Welcome to my article

Things just aren’t quite the way they used to be.

Living revolves around money, consumerism and credit more than ever before, and with that comes an ever growing mass of traps, financial pitfalls and STRESS!

Stress being the major factor in damaging our physical, mental and emotional health. So how do we work around these challenges to come out on top, with more money, less stress and living a happier lifestyle?

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know one way that will not only help your pocket in regards to spending money, it will also make life a lot easier financially.

You guessed it, budgeting!

So you’re thinking,

“too much paperwork”

“wastes my time”

“isn’t that what accountants are for?”

But what If I told you that by following a few easy steps (outlined below) you could save $1,000-$5,000 per year, hundreds per payday, just by getting rid of wasted purchases and following a budget so you can spend it on things you really want, or save it, then what would you say?

It’s really not that hard, in fact it’s not hard at all.

Applying simple budgeting techniques and sticking to them is like giving yourself a pay rise.

TRY THESE

You’ll have more money leftover for your wants, instead of your needs.

—WASTAGE—

This is the most annoying but most important part of all budgeting techniques.

For one payday period, i.e. week, fortnight or month, write down everything you buy in a notebook, absolutely everything, even if it’s less than a dollar.

When it comes next payday, get out the notebook and highlight your purchases that are (real needs) e.g. groceries, gas for the car, bills etc.

Everything left over are your (wants) and let’s face it, we all need some indulgences, but the main aim is to show areas of wastage, things we could do without and what your wasting your money on.

Knowing where all your money goes is a great way to curb bad habits, especially when you add it all up.

—BILLS—

For every bill, no matter when you get it, calculate its cost at the same period you get paid, we’ll work on a per fortnight basis.

Take car registration as an example, let say you pay $600 per year, (600 divided by 26 fortnights p/year equals $23.08)

What about your car insurance (maybe $1,200) that’s $46.15

Or it’s due in 6 months, $92.31

Even the bills that change, electricity, gas, etc, work out an estimate from past bills but always add extra for the unexpected hike.

The idea is you add all these fortnightly calculations together, then setup a bills account with your bank and every payday you setup to have the total of all your bills fortnightly costs to be transfered to your new bills account.

This is so much easier when it comes time to pay your bills, simply pay with your linked bank card or online.

The greatest benefit is you never have to worry about not having enough to pay the bill and it doesn’t come out of your (wants) money.

—SIMPLE BUDGET—

Using a spreadsheet or word document, write down how much you earn per pay, all your costs, this includes loan repayments, store cards, direct debit bills, the money you transfer to a bills account if you have one, even write down a rough estimate for gasoline and food costs on a per pay basis.

Write down the total of all the costs, then subtract it from your pay and write down what’s left over, this is your (wants) money, you can do what you like with it, spend it, put some of it in savings (Highly recommended), do what you like with it.

The trick here is to stick to spending no more than what’s left over, if you’re worried you’ll loose track of how much you’ve spent, simply take it all out as cash, or on your budget sheet, print it out and whenever you pay for something that’s not listed under costs simply write it down, that way you can easily check to see how much you have left till next pay.

Here’s a single wage fortnightly budget

EXAMPLE ONLY

Salary: $1,800 after tax and Super

Costs:

Power, gas, phone, registration, insurance $400

Grocery Bill $250

Gasoline $90

Loan repayments $250

Lunch Money $50

Pay TV $25

Internet $20

Credit card $45

TOTAL COSTS $1,130

REMAINDER $670

RECORDS

- Movies $20

- Night out with boys $98

- Put into savings account $250

- Have $302 left

- PC game $15

- etc

END EXAMPLE

Another way of doing it would be to have an additional bank account that your REMAINDER amount gets transferred to each pay, that way you never run the risk of cutting into your costs money.

That’s all for now, I hope you got something helpful out of this article, for your convenience I’ve made a list of recourses I use listed below, enjoy.

Best of luck

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Tags | credit card, insurance, money, savings account, spending money