A budget is one of the most personal things about personal finance. When used correctly, your own budget can tell you so much about your own spending habits, what triggers you may have and where all (or not) of your money disappears to.
In short, having a budget is the one key thing to successful financial knowledge, especially when you’re first starting out. It can be so daunting to try and start a budget, but once you get the hang of things, especially once that first month is over and you can reflect back on your spending, then you can genuinely feel empowered by your actions.
And, if your spending turns out to be different to what you think it should – perhaps you spent a lot more on eating out than you budgeted for – then you can change and adapt your budget accordingly. And, though hopefully this isn’t the case, if you end up spending more than you earn then you can make the necessary steps to stop overspending. Having a budget will help you identify the key areas where money leaks away and you can focus on those.
But, one of the assumptions about budgeting is that it takes ages. And that it is complicated and confusing and a little bit boring. But it doesn’t have to! In fact, if your budget is boring, then perhaps it is working 😉 but it definitely doesn’t have to take ages, nor does it have to be complicated or confusing. So far from it, in fact.
Related article: How To Make A Budget
January 2019 was one of the best months we’ve had in a long time in terms of finances. I felt really positive about how we were planning on a No Spend Month, plus really reigning in spending in all areas of our budget. It made a massive impact on our monthly aims, all for the better.
The one thing I think contributed to this? Manually tracking my expenses.
Using the simple budget planner that I designed, I wrote down everything. I tracked my No Spend Days, Â wrote down every little thing we spent, categorised and colour coded. Plus I tracked our savings so that I could see how far away we were. And the simple act of writing things down helped us so much. In fact, some days I didn’t spend because I didn’t want to add more expenses to that tracker.
Best of all? It only took me 10 minutes each day, if that.
My 10 minute budget routine.
Firstly, I would check our online banking. Quickly logging on to see what the balances were, and if anything were amiss. At this point, I would also do any account tidies that I could, either as a mortgage overpayment or across into our savings account. I also write down any direct debits or standing orders that have gone out that day.
Related article: This One Simple Trick Will Save You Over £100 A Month!Â
Secondly, I would update my No Spend Day tracker. I use different coloured stars to fill in my No Spend Day tracker – I have these ones – as I like the visual aid it gives, especially at the end of the month when it is all filled in. Using this also gives me a lot of information about my own spending habits. I know, for example, that Thursdays are usually a spend day for me, purely because I am not at work. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had a NSD on a Thursday! And, having a tracker shows me this instantaneously.
Next, using any receipts I had kept from spending, I update the Expense tracker. This has a column for categories which I also colour code so I can see at a glance which categories we are spending the most in. Â Or which ones we could probably miss out next time. I use these highlighters to colour code my categories and I love them.
Lastly, I’d update my savings tracker with any savings made. This is just colouring in squares so nice and simple 🙂 and again, a great visual aid and motivator!
All of these things combined means that I am on top of my budget. I know what is happening to our finances on a daily basis and spending only 10 minutes on this a day. If you get into the habit of doing something, little and often, it really doesn’t have to take a long time at all. Having a budget tracker and updating it manually means you are thinking about your spending habits and can create new ones.
Products used:
- The Budget Planner (which includes the two other trackers)
- No Spend Days Tracker
- Expense Tracker
Do you have a budget routine? How long does it take you? I’d love to know about it!Â
Follow me on:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
I use a similar system of manually entering every single Euro that I spend for the past 3 years, only then through an app on my phone; Wally Lite (free, no affiliation). It works better for me than downloading an categorizing my bank transactions at the end of the month, as I know that I immediately see the impact of every purchase on my budget, which makes me think twice before I do it!