5 Budgeting Tips You Need To Implement Now!
5 Budgeting Tips You Need To Implement Now!
Have you ever been so ridden with anxiety over checking your bank account?
Or you catch yourself in another cycle of spending until your paycheck runs out then desperately waiting to get paid again? That darn paycheck to paycheck life.
Or maybe you’re good all month, you have enough to pay all the bills and enjoy your life, but then you realize you’re saving nothing?
Well you can bet we’ve all been in at least one of those situations. Maybe all of them. I know I have.
But my hubby & I are really proud of how great we have gotten with our budget and money savy ness over the years.
We started with barely any money (living in low income housing, food stamps, the whole shabang), to now making a decent living, have an emergency fund built up for 6 months, live on less than we make, and have a 3 year plan to have a huge amount saved for a down payment on a house (we live in Monterey, CA so to stay here requires a looot of it).
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Getting here required a lot of hard work and it wasn’t easy to navigate but these things really helped get us on track:
1. Know where you stand.
How much do you make every month? How much do you spend? How much do you owe in debt (loans, car payments, etc.). Are you spending more than you make? Are you saving money? Could you be?
Having a solid idea of what you bring home & what you spend is crucial for making a game plan to being financially abundant!
2. Avoid debt!
Fortunately neither of us had any school loans. I went to a community college to get my ASN and got scholarships & financial aid which truly put me in the best situation possible. My husband works in the carpenters union and got there through a technical program so no student loans for him either.
Now I know this isn’t possible for everyone, and you might have tons of loans already built up consuming you. But you can tackle them!
Figure out how much you paid off and how much you owe. Likely you’ll realize you’ve mostly been paying off the interest and the loan isn’t going down much at all!
Paying off your loans ASAP is the best thing for getting back on track to building wealth!
3. If you don’t have cash, DONT BUY IT! This goes along with the no debt thing. We didn’t hold a single credit card balance. We use our credit cards to buy gas then pay it off every month as a way to build credit. But living within our means really helped us avoid debt.
4. Make a monthly budget
Now that you know where you stand, you should have somewhat of idea of how much money you’re spending & where exactly it’s going. Write down all those reoccurring payments (cell, rent, Netflix, Spotify, the whole shabang!). And keep track of when they’re actually pulled out of your account. Try to figure out how much you’re spending on groceries, gas, etc. and make a weekly budget for each of those that is realistic to stick to. Like I said, we pay with gas on credit cards and that’s the only thing, so it’s super easy to keep track of how much we’re spending on it. For groceries we take our budget out in cash at the beginning of the month and break up the amount by weeks so we can hold ourselves accountable to our budget and avoid going over.
5.Make “spending money” part of your monthly budget. Hubby & I each have our own monthly spending money to use on whatever we want. Like all my oat milk lattes and if I feel like getting a new pair of leggings. But having a limited amount keeps me in check and makes me really consider if what I’m about to buy is worth it or not. It’s also super important that every time we eat out it comes out of our spending money. It encourages us to eat at home and be more considerate of how much we spend on eating out (you can spend like crazy without even realizing it!). As our incomes have grown, we’ve gotten to increase or decrease this amount depending on our current goals. Be realistic with this amount. Whatever you don’t spend you get to save, that’s super important to remember!
BONUS! Make sure you start building an emergency fund. It’s super crucial to have a budget and a plan, it’s also important to stick to it if you want your finances to improve. And one little thing can easily prevent that from happening. Got sick and had to lose a couple days of work? Had to fix a part on your car? How does that fit in to your budget? Well it probably doesn’t unless you planned for it. Having an emergency fund to compensate for those unexpected expenses helps keep everything in balance and keeps you on track!
