In order to keep up with your budget, is important to understand how much your liquid income is and how is your lifestyle. If you don’t have time to cook the next day’s lunch at home, for example, make sure to budget to eat out every day.
Set up how much your lunch can cost and make sure you keep on your budget. If there’s a day you’d like to splurge a little bit, you should plan for it ahead.
Steps to plan your budget:
Record how much money is coming in and when. If you don’t have a regular amount of income, work out an average amount.
Make a list of all the money coming in, including:
This money could be from your wages, pension, government benefit or payment, or income from investments.
Regular expenses are your ‘needs’ – the essential items you need to pay for to live. These include:
• Fixed expenses;
• Debt expenses;
• Unexpected expenses
The money you have left after expenses is your spending and saving money.
Your spending money is for ‘wants’, such as entertainment, eating out and hobbies.
Make a plan for what you want to do with your spending money. This will help you to see where it goes and keep within your spending limit.
If you have a savings goal you can use your budget to work towards it.
Once you know how much money you have for ‘wants’, you can work out how much of it you’d like to save.
Having some savings can create a safety net for unexpected expenses. Even a small amount set aside regularly will make a difference.