Budgeting Tips - My Financial Self Care

 

My Budget Spreadsheet  

Click the above link to make a copy for yourself!

1. Have A Budget! 

 I feel like we have all been in the position at one point in our lives where we have looked at our bank account and thought, 'where has all of my money gone?' or had the feeling you get on payday, where you see your money coming into your account and then leaving just as fast and this can feel very overwhelming, especially if you don't have a clear idea of where your money going or when it is going to be going. 

In order to combat this feeling I have taken inspiration from lots of different budget trackers over time and created my own simple version that I can control and amend as I wish. This budget tracker allows me to list and categorise all of my earnings, my outgoings and my savings so I  have a clear picture of what is happening with my money. There is also a section on my budget tracker (towards the bottom) that allows me to list my income first and then below that, my outgoings. I have added the formulas to deduct my outgoings from my income and this then gives me a clear picture of what I have left each month. This then gives me the freedom to allocate this money where I wish. 

I like to call this my financial self care. Like many others, I feel like when my finances are a mess it makes me feel stressed, anxious and I think this is how many people lose control of their finances and I think we have all be in this place at one point in our lives. I have linked the spreadsheet that I use above for you all to make a copy of and tweak how you wish and I really hope this helps at least one person feel like they have more control of their money. 

2. Plan Ahead! 

Once you have a budget tracker in place and you know where all of your hard earned money is going it's time to plan to make sure you are more financially stable for your future self. One of the things I like to do is to pay things yearly instead of having more monthly outgoings. So, things like Car insurance, I will save for a year in advance. The way I did this in the beginning when I felt like I had zero money saved was not to look at the immediate year ahead but to instead look a year in advance. So for example if I estimate next year my car insurance would be say £300 then I would try every month to just put anything I could aside to go towards my one time yearly payment next year. 

One way that I have loved to do this in the past is to have a cash envelope system and write on the front of them what I am saving for. If any month I had even a spare £10 I would put it in one of the envelopes for that specific thing and in my mind it meant the money was not available to spend as it was already allocated. The amazing thing about planning and saving ahead of time is that you can save as much or as little as you like. I like to find out how much I need to pay and split it between now and the times it needs to be paid in months and then try to save that much each month towards it but even the smallest amounts help in future proofing your finances.

3. How Often Do You Need To Budget?

This will depend completely on how often you get paid in my opinion. I get paid monthly and so I like to make my budget every month just before my payday but I have friends who get paid every other week and so do their budget every time they are paid to make sure they know how much money they have and how it is being allocated. I have also had people ask me how they are supposed to budget if they are not on a steady income, freelance work, for example. I think with this the most important thing to do is the planning for your future self part above. 

If I were in that position specifically my advise would be to make sure that I was saving a small amount each time I did get a good pay amount as a buffer, no matter how small the amount, I would put into an account and it would be there to help tide me over in times that maybe my pay was lower or less frequent. This will be hard to do and may mean cutting out some luxuries for a small amount of time but the future benefits and peace of mind would be worth it.

4. Have An Emergency Fund

This is something that my grandad has drilled into me since I was so young. "Jordan you need to have x amount of money that you do not touch in case of an emergency" and I will be completely honest in saying that although he told me this all the time, I did not do it for so long and I learnt the hard way of not having one. Now, the amount that you have in your emergency fund will be completely personal to what you feel you want. I feel like £1000 is a great starter goal to have and my overall future goal for myself would be to have 3-6 months worth of my income saved. 

You may look at the figures above and think those numbers are completely unobtainable but like I said, you choose your own numbers. One thing I have learnt in my savings journey has been that it is not easy but you can achieve your golals if you make some small sacrifices and stick to your plan. For me I set myself a small month long goal in January not to buy any takeaway coffee, Starbucks, I'm looking at you and do you know what, it really made me realise how much I spend on that liquid gold every month and I was shocked that I had been to aloof with my money beforehand.

The purpose of your emergency fund is to make sure that when something that is out of your control arises financially that you have the money to cover it and are able to do it without the extra stress of having to borrow money and if you ever have to use it then you top it back up after. Start saving even with £1 at a time in a jar or whatever you can to help your future self you will be so thankful that you started even if you start small.

5. Set Yourself A Challenge! 

My next tip ties in nicely with my Starbucks dry January story above and that is to set yourself small monthly challenges every month and mix them up to keep them feeling achievable. This will mean that instead of making a yearly goal and making your year feel like one long slog of a goal, you set a monthly challenge and achieve it every month. That means you have 12 times a year where you can feel proud of yourself for achieving a goal you set yourself instead of setting one big yearly goal and then feeling like giving up because the end feels so far away. What goals would you set yourself?

My Goals so far this year have been 

January - NO drive through coffee - achieved

February - no buying new clothes month and food shopping budget decrease - achieved

6. Food Shop With Cash!

As you will have seen above, one of the goals that I set myself was to lower my food shopping budget and I wanted to do this quite significantly for one month. I will admit that with the rising cost of everything it was something I had to be really focused on. I achieved this one but found it very difficult because the reality was that when I went into stores if I knew I had my card I always thought 'oh it doesn't matter if I spend a little more as I have the money in my account'. It was in one of these moments that I realised I needed to start shopping with cash and not taking my card. When you go into a shop with cash only you mindset changes, you don't have the backup of your card or the extra £10 here and there, the money you have is all the money you have. 

Another tip I have for food shopping specifically is to use the self scan devices you can take around store with you or if your supermarket doesn't have them then use your good old calculator. Knowing how much you are totalling as you go round will help you to consider if all of the items you have are in fact essential. 

7. Create Separate Savings & Bank Accounts! 

When it comes to budgeting I am a very visual person hence the spreadsheet attached. I like to see where my money is going and this is the same for my banking. I personally like to keep separate savings pots and accounts for different things. This not only helps me to track my savings, it also means that once the money is in that account that it is not to be touched unless it is for the specific thing I am saving for.  

8. Pay All Of Your Bills First & On The First! 

One of the things people I have spoken to struggle with is about having so many payments coming out on different dates and how hard it is to manage. I personally like to have all of my bills paid on the first of the month and you can call most companies to request to change your payments to a specific date. Once all of your bills are paid on the first of the month or your chosen date, you know the money left in your account is your to do with as you wish. 

When it comes to a successful budget you should be accounting for all of your bills to be paid and only budgeting for luxuries once you have accounted for this. when I say luxuries I don't mean cutting back on essentials like food and utilities, those are to be included in the bill deduction. 

Over my time budgeting I have found lots of ways to save money and a few people have asked over on my instagram @TheLuxuryMum for some of my money making and saving tips. If this is something you would find helpful please do let me know. 

Jordan 

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