not tempted to buy anything!

Eliminate Paper Completely

Try to sign up for e-statements now, so you don’t need to worry about controlling paper clutter later.

Do you own a small business and are worried about keeping up with receipts?

Try using an online book keeping system that allows you to upload your receipts and toss them after!

De Clutter Your Home and Earn Cash

Now that you’ve cleaned up your money and financial documents, let’s make some money by clearing the rest of your clutter!

Boost your emergency fund or pay off debt by hosting a garage sale, selling clothing on Poshmark, or offloading your stuff on Facebook Marketplace, EBAY, or Mercari.

I have made hundreds of dollars selling things around my house that I simply don’t need anymore.  The extra cash has come in very handy as we push forward to pay off our six figure debt.

Grab my free budget planner to declutter and organize your finances! Fill out the form below.

Conclusion

Organizing and decluttering your finances doesn’t have to be hard or scary! Using these simple tips, you can feel more confident about your budget, save more money, and most of all, lighten your mental load of all the financial clutter.