When you bite the bullet and focus on your budget, many people feel relieved that they have managed to stop wasting money and determined a plan for paying off existing debt or created a few extra pennies to spend on things that are more worthwhile.
Here's how to begin:
Categorise your expenses into two lists. One should be for essentials and the other for extras.
Look through these expenses to see if there are any ways for you to cut back or if any of them are flexible. Go through your bank statement to compare. Are you actually spending your money where you think youâre spending it?
Add up your essentials and extra's lists separately - by doing this you will be able to make cuts more easily.
Take the essentials total from your monthly income and if you have money left over take it off of the total from the extra's list. If you have money left over, look into saving some each month. If your extra's list has taken you into negative numbers you will need to start looking for things to cut back on or you could also cut back on some items on the extraâs list to help repay other debt or save regularly. Once you have gone through the process you will feel much more in control and you might even be surprised at how much difference it can make month to month!
