Everyone struggles with money from time to time (…to time again).
That is unless you have inherited 40 million from your dad’s company (if only) or sold your soul to the Devil (I’ve considered it). In reality, most of us needs a bit of help.
So we have a few pointers about how and why you should budget, that will hopefully make your life that little bit easier.
You need to budget so that you won’t run out of food by the end of the month. There is nothing worse than having to quite literally scrape the barrel to find food when your money has all but evaporated into the ether.
Therefore it is important to stay on top of your cash by planning out how much you need each week till your next payday. Work out each bill due for the month, add it all up and divide what is left for eating.
That way, all your bills are paid and you won’t be playing catch up next month, and you won’t be eating stale cereal for tea.
If all else fails, selling some old junk like dvds and games can help take a little pressure off, or you could get a payday loan just to tide you over if you’re in a desperate situation.
Saving what you have left over at the end of each month is great; if you can do it, do it. It means you’ll be covered for any emergency, eg car repairs or for things like birthdays and other holidays that demand you hand over your money.
Giving up expensive luxuries is a good way to start trying to save. When you do your shopping don’t go for the priciest options but rather shop around.
You may find it’s more beneficial to go to three different shops as opposed to buying everything from one. You might find your shopping bill is halved by doing it this way and it’s worth the inconvenience at the end of the day.
Later down the line, your savings will improve and they won’t be there just to cover the cost of your MOT or next Christmas, eventually they will be substantial enough to go towards owning your own house or going on a sunny holiday. No time like the present to start saving.
Look to the future, because different months are going to demand different things, speaking from experience, there’s always something.
Think about the different rooms in the house, what can go wrong in those rooms, how likely will something need repaired, how essential is it, and what would it cost?
You may find a period where you have nothing extra to pay for, everything is in good working order and it’s nobody’s impending birthday, so you have a bit of extra cash.
You’re going to want to spend it and there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying yourself. Just take a moment before clicking Proceed to Checkout and see if you could put some of that money away for a rainy day, or to use as emergency money for when your washing machine conks out.
