It's payday at my house today, and chances are that it's probably close to yours as well, especially since we just passed the 15th on the calendar. So I thought now was a good time to delve into a little personal finance post with a few tips that center around our favorite work day of the month!

Tip #1 - Pay yourself first! Granted this one will be hard to do if you are already getting paid today, but it's something you need to account for, and change in future pay periods. Right now most of our checks pay insurance premiums and then taxes before we ever get to the point of putting some money in our own pockets. David Bach and many others recommend paying yourself first, and it's a valid point. You are working for yourself and for your family, but if you aren't paying yourself first, you are actually working for others instead. Your company's 401(k) is a great place to start in paying yourself first, as the money is taken out prior to any taxes, and actually reduces your tax burden.

If your company doesn't have a 401(k) plan or some sort of other forced savings that can be deducted from your paycheck, then it's up to you to setup either an automatic retirement or savings withdrawal from your checking account. Whatever you do, the goal here is to put some money back that's just for you! If you are in the middle of a Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover, then a forced savings withdrawal into an emergency fund would classify as "paying yourself first". If you are debt free, or maybe don't see the value in paying off debts right now, then paying yourself first into a 401(k) should be your chosen method.

Tip #2 - Check your deductions! It's tax time, so you will be filing your taxes, and either receiving a refund or paying in (we almost always pay). If you find yourself getting a huge refund, I suggest adding some deductions in. A refund of more than $300-$500 is like giving an interest free loan to the IRS, and we don't want to do do that! While not a lot of money ($500 only gives an extra $41 per month in your pocket), that is still money that you could use yourself instead of giving it to them. Unfortunately, $500 isn't the highest amount I've heard in recent weeks because I know of people who regularly get $2,000, $5,000, and even $10,000 refund checks back! While I wouldn't fuss too much about a $500 return, $5,000 is way too extreme, and goes back to Tip #1 where you should pay yourself first, and not last.

Tip #3 - Write down your budget! No one really likes budgeting. Well, almost no one, but a budget does serve the purpose of keeping you and your family members informed of where your money is being spent. A simple 2 column spreadsheet should suffice for each paycheck received during the month, with the column on the left naming the expense, and then the actual expense on the right. You can estimate your grocery, clothing, and gas expenses at first, and adjust as you update the budget monthly.

If you don't know where to start on budgeting, and have no idea how much money is spent on groceries, gas, restaurants, and the like each month, then try a tool like Mint.com. Mint is free, and allows the user to connect to their online checking, savings, and loan accounts, and add a category to each transaction as it comes in. Mint will calculate how much is being spent on each category during the month, and gives the user a nice bar chart which shows the expenses as they get closer to the budget that was set in each category.

If you take nothing away from this post except for one item, then please let it be Tip #1! Always remember who you are working for when you receive your paycheck. It's not the credit card company, and it's not the auto finance company. It's not the mortgage company, and it's sure not the IRS. It's YOU and your family!

B. Daniels is the lead review expert with Find Cheap Bargains. B. was more than likely the person responsible for the hands-on review of every product on the site. He also spends time searching for sale bargains when not conducting and writing the reviews.