Mia
Planning your budget is a lot like planning for the future. You can’t say, “I want to save money,” and then do nothing to make it happen. You need to take action to generate savings. One way you can save more money is by creating a monthly spending plan that includes every expense you have each month. This will help ensure that you are sticking with your goals of saving more money!
Money-Saving Apps
Money-saving apps are one of the best ways to save money online. Some of them can even help you plan your budget and keep track of spending.
Money-saving apps can be great for helping you plan your budget, but they also have some limitations. These apps cannot tell whether the items on your list are cheaper than what’s in your pantry or kitchen cabinets. They might suggest checking Sodalicious prices when you already have a frozen pizza in the freezer, for example. The apps can be great tools to help you save money, but they are not perfect and may give bad advice about what items on your list should be purchased at all!
Make A List Of Expenses
It can be hard to think about this at first, but you should include every expense, no matter how small it may seem. This part isn’t optional – you won’t get an accurate budget if you don’t take the time to write down everything! Even things that might seem small, such as your morning coffee or a lunch that you eat out every day.
Include both fixed and variable expenses in this list because they’re all important. Fixed expenses are things like rent/mortgage payments, utilities, insurance premiums, etc., while variable costs include food shopping or entertainment for example – these can vary from month to month.
List Your Income
This is where most people mess up their budgets. They don’t list out all of the money that they make in a month. If you want to be able to save more, start this step by listing every cent you make through your job(s). Don’t forget about income like interest or dividends if you have investments. Also, don’t forget about side hustles, babysitting money, or other ways that you make extra cash.
For most people, this is going to be the biggest line item on their budget. Make sure that you have a plan for how much of your money should go here so that you can start saving today!
Set Your Budget
This will be the foundation of all your future financial decisions. As soon as you have some kind of plan, you’ll feel much more in control and motivated to save money on top of that.
Whether it’s a budget spreadsheet, or an app like Mint.com (which is what I use), you want something that’ll help track your income and expenses so you know how much money you have to work with each month.
Once this number is determined, divide it up into different categories based on the financial goals for the year: fixed costs, financial goals, and spending money. Fixed costs are the expenses that will stay relatively constant each month (e.g., rent/mortgage payment, utilities). Financial goals should include something tangible you want to achieve this year—whether it’s a car upgrade or taking an epic trip around Europe with your friends.
Coupons
Coupons can be a great way to save money, but there are some important things you should know about coupons before planning your budget around them. Coupons can only be used once. If you plan to use a coupon, make sure that you will save money by using it rather than just spending the same amount on another item with no discount. Some stores give discounts for in-store brand items when they run out of name brands and won’t substitute one or the other. This means that if you want the name brand, but use a coupon for the store’s version instead, you will not be able to get it at all without paying full price.
Coupons don’t always save money! If your grocery list calls for two items and one has a 50% off coupon while another is on sale, you may not save money by buying both with coupons. You would have been better off planning your list accordingly so that only the item on sale was needed when shopping!
Buy In Bulk
If you find that a certain item is always cheaper in bulk, then buy it. If the items don’t go bad quickly and you can store them properly for later use, then buying something in bulk makes sense because of how much money you save per unit price.
Start by adding up what your savings would be if you bought things in bulk. Then, divide the savings by how many times you would have to purchase it for it to be cheaper than buying smaller quantities each time. For example, A pack of paper towels costs $12 and comes with 24 rolls while a package containing four packs (96 rolls total) costs $36 – that’s only three dollars per pack! If you bought one package per month, your total savings would be $12. However, if you went with the bulk option and purchased four-packs at once (48 rolls), your cost per unit is only about two dollars a roll – a significant savings of 50%.
By following these simple guidelines, you can better plan and achieve your financial goals. It’s all about knowing what kind of life you want to live and then organizing it with a solid budget that will help you get there. Although monthly budgets for people who work full-time or part-time jobs may look drastically different from one another, the goal of both is to ultimately save money.
