Monthly Budgeting Tips

As it’s important to create a monthly budget in order to take control of your finances and to increase your savings, continue reading to discover a handy list of tried and tested budgeting tips.

Monthly Budgeting Tips:

List all of your monthly expenses out on a piece of paper:

Your very first task should be to start listing out all of your monthly expenses out on a piece of paper. Ensure to start off with listing costs which you can’t avoid such as your mortgage repayments or rent payments, your power bill, your loan repayments, your internet bill and your phone bill.

See if there are any expenses which you can eliminate from your monthly budget:

Your next step should be to try and find any expenses which you can eliminate from your monthly budget. As an example, if you spend $50 on takeaway coffee each week, you may be willing to start drinking coffee at home instead, in order to save yourself $50 a week. Alternatively you may find that you never use your gym membership and that you can save yourself $1000 or more a year by cancelling your gym membership.

Put a daily limit on your credit cards and debit cards:

If you want to prevent yourself from overspending, you may want to consider putting a temporary daily limit on your credit cards and debit cards. Until you become used to living within your means. Just keep in mind that you may have to call your credit card company or bank, if you wish to purchase an item that exceeds your self imposed daily limit such as international airfares or a brand new washing machine.

Try to find free activities in your city to keep yourself entertained:

Instead of going to the movies or to a bar or restaurant to keep yourself entertained in your free time, it’s a great idea to hunt for free activities in your city to keep you entertained. As an example you may enjoy going to local fairs and festivals or you may want to visit museums which offer free entrance on certain days of the week. Or you may find a community center which offers free fitness classes such as you classes and Zumba classes.

Make sure that you’re not overpaying for your power, internet and smart phone bill:

Instead of blindly continuing to pay your power bill, internet bill and smart phone bill every month, it’s well worth your time to research the deals which other companies are offering. As it may be worth the effort to change your power company or telecommunications company, in order to save yourself valuable money each month. That you’ll be able to save for your retirement or invest in a diversified investment portfolio.

Use spreadsheets in order to keep track of your monthly budget:

Instead of writing out your monthly budget by hand, you’ll save yourself a lot of time by using spreadsheets in order to keep track of your monthly budget. As an added bonus you’ll be able to use your spreadsheet in order to perform quick and effortless calculations.

So if you’re new to creating monthly budgets, simply use the tips listed out above in order to create your very first budget. Just remember to be flexible and to make adjustments to your budget as needed.