One of the benefits of signing up with CalendarBudget is that it makes creating a spending plan and sticking to it a part of your daily routine. How does it accomplish this? With the revolutionary Habit Installer system, a series of 21 short videos and tutorials sent to your inbox every day for three weeks.

My wife Debra and I used to blame the economy, our age, or our lack of effort for our failure to create a workable spending plan. None of these factors was the main cause of our lack of results. Instead, we had to shift how we approached our financial budgeting.

The Traditional, Old Method of Budgeting at Home

For years we used the envelope budgeting system, which was very appealing because of its simplicity. The envelope budget manager system requires just some envelopes, each containing a fixed sum for expenses such as groceries, utility bills, gas, etc. The reason we stopped using it is that it’s inflexible, and it cannot handle large emergencies, such as the time we totaled our car and had to get another one right away.

Budgeting Software Programs to the Rescue – The New Element to Personal Finance

Soon after our car situation was resolved, Debra started shopping around for a budget planner and hit upon CalendarBudget. The Habit Installer system was what attracted her. During the 30-day free trial, we learned just about everything we needed to know about CalendarBudget through the Habit Installer, from how to set up our accounts to strategies for making budgeting at home a habit.

I especially liked Day 3: Bill Reminders, where the Habit Installer prompted us to set up an automated reminder system that would give us an email notice when our bills are due. Debra and I are both busy with our full-time jobs, and three children, each with different interests and activities. When we used the envelope budgeting system, utility bill due dates slipped by on several occasions, and this negatively affected our credit scores. Habit Installer ensured that this will never happen again.

I also like Day 6: Your Budget on Your Mobile Device. We both make most of our spending decisions when we’re out – away from our computers and our written spending plan. The Habit Installer showed us how to put this plan onto the calendars of our respective smartphones following the simple calendar format provided by the website. This tool has helped us to significantly trim our spending and live within our budget.

The Habit Installer prepared us well for adopting CalendarBudget as our budgeting manager. We still use the skills that we learned during those 21 days for budgeting at home and when we’re on the road.

Have you used CalendarBudget’s Habit Installer to help you create your spending plan? Use the Comments section below to share your experiences with us.