Can you believe February is already over? Time is flying by pretty fast this year so far. So the question is, how is your budget going? Now is a great time to check in and see what’s going on. Here are a few tips to help you with the review:

1. Do you have a budget? If the answer is no, start one today.
2. Do you use the budget? Are you keeping up with yourdiscretionary spending?
3. Are you over/under? Look at the past two months. Have you been close to your target?
4. Did you budget enough? Let’s face it, if this is your first time working with a budget, mistakes are going to happen.
5. Tweak the numbers. If you set your groceries for $400 a month and January/February are coming in at $500, then you might want to increase this bill. However, make sure you look at all your expenses and take away budget from those you aren’t spending on.

How am I doing? I’d say pretty good. We overspent on groceries like #4 above. Looking back at this it really is a good thing. Our restaurant/fast food bill is almost nonexistent. We started to diet and cook more at home, so naturally our grocery was going to be more. We are also eating more fresh items and meat, which have added to the cost. When you look at both categories though, we were below the combined budget so that is really good. I’ve since lowered the fast food budget and kicked up the groceries to cover our new lifestyle.

We did spend a little more the first two months on the travel category. This doesn’t happen often, but because of lower flight prices, we booked in advance travel for May. This money is being saved, however it won’t be covered till May. The good news is that I received a little bonus for work in February which was able to cover that no problem. For more about how to create a monthly budget, check out my very first budget post.

Two months in and I’m pretty happy with my budget. To help me out, I’ve been using Mint, which is a great free website available to track your personal finances. I get weekly reports on my spending and alerts when cash gets low or when I go over in spending. If you don’t have a Mint account, definitely give it a try.

How is your budget going? On you on track? Are you feeling good about it?