Budget love...budget

A budget tells us what we can't afford, but it doesn't keep us from buying it.  William Feather



The second frugal law that I am implementing this month is budgeting. You can't live a thrifty lifestyle without a sensible budget- sensible being the operative word..And I am not known to be sensible.

Many years ago when I was living and working in the UK, I found my pennies were not going very far at all. On the wall of the lunch room at Gap I found a poster offering free financial advice. I called the number (no e-mail then) and they mailed me a copy of a budgeting book. I have found it useful ever since. Especially when I use it.

Budgeting is easier when you know how much money you are bringing in and how much money is going out. Yesterdays frugal tip of recording all expenses is handy in the sense that you can see where you are spending your cash and where you can cut excessive spending. There is nothing like coming face to face with your outgoings....and recognising that they don't match your incomings! A budget will help to match these numbers...again, in theory.


"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it." George W Bush




Choose your categories. Where do your spend your money? Once I had discovered where I was spending my money, I found that I have had to change my categories a few times. I used to have one large miscellaneous grouping (haircuts, gifts, animal costs etc) however, I have now found I need to be a little more specific.

I have also divided my budgeting into monthly expenses and yearly expenses. My yearly expenses incorporate those charges that need to be paid yearly - in my case car registration, car insurance/road side assistance and yearly bank fees. I then divide these amounts by 12 (months of the year) and incorporate them into my monthly expenses- therefore, when they are due, I will hopefully have the funds to pay for them. I also get paid fortnightly, so that I find organising my budget into fortnightly segments works better for me. Budgeting is about working out what is best for you.

Budgeting takes time and effort and can often be depressing. It can show up areas you may have been ignoring and highlight a tendency for over spending in other areas. A budget needs to be flexible. I have found that I often need to tweak my budget to fit my circumstances. For instance, I needed money for the dentist this month, so I limited my food budget to be able to pay this unexpected expense. However,  I have decided that the budget needs to be flexible only for emergencies. If I am too flexible, I may find my fridge empty yet some gorgeous new shoes on my feet!

My basic fortnightly, monthly and yearly budget has been written up for now. Let's see how it goes....

P.S -A great blog entry about being too restrictive with budgeting -

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2011/09/29/a-budget-is-only-what-you-make-of-it/