A Budgeting Guide for Everyone

Creating the perfect budget for you might take time, thought and trails. You should remember, it can’t be created overnight. A budgeting guide is just what people need when wanting to begin saving and taking care of their spending. Maybe you don’t know where to begin when making a budgeting guide, well, if this is you, carry on reading!

1. What’s your income?

To create your budget, the first thing you should do is work out your take-home income. You might know your exact salary but you need to know the amount you receive after tax and other deductions.

Are you one of those people who reach the end of the month and wonders where all of your money has gone? You need to work out a weekly (even daily), plan to show you how much you have spent in that period and what it is on. After this, you should work out how much you have remaining after you have spent all of that.

3. The importance of what you’re buying

We all know when we shouldn’t be buying something we want. We might sometimes make them purchases which we will regret or those which won’t benefit us at all. But, this is what we need to work out. You should understand what needs and wants are. For example, a need is things like bills, essentials like food or any debt repayments. They are things which you need. Whereas wants could be things like the newest phone, eating out, or even a holiday. So, after you have worked out what you spend and have made a note of it, you should then go through the list and work out which items are needs and which are wants.

5. Be realistic

As humans, we might set goals which are too small or too large. We should make goals which are large enough to make a difference. We shouldn’t set unrealistic goals, for example, an amount higher than what you earn. You need to think about what would work alongside your needs and wants. As we shouldn’t be saving money we don’t have.

One of our favourite rules which tends to suit many people is called the ‘50/30/20’ rule. It is where 50% of your income would go towards your needs, such as bills; 30% towards your wants, like holidays; and 20% towards your savings. But, if this doesn’t work for you, there is no need to worry as there are plenty more ways you can save other than that. This could even be the basic ‘money in a jar’ rule.

6. Track your spending and progress

Another significant part of budgeting is tracking your progress. You should remember that your income and outgoing isn’t always going to stay the same, it may go up and it may go down. So, we need to track and change our plans as we go on. This could be done on the typically pen and paper, on a computer using Microsoft Word or Excel or even using an app. There are plenty of apps out there which allow you to upload your spending or even connect your card so you don’t need to do any work yourself, obviously besides entering your details at the start and checking it regularly. Some apps even show you the monthly overall spending compared to other months to visually show you your patterns and whether they differ.

More

Sometimes, we are hit by unexpected bills or things we need to pay for immediately and we just don’t have the money for it. So, don’t worry, personal loans can help. Before applying for a personal loan, you should ensure you know the ins and outs and that you are able to repay your fixed amount. For more information visit Simple Personal Loans.