Everyone should have a budget. Without one, it doesn’t matter how much money you earn, you’ll likely end up wasting plenty of it. This means you’ll be spending hours at work each week for no real reason. Worse still, though, it could also mean that you end up putting yourself and/or your family at risk of things like repossessions, bankruptcy, foreclosure and more. So here’s some valuable budgeting advice just about everyone can benefit from.
For one, go through your budget right now and look to cut 10% from it. Try to make this a monthly practice, actually. Cutting 10% will show you real results over a very short period of time. However, it also doesn’t mean that you’ll be depriving yourself or your family any essentials. Most people are actually surprised to find how easily they can cut 10% from their budget without feeling any real pain for it.
Most of us would also benefit from looking at what we spend on food. The majority of those who set a budget and still end up with money problems are severely underestimating what they spend on feeding themselves and their family every month. For one thing, if you’re not keeping your grocery receipts, you don’t know for sure what you spend on food each month. But the same goes for the money you spend at restaurants, in vending machines, on gas station food, etc. This all piles up and needs to be addressed.
Every budget should include money for luxury items like clothes we don’t need or a night out with friends. In order to keep this money to a minimum, though, take the cash you’re allocating yourself for these expenses and put it in a jar somewhere out in the open. Allow yourself to take from this jar whenever you have a luxury item you want to buy, but never spend more than what’s available. Seeing this money will help you stay on budget.
Saving money is essential, but your current budget may not be enough to see the job get done right. Applying the above advice can help ensure you keep your finances protected.
Source:
https://www.mint.com/blog/planning/4-great-pieces-of-budgeting-advice-from-top-money-experts-0514/
