This is a collaborative post by Ellie Jo.
Most people know that if they want to get their finances in order, they need to think about budgeting. But relatively few people are actually good at budgeting themselves, and this is a problem which can lead to many ongoing issues in one’s daily life. If you are trying to get your finances on track, then you will certainly want to make sure that you know how to budget properly. The truth is that learning to budget takes a lot of time, and plenty of trial and error. It is something that you are going to need to think about long and hard to get right. In this article, we will look at some of the ways in which you can make sure you budget properly, so that you can get the benefits quickly.
What’s The Deal With Budgeting?
Your Goals
First of all, you need to make sure that you have a goal you are working towards if you hope for your budget to go well. Having a goal means that you have something to motivate you, and it also has a way of helping you to plan your budget out too. When you don’t have something specific to aim for, your budget is much more likely to be nebulous and all over the place. It might still be effective to some degree, but it is much less likely to be quite as effective as a budget which has a particular goal in mind. Of course, you might have more than one goal, or you might have several along the path. However you do it, having at least something to aim towards is likely to be a good way to go.
So you will need to make sure that you are initially clear on what your goals are, and how you hope to get to them. That means looking at your current financial situation and understanding what it is that you would like to change there. The sooner you get to the bottom of that, the sooner you can start to budget yourself in a way which is likely to be truly effective, which is ultimately what you are going for here. Write down whatever goals come to mind which you feel you would like to pursue, and then make a point of developing your budget around them. You’ll find this is much more effective, and that you are more likely to feel truly engaged as you go to make those necessary life changes. See https://www.moneyunder30.com/no-more-budgets for more.
Starting Small
It’s important to remember that there is no such thing as too small a detail when you are budgeting out your finances. Everything that you spend money on is deserving of your attention and time, and you should make sure that you are focused on improving as many of those things as you possibly can if you want to really make a profound difference to your finances. By starting with the apparently small things, you can hope to make bigger changes overall – after all, it is only by making small changes that big changes will happen too. So when you are budgeting, make sure to have a keen eye for detail, and to consider everything as being important to the overall budget.
For instance, you will probably at some point be looking at your monthly bills, and it can be all too easy to overlook a few of the smaller ones because you feel that they are not really important. However, even the smaller bills are worth being aware of, and making them as small as necessary is still going to help you in big ways later on down the line. If you feel that you could save a couple of dollars on your phone contract by going with someone like https://www.smarty.co.uk, for instance, then it is still worth doing so. Likewise, saving even just a tiny amount on your energy bill is still worthwhile, so make sure that you allow yourself to do so should you feel you can. Whatever small changes you make are still going to be important and make a difference, so be sure to remember that if you want to budget yourself as well as possible.
Using Automation
These days, it is easier than ever to make sure that you are tracking your spending, and you really have no excuse not to do so. Of course, tracking your spending is central and vital to ensuring that you are budgeting yourself properly, so this is something you will want to make sure that you are doing properly. Many of the best ways to do so are those which use some kind of automation, and that is absolutely something that you should look into using if you are keen to make sure you are doing this right. One of the easiest ways to do this is to get a smartphone app which tracks your spending for you. You might be surprised at just how effective this can be in helping you to spend less, and it is certainly one of the best apps you are likely to get with regard to improving your finances.
Even without using the app, you can these days usually set up spending limits with your bank directly. These are bound to help you spend less, and in some cases they literally cut you off when you hit your limit, meaning that it is impossible for you to spend more than necessary. That can be a flexible and easy way to curb your spending, and that in turn will likely make budgeting yourself considerably easier to do. It’s definitely worth using some kind of automation, especially if you often struggle with keeping control of your own spending.
Pay With Cash
In fact, if you really want to keep your spending down, there is one powerful means by which you can hope to do so: pay with cash wherever possible. Part of the reason that so many of us struggle with spending too much is that it is just so easy to tap a card or phone onto a card machine. You might not even be really aware of how much you are spending, and smaller amounts, in particular, can feel like they are not really happening, which of course means that they then add up over time. If you want to spend less, using cash is bound to be the way to go.
You might not even appreciate what a difference this can make until you do it, so give it a go for one week and see what it’s like. You will find that it is psychologically quite distinct from paying with a card, and in particular that you are much more aware of what you are paying and when. That will give you the chance to keep your money intact much more easily, and you will find that it is a joy to not spend more than you need to.
As long as you try the above, you should find that you can budget yourself much more effectively, and so keep your finances in order much more easily. It’s something that can make a profound difference to your life, and you should, therefore, aim to do so if that is something you are keen to be able to say.
