Discover the ultimate budgeting guide, the good, the bad and the ugly.
I think we are in a time , we need to take some drastic decisions. Help us change our financial situation.
- 2 much debt.
- Just purchase a new house
- Kids in private school
- Back to school
- Car need repairs
- Credit Cards
- Student loans
- and more…
The reality is most of the population don’t have a budget in place and why is that?
Simply a question of organisation, taking the decision, know from where to start, not simple.
A budget should be at the main core of your money control. This amazing appelation will help you succeed at the game of financial stress.
Budgeting is for everyone, even if your making 100k a year or 20k a year, it is the same just at a different level money wise. The surprise is most peoples don’t even save 10% of their revenue per month. Since there is so much to do around bills, the house, work, commuting and many more situations.
It is a duty to make sure we are abble to save at least 10% of our income per month until we reach , 6 months of survival money.
Let’s start…
Tracking.
Important indeed to track your expenses, it is fondamental to do so… You have to know exactly how much you have left at the end of the month.
Track everything without living a thing, even a pack of gomme or the muffin at the store. The difficult part, is to do it on a constant basis. Record every transactions you may have per day,per week and per month. How?
- Tracking with a software
- Have a excel sheet
- A Calendar
- A spiral book for notes
- and more…
Important, track with something that you know will make you comfortable. Don’t put to much pressure on you and more onward of having fun while in the process. We all know how hard it could be , to do something over and over again. To have the motivation to track all of your expenses could be challenging. Collaborate with your spouse or include a family member to keep you accountable. This will help you a lot.
Income.
Know your numbers is really important and i will repeat this word along my article, not to be annoying! We don’t realise that our income could fluctuate a lot from one month to the other.
- Part time Job
- Bonuses
- Extra hours
- Reward
- Less hours
- Sick
- and more…
There is no way we could control how our income will be from one month to the other. So we should always calculate with the worst scenario in mind. When working with a budget, will give you more chance to be successful.
Calculate also any vacations time or sick leave day that was not taken at the end of the year.To apply to your budget lets say for the month of January, this should give you a boost for that month. Take advantage to pay any bad debt you have or a high interest rate credit. Any extra money coming your way, take the necessary steps to apply the money to paying down a debt in full.
Expenses.
Ohhh boy, this one is a bit over the top. How could we control or have a number on our expenses! To me it’s impossible to track all the expenses that we have in a current month without forgeting a thing.
Think about…
- Your house (Insurance, repairs, mortgage,taxes…)
- Your Car (Insurance, definitely the repairs, loan if there is one…)
- Cable and Internet (a good 75$ a month and more)
- Groceries (Depend how you eat, paleo,vegetarian, meat lover…)
- If you have Kids (daycare, orthodontist, private school…)
- Entertainment (movies, restaurants, traveling…)
- Animals (food, cares, toys…)
- and more.
There is so many things that we have to think about in a given month, it is just crazy. I do remember when i was starting checking all my spending in a month, i was shock. When i say, i was throwing money in the garbage , it was not a joke.
- Having coffee in the morning
- Restaurant at lunch
- Online shopping issue
- Easy access to credit (line of credit, credit card…)
There is so much we are abble to do when we have money available to us and especially when the credit is easy to get.Don’t fall for it because once you have sign on the dotted line, it is another ball game. Most of the time, the bank win the game, be careful.
Apply.
This is a strong word to use but we need to apply what we say will do! How many time you said, “I will do it” and…. Nothing, blank, cricket… We have to be accountable, have your spouse, love one, boyfriend, girlfriend in your corner when starting this project. We all need help in life and this is the perfect opportunity to have someone beside you, watching your every move.
It is difficult to have someone looking at your every move. Make sure you stay in your lane because it is so easy to lose track. On my side, what i did to help me win my battle with credit?!
My partner, my wife was around me all the time, this was the best decision i took and the hardest one at the same time.There is no other way for me not to succeed, i had to make it happen.
My Solution.
Multiple bank accounts to track my expenses and have control over my bills.
- Mortgage (include insurance, repairs,property taxes,fees, electricity,…)
- Car (loan, repairs,insurance, gas, any extra expenses)
- Account for the credit line (Adjust how you pay your credit line)
- Account for credits card (all credit cards are paid with this account, so it is easy to keep track)
- Entertainment (include restaurant, movies and any expense related to fun)
- Recurring (groceries,gym membership, bus-train pass…)
- Misc (Any extra that may happen in a month)
Just by doing this little adjustement, i did cut my expenses by 30 %,it is a good thing to try this option.
Trust.
Just trust yourself when taking or starting a new project. It will take courage and determination to achieve your goal to have a better financial situation.
Take one step at a time, have your own agenda… If you feel, you need to change something,just do it. Only by not doing something or taking the risk,you will regret it.
Have fun while doing it, no need to put pressure on yourself.
Happy Butgeting!
Stanley
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