Every April, bright, colorful puzzle pieces begin to appear all around us on social media, television, and storefront advertisements. World Autism Month is a great time to spread awareness for a disorder that affects so many. With 1 in 54 children being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it has touched most of us in one way or another.

Knowing how to make a monthly budget is the important first step to financial freedom. That means retiring comfortably, spending time with your family, and traveling like you always wanted. Monthly budgets, however, aren’t something you can set and forget about. In order to make one work for you and your family, you must always review and tweak it. To help, here are seven tips for improving your monthly budget for your family:

Budgets are a valuable money management tool.  Even if you’re happy with your financial health, budgets can keep you from slipping into bad habits.  They can even help you save a lot of money.  If you’re struggling to make ends meet, budgeting is an excellent way to get control of your spending.

If the word budget makes you think of never-ending columns and rows, don’t worry.  There are budgeting methods that make it easier to manage your finances once a budget template is in place.  There are even budgeting apps for your smartphone that can keep you on track. 

According to the American Psychological Association's survey, which measures causes of stress, money consistently lands near the top with 61% of Americans reporting money-related anxiety. The biggest factor in this stress is overspending according to CNBC Personal Finance. We worry when total expenses (amount spent monthly) exceed total income (amount made monthly), causing mounting debt. 

Create a monthly budget to ensure you do not spend more than you make in a month, forcing you to take on additional debt. 

The basic idea behind putting in long work-hours is that our quality of life will improve. Maybe you pull some overtime or go above and beyond to earn a raise or promotion. Regardless of how you go about increasing your salary, there’s an expectation that bank accounts will swell, and life will get a tad easier. One of the things that hold many of us back from saving a lot of money though is controlling our spending.

If you're a beauty product lover like me, you know how difficult it can be to decide which products are most essential to pack on a trip, throw in your bag for touch-ups, or get rid of when you're running out of space. Honestly, I follow the same rule for beauty products that I follow for clothes; you only get rid of them to make room for more. Luckily, I have Professional Stylist, Jaimie Maynor's help when it comes to narrowing down my must-have products.

 

As we're kicking off the first week of the new year, I'm sure your social media feeds are full of "New Year, New Me" posts and talk of resolutions. I'll admit, I'm guilty of picking a new year's resolution each year, and like most, I typically fall short before January is even over. 

Here's to us, we made it through the holidays! Although the holidays are my favorite time of year, I always feel like I need a vacation afterward. Unfortunately for me, there's rarely any vacation change to spare after buying gifts for all my loved ones. However, I'm so thankful that I could gift my loved ones with unique presents from some of my favorite local businesses and have the opportunity to gift one lucky winner with a prize pack from these great stores. 

Our thoughts are with the family of Mr. Roosevelt Scott, who passed away on Thursday, December 10th.

Mr. Scott was such a staple to the Hemingway community in the way that he brought people together through his famous BBQ. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have met Mr. Scott over the summer for WTBW News 13 Living Local Carolina. Although we were there to try out Mr. Scott's famous BBQ, it was his personality and love for his family that made him so captivating.

Last Year, I had the opportunity to interview Carolina Trust Executive Assistant Selma Reburn for a Community Focus piece, which we featured in our monthly member newsletter, The Caroliner. Selma has been employed by Carolina Trust for 33 years and is retiring on December 2nd. I wanted to reshare Selma's community focus, to give people outside of the credit union a small glimpse at how much Selma means to us and how influential her role is here. We will miss her greatly, but the legacy that she has left at the credit union will always remain.